1. Batman #26 by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo (DC)
Dark City, the second story arc in the New 52 Batman origin story Zero Year, continues with an unconscious Bruce Wayne waking up to see the supposedly traitorous Lucius Fox struggling against the newly imagined Doctor Death. Meanwhile we also find out why Bruce is so hostile to Jim Gordon - but is he right...? So far, Zero Year hasn't been at all like Year One, as a lot of fans feared when it was first announced that Scott Snyder would be tackling Batman's origin - and that's definitely been a good thing because Zero Year has been a phenomenal rollercoaster ride of a comic. While Batman #28 continues this trend, it's also the closest this series has come to Frank Miller's classic albeit taking some of Year One's story elements an altering them in interesting new ways. Year One was both a Batman and Jim Gordon story, and in this issue we see a lot more of Gordon than we've seen so far. Bruce shared with Jim his recollection of sitting in the Monarch Theatre alone watching the Mark of Zorro during a weekday and being escorted out by Gordon for truancy. As Bruce sits in the back of the squad car, he notices Gordon's partner accepting bribes from local businesses who're enjoying police protection and something that isn't immediately clear is Gordon's reaction to this blatant corruption - it's neither approving nor disapproving. Bruce notices and also notes that the bribe, a trench-coat, is the same one Gordon's wearing today. The other connection to Year One is the famous SWAT team scene where Batman evades the cops. Here, the police manage to corner Batman, open fire... and seemingly hit him! Obviously it's not what it looks like but it's still an unexpected and bold change to a familiar set-up. I'm not completely sold on Doctor Death as the villain of this arc, purely because his motives seem a bit unclear so far, though his scenes aren't bad. Meanwhile the character we all thought would be the main villain of the arc, the Riddler, is brought up again, only in passing, though it shows Snyder hasn't forgotten about him and is slowly steering the story back towards him. Readers who thought Lucius acted out of character last issue will be vindicated by his actions here and it's this bait-and-switch approach to the characters Snyder's doing that makes me think there's going to be more to Gordon's story than just Bruce's perspective in this issue. It looks like Bruce is right and Gordon, at least when he started, was a bent cop - but we'll probably find out differently in a later issue. Greg Capullo's art is as awesome as it always is and I especially liked the panel where Batman's holding his cape up against the light of the officer's torch in that classic pose we've seen so many times before. There's also a mysterious one-page scene, typical of Snyder's storytelling approach, that's totally out-of-context of the main story and shows a near-dead Bruce in a kind of sensory deprivation tank seemingly ignoring his father's voice, probably set in the past. What does it mean? It looks like a part of his training but his father's voice is a peculiar and tantalising detail. Snyder and Capullo continue to impress with their simply incredible Zero Year storyline - it's a Batman origin unlike any other, and #26 is amazing. Check it out! * Those are my picks for the week, what're your favourite comics of the week? Let me know in the comments below, and I'll see you guys next week - read some awesome comics!