With All Adam Strange's Tech & Supes' Invulnerability Life's Easy
Never thought I'd live to see the day when I'd say, the latest issue of Batman wasn't as good as the latest issue of Aquaman. But, that's exactly what I'm saying right now.
A lot of what I don't like about this incarnation of Batman has to do with one of my biggest complaints with superheroes today. A problem I call "power-creep", basically the idea that any superhero written by a whole series of writers will inevitably become more and more powerful over time.
For example, when this issue opens, Batman is taking on - Mr. Freeze, Killer Croc, Scarecrow, Two Face, The Riddler, Black Mask, Clayface, and about half a dozen other villains simultaneously! Now how can any of these villains ever possibly be a threat to Batman on their own ever again, given that he can take them ALL on at the same time and come out without so much as a single bruise or scratch? Of course, it doesn't help that Greg Capullo draws every single villain as if they are an inhuman monster - even the Riddler gets a 'thug' makeover, complete with question mark shaped mohawk and tattoos.
Then there's the gadgets. What started in the 30s as a Batarang and a Batplane has since evolved into a dizzying array of tech that would put James Bond, Iron Man and Doctor Who to shame. He outfits one protege with an electronic holographic mask(!?!) and later - particularly annoying - is his use of a contact lens with face recognition capability which is little more than a cheap plot device to give the reader background details on every person he looks at. Even as Bruce Wayne, he reveals a model of the 'Gotham of the Future' with holographic images. Really, all this sci-fi stuff takes away from the idea of Batman as a street-level detective hero.
(And speaking of science anomalies, the issue is full of it - from flocks of bats that just happen to follow Bats around for the hell of it to entire sentences written in burning linseed oil (seriously try replicating that yourself), to DNA tests that take seconds....)
Enough is enough, let's get back to Batman as a Dark Knight Detective unraveling crime dramas - not some post-Matrix sci-fi film noir action movie.