Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Batman Lost #1 by Scott Snyder Batman Lost #1 Review. Written by: Scott Snyder, James Tynion IV and Joshua Williamson Art by: Doug Mahnke, Yanick Paquette and Jorge Jimenez Inks by: Jiminez, Jaime Mendoza and Paquette Colors by: Wil Quintana, Nathan Fairbairn and Alejandro Sanchez. Bruce Wayne has found a rare opportunity to find some peace and quiet when a curios, bright-eyed little girl interrupts her grandfather and wants to hear a story. As Bruce obliges with one of the many Batman tales that he has chronicled over the years, we are taken to the scene of one of Bruce’s first cases from when he first put on the cowl. As he starts to realize that there is something not right about this particular memory, he is whisked away to a battle at the beginning of time, a war of birds and bats that features Vandal Savage and incarnations of Hawkman and Hawkgirl. Bruce’s mysterious guide informs him of his place in this history and how he served to set these events in motion. As Bruce fights the knowledge, he’s transported to the future where he must confront an adult Damian who warns him that he shouldn’t have come back. Bruce comes back to the original story he was telling, but there are still more changes that are happening around him and he can’t seem to escape them. When he’s transported to another world, he refuses to keep running and is then transported into the body of his ancestor Alan. As he continues to fall from world to world, his resolve to find answers only intensifies and his final confrontation with the author of his pain, Barbatos is one that is intense for both Bruce and the reader. It’s been a rare treat to read many of these stories and this one is more intense than many of the others. Throughout the Metal series, fans have wondered what Bruce has been doing. How has he been fighting back? This issue shows just how human Bruce is with a scenario that makes him question everything he has ever done in his life and the purpose of his mission. It has been a rare feat in these stories to both entertain with the history of the DCU and at the same time strip hope from the heroes themselves. This is another intense chapter that is both tragic to witness, but impossible to put down. Batman: 10 Darkest Villains Created by Scott Snyder. In addition to creating some amazing stories that reshaped the face of the DC Universe, he also created some of the darkest Batman villains. One of DC's greatest writers in recent years has been Scott Snyder, best known for his work on various Batman titles. In addition to creating some amazing stories that reshaped the face of the DC Universe, he also created some of the darkest villains that Gotham's Dark Knight ever had to face. Heroes are only as good as the villains they fight. Scott Snyder's style has always been rooted in horror, and--working with such artists as JOCK and Greg Capullo--he created truly nightmarish bad guys that have left Batman scarred every since. 10 The Batman Who Laughs Is Twisted And Terrifying. One of the most popular break-out heroes in recent history has been the Batman Who Laughs: a version of Batman fused with the Joker who comes from the Dark Multiverse. The concept is brilliant and terrifying. The Batman Who Laughs is every bit as smart as the main Batman and every bit as sociopathically devious as the Joker. If this was not terrifying enough on its own, he has since absorbed the powers of Doctor Manhattan and transformed himself into an entity called the Darkest Night. 9 The Court of Owls Is A Cabal That Ran Gotham For Centuries. The first story in Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo’s legendary run of Batman pitted Gotham’s Caped Crusader against an enemy who had been lurking in the city for years, a group he thought could not possibly exist, but who did: the Court of Owls. This shadowy cabal ruled Gotham for centuries, rich elites hiding behind masks and controlling the city’s government in secret, killing anyone who gets in their way with their assassins, the Talons. 8 The Talons Are Nigh-Immortal Assassins. The Talons are a part of the Court of Owls but also are apart from them. If the Court is comprised of the leading unpowered “Owls” who hide behind their masks, the Talons are killers who serve their masters as nigh-immortal assassins. Alchemical mixtures of the metal electrum prolonged their lives while giving them superhuman strength. On occasion, some could go rogue. This was the case with the mute Talon called Strix. 