5. The Writing
Initially this section was just going to talk about Scott Snyder but that would be an injustice towards James Tynion IV, particularly after his excellent Court of Owls one shot for villain month and of course the co written shorts at the end of various issues which feedback into and inform the main narrative itself. Following someone like Grant Morrison was always going to be difficult, not least on a title with such history and prestige as Batman. Much of the criticism that is laid at Snyder's door, and it is indeed there that the criticism is laid for as yet no one seems to be picking on Tynion, seems to come from people who are fans of Morrison and his work. This writer is a fan of Morrison as well, but is also willing to cut Snyder some slack. Snyder hasn't been writing as long as Grant, nor do they probably share the same interests in higher dimensionality, expanding consciousness and the occult. Had Snyder and his collaborators delivered something of a similar vein to Morrison's prior run then not only would they be betraying themselves and their past work but cries of plagiarism would no doubt have rung out from the fandom. That Snyder's writing is a world away from Morrison's is a compliment and to its own merit. Morrison gave us a vast macro narrative comprised of various micro arcs that flitted from simple pulp mystery to international James Bond style thrillers to sci-fi drama and back again. Snyder's Batman is almost consistently claustrophobic, gritty, noir, like hard boiled detective stories of the early 20th century. Morrison's Batman was lathered with gadgetry, and technology. While Snyder introduces a few new gadgets and revitalises some old pieces, the appearance of anything high tech serves to remind us that the comic is essentially set in the present day and not that era past when Batman was first created. Most of Snyder's dialogue is in fact made up of internal monologues whereas Morrison was all about dialogue. Narrative depth is created when Snyder's characters open their mouth's, whereas Morrison's stories took on a whole new level when we are treated to somebody's inner world. Interestingly enough Tynion's stories are almost all about dialogue, the few monologues are one sided conversations rather than a simple internal process of mentation, something which is again a compliment and to it's own merit. In talking about the writing one could easily begin talking about the actual arcs, but those are something worth individual consideration later, except perhaps to mention a story written by Snyder that takes place parallel to Morrison's run. The Black Mirror, with Dick Grayson as it's Batman, essentially plays out in tandem to volume one of Batman Incorporated, so maybe give that a try? So with that out of the way let us instead move on to a totally different but not altogether unrelated type of penmanship...