The Road to Zero Year
The very concept of Zero Year was something that many fans feared when word first got out. Longtime readers are still getting used to the New 52's many changes, including the fact that many of their favorite stories are no longer in continuity. When Batman #1 hit the stands, much of the character's previous history was, for all readers knew, still intact. However, as other Bat-books began to reveal changes to character histories, fans began to worry about the beloved stories that had cemented Batman’s history for so many years. Of course, by the time the first issue of Zero Year debuted, Snyder had developed a great deal of street cred from his audience. Snyder had already managed to write two epic Batman arcs in his series thus far, so all he needed to do was hit it out of the park once more. No pressure, right?While Batman fans are always thirsty for more adventures in Gotham, they are also accustomed to things being a certain way. With so much love and appreciation of past stories, change is always a difficult thing to deal with. Batman: Year One was the Batman origin as far as most fans were concerned, and The Killing Joke gave the only (potential) accounting of Joker’s origin that fans needed to see. Of course, some fans might still feel that way after reading Zero Year, but Snyder was utterly fearless in presenting his version of Batman’s secret origin.Deep and probing characterization, intense and inventive action sequences, and a complex tapestry of storytelling all helped to bring to life this new vision of Batman’s origin. In the end, Zero Year was a bona fide hit. Whether you look at its chart-topping monthly sales, high scores from nearly all comic book review sites, or just the mere fact that it has dominated IGN's Best Comic of the Month People's Choice award all year, it's clear people enjoyed the story. A large part of this was due to the fact that Zero Year had a laser tight focus throughout its run, with every element adding up to the whole. Most importantly though, Zero Year was fun, exciting, and true to the core of every character that it presented, and it gave fans a new perspective on their beloved hero and his supporting cast.
What Worked
So with so many fans understandably concerned about Batman’s place in the New 52, what would Snyder do with the beloved history of the Dark Knight? While Snyder had already contributed to the history of the character with stories like Gates of Gotham and Night of the Owls, those stories added to the mythos of Gotham City itself more so to the Caped Crusader. Zero Year, on the other hand, promised to retell the story of Batman’s most formative years. Would the undeniably historic stories such as Year One and The Killing Joke be preserved, and was such a thing even possible with the changes already established in the New 52? While those stories will always stand as some of Batman’s all-time best, Snyder chose to answer these questions by simply telling the story of “his” Batman, the Batman of the New 52, setting the stage on page one of Batman #0.Snyder, simply, would respect the past while paving the way for the future, and he would do so in three distinct acts titled Secret City, Dark City, and Savage City. If you’re detecting a theme here, it’s because there is one! Gotham City itself is a character, and one of the most important ones in the Batman mythos. Snyder harnessed the city of Gotham throughout his epic to forge Bruce Wayne into Batman, and to challenge him in ways that fans haven’t quite seen before.
When the young Bruce Wayne’s methods failed him time and again, it was “the lifeblood of the city,” the Batcave itself, that showed Bruce that he needed to become a bat in order to succeed on his quest. The dangerous foes that threatened the city, as well as his staunchest allies, helped Bruce learn valuable lessons about what being Batman actually meant to his city and to himself. Ultimately, Snyder used Gotham City to work as a metaphor not only for what makes Bruce happy, but to also state that this is the Batman of a new generation and simultaneously the Batman that fans have always known and loved. In the end, Snyder didn’t just give readers another Batman origin, he gave readers the definitive origin of the Batman of the New 52.
Of course, comics are a visual medium and so no great comics work would be complete without its artistic contributors. Snyder worked with some of the best to complete his vision of Zero Year, and they all brought their A-game. Greg Capullo, who has been working with Snyder since issue #1 of the New 52 run, seemingly harnessed everything that he’s learned up until this point to give fans a Batman and a Gotham that they’ve never seen before. His inker, Danny Miki, infused Capullo's pencils with a distinct, hard edge that made every drawing pop. A very integral component of the final product was the colors, and FCO Plascencia helped to imbue the city with colors that no Gothamite has ever even dreamed of seeing. Pinks, purples, oranges, and more were spread throughout the city’s backdrop, and the results were simply breathtaking. Finally, one cannot forget artists such as Rafael Albuquerque and Andy Clarke who helped bring the handful of backup stories to life (more on those later) along with colorists Dave McCaig and Blond.
Continue to Page 2 for What Didn't Work and Our Favorite Zero Year Moments!
