Welcome to the FIRST of what we are calling the World of Bats Casebooks: where we take a large, complete story that would be too long to do within a single week. And what better origin for this series than the New 52 origin of Batman, Zero Year, written by Scott Snyder and drawn by Greg Capullo!
Starting today, January 4th, to January 31st, we’ll read a sampling of the story every week. While spoilers are welcome, we ask to refrain from spoiling issues AHEAD of what is currently being discussed. Though if you have to spill the beans on something ahead, you can use the “Blur Spoiler” function to do so.
PART ONE: “Secret City,”
What to Read: Batman (2011) #0, 21-23, Annual #2
Batman (2011) Annual #2
Discussion Questions:
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Bruce’s first enemies in this take on the origin are the Red Hood gang, a group of unknown, many unwillingly drafted Gotham citizens recruited by the mysterious, grinning Red Hood One. What do you think of these first enemies of the man who will be Batman?
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Behind each of these issues is a back-up co-written by Snyder and James Tynion IV and drawn by Rafael Alberquerque, showing Bruce’s training before returning to Gotham. Which of these stories were your favorite, if any?
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In the Batman Annual #2, we see one of the first and the oldest resident of Arkham Asylum and her hatred of Batman. She believes that he perverted the original purpose of the place, turning it from a place of healing to a place of punishment. Do you believe that’s true? Can anyone truly be healed in Arkham Asylum?
PART TWO: “Dark City”
What to Read: Batman (2011) #24-27, 29
Discussion Questions can be found HERE!
PART THREE: “Before the Flood”
This one is going to be a little different, and something I like to call “Crossover Potpourri.”
Zero Year wasn’t just a big story within the pages of Batman. Many books around this time, both within the Batman line and beyond, published one-shot tie-ins to the event, mostly dealing with the oncoming super storm that was about to hit Gotham City.
With this week, instead of assigning you readers all twelve of these issues, we’re going to let you decide. Pick the books from the list that interest you, as little or as many as you wish, and let us know what you think!
List of Tie-Ins
Discussion Questions can be found HERE.
PART FOUR: “Savage City”
2020-01-25T06:00:00Z → 2020-01-31T06:00:00Z
What to Read: Batman (2011) #30-33
What to Read: Batman (2011) #30-33
Discussion Questions can be found HERE!
Looking forward to reading this with you guys!