Somewhere out there, is an object. A standard piece of paper probably, though in my mind I picture it as something akin to the United States Declaration of Independence, with ever-so-deliberate handwriting. This object, this paper, this declaration, contains within its various curlicues, several immutable Laws of Importance, and it is said that these Laws form the basis of what can be deemed Important when it comes to the comic book medium.

An admission: I have never seen this document. I’ve only heard rumours of its existence, spoken about in whispers at conventions, in shops, and on message boards. To my knowledge, its contents have never actually been verified, though I’ve heard-tell of specifics, most notably, a section from somewhere near the beginning:

“We hold these truths to be self evident, that all characters are not created equal, that they are endowed by their Creators with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Anti-Life, and the pursuit of Happiness.”

The document is supposedly filled with many truths, and within those truths, the key to telling Important Stories - though finding a source that can verify what those truths are is truly a thankless and impossible task. The “truths” as they are spoken tend to change from person to person, as people ascribe their own personal beliefs onto this charter and the words therein. Whether or not they have stood in witness of this document does not seem to sway their opinion one way or another, so sure they are that it exists, and that they are arguing for a righteous cause. In today’s feature, we’re going to explore one such part of the charter - specifically the truth that refers to legacy characters:

“Once created, no character may be replaced, lest the story be considered complete bullshit.”

Please note that the wording may be the result of internet hearsay.

01. HISTORY LESSON

In 2008, and continuing through to 2009, DC Comics and mega-writer Grant Morrison enacted a plan to kill the Batman. A ballsy move (and one in direct contradiction of one of the “truths”, I’m sure), Morrison mitigated the hordes of naysayers by starting his story with a truth of his own. Set against a backdrop of red lightening, on the first page of this mega story, there stood a Batman and a Robin, in a page stolen from the end of his tale. A word balloon tailing towards Batman’s mouth read: ” YOU’RE WRONG! BATMAN AND ROBIN WILL NEVER DIE!”

Which is absolutely true. As characters, they have lived longer than most of us and will soon outlive us all, and with those fateful words, Morrison took them, and turned them into ideas. In the form of ideas, Batman and Robin could continue to exist in whatever form they pleased, so long as they continued to display those characteristics inherent in those ideas. With this work around in place, the story of Batman was allowed to continue while Batman was thought to be dead (spoilers: he wasn’t) in the form of Dick Grayson and Damian Wayne. Together the pair set forth in stamping their own identities onto the old ideas of Batman and Robin, and through a lot of hard work, there was success. Though many still clung to the idea that “Only Bruce could be Batman” (see: the above line about “bullshit”), a general opinion was formed that this? Would be okay.

This status quo remained in place for quite some time - even continuing past the point when Bruce made his triumphant return. Again, using Batman as an idea, Morrison had Bruce use the Batman as a tool to fight crime in all places - and not just Gotham City. Bruce began to set up Batmen in country’s across the globe, leaving Dick to take care of Gotham City as it’s Batman while his work was accomplished elsewhere. This was the status-quo that Scott Snyder inherited when he took over Detective Comics at the end of 2010.

The run began as a part of a Bat-line relaunch, in which the titles were shuffled to stress different angles of the Batman universe. Grant Morrison moved on from Batman and Robin to focus on the new Batman Incorporated title - which as stated before, featured Bruce using the idea of Batman to fight crime across the globe. Meanwhile, Dick Grayson was left to defend Gotham City alongside his cohorts in the pages of Batman, Batman and Robin, and Detective Comics. (Ed.’s note: Batman: The Dark Knight featured Bruce as Batman fighting crime and such in Gotham City, however it seems to exist in a bit of a continuity bubble of sorts.) The task laid before the Bat-books was risky. Despite the fact that the Bat-line had reached great heights in sales during Bruce’s absence, readers had assumed that the measure was temporary - that Bruce would return and be the “real” Batman and that eventually, the stories would be Important again. With the relaunch, however, fans were faced with a very direct opposition to a truth in a way that left no room for denial. There would be no “waiting for a return”. The return had happened, and the status remained. Batman continued to be an idea rather than a character, and to many, it violated an important truth that they held to be self evident. Or in other words, they attempted to call out bullshit. But just like it is in all artistic mediums, any idea can find traction if it’s told using the right set of tools. If a creator is skilled enough, they can make even the biggest skeptics see a different side of things.

And so, faced against a fandom that was slightly against him, and armed with nothing but his wits and his skills, Scott Snyder set about facing down an angry mob with stories. It would be the start of one of the greatest Batman stories of all time.