7 Mr. Bloom Transforms People Into Monsters. One of the more shocking changes during Snyder’s time writing the main Batman title with Greg Capullo was when Jim Gordon became the new Batman. And just as there was a new Dark Knight, there needed to be a new villain for him. Mr. Bloom was a villain who gave people powers but transformed them into hideous monstrosities. Able to shapeshift by extending his fingers into long claws that could impale people and control machines, he was truly fearsome. He threatened to destroy Gotham and almost succeeded, using a particle collider to create a strange matter star in the heart of the city. 6 Tiger Shark Fed His Enemies To Animals. Long before he took over writing the main Batman title, Scott Snyder wrote for Detective Comics during the time that Dick Grayson wore the cape and cowl. Working alongside the artist JOCK, he created stories where he poured his sheer terror at writing such a monumentally big book into the terror-fueled pages of the series. A new Batman needed new villains, and so Tiger Shark was created. He was descended from the Sea Peoples of the ancient world, a mysterious group whose identities are still debated by scholars. Wearing a hood over his face and with hieroglyphics tattooed on his split tongue, he spoke through intermediaries and fed his enemies to fearsome animals. 5 Murder Machine Is An Evil Cyborg Version Of Batman. One of the many Batmen from the Dark Multiverse, the Murder Machine is a version of Batman mixed with Cyborg, albeit an evil one. After the Batman of Earth -44 watched his Alfred die, he activated "the Alfred Protocol," using Cyborg-type tech to alter himself into something no longer human. This is Batman reimagined as a soulless machine, an inhuman mechanical killer that will never stop, will never rest, and will never allow anyone to reason with it. 4 Devastator Was Infected With A Strain Of The Doomsday Virus. There are plenty of arguments about who Superman’s “greatest” enemy is, but his deadliest enemy has always been Doomsday. After all, Doomsday quite literally killed him. The Devastator is a version of Batman from the Dark Multiverse who was turned into Doomsday. In his reality, Batman was forced to fight Superman, and in the ensuing battle, used a strain of the Doomsday virus to infect himself, transforming into the Man of Steel’s greatest enemy. 3 Robin King Was Born Evil. Introduced in Dark Nights: Death Metal , the Robin King is a re-imagining of Bruce Wayne as a sociopathic child. When Joe Chill tried to gun down Thomas and Martha Wayne in Crime Alley, Bruce killed the assailant. He then killed his own parents. Eventually, he was taken in by the Batman Who Laughs, but before then, he killed his way through many of the heroes and villains of his own world. He did not become evil in some tragic circumstances. He was born that way. 2 Sergei Alexandrov Taught Bruce How To Make Gadgets. Sergei is a relatively minor and obscure villain who only makes a few appearances in the comics, first debuting in a flashback in the Zero Year story. He was an inventor and weaponeer who taught Bruce Wayne how to make gadgets. Then he tried to get Bruce killed. Unfortunately, Segei is not all that memorable, which is a real shame since he had such a fundamental role in helping Bruce become the Batman. Almost every gadget that Batman learned to build can probably be traced back to the time he spent training under Sergei. In short, his influence means that every gadget of Batman's is stained with the blood on Sergei's prosthetic hands. 1 Perpetua Created The Multiverse. Perpetua created the Multiverse and she is a force of evil within it. Her very existence means that the morality that superheroes seek—the virtues of compassion, caring, respect for life—are opposed by the entity who birthed the multiverse into existence. She appeared in Snyder’s run of Justice League, which spun out of the events of Dark Nights: Metal , and which in turn sput out of his work on Batman . She is more powerful than the gods and more malicious than any devils, having created both. The Monitor and Anti-Monitor are her children. On top of all this, the Legion of Doom set her free to unleash havoc on the multiverse she created, making it a far darker more dismal place. Batman Eternal (Vol. 1) by Scott Snyder. Populated with criminals at every street corner, Gotham is set upon a rotten foundation where even its history is nothing more than lies piled together and conspiracies melted in corruption and collusion. Despite the very nature of this environment that breeds evil , there are individuals within it that try everything within their power to make it a livable space, a place where families can see bright futures and not fear for their life. In vain, its criminality pollutes the air and it is in the hands of heroes that lies the last means for justice . As part of Batman’s 75th-anniversary celebration, a year-long weekly limited series was launched with Scott Snyder and James Tynion IV at the head of the project. Assisted with countless other notable writers and artists, they begin an enormous story-arc that will breathe life (or death) into Gotham. What is Batman