Batman (The New 52) # 1

By Mark Rodriguez

The New 52. The big modern day reboot for the DC universe, and the perfect jumping on point for new readers, or at least that was the intent back in 2012. In Batman's case, his story wasn't rebooted, it was condensed and scaled back. Most noticeably, Barbara Gordon was the only Batgirl, erasing Cassandra Cain from history, as well as Stephanie Brown who was both a Robin and a Batgirl.

The New 52 introduced a new enemy, The Court of Owls, who have secretly been controlling Gotham from behind the scenes for decades. It just so happens that Batman has ended up ruffling their feathers and is trapped in their literal maze of horrors, let's check it out.

Batman # 1 starts with ‘Knife Trick’ as Bats finds himself in Arkham face-to-face with all his old foes like Two-Face, Killer Croc and Mr. Freeze and some new ones like Professor Pyg and James Jr. Batman monologues to himself about what Gotham City means to him as he beats the tar out of all his old foes (still not sure how he can beat Clayface with fisticuffs alone…). Suddenly the Joker appears… and teams up with Batman as they both beat up the bad guys. Huh??

Not a coincidence that the title is Knife Trick, when The Dark Knight was still relatively fresh in people's minds

Afterwards, Bats tells Gordon about a prison guard in Arkham named Dan Matthews who was up to no good, and let all the bad guys loose when Batman was coming for him. Gordon questions as to why it looked like he was fighting alongside the Joker in the video footage, and Bats says he’s being ridiculous. Back in the Batcave Bruce is chillin with the Joker....?

Actually it was revealed to be Dick Grayson acting as the Joker to find out about the weak link in Arkham. Bruce announces a new contact lens that would carry all the information of the Batcave with him wherever he goes. Soon afterwards, it’s time for Bruce’s big speech, and he gathers with his adoptive sons, Dick and Tim, and his real son Damian. The computer’s facial recognition is a good excuse to remind the newcomers that Dick is Nightwing, Damian is Robin and Tim is Red Robin and with the Teen Titans.

This is one of the few times that Tim Drake was referred to as Robin in the New 52. Later on, to further condense the Bat timeline, they retconned this into saying that Tim Drake skipped being Robin and became Red Robin from the start

Bruce Wayne makes a big speech about his latest project, the one to reshape Gotham to make it a better city for the future. After the speech, Alfred congratulates him and casually mentions the series of Bat-Bunkers Bruce will be secretly building throughout the city as well. Real clever I have to say… he can be Batman anywhere and everywhere in the city. After talking to Vicki Vale and the candidate for mayor, Lincoln March (the Lincoln March? Ha ha?) Bruce noticed Commissioner Gordon talking to someone and looking concerned. Bruce uses some kind of lip reading technology from his contact lenses and finds out about a fatal stabbing.

Soon, as Batman, he arrives near Harvey Bullock to find out what’s going on. They see a guy with no identification who was pinned to the wall with a variety of antique throwing knives, all purposely not in vital areas, to torture him to death. The handles on the blades had images of owls on them. Bats notices the strong smell of linseed oil and borrows Bullock’s cigar. He stroked the cigar against the wall behind a painting, and the oil lit up a burning message ‘Bruce Wayne will die Tomorrow’.

Seeing as the killer knew they would find the victim that day, they knew it meant the next day for Bruce. Bullock says it will be impossible due to Bruce’s high security (kinda funny since he doesn’t know he’s talking to him) and he also says he almost feels sorry for him, since ‘You don’t know Gotham, Gotham knows you. The moment you get too comfortable, that’s when it decides to stab you in the back’.  Just then, Alfred send Bats the results he got from the DNA scan on the skin cells under the victim’s finger nails. The DNA was of Dick Grayson.

My Opinions

This was a good way to re-introduce Batman to new readers wanting to jump in. The art is pretty good, we get a little cameo filled fight in the beginning to have new readers that know a bit about Batman say 'hey, I know that guy! And that one too!', and we also get to see the Bat Family and a little bit of a mystery to see Batman's deduction skills in action. The story is short and sweet and the reveal of Grayson DNA in the end already gets you invested into what will happen next.

Looking back, there were 4 Batman titles out at the same exact time, Batman, Detective Comics, Batman and Robin and Batman Dark Knight. Factor in Nightwing, Batgirl, Catwoman, and Red Hood and the Outlaws, and that's a lot of Bat-related titles happening at once. Due to Damian Robin being the focus of Batman and Robin, Batman will mostly go solo in the other stories, including this one. 

For this story, for the life of me, I never really understood why Batman had Nightwing go as the Joker for that jailbreak scene? Where was the real Joker? Why not have him impersonate someone less important like.... I don't know... Crazy Quilt or something. Joker isn't exactly someone you'd want out there for too long, they'd be on a manhunt for him. Joker was currently missing in the events of the New 52 Detective comics... was this happening during that time? And why not just have Dick Joker escape or something instead of looking weird fighting alongside Batman? 

Anyways, it was a good start, though that whole bit was weird. Plus, the Court of Owls will be a big part of Batman's story in the New 52.

The original article was crammed into one long article detailing issues 1-4. This will be a much easier read doing them one by one.