Batman Annual #2

Writers:  Scott Snyder, Marguerite Bennett

Art:  Wes Craig, Craig Yeung, Drew Geraci, Jack Purcell, Sandy Florea, Marc Deering and Ian Hanin

 

Get Caught Up...

 

Not Zero Year, but Zero Year... adjacent, I guess?

 

What’s Good?

 

It’s a premise we’ve seen before, but it works.  Batman is asked to test out a new cell in Arkham Asylum, and things go south.  However, Bennett brings up a very important point throughout this book.  What is the difference between a prison and Arkham?  When did treating patients get left by the wayside?  We see through the eyes of a new orderly, and we are reminded of these aspects of Arkham.  The way some of Batman’s rogues gallery are handled, their mental issues become a self-fulfilling prophecy.  Good can still be done at Arkham, they just need the right people.  The villain of the piece is an unintentional creation by Batman himself during the Zero Year timeframe.  She, the Anchoress, becomes the instigating point for the changes our young orderly friend sees must take place for Arkham to reach its full potential.  

Craig and his small army of inkers really presents a Batman story to us in a different light, literally.  This is probably one of the brightest stories I’ve read with Batman in a long time.  Especially one that takes place in Arkham, as compared to the Dark Knight annual from a few months ago.  

What’s Not So Good?

This is strange to say, but my least favorite part of this Batman story was Batman himself.  The scene of him breaking out of the test cell was fun, but dragged on a bit for my liking.  

Jock’s cover was great, but really didn’t mesh well with the story.  

The multiple inkers was different as well, it resulted in some of the characters looking different in the various sections of the story.  The flow of the art is very important to a story.  The pencils were solid throughout, but the changes in inker affected the outcome significantly.  

The Verdict...

The Batman title has probably had the two best annuals from DC so far.  Last year’s Mr. Freeze story was beautiful.  This one was great in a different way.  Solid story and some new characters

Oh, Yeah, And...

Very few things irritate me as much as a creator not getting appropriate credit for their work.  Case in point, the DC website solicit for this issue lists Scott Snyder as the sole writer, no mention of newcomer Marguerite Bennett.  DC has been getting sloppy in their solicits, and it’s not cool.