New 52 BATMAN Comes to a Close Heading Towards “Rebirth”

DC’s “New 52″ reboot sure has had its fair share of ups and downs over the years since it launched in 2011. We laughed, we cried, we…eer, ok so I never laughed or cried, but honestly sometimes it really sucked and really pushed me away from the DC universe, and other times it was brilliant, fun, and completely engaging. The shining example here is Scott Snyder’s run on BATMAN alongside artist Greg Capullo. I can safely say this was the best thing to come out of this whole New 52 thing. I think fondly back on THE COURT OF OWLS, DEATH OF THE FAMILY, ZERO YEAR, and ENDGAME and consider them some of the best Bat stories to date. 

Which brings me to this week. While Snyder and Capullo exited stage left last month in issue #51, the torch has been passed to writer James Tynion IV and artist Rafael Albuquerque for the final issue before the new “rebirth” relaunch. It’s worth noting that Tynion IV will be helming DETECTIVE COMICS in the very near future so get use to this man writing Bats for awhile. What better way to test drive this dude than having him write and issue we are all going to buy anyway.

BATMAN #52 is closing the case on all the arcs Snyder has crafted and will serve as a bookend to the run while also looking dead ahead into the future. The synopsis for this issue simply says:

Echoes from Batman’s past ripple out into Gotham City’s future…

Pretty vague, but likely sums up what we can expect. I don’t expect any big surprises like we will likely see in the SUPERMAN books, but it should be a good read nonetheless. It’s a landmark issue for a landmark run. Nab it off the shelves while you can because I have a feeling they will be picked up quick this week.

Words by Jason Furie

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