The Good
We know that Bruce Wayne dedicated his life to training himself to become a crimefighter. We know he's been all around the world in this quest to prepare to fight evil. We just haven't seen a lot of those years. That's where the beauty of the 'zero' issues come in.
To tell us this tale, Gregg Hurwitz takes over writing duties while Tony Daniel and Pere Perez handle the art. Bruce Wayne makes his way to the Himalayas to seek out a legendary 'Zen-Buddhist Monk Warrior.' That description doesn't even cover everything he can do. Partly because we haven't seen a lot of this time period, there definitely is a level of excitement under the surface as we witness the transformation of Bruce Wayne.
His time training offers some insight into who Batman is and why he acts the way he does. It's an interesting look at the time before Bruce became Batman. You can see hints of who he's to become as well as the possible paths he could have taken. The ending should catch you off guard as well.
Besides this story, we also get an incredible back up story by James Tynion IV and Henrik Jonsson. While Bruce is off discovering himself and working on his training, Alfred has been left in charge of Wayne Manor. It might sound like a boring and tedious task but there are factors that make it more than just dusting the furniture and hanging out by the pool.
The Bad
Bruce training in the Himalayas was a great story but could have benefited even more by being a longer story, perhaps a miniseries. It's not fully clear if he just spent six months there and there is a gap in between the main and back up stories. Because the story was contained to a single issue, you don't quite get the full scope of what his training must have been like. We just get little glimpses. Maybe stretching it out wouldn't necessarily be the best idea but I would have liked to have seen more.
There was one aspect of the ending that was a little predictable. Thankfully there was another aspect that threw a wrench at Bruce.
Are we going to know what happens in the time between the two stories?
The Verdict
The idea of doing Batman zero/origin issues seemed a little odd since we pretty much know all of his story. Surprisingly and thankfully, Gregg Hurwitz focuses on a time that hasn't had a lot of attention in the past. Seeing Batman before he's Batman is cool. This isn't in the beginning of his training either as he's likely been around the world already. We also get a great back up story written by James Tynion IV focusing on what Alfred's been doing while Bruce is away. This is what zero issues should be about. It's a great look back at the characters before the first issue of this series. Now I'm even more excited to see other zero issues.