Batman: Snow Book

Bruce Wayne has just started out as the Batman, he's maybe a year or so into learning his new role as this Caped Crusader, and he's starting to feel the heat. So he decides to recruit some out of work, talented underachievers to act as his surveillance/backup team on the various criminals loose in Gotham. Meanwhile, Dr Victor Fries suffers a devastating loss when his ill wife takes a turn for the worse - but can he save her with the ice technology he's been working on?

Dan Curtis Johnson and JH Williams III write a Batman story that shows the Dark Knight still learning who Batman is and the complications that are fraught with being a vigilante. It's set sometime in the 70s (judging from the fashions and tech) and Batman's fighting an afro-ed mob boss (no-one famous like the Falcones) and having trouble accomplishing this simple task. I thought the vulnerability and uncertainty of Batman was unusual but showed a side to him that should be seen by the Batfans out there, showing that their hero wasn't as slick as he is today.

That said there were a number of issues I had with the book: why are Bruce and Jim Gordon so old-looking when they're supposed to be just starting out? Wasn't Bruce in his early twenties when he decided to become Batman? Wayne Manor looks like a cottage with Bruce enjoying a leisurely English breakfast each morning after 6 hours of sleep (impossible to imagine given how much time of Batman's is spent in the night) and his cape looks ridiculously billowing alongside his small, almost schlumpy frame (no muscles at all, Batman here looks like an impersonator).

And then there's the somewhat laughable team Batman puts together to help him fight crime which serves to point out that Batman should only work alone - or maybe with a certain circus acrobat as backup only.

"Snow" is mostly about Mr Freeze's origin story and while this is fairly interesting, seeing Batman bumble about Gotham with a ragtag bunch of misfits backing him up with some lo-tech gadgets in vans isn't as fun to read as you'd think. The script is a bit spare and boring but the artwork from Seth Fisher is fantastic, a mix of JH Williams III (whose artwork is far, far better than his writing) and Geof Darrow, and is worth picking up this book just for that.

Overall, not bad but a very average outing for the Dark Knight and not nearly as interesting as it could've been. A slow story with few memorable scenes and too much time given over to uninteresting side characters who only really factor in this book rather than in the Batman universe - "Snow" is definitely for fans only.