I'm of a completely different opinion where I feel that Batman is by far the best title out of the Bat titles. I feel like Snyder is doing an awesome job with the character and I loved his stories. Really, the only criticism I have of his titles are generally little things (like Batman hanging onto an airplane in issue 11) and I've really, really enjoyed everything else. I feel like ish 15 was just a little slower than the first two issues of this story arc, but that's because it's setting up for issues 16 and 17 where the **** will go down.
The other Bat titles have been hit or miss for me. Batman and Robin started great but sizzled out pretty quickly. I was especially bummed by the Terminus/War of the Robins arc, which seemed like it had a lot of potential (especially the War of the Robins part). Ish 15 was pretty awesome this week, but it had many of the a big fault that you guys have with Snyder's Batman: A lot of dialogue in which the characters spell out every single detail to the reader. Still loved the issue though. Batgirl has been meh pretty much throughout. Not bad, not good, just there. Detective Comics was really bad until Layman came on and now it's very good, just not as good or interesting as what Snyder's doing, in my opinion. I've only read the Scarecrow story from The Dark Knight because of recommendations from people in this thread, but I feel like its been a pretty bland story. And Batman, Inc. has been hit or miss for me, too. Some issues have been pretty boring, but others, like Batman, Inc. #5 have been ridiculously awesome. I love where this series is heading now, though, and it seems to be picking up fast.
I mean, I can see where a lot of you guys are coming from and I definitely don't think your opinions are invalid, but I just don't feel the same way at all. I feel like Snyder's run has been an instant classic for the character. The Black Mirror was a great detective procedural that was broken down into very interesting smaller arcs that led to a great finale. Not mention Jock's amazing art that perfectly fit the tone of the story. His Batman run has definitely changed up his style from his Detective run to make the stories to be more blockbuster-type stories, but I don't think his work has suffered from it, it's just great in a different ways. I felt that Court of Owls was an awesome idea that Snyder executed awesomely. I absolutely love how he's made the city of Gotham almost like a character in his run. Batman #5 is one of my favorite issues of Batman ever... Just a flawless issue, in my opinion. While the second half of the arc obviously got more action oriented and was admittedly, not as great as the first half, I still feel that it was absolutely fantastic. And his Joker run has been great thus far, too, to the point where I have a tough time seeing people hating it. Like, I can understand if you don't like it or not interested in it because it's not your cup of tea, but I don't get the hate. I feel like its doing a great job of exploring the relationship between Batman and Joker and presents a really interesting concept in which the Joker might actually be right about. Plus, it all seems to be building up to an awesome climax in #16 and #17. Also, I'd be an ass if I didn't say Capullo's art didn't add to Snyder's writing. I feel like Capullo and Snyder play perfectly off of each other and compliment each other very well.
So like I said, I'm definitely loving everything about Snyder's run so far and hopefully he won't let me down anytime soon. I can't wait to see how he ends this Joker story and I'm excited to see how he handles the cerebral Riddler that was presented in the backup to #15. Maybe that'll be a less action movie-y arc. But yeah, I think it's a case of different strokes for different folks.
