Scott Snyder : Friend or Foe.

[NosfeRomas]

I've seen many polarising opinions about Scott Snyder lately, not only in the forum but by people i talk about comics at my local comic book store and not only about his Batman (althought that was the main topic) but for his Swamp Thing and according to a fellow reader at my local store for his overrated, my head will explode if i hear of how awesome it is one more time American Vampire.


I personally think he is hyped. I loved Black Mirror and Batman Annual #1. I absolutely hate Year Zero and the fact that he shoehorns his events on every Bat-title and the Owls are a Black Hand/RIP, R.I.P off (sorry for the pun). I believe his "awesome" American Vampire is a giagantic pile of mediocrity with a 5 minute character that every teen will idolises because he seems cool but he is just another amalgamation of Lestat with Johnny Depp.

I think he can write good stuff but something's wrong.

What do you think ? Is he a genius ? Is he just ok ? Is he Bad ?

 

[Motown Marvel]

i've only read his batman work. black mirror was solid. everything else has been crap. it boggles my mind that people enjoy him.

 

[jonathancrane]

The more that I think about it, the more I dislike Death of the Family (this is not a new case; see Batman Begins.) However, Court/Night of the Owls was a breath of fresh air, and I enjoy Year Zero since it is a terrific synthesis of the Batman media before: Riddler for Wayne E., the 1st act of Begins, a zeppelin fight from TAS, and so on. Still, he has done a pretty good job, with the occasional speed bump (deleting the history of Arkham Asylum, for instance.)

 

[RoughNTumble]

ultimate nemesis

 

[hops]

Overall I'd say Snyder is a better than average writer based on what I've read by him, however he certainly has his problems as a writer that warrant criticism (writing decent endings for one). I've read all his Batman work and it's been decent for the most part (I really enjoyed Black Mirror despite it's very bleak ending, COO and DOTF started as solid stories with bits of greatness until their anti-climatic endings) and I also really liked the first arc of American Vampire (probably should catch up on that series). I will say however that I think much of his comics work has been overrated due to the fact that he has collaborated with some of the most talented artists working in the industry today.

 

[Darkness Falls]

i really enjoy his work

 

[Llama_Shepherd]

Black Mirror was stellar, Court of Owls was originally a story for Dick, so that may explain why that story eventually went down the crapper. But apparently DC have been keeping a fairly tight leash on him and tbe Joker story was mandated.

Now his doesn't excuse it all being crap, but maybe after Zero Year, we'll start seeing some of the "Black Mirror" Snyder.

 

[flickchick85]

I love his Batman and Superman stuff (though I'm behind on Batman). Haven't read his Swamp Thing or American Vampire, but I've heard mostly good things about them, even if I've definitely heard a few minor complaints about Swamp Thing. Still, I haven't read anything by him that I haven't liked yet, so I certainly consider him "Friend."

 

[StarLord]

I've read American Vampire vol 1-3 and Severed and I enjoy his work.

His run on Swamp Thing seems to be popular. I'll need to check that out.

 

[DeGenerate10]

Ive enjoyed his entire run on Bats so far. I didn't care for the ending of the Death of the Family arc. Time will tell about Zero Year.

 

[jonathancrane]

The 'face removal' business was stupid.

 

[The Batman]

I think he will go down as the most overrated Batman writer of the modern era.

 

[Rocketman]

Friend.

I think his work on Batman is the best the character has been in almost 15 years. Batman comics stopped being truly amazing after Knightfall and No Man's Land, which was around 1999-2000. We basically had 11 years of crap after that.

Grant Morrison ruined Batman, and Snyder fixed him.

Morrison took a very accessible, relatable, human character, and turned it into a Sci-Fi LSD trip that might be the most overrated run in comic book history. You had cloning, time travel, alternate realities, and the biggest offense of all: this preposterous idea that other people can be Batman and be successful at it.

Snyder takes the character and basically creates a combination of Batman: The Animated Series with Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight Trilogy... and you can't ask for anything better than that. That's a perfect fusion of arguably the two best interpretations of the character. The hate makes absolutely no sense to me.

 

[flickchick85]

I love both Morrison and Snyder's take on Batman, tbh. I just don't think there's only one way the character should be done.

 

[Sawyer]

From what I've read, friend.

But being a writer these days for any of the major, long-running characters at DC or Marvel is an ultimately thankless job as far as I can tell, so it doesn't really matter what I think...

 

[Motown Marvel]

I love both Morrison and Snyder's take on Batman, tbh. I just don't think there's only one way the character should be done.

There is no one way to do the character....it's just that morrisons way is better than everyone else's.

It genuinely confuses me how people don't see Snyder as the craptacular hack that he is. He's like a high school kid who's lips are stained from drinking too much Mountain Dew.

 

[Cain]

Friend.

I think his work on Batman is the best the character has been in almost 15 years. Batman comics stopped being truly amazing after Knightfall and No Man's Land, which was around 1999-2000. We basically had 11 years of crap after that.

I stopped reading right there.