02. THE BLUE BLUE

Even before the first issue of his Detective hit the stands, there were indications that Snyder was more than up to the task of facing down fandom and their preconceived notions. Most of these indications came in the form of delicious sound bites that Synder would put into interviews and text pieces, like this doozy from DC’s blog:

“On the surface, the run will constitute a kind of back-to-basics approach, with Dick Grayson, as the newly anointed Batman of Gotham, solving brutal crimes around the city with new, high-tech CSI toys. But the run will also be about the dark and mysterious relationship the city has with the Bat. Because for Bruce, Gotham has produced the Joker, Two-Face and all the great villains we know and love as dark and twisted reflections of Bruce himself. And now, with Dick in the cowl, the city seems to be changing, becoming meaner, more vicious. Which makes him wonder - what if being Batman in Gotham means having to face your worst childhood fears come to life, in the flesh? What if Gotham is like a black funhouse mirror to whoever wears the cowl?”

From that, you could see where the name of the first story arc, The Black Mirror, came from. In establishing Dick as his Batman, as the Batman for the book, Synder anchored the story by using Gotham City itself as one of his main characters. From the opening page where Dick remembers the way his parents treated Gotham - as a hungry city, thirsting for a dangerous extravagance - you could feel Gotham’s dark tendrils licking at your soul. Or at least Dick’s soul.

The story unraveled in drips and drabs. Focusing on the “detective” part of Detective Comics, Snyder not only crafted a story that fit within the context of a superhero universe (complete with winks towards the Anti-Monitor and Dick’s old Nightwing booties) but celebrated the art of mysteries. The crime Dick is following is a puzzle meant to be solved, and in due time, it is. Along the way, he’s beset by a new villain called The Dealer - a creature whom Gotham has dug up from its murky depths to shine back towards Dick - a circus showman in his own right, but one that deals in the sinister, rather than the good that Dick carries within him. Running alongside this story is a one featuring Jim Gordon and a mystery involving his son. A bit of fantasy tempered with the very recognizable tropes of family and such ties that bind, Snyder created yet another grounding tether using things we could all recognize. With the book just three issues into it’s eleven issue run, the reader was already firmly onboard, ready to go on the ride Snyder would be crafting. The road would get bumpier up ahead, but honestly? What’s a good superhero story if it doesn’t try to patience of our heroes?

03. THE RED PINS

A good serialized story will accomplish two things: it will give you bites of smaller stories that keep you sated, and it paints a larger story that causes you to hunger for more and more and more. Interspersed between his more Batman centric stories with artist Jock, Snyder focused his lens quite tightly on Jim Gordon and his troubles with his returned son, alongside artist Francesco Francavilla. Amidst the shorter stories, it interwove and cut the more extravagant heroics with a dose of reality - though a heightened reality, to be sure. At it’s core the Jim/James Jr. story was about a father and a son who had never quite connected - and for quite a few good reasons. The bulk of the story concerns whether or not James Jr. is a full fledged psychopath or not and… well, after a time, the answer becomes quite clear. The human part of you doesn’t wish for it to be true alongside poor Jim - but Gotham is a monster, and so too, are readers. We all demand our pound of flesh and if the answers were too easy, we’d all revolt against our heroes - and in fact, often do. Odd, the way we show affection. A discussion for another time, perhaps.

The “side” story ends up bubbling up through the Batman stories - first in the second arc (entitled Hungry City) in which Jim implores Dick to meet up with his son in order to provide some perspective on the troubled young man. Jim knows that he’s too close to this case, and that his vision is cloudy - and so he goes to someone he knows he can trust, who is just outside of the family, but familiar enough with James to make a call. The meeting seemingly goes well until we’re shown a few moments too far, and the facade all comes crumbling down. It’s an impressive bit of writing, actually - Snyder causing you to believe in the best amidst a story that self admittedly requires all participants to have, and use their teeth - and so your heart breaks when you see James as he truly is. But as it turns out, that was just the second act - and for the grand finale, he would pull out all the stops.

04. THE BLACK PIN

Every comic book writer has a Batman story inside of them - and nine times out of ten, if you get the gig, you have a burning desire to do a Joker story. How could you not? Batman and the Joker are two ideas that play fantastically off one another in almost every instance. Of course there are always certain interpretations that are treated with more reverence than others (as a nineties child, I will forever hear Mark Hamill’s manic cackle in my head) but the foundation remains ever solid. Anymore, the trouble with the Batman vs. Joker story is not so much the ideas behind it, but the fact that so many writers have touched upon the subject before, that its hard to really take things from a different angle.

It should almost go without saying that the culmination of the larger Black Mirror story arc featured an appearance by the Joker. Treated here as a true force of chaos, the Joker escapes custody and returns to Gotham to wreak his particular brand of horror on the citizens. When Dick finally catches up with the villain, the Joker notes some disappointment. He knows that Dick isn’t his Bat. He’s looking into the black mirror, and he’s not seeing his true reflection. It’s a nice moment that simultaneously acknowledges a dynamic that’s been fully explored - the Dick-as-Batman/Joker relationship - and goes towards the story’s main thrust of Gotham producing its own personally horrors for its heroes. At the end of this fight, we learn that it’s all a feint, a misdirection, which is a change of pace in terms of Joker fights. But in this case it’s clear that the Joker is not a reflection of Dick. Someone else is, and he’s bringing about an end game.

