HIGHLIGHTS OF 2011 DAY 15 – BATMAN

HIGHLIGHTS OF 2011 DAY 15 – BATMAN by Craig

December 15, 2011, 6:29 pm
Filed under: Comic Reviews | Tags: Batman, Bestof2011, Brian Azzarello, DCNew52, Eduardo Risso, Grant Morrison, Gregg Hurwitz, Kyle Higgins, Scott Snyder, Szymon Kurdranski

!!PREDICTABILITY ALERT!! – No Comics Anonymous list would be complete without two guaranteed items: The Blue Beetle for Linsay (Check) and Batman for Craig. No prizes for guessing what today’s highlight is… Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na.

OK, so I’m likely to highlight Batman every year, but he and his extended Bat-family have had a pretty good year. After a bit of a shake-up in 2009 “killing” Bruce Wayne and paving the way for Dick Grayson to have a shot of the cowl, 2011 finally saw the return of Wayne and his plans for the future. Masterminded by the genius that is Grant Morrison, we were introduced to Wayne’s grand plan – Batman Incorporated – a comic series that isn’t just a globe-trotting tale of the many Batmen of the world, but another of Morrison’s fantastic dark and fascinating plots threading throughout each issue. I can’t wait for this series to start back up in 2012 – Morrison should always be writing something Batman orientated at any given time. 2011 also saw the end of volume 1 of both Detective Comics and Batman, making way for the DCNew52 relaunch, the latter going out with more of a fizzle than a bang unfortunately. Scott Snyder’s Detective Comics however has to be the overall highlight to 2011 (and 2010!) – and yes, I am going for the record on the number of times I can mention this run on the blog.

As well as the main titles, we’ve also seen some impressive mini-series featuring the Dark Knight, including the fascinating 4-part Gates of Gotham from Scott Snyder and Kyle Higgins that explores the dark history of Gotham’s structures and the sacrifices made to build them, as well as one of my highlights from the Flashpoint – the incredible Knight of Vengeance, constructed by Brian Azzarello  and Eduardo Risso. On top of that, the currently running Penguin: Pain and Prejudice title from Gregg Hurwitz and Szymon Kurdranski is proving that a Gotham based comic doesn’t always have to feature Bats.

Of course, Batman has also played a big part in the DCNew52 relaunch, almost managing to appear in everything. We’ve covered plenty of it here on the blog from Scott Snyder’s excellent start to Batman to the (in my opinion) shaky Batman of Africa Batwing.

Let’s not forget that Arkham City, the follow up video game to the very successful Arkham Asylum, was also released this year, and by all accounts is just as good, if not better than the original. I’ve yet to spend much time with in myself, however will be trying to use some of the Christmas downtime to get stuck right in. I’d say he’s had a pretty good year – and with Dark Knight Rises just around the corner, 2012 could be just as big for the Bat.

Craig @hastiecraig

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