Despite an uninspired opening (Batman fights a bunch of his enemies as they try to bust out of Arkham Asylum, never seen that before, right?), this comic is the tits. Scott Snyder, the writer of this issue, just gets how to write Batman. Let me count the ways.
1) Batman is a stoic, serious, focused hero, but he can still hold a conversation with friends (Jim Gordon, Harvey Bullock), family (the various Robins, Alfred), and civilians he interacts with as Bruce Wayne. There's a lot of writers who seem convinced that Batman's at his best when he's an unshaven, nigh-psychopathic, and only cares about crime fighting. Snyder presents a more balanced Batman.
2) Batman shows off his detective skills. For everything the Nolan films get right, the one thing they fall down on is showing Batman's keen mind. We see Bats show up at a crime scene that's already been processed by the Gotham City PD, and catch things that they missed.
3) Not only is Batman a detective, the story itself asks us as readers to try to figure out what's coming next, via a pretty decent cliffhanger.
4) He's working with artist Greg Capullo. Capullo's spent years drawing Spawn (God knows why, he must've lost a bet, or maybe Todd McFarlane has pictures of Capullo murdering Girl Scouts or something. It's impossible that he actually LIKED drawing Spawn.) and it shows, in his command of shadow, knowledge of how to draw an urban setting, and how big capes can look cool as hell.
Buy again: Aye, m'lord.
New reader friendly: Very, though there's nothing here that couldn't have been done pre-reboot or "preboot", as the kids say.
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