I'm indifferent on Snyder. When it comes to Batman I think he had a better grip on Grayson's voice than he does Bruce Wayne's. I liked his Black Mirror stuff and followed it every month but I don't think it's the classic that many make it out to be either. Court of Owls was ok in the beginning and then jumped the shark fairly quickly, Death of the Family was extremely uneventful, I didn't bother with his fill in issues but I'm digging his current story so far.

His Swamp Thing run was a mixed bag. It's a case of him dragging things out for way too long which isn't something only exclusive to his ST run but something that came across as even more jarring in that title. It's part of the reason I dropped the book. I might check it out again now under the new writer once a couple of the ongoings I follow finally bow out for good (Demon Knights, Dial H) and I need something to replace them with.

My issues with Snyder as a writer applies to everything from American Vampire to Swamp Thing. His knack of starting & ending every issue with a formulaic overtly expository anectdote is pretty tiring and uneccessary. He's so needlessly wordy that at times it does the narration boxes a great disservice because it hinders their impact.

His grip on solid pacing is almost non-existent. I think the amount of freedom he allows the artists he works with is a catch 22 because he gets carried a lot by the visual storytelling of his artists as opposed to the strength of his writing. As somebody pointed out earlier he also has a real issue delivering powerful climaxes to his stories.

With that said the guy is still fairly new to the medium and to his credit is working on improving his craft every month. Zero Year already has a clearer structure and better pacing than his earlier Batman stories and it's only 2 issues deep.

 

[Tron Bonne]

I've seen many polarising opinions about Scott Snyder lately, not only in the forum but by people i talk about comics at my local comic book store and not only about his Batman (althought that was the main topic) but for his Swamp Thing and according to a fellow reader at my local store for his overrated, my head will explode if i hear of how awesome it is one more time American Vampire.


I personally think he is hyped. I loved Black Mirror and Batman Annual #1. I absolutely hate Year Zero and the fact that he shoehorns his events on every Bat-title and the Owls are a Black Hand/RIP, R.I.P off (sorry for the pun). I believe his "awesome" American Vampire is a giagantic pile of mediocrity with a 5 minute character that every teen will idolises because he seems cool but he is just another amalgamation of Lestat with Johnny Depp.

I think he can write good stuff but something's wrong.

What do you think ? Is he a genius ? Is he just ok ? Is he Bad ?

For one, your fellow reader is dumb, American Vampire it great. For two, he doesn't shoehorn his events onto other books; DC does. For three, despite how polarizing his books are on the internet or local comic shops, they still are best sellers pretty consistently. He's only polarizing in small circles, most people seem to be enjoying what he's doing.

And finally, did you really create a thread called Scott Snyder: Friend or Foe? The hell, man?

 

[NosfeRomas]

Ok, i love you too.

 

[Tron Bonne]

I'd love you more if you didn't make silly thread titles.

 

[The Batman]

Friend.

I think his work on Batman is the best the character has been in almost 15 years. Batman comics stopped being truly amazing after Knightfall and No Man's Land, which was around 1999-2000. We basically had 11 years of crap after that.

Grant Morrison ruined Batman, and Snyder fixed him.

Morrison took a very accessible, relatable, human character, and turned it into a Sci-Fi LSD trip that might be the most overrated run in comic book history. You had cloning, time travel, alternate realities, and the biggest offense of all: this preposterous idea that other people can be Batman and be successful at it.

Snyder takes the character and basically creates a combination of Batman: The Animated Series with Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight Trilogy... and you can't ask for anything better than that. That's a perfect fusion of arguably the two best interpretations of the character. The hate makes absolutely no sense to me.

I love how this post proves my point perfectly.

 

[NosfeRomas]

I'd love you more if you didn't make silly thread titles.

It's a forum, right ? I come here to express my opinio and read other peoples opinions. On the Superman/Batman forums a couple of posts expressed hostile feelings for Mr Snyder and linking that with my personal experiences i thought making a topic would be great, see what people have to say and users responded. I don't see the problem.

And American Vampire isn't great, its ok. I don't hate snyder, i did not attack him i dont get why you acted like that.

 

[Tron Bonne]

It's a forum, right ? I come here to express my opinio and read other peoples opinions. On the Superman/Batman forums a couple of posts expressed hostile feelings for Mr Snyder and linking that with my personal experiences i thought making a topic would be great, see what people have to say and users responded. I don't see the problem.

And American Vampire isn't great, its ok. I don't hate snyder, i did not attack him i dont get why you acted like that.

One thing that people tend to forgot about forums is that people are free to criticize as much as express. And, honestly, I just found the title pretty silly. The fact that you would peg anyone you don't know as a friend or foe based on writing a fictional character is strange.

Most of the stuff I pointed out was just pointing out some inaccurate stuff, particularly that Snyder is polarizing to anyone outside a small few.

 

[Rocketman]

I love how this post proves my point perfectly.

... You had a point?

 

[The Batman]

Its nice to see that your joke skills are just as mind numbingly bad as your ability to make credible arguments.