What Didn't Work
For all of the elements of Zero Year that were important, and for all of the ways that the story worked, it’s still hard to deny that it may have gone on a bit too long for an origin story. Of course, this isn’t to say that any particular element needed to be cut out entirely, but that as a whole the story probably could have benefited from being tightened up just a bit. To put it another way, Batman: Year One was able to redefine Batman’s formative year just as well as Zero Year did, and it only took Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli four issues to do it in.Beyond just the length though, one could also argue that a superhero origin benefits greatly from being easily digestible, and for all of the great things that Zero Year says about its main protagonist, it’s certainly not easily summarized. Not that this makes Zero Year bad as a whole, of course, but there’s just something primal about the superhero origin, so the more straightforward and succinct it is, the better.
Additionally, while the vast majority of the elements introduced in Zero Year all helped to build to Snyder’s final redefinition of Batman, other elements ended up never having much of a payoff. When the Seals team assigned to assist Gordon first landed in Gotham, they were dressed in rather unconventional uniforms inclusive of helmets that were shaped to resemble the head of a bat. It’s never revealed why this is the case, and the design never served a practical purpose. The biggest instance of an element not paying off though, was the old hat that Bruce inherited from his father which somehow sported what can only be described as Robin’s “R” symbol. One supposes that this is just a coincidence, especially considering that Dick Grayson created the identity of Robin himself. If these things were just coincidences though, were they here just to be cute, or did they serve some kind of subtle purpose to the overall story? It’s not really clear, and while these things do not hurt the narrative of Zero Year in any way, they proved to be inconsequential in the end, and ultimately was a disappointment because these elements never paid off in any meaningful way.
Finally, one of the ways that Snyder tried to pay his respects to past Batman tales was by making fun references to other stories such as The Dark Knight Returns, Grant Morrison's Batman run, and even the 1960’s Batman TV show. While these references were a nice little wink to what’s come before, Zero Year faltered a bit when it had its characters making impossible references to things that have either yet to occur or to things that made it seem that they were aware of the story they were in.
The two biggest examples of this was when Red Hood One remarked to Batman that “This is only the beginning.” right before he fell to his supposed doom, and when a young Bruce Wayne answered his teacher’s question with a “zero” in a most dramatic fashion. These scenes made it feel as if these characters had somehow become self-aware of their own constructs and were very close to breaking the fourth wall. Fortunately, this was not common, but it was certainly an unfortunate distraction when it occurred.
Favorite Moments
This isn’t a comprehensive list by any means, but it’s certainly some of the more stand-out moments that made Zero Year shine.The Backup Stories
Zero Year was a story set six years in the past. However, Snyder took fans back even further than that with a short series of backup stories that he co-wrote with James Tynion IV. Snyder and Tynion IV took readers as far back to age 19, where Bruce would be seen learning how to drive; age 21, where Bruce would be seen learning how to improvise; and age 24, where Bruce would be seen learning to hone his fighting skills while teaching others that nothing would ever stop him.These stories were a rare chance to see the journey that young Bruce undertook while training to become Batman. While they were all a great deal of fun, they also tied into important moments and elements of Zero Year. Really, the only point of complaint about these backups were that they ended rather abruptly, and for no apparent reason. One can only hope that Snyder has more of these flashbacks hidden up his sleeve to be revealed at a later date. Perhaps as its own series? One can only hope.
Man to Batman
Since this is an origin story, fans knew they were going to see a young Bruce Wayne learning how to be a superhero. What fans couldn’t know though was exactly how Snyder was going to pull it off. There are a lot of vital components to Batman, and it’s not all about what’s underneath his cowl. Readers witnessed a young, brash, and ultimately reckless Bruce Wayne sort of stumble through vigilantism at first. Sure, he was a genius and a trained warrior, but it quickly became apparent that these traits weren’t going to be enough. That said, seeing this struggle in the first act of Zero Year was endlessly entertaining, and seeing the new and audaciously brazen attitude from the usually calm and calculated Bruce was a surprising treat.Even after Bruce donned the mantle of the Bat for the first time, he still wasn’t fully prepared for what being Batman truly meant. Bruce still needed to learn that being Batman meant a whole lot more than being cocky and self-assured. Eventually, during the final confrontation between Batman and Riddler, Bruce would finally realize the value of having allies such as Jim Gordon and Lucius Fox, and he would ultimately learn that being Batman is as much about protecting himself as it is about protecting Gotham. Where men such as Red Hood One and Doctor Death became monsters after seeing the endless void of the “empty center,” Bruce would learn to find meaning behind the men and women who struggled to do good even in the face of tragedy, and would use this as an inspiration to become the ultimate superhero.
