Before Bruce Wayne wore the cape and the cowl, he fought crime as a faceless vigilante. Batman Vol. 4: Zero Year – Secret City focuses on his early days of crime fighting during a time when the people of Gotham presumed he was dead. At this point in time, the Red Hood Gang has the city in a stranglehold, and one Edward Nigma emerges from irrelevance to become one of Batman’s biggest foes.
Snyder and Capullo do a solid job of depicting Bruce’s crime-fighting career as a work in progress. As with a few of their other Batman books, there are times early on when the pace is bogged down by excessive dialogue, but it all builds up to an amazing crescendo. Capullo’s art has always been solid, but I think he does an exceptional job this time. In particular, I think the latter issues where Bruce finally takes on the role of The Dark Knight look phenomenal.
As is to be expected by now, Batman’s New 52 run continues its consistently solid run with Zero Year – Secret City. This may not be the first time that we’ve gone down this path, most notably with Batman: Year One, but Snyder and Capullo’s take on a formative period for Bruce Wayne is insightful and entertaining.
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In Third Person 