Batman: Gates of Gotham

Knowing that Scott Snyder had a hand in creating the story here and that it’s supposed to tie into his current “Batman” run made picking this up a fairly easy decision.  His hand isn’t the only one in the pot here, as this mini-series is co-plotted with Kyle Higgins, with Higgins dialoguing most of it alongside Ryan Parrott in the later chapters.  The story itself digs deep into the actual origins of Gotham City as we’re introduced to the brothers with a talent for architecture who are discovered by Alan Wayne in the late 19th Century.  Their tale is told parallel to a series of bombings in the modern day that have their roots in these events as the culprit warns that the five major families of the city will fall by the “Gates of Gotham.”

The end result is an above-average “Batman” yarn that spins an effective tale of tragedy in exploring the city’s origins, and gives some credence to the idea that madness is part of the city’s bedrock as previously explored in Snyder’s “The Black Mirror.”  It’s also further proof that making Dick Grayson the “Batman” of Gotham City was a great idea, as he’s just fallible enough to make the chase to catch the culprit less of a foregone conclusion than it is.  The other subplots, involving Damien Wayne and Cassandra Cain aren’t as interesting and also feel like they’ve been cribbed from some kind of “how to create artificial drama” writer’s handbook.

Art for the majority of the story comes from Trevor McCarthy who has an appealingly wiry style.  His work gives the flashback scenes the class and refinement of the era, while the parts in the present day have an energy to them as the character always look like they’re ready to spring into action at a moment’s notice.  That said, Graham Nolan also deserves some of the credit here for providing the layouts in issues three-through-five.  Regrettably, there’s a jarring stylistic change in part four as Dustin Nguyen and Derec Donovan provide fill-in art.  Though Nguyen is normally a great stylist, there’s little of that on display here as his and Donovan’s efforts were obviously rushed to meet a deadline.

There’s also a “Batman, Inc.” story about the Batman of Paris by Higgins and McCarthy collected here as well.  For an origin, it’s not bad, though I’ll be interested to see if anyone gets around to actually writing a proper story featuring this character.  Still, this was a nice enough bonus to the main story which will appeal to fans of Snyder’s take on this iteration of the character, as well as Bat-fans at large.