Eternal (Vol. 1) about? Collecting the first 21 issues of the series, the story is set around the Forever Evil story-arc and intersects with the Zero Year event during DC’s New 52 era. Jumping straight into the action, the story places Commissioner James Gordon in a sticky situation against Professor Pyg before Batman arrives to lend a helping hand. As they split up, Gordon ends up triggering a chain of events that will have devastating consequences and ultimately places him under arrest. Driven by a desire to prove his innocence, Batman sets out to unravel this mystery that will shock the Gotham City Police Department to the very core, shocked to the point of changing their stance on vigilantism and becoming a hindrance for caped heroes. But the obstacles do not end there as the legendary mobster Carmine Falcone returns to take back Gotham. So much goes on in this one and somehow it doesn’t even feel overwhelming. The premise sets up a fantastic story but it doesn’t stick to it necessarily. You’d imagine that the story would just lose its focus and overload the reader with too much world-building but every chapter feels like an episode that simply adds to the city’s own criminal ecosystem . Every chapter thus presents a different sub-plot with various characters and ideas to be explored in the long-term and allows it to grow without any true frontiers. While it does leave a lot of loose threads unanswered , the pacing makes it easy to follow and incite intrigue in the reader. From Batman Incorporated to newly-introduced heroes, this series does a fantastic job of seamlessly tying together multiple elements from the New 52 universe to forge this self-contained story . The authors also set out to focus on a different aspect of Batman’s character and the stories that are usually characteristic of his adventures, whether it’s a mystery thriller or an action- packed adventure. The artwork is where the most fault can be identified. This is very inevitable due to the way each issue is published (having a weekly release will force your hand into contracting multiple creative teams) but knowing this beforehand immensely helps in appreciating the story for what it offers. The different styles are quite interesting in general although it sometimes dips to all-time lows with artistic visions that don’t necessarily mesh well with Batman’s character. Certain artists tried to capture the obscure magic element, others the horror hidden within the city, others the noir detective style, but what they ultimately offer are insightful interpretations of Batman’s lore . These styles never necessarily look to fit together but commemorate the character in his natural habit, while also looking into his bond with various heroes like James Gordon. Batman Eternal (Vol. 1) is a unique story allowing Gotham to become a character of its own as villains, heroes, and ideas stunningly interact together. Batman By Scott Snyder & Greg Capullo Omnibus Vol. 1 HC. Read the character-defining Batman run from the very beginning! The best-selling Batman epic from the team that brought you DARK NIGHTS: METAL starts here! In the first of two omnibus collections, acclaimed storytellers SCOTT SNYDER and GREG CAPULLO introduce the Caped Crusader to the COURT OF OWLS , terrorize the whole Bat-Family with the Joker's faceless return in DEATH OF THE FAMILY and retell Batman's origin for a new generation during the pivotal ZERO YEAR ! With inks by JONATHAN GLAPION and DANNY MIKI and guest appearances by JAMES TYNION IV , RAFAEL ALBAQUERQUE , BECKY CLOONAN , ANDY CLARKE , JASON FABOK , JOCK and more, this first volume collects BATMAN #0-33, #23.2 and BATMAN ANNUAL #1-2. Dark Nights: Batman: Lost #1 review. I’m just going to cut to the chase here: Do you like Scott Snyder? Are you enjoying the Dark Multiverse and prior Metal tie-ins? Then you will love this as well! So just go out and buy it (in fact you probably already have). The other truth is that I am not enjoying the Dark Multiverse and the Metal tie-ins, so if you decide to continue reading this review, you do so at your own peril and on the understanding that this book was going to fight an uphill battle to win me over no matter what. Interestingly enough, it came out of the gate like gangbusters. The opening splash of elderly Bruce in his study is wonderfully warm, cozy, and the introduction of his little granddaughter Janet has a kind of delightful and easy tone about it. I love that here Bruce has retired to become a writer of old tales, just as the veterans of old wars did at the turn of the century did when the nickel weekly and the dime novel were kings of the newstands. These stories eventually gave way to comics, and Snyder slips in that ever-necessary homage to the inspiration that birthed the bat: Zorro! But once Bruce starts relating to Janet a tale of old, things rapidly fall