I have been thinking, with the conclusion of Batman #40 we see a deep humanizing of Batman. Bruce recognized that he is a tragic hero and died as such. So, with this in mind is Scott Snyder the greatest Batman writer of alltime? Now, I am not saying he is and I am also not saying he isn't, I am just opening the floor for people to share their ideas. The conclusion of Batman #40 is what brings this to mind. Grant Morrison, while his stories are great, did elevate Batman to a god status while Miller just churned out some really weird Batman stories.Let me know your thoughts and thanks for sharing!

Scott Snyder is probably one of the greatest Batman writers DC has ever had but in a way he's had an advantage over most writers before him. He was able to start up his Batman story with a #1. This allowed more light to be shed on his work than most authors. I mean yes he has humanized Batman and made him more of a relatable character but he's not the only one who's done so, people just tend to remember how terrible Miller's run on Batman was considering how gritty and dark it was to the point the fans started calling Batman, Crazy Steve, since he was apparently an orphan hater. Grant Morrison became known as the guy who elevated Batman to somewhat of a god status and his run was amazing but very strange as well. But people tend to over look how human he seemed in Judd Winick's run, specially in Under the Red Hood. Scott Synder's run was touch and go for the most part but that was ok. In Court of Owls, the story didn't really have an end, it just kinda ended with "oh the readers will come up with ending" type of deal. In Death of the Family it was nothing but build up and once again there was no end. Zero year dragged too much but it did have an end which was appreciated. And Endgame was a masterpiece, it didn't drag, it had suspense, horror, action, mystery and an ending so satisfying that made me feel I would never have to read a Batman vs Joker book again.

Simply put no!

Miller

Morrison

O'Neil

Finger

Englehart

Rucka

Just a brief list of better writers. Snyders' work has been elevated by the art team. He has reached back to to many other stories and has retread to much territory that has been done before and has failed to stick the landing at the conclusion of every arc with End game being the possible exception. I find his work like Dixons to be enjoyable but hardly historic. The writing and execution has been down hill since his initial run on Detective. I would like to reiterate I find it enjoyable just not on par with the all time great writers.

Morrison or O'Neal people?

Geoff Johns has something to say about this....because he's far better.

He's good not the best though.

@sog7dc: Really how so?

Best of all time? HAhahahahaahhahaahahahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahaahahahahhahahahahaha oh my god absolutely not.

not sure if serious...

qft

I will add, Snyder's run on Bruce will go down as historical, but historical doesn't equate to great. @tec79 pretty much summed up how we should all look at Bats' writing history objectively.

Nope. He's one of the best but still comes in behind Grant Morrison and a few others. I personally think Snyder has batman get his butt kicked too often. He got beaten up by the court of owls, captured by Joker in DOTF, died in Zero Year before being revived, lost to Lincoln March in City of Owls and in Batman Eternal, and recently died fighting the joker. This doesn't affect how I see him as a writer, it's just an observation that Snyder seems to only be able to write batman well when he's losing.

Miller, Snyder, and Grant Morrison are the triforce of Batman writers.

@jayc1324 said:

Snyder's problem is that he relies far too often on the "beaten and broken hero comeback" plot concept, where Batman takes an ass beating, then comes back in the fifth round, even when it's patently ridiculous and implausible. It's a decent story point to use when appropriate and handy to have in a writer's arsenal of tricks, but Snyder overdoes it.

I don't like the "voice" he gives/gave Batman either. He was too meatheady, too irrational, too incompetent at times. And despite that, still makes him Batgod at the most questionable times.

For the most part I have really liked Snyder's Batman run. The biggest letdown was Zero Year, I thought it was a good concept and story but it just dragged out for way too long and that really hurt the story. Death of the Family was a little bit of letdown as I was expecting big things from Snyder after Court of Owls.

Do I think Synder is the best writer of all time for Batman? Nope I don't, but I don't think anyone is the best of all time to be honest. A lot of the greatest Batman writers wrote in different eras from one another and brought their own take to Batman, this makes comparing them very hard in my opinion.

I agree with most of this. Pretty hard to compare O'Neil with Synder, given where both of them started.

Also you have writers like Miller who produced some of the best and some of the worst Batman stories of all time. Miller's best far surpasses Snyder's best but Snyder's worst doesn't come close to DKR2.

I still give it to morrison

No.

Well, there went my eyesight!

No, I hate that people think he is the greatest thing since sliced bread, about the only good thing ever to come out of him was Court of Owls.

If you want good writers, here are the greatest Batman writers:

Denny O’Neil (Instrumental in bringing Batman back to his dark roots)

Steve Engleheart (His characterizations of most of the villains were perfect, Joker, Penguin, Deadshot, Hugo Strange, they were great)

Paul Dini (His characterization of the Joker alone is one of the best things to day and it’s the perfect representation along with Engleheart’s Batman)

Alan Grant (One of the greatest Batman runs ever with Norm Breyfogle)

Frank Miller (Year One is great, Dark Knight Returns and the sequel are…Mediocre in my opinion)

Bill Finger (Created the foundation for so many of the villains and Batman)

Doug Moench (Some of his stuff, not all)

Grant Morrison (Same with Doug Moench, but when Morrison makes a good story, it’s usually a must have)

Alan Moore (The Killing Joke and Batman Annual 11)

Those are the greatest Batman writers out there that trump Snyder any day. I don’t think Snyder is terrible, but this clinginess to his work is just appalling. Some of the stuff is good, but some of it’s awful.

He's good, but not the best

Not the best

@devitciiu: Exactly. Just too many different variables to accurately compare writers to one another.

It's hard comparing Snyder to any other writer. Every writer has his Batman in mind when writing. Every iteration has their fans. So if you like O'Neill's writing, you won't like Morisson, et cetera..
But to compare Snyder with Miller, who wrote two good Batman books (Year One & Dark Knight Returns), the rest was trash at best.. Would be a little bit unfair..

I personally like Snyder's work. I like it for trying to be different than the other Batman books.

Better than Morrison as a Batman writer, in my opinion, but I wouldn't say he's the best.

Black Mirror, Gates of Gotham, Court of Owls, Zero Year, and Endgame are all very good Scott Snyder stories, even though there are those who would claim that Court of Owls was "his only good story," which I find to be an incredibly silly claim.

@omnicrono: What did you think of City of Owls? Also, did you not like Death of the Family?

Good morning!

Sorry, when I say Court of Owls I am actually talking about the entire "Owls" arc, which includes City of Owls. So yeah, I really liked it. :)

I thought Death of the Family was good, but I felt like it was his weakest story. It felt like it was more hype than substance... not to say there wasn't substance there, because there was.

@omnicrono: I wonder how Death of the Family would read, if read back-to-back with Endgame. I find this interesting because the main reason for Death of the Family was to set up Endgame.

@tcrighton: That's exactly what I was thinking. Honestly, I think that is how it should be read; back-to-back with Endgame. I think of DotF as the prologue to Endgame.

Scott Snyder's Batman = Rocky Balboa?

Not at all

No, he's good, but not that good.

Miller, Morrison, and others are better.

Dennis ONeill NuffSaid.

@deathpoolthet1000: I second that.