The Kind of Madness This City Rewards: Why Scott Snyder's Batman Is the Best We've Ever Had

"Maybe that's what Batman is about. Not winning. But failing, and getting back up. Knowing he'll fail, fail a thousand times, but still won't give up. And I know what you'd say to this. Fighting a battle you know you can't win, a battle you know you'll lose. It's madness. But all I can hope...is that, like you said yourself. Maybe...maybe it's the kind of madness this city rewards"



I have been extremely fortunate in my lifetime to have grown up at the best time to be a Batman fan in history. Batman '89 came out when I was less than a year old, and I have been able to watch the seven subsequent live action Batman movies (for better or for worse) in theaters myself. I grew up glued to the floor watching Batman: TAS and all of its successors. There's almost never been less than 3-5 monthly comics featuring the character, and the rise of the graphic novel/trade paperback and digital comics collections like Comixology have given me far-reaching access to the entire archive of Bat-fiction. I have consumed far more of this Bat-media than is healthy or normal, and I still sleep many nights in Batman pajama pants. Having established my credentials, I feel it is not a thing to be taken lightly when I say that I believe Scott Snyder, who just concluded  with All-Star Batman #14 his role since 2011 as writer of a monthly solo Batman comic (at least for now, anyway), is the greatest writer in the history of the character.

Now I'm going to write a lot of words here to defend this thesis, but the easiest argument I can make is to tell you to go read the whole thing from Black Mirror on and see if you can come up with a rebuttal. That said, here's some reasons why I personally find it so great:

1)Embracing the history of Batman without continuity chaos
The New 52 reboot met with mixed success (see DC Rebirth's attempt to put the toothpaste back in the tube and bring back pre-52 Superman), but the "soft" reboot did allow Scott Snyder to largely re-define the character for a new era, with only the most essential elements remaining. Anyone can pick up just about any arc of the entire run and follow along with the story, and at most they really only need to know the previous arcs, rather than decades of backstory as was the case before the reboot and during similar runs like Grant Morrison's. Much like the Batman of Batman: TAS, Snyder's Batman is fully-formed yet in the early stages of his career. He has his sidekicks and Bat-family established and yet also feels most comfortable flying solo on his most difficult assignments.

Although Snyder doesn't make a bunch of references that require in-depth knowledge of old bat-canon, there are easter eggs and nods toward the entirety of the character's past. Almost every iteration of the Batmobile can be found in the batcave. Joker leads a parade through Gotham very similar the one from Batman '89. The Narrows, the tumbler, and Batman getting tech from Lucius Fox all draw to mind the Nolan movies.  The Batman Beyond suit even makes an appearance. All-Star Batman even uses the once-maligned (now generally beloved) Bat Shark Repellent from Batman '66.

2)Gotham (and its people) as a character
From Snyder's first Batman story, Black Mirror on through Dark Nights: Metal, his current crossover event, Snyder's Batman has always treated the city of Gotham itself as a character essential to the story. The city has a dark history, often hinted as demonic in origin (inspired by the classic Dark Knight, Dark City, among others). Characters talk about the toll the city can take on them, the way it tests them and tries to break them. In a lot of ways it reminds you of Sam Hamm's script notes from Batman '89 that described the city as something that rose up from Hell and broke through the Earth's crust. Despite the possible darkness at its heart (and in its nights), however, Snyder's Gotham is also a place of great opportunity, a glistening city that unlike many other depictions seems bright and cheery in the daylight. Bruce launches multiple initiatives to help the underprivileged throughout the city, and the citizens generally feel safe under the watchful eye of Batman. It is, as Bruce Wayne says himself at the end of Zero Year, a place that can bring out the best in you as easily as it can the worst, and if you "make it here, you can make it anywhere."

We also see Gotham's citizens throughout the entire run. Unlike some Batman stories where citizens treat the Batman as an urban legend, or others where the people sometimes fear him nearly as much as the villains he fights, Snyder's Batman is a public figure, beloved by the city, seen as Gotham's champion. We see repeatedly how he inspires characters like Harper Row and Duke Thomas to don costumes and take up his cause, but also how he encourages common citizens to persevere even thought the darkest of times.


