[Center][H1]Scott Snyder's[/H1]
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So, here's the thing about my relationship with comic books, the first comic series I really read was Ultimate Spider-Man, which I started on with Volume 15 because I stumbled upon it at my library. Before that, I had spent my elementary school days on Wikipedia reading about Batman and Spider-Man. My first individual comic that I personally owned was a Looney Tunes comic, but the first one I picked up was Snyder/Tynion's Batman Annual 1. Afterward, I took all thirty of my dollars, being a thirteen year old, and paid for a year long subscription to Batman directly on DC's website. None of my issues ever arrived.

So I didn't really keep up reading Batman. I just read news articles and Wikipedia, trying to keep everything straight. But about a month ago, I set out to binge read Scott Snyder's entire 56 issue Batman run using my local library and the Internet.

It. Was. Epic.

Snyder dedicated his run to telling us what Gotham is. It's the very first topic that he addresses with the dark knight's opening soliloquy before Batman confuses the better part of his rogues gallery by beating them to a pulp with the assistance the clown prince of crime. There were several threads introduced in the debut issue that I wish had been returned to, like Dick Grayson's disguise or whatever had caused all of the city's supervillains to team up like The Justice League of Arkham.

Nonetheless, every single issue felt fresh and exciting. The creative team never missed a beat. Snyder's Batman packed as many surprises as Morrison's, but Snyder's Batman manager to cheat death again and again without every making me feel like he was a walking Deus Ex Machina magnet. Batman lost a fair amount of fights, even on his home turf. He was a man who could fight the Justice League and win, but he was also a man who made mistakes, both as a man and as a bat-god.

The post-crisis Batman had a quote that communicated having had five back up plans for any given operation, and five contingencies for each of those. The New 52's Batman is not so infallible. He's caught off guard on the regular, hanging on to dear life by the skin of his teeth. The Court of Owls mops the floor with The Batman. So does the Joker. The Riddler totally outsmarts him. Dr. Death nearly kills him. And Mr. Bloom...

Ironically, the series does not climax at Endgame, where the Joker's gloves come off and he finally kills the Batman. The series climaxes with Suoerheavy--Snyder's answer to the death of Superman. Batman dies before healing up physically and mentally (losing his formative trauma). Jim Gordon is legally christened as the new law-abiding Batman. Mr. Bloom turns Gotham into a cannibalistic warzone. And Bruce Wayne traumatizes himself again so that he can save the day.

It made my cry. When I read him surrendering the life that he wanted so that he can carry the suffering for everyone else, I was touched and remembered exactly what I love about Batman. Giving up your peace of mind so that you can act as a human shield. I wanted to scream it with him: [B]"I won't give up again!"[/B]

As for characters he made
[List][*][B]Duke Thomas[/B] - The whole "Robin doesn't need a Batman" shtick got really old really fast. No me gusta.
[*][B]Harper Row[/B] - I love this girl and wish they found something they could use her for.
[*][B]Lincoln March[/B] - He could plausibily be Thomas Wayne junior, regardless of how adamant Bruce is that he isn't. Bruce's arrogance is a major theme in this run. I like the character as a villain.[/List]

So what is Gotham? Gotham is the piece of Batman that let's itself get ripped apart over and over so that others need not suffer. I like what Gordon said about Batman in Suoerheavy's conclusion. Batman isn't real. Batman fights our nightmares so that we can deal with our real problems by the light of day.