Scott Snyder's finale to his Batman run has a few nice moments as Bruce Wayne finds his way back to his fated path, but it does little to change my opinion that Snyder's tenure has been a godawful train wreck. Wish I had skipped all this and that Batman Eternal crap. I need to scour owls, a brother (?), Zero Year, RoboGordon, and Bat-clones from my long-term memory. ( )

I received this from Edelweiss and DC Comics in exchange for an honest review.

Wow, if I had known how the story arc that began with [b:Batman, Vol. 8: Superheavy|26067585|Batman, Vol. 8 Superheavy|Scott Snyder|https://d2arxad8u2l0g7.cloudfront.net/books/1453764150s/26067585.jpg|46003303] ended, I wouldn't have rated that volume as low as I did. I absolutely hated, HATED, Jim Gordon wearing the Bat-suit, and HATED the idea of Bat-robots being controlled by GCPD. It made absolutely no sense, not one lick. But then Volume 9 happened. I should know better by now than to doubt Batman in the hands of Scott Snyder. And to think I almost gave up on this series! (DC really needs to consider marketing a "supervolume" combining 8 and 9 together. The storyline makes so much more sense this way!)

At the beginning of this volume, I was just waiting to complain about how amnesia is such a worn-out, overused, and just downright lazy writing. (It's almost as bad as Marvel's non-stop use of time travel.) But then I got into the storyline, the long soliloquies by Bloom and by Gordon from their perspectives of Gotham City. And amazingly, it all fell into place.

I am eminently satisfied that Gordon isn't going to remain Batman, and that Bruce Wayne's future is secure in that role. I am wondering how the bat-villains will make their returns, especially the Joker. Just like Batman can't stay dead, the Joker can't either... ( )

That was really, really weird. So very freaking weird.

It was basically one story. The story of Mr. Bloom taking over Gotham or trying to. There were twists and turns within that but, like Gotham baddies before him he wanted to destroy Gotham to make it better.

Jim at the same time is having some trouble being Batman.

And then there is Bruce. Will he become Batman again or not, and there's Duke and Daryl's story too, which was interesting.

It on occasion was a confusing TPB, but overall a nice ending to the Superheavy storyline.

I got this advanced galley through Netgalley on behalf of DC Entertainment. ( )