Jim Gordon vs. Bruce Wayne
Fans have long been familiar with the fact that a young beat cop by the name of Jim Gordon was the officer who arrived on the scene to comfort little Bruce Wayne after the murder of his parents. While Snyder keeps this part of the mythos fully intact, he completely changes and adds to the events surrounding this fateful meeting. Snyder altered it so much in fact, that by the time he was done Bruce absolutely hated Jim. This was certainly an unexpected turn of events in Zero Year, and the mystery of why these two had such a rocky relationship certainly had fans on the edge of their seats. In the past, Jim had to prove that he would be a worthy ally of Batman, but Snyder chose to take things one step further by personalizing the story to Bruce. Jim now had to earn back Bruce’s trust in order to earn Batman’s. By ripping the foundation of trust away from these characters, fans now had the chance to see this iconic relationship grow right before our eyes.Alfred Pennyworth vs. Master Bruce
While the partnership of Batman and Jim Gordon is undoubtedly essential to the mythos, no other relationship is as commensurate as the one between Bruce and Alfred. While Alfred has often been shown to worry about Bruce and his many proteges in the past, we’ve never quite seen a depiction of Alfred so adamant against his master donning the cape and cowl. Throughout Zero Year, Alfred constantly questioned Bruce’s methods and at one point even calls him a coward. The two clearly had a difference of opinion on how to handle things and eventually had a complete breakdown with one another. Eventually though, Alfred proves that he simply wants the best for Bruce, and that he’ll always be there for him in the end. Through all of this, Snyder was able to illustrate exactly what these two characters mean to one another. Snyder infused a great deal meaning into the already meaningful foundation of these two characters by adding dramatic elements that ultimately helped to unite the two characters in a way that fans have never seen before.Villain Redux
Red Hood and Doctor Death both go way back to some of the earliest Batman adventures, and both were important players in Zero Year, though for reasons the characters themselves couldn’t even understand. Doctor Death has seen a couple of different incarnations throughout the decades, but Snyder chose to ignore those versions in favor of something much more horrifying. In the end, readers learn that he was connected to the mysterious “Tokyo Moon” story thread, and his villainy is revealed to be the result of a great loss suffered by the man. As for Red Hood, Snyder went back to a more traditional take on the villain who would one day menace Gotham City as the Joker. Fans may still prefer Alan Moore’s take on the Joker origin found in the (endlessly re-readable) Killing Joke for its “multiple choice” stance. While Snyder does end up paying homage to that story, he chose to use the Red Hood and Doctor Death as allegories for what happens to those who are engulfed by the darkness and never come back.Though readers may not have expected Riddler to be the ultimate villain behind Zero Year, looking back now, it’s almost obvious. Snyder laid the groundwork for a Riddler takeover from the very first part of Zero Year. Edward Nygma was immediately positioned against Bruce Wayne, and even though Nygma was never presented as the most obvious threat, we eventually learned that he was behind both Red Hood’s initial attack against Bruce Wayne as well as Doctor Death’s murderous deeds. In issue #2, Nygma really gets the ball rolling by introducing his Ouroboros “game board” to Bruce, one of the most striking images in Zero Year. At the end of that encounter Bruce tells Nygma to “try harder next time,” and that’s exactly what he does. The titular Zero Year ends up being Riddler’s ultimate scheme, perhaps even in the history of the character’s publication, and his Ouroboros board ends up being the set piece of his final confrontation with Batman. Once again, Riddler saw nothing but emptiness where Batman saw nothing but possibility, ultimately allowing him to win the day.
Endings, New Beginnings, and Endgames
Much like the Ouroboros, Zero Year ends where it begins with Snyder’s thesis that Batman is a character that is infinitely renewable. Snyder’s desire was never to override what came before, but simply to give fans his own take on Batman’s origins. Whether or not fans have fully accepted this, the Batman of the New 52 is essentially a brand new character, and Snyder’s Zero Year is the new foundation for the 75 year old superhero.So what’s next for the World’s Greatest Detective? Well, Snyder hasn’t revealed much about Endgame, but thanks to a conversation with Newsarama we know that Endgame will take place after Batman: Eternal, and that it’ll be the biggest story he and Greg Capullo have ever done.What did you like about Zero Year? What didn't work for you? And what were your favorite moments? Let us know in the comments!