apart. Bruce is launched in the the “wonderland” of the Dark Multiverse, falling through time and space from one point in his centuries-spanning life to another to glean small details about his mission and his origins, with particular attention paid to the infamous bat at his study window–the one that inspired him to take on the mantle of Batman. We start with a potent image, but it quickly spirals right out of control. The problem with a story like this is that the narrative logic and thrust is arbitrary and passive. Bruce just slips through wormhole after wormhole without having any say in the matter. There’s very little attempt to engage the audience in the action because there’s no rhyme or reason to the leaps and Bruce is at the mercy of an unseen force guiding his journey. It’s a little like watching a Rube Goldberg machine play out. It can be tedious or fascinating and the perpetual motion of it gives little time to savor. Also, Rube Goldberg machines don’t really have narratives. And to a certain degree, neither does this. Stuff happens, sure, but whether we care about it is an entirely different matter. While I don’t find myself caring enough about the characters in this book, I do care about the art. Because it’s really good art and it saved this issue from a pretty bad rating from me. Doug Mahnke, Yanick Paquette, and Jorge Jimenez (with an extra ink assist from Jaime Mendoza) fill every page with Bats and Batmen and whole worlds yet unseen: Gotham in every era under every imaginable shade, and a cosmos littered with more Bat-variants than you can shine a Batsignal on (including our Metal multiversants). There are also lots of very (very brief) cameos from the likes of Wonder Woman and Damian and Harley Quinn and the Spectre–and more. Snyder and Tynion throw the whole kitchen sink of the mythos into this book and the artists positively revel in the details of it all. Look for fun details like Batman’s purple gloves or the evolution of Batman’s cowl. And even if the story is an incoherence of overwrought bloated exposition dripping with self-indulgent “meaning” that takes itself way too seriously, the action has genuinely fun moments: like Bruce running out into the street in his bathrobe. And the drama and tension is definitely palpable. As Bruce is dropped through one time and place together you get the sense of his vertigo as he tries to adjust and adapt to the latest crazy scenario before he’s ripped through another hole into the next. The story may not be all that much by the final page, but the pictures do take you on a journey that I think might be worth the cost of admission, even if it is far too in love with its own erratic symbolism. It’s almost-not-quite-there BvS in this moment. I get it: everything is connected and it’s all as it should be since the beginning of time, carefully orchestrated by a destiny, a fate, a scary creeper in the cosmos who waves his hand and arbitrarily makes legends of men. My question is: this is interesting, why? The thrust of this narrative basically tells the story of how the bat at Bruce Wayne’s window was no simple augury, but an intricate plant to bring out his “true” nature and set him down the path carved out for him in the war of the bird and the bats. This is basically the equivalent of plumping up cattle with water injections for the auction. It adds nothing of value to the story of Batman, but confuses the scales nevertheless. Worse yet, it’s another chip at free will, cleaving away more and more of Batman’s agency and grafting onto his persona more supernatural and cosmic Teflon. The Bruce Wayne we see in that opening moment is just a man who lived an extraordinary life fighting crime. Many of those other Batmans across the multiverse and the way Snyder and Tynion are stitching them together? I honestly don’t know who that is, don’t want to know, and he’s not the least bit interesting to me as a hero. Recommended If… You like see writers try to create cohesion across a century of Batman incarnate. Time and inter-dimensional travel gives you a thrill. Who cares about the word soup: pretty pictures! Overall. I’m sure many people like this sort of thing, but I’m not one of them. Even objectively while I can admire the art and I very much enjoy the storytelling framework of Bruce and his granddaughter Janet, the rest of this just feels like a hot mess of “greatest hits” spackled together with a whole lot of mumbo-jumbo about the meaning of it all. It’s pretty to look at in places; the use of a variety of artists to separate the “eras” is a lovely piece of piecemeal that actually works, but otherwise it’s boring. The long slow trickle of frankly predictable reveals is so full of bombast that I found I couldn’t really care before the characters were even done speaking. Harsh words, I know, but this is not my Batman and never will be.