At the beginning of the first issue, and at the very start of the last, Dick Grayson relates the first inkling he had of Gotham’s capabilities.

“When I was a boy, my parents kept a big map of the country tacked to the wall of our dressing room. The map had pins stuck in all the places our troupe was going to stop that season. Different towns and cities were marked with different color pins. Blue pins meant small towns… which meant small shows, less dangerous tricks. Red pins meant big cities. So, big shows and more dangerous tricks. All the stops were marked red or blue… excepr for one — Gotham City, which was marked by a black pin. According to my father, the black pin meant no holds barred. Pull out all the stops. Bring down the house. It meant put on the biggest, riskiest show of the season. No catch wires. No safety nets. Everyone pushing themselves to the limit.

I remember one time I asked my father why. What made Gotham so special? And my father, he looked down at me and he said, “Some places just have a hunger about them, son. And you either feed them what they want, or you stay far, far away.”

It’s a sentiment that applies to the stories as they are presented in this run. The first story is the blue pin. An introduction, and a thrill, but the tricks are smaller. Less risks are taken. As the story of James Jr. continues, and as Dick deals with his own mysteries in the second arc, the tricks start getting riskier, until it all culminates in the big finale. The black dot.

(It should honestly go without saying, but mild spoilers regarding the big finish from here on out.)

The finale’s stage is set when Dick and Jim Gordon discover the Joker’s role as a pawn in a larger game. While there were inklings of it before, and while he had accomplished some terrible things over the course of the series, it had seemed that James Jr. was destined for a small role in the drama - that of the relatively quieter drama about the pain of a family. But in a few short moments, the ground shifts, and all the cards are placed on the table. We see the man for what he truly is: a psychopath in his own right, one to rival Bruce’s more extravagant rogues. He’s severely injured his mother and has his sister caught in a death trap that seems to be unbreakable. No one knows where he is and for all of her cleverness, for all of her sins against him, he is slowly killing her. In short order, she will be dead.

It’s here that message of the book rings through. Over the course of the series, Snyder showed you two extremes: the hero who was capable of care and trust, and the villain who had blunted feelings altogether: mirrors of themselves, facing off in a climactic battle. No catch wires, no safety nets. Everyone pushing themselves to the limit. As things reach a crescendo, there’s an honest sense that something terrible could actually happen. The bad guy has a firm upper hand - but in the end, Dick proves that he is more than capable of being the Batman - and despite the differences between himself and Bruce, he’s very true to the core of the character, very true to the idea.

And Batman. Always. Wins.

Near the end, you find yourself cheering. This, before the implications wind its way back up and Dick and Jim have one last chat about recent events, and what Gotham’s real intentions are for its heroes. It’s a hard ending. Despite the fact that the day is won, the battle never ends, never will end, and the weight of that is felt in full. However, for all its dour overtones, there’s also a glimmer of hope - because there’s a reason why they do the things they do, Dick and Jim. They do it because the city needs them, and they do it because it’s right. They do it, because they are the heroes.

05. DENOUEMENT

Having reached a conclusion (and a sound one at that), a person can sit back and take in the craft of the story. On its surface, it’s a bit of an anomaly. It takes a fact which all comic book fans Know To Be True (that Bruce is the one and only Batman), and plays with the idea of it, using that assumption to power an immaculate story. It’s precisely Dick’s nature and presence as a different Batman that inform the stories and give them weight. Without this Batman, operating within these circumstances, the story doesn’t work - it lacks importance.

Which brings us to the point, such as it is: Importance is what you make of it and in a lot of cases, it’s complete bullshit in and of itself. What matters the most, what makes or breaks a comic, is the story and the characters and the intent of it all. The art is in seeing it all come together. Scott Snyder’s run on Detective will go down as one of the best Batman stories in history, because he told a masterful story, using the characters to inform intent. Together with his fabulous art team (of Jock and David Baron on the Batman bits and Francesco Francavilla on the Jim Gordon bits - both of whom I have heaped far too little praise) they made something special, something that will pass the test of time. And god damn if it wasn’t the best.

And yes, the run has come to a close, but that doesn’t mean that’s all we’re getting. While Jock hasn’t been attached to anything else as of just yet, we know that Francesco Francavilla will team with Synder once more on Swamp Thing, trading off with artist Yanick Paquette in the same way he did with Jock on this series. And Snyder will continue to tell Batman stories, both in the soon-to-be concluded Gates of Gotham mini series with Kyle Higgins, and within the pages of Batman, where he tackles Bruce for the first time. These will all be quite different books, for sure, but I will always trust that at the core of it all, Snyder knows what’s really important. The story, the characters, and the intent. And that will be more than good enough for me.