3)The greatest Alfred-Bruce relationship of them all
During the speech at the end of Batman #32 that I quote at the top of the article Bruce concludes by telling Alfred he loves him. This really shouldn't be that noteworthy yet I really can't remember too many times that's been verbalized. Batman & Robin included the exchange during one of the legitimately fantastic scenes that movie had between George Clooney and Michael Gough, but otherwise it's an assumed-but-never-actually-stated feeling between the two. Some authors like Frank Miller go so far as to refer to Alfred as "something [Bruce's father] left him" and little more than a servant, so I appreciate that Snyder allows the father-son bond between the two to come to the forefront. Alfred even refers to Bruce as his son in the issues that he narrates. He also coordinates most missions from the cave and provides open, honest feedback to Bruce throughout, never taking a backseat and always telling Bruce what he needs to hear. The final arc of All-Star Batman also dove deep into Alfred's military history and established him as a credible tactician and strategist who can aid Batman's mission in his own right, and not just someone who serves as his father figure and conscience, even if he performs that role better than anyone. It's also Alfred who tells Bruce all of the way back in his origin in Zero Year that this Batman has to stand for something good, rather than just being a creature of vengeance lurking in the shadows and punishing criminals.

4)A modernized origin for a 21st century Batman
No one will ever deny the influence of Batman: Year One or deny how great of a story it is, but the fact remains that a 30 year old origin story, one heavily inspired by the crime waves of the late 70s/early 80s in NYC, with dated looking cars, tech, etc (and one that unfortunately featured such problematic elements as prostitute Catwoman) needed an update. Snyder brilliantly provided that in Zero Year, a story that credibly established a modern Batman rising to face the challenges of the 21st century and villains using drones, computer viruses, terrorism, and environmental threats to seize power. It doesn't hurt that it is also, without question, the best Riddler story of them all.

5)Batman as a symbol for facing your fears
Snyder has been commendably honest and open about his struggles with anxiety and depression and how they have influenced his work. I always like to describe Superman as the sum of all of humanity's hopes while Batman is the answer to its fears. In Snyder's world Bruce isn't Batman because he's an individual broken by his childhood trauma who needs to take out his pain on the criminal underworld, he's Batman because it is the way he has found to make himself whole again. He truly loves what he does, telling Alfred "In the city today, Alfred, now more than ever, evil men, sick men, they step from the shadows to kill and terrify, and Batman will draw their fire. He will be the lightning rod. He will show the people of Gotham not to be afraid. It's the thing, Alfred. It's what makes me happy. It's all that makes me happy."

In this world, Batman is the symbol we use to confront our own very real fears, each one represented by a different villain. Snyder's Joker is the ultimate nihilist, constantly trying to prove to Batman that none of it matters, that our lives could be taken at any moment and turn out to have accounted for nothing. Two-Face is the broken mirror showing the ugliness inside each and every one of us. Riddler is the cold, rational monster that whispers that the smart and superior should use their intellect and cruelty to leave everyone else behind as resources become more scarce and survival becomes more of a struggle. The Court of Owls represent the fear that a secret, rich elite controls everything behind the scenes, laughing at our attempts to change things for the better as long as they pull the strings.

Unlike Superman, who shows what we can all hope to be some day on our best day, Batman is the one that shows us how to survive the worst. The one who, as Snyder says above, may fail a thousand times but will always keep fighting. Those fears are real, and maybe in the end we'll lose, says Batman, but it's up to us to give life meaning anyway, to fight for what's right and for each other. As a person who also struggles from time to time with depression and the fear that maybe this world is too cruel, or that none of this really matters, having Batman fight the same fight and never lose the faith means a lot, actually. For that reason and all of the ones listed above, and probably many more I forgot to mention, Scott Snyder has given us the best and most meaningful version of a character that's always meant more to me than any other.