Batman Zero Year Riddler is super awesome

Hello hi hello i am here to talk about the magnificent Zero Year written by Scott Snyder & James Tynion IV- with art by the wonderful Greg Capullo as well as Danny Miki and Rafael Albuquerque (woah) !!! (i say immediately so many times in this btw sorry) (This just becomes an Edward Nygma Analysis)

For those unfamiliar with this comic run, Batman Zero Year is part of DC's 'New 52' reset changing Batman's origins which also sets up the joker's origin as-well as the Red Hood gang leader and whatnot. While the Joker origin takes up a small chunk of the beginning of this story, we also see appearances from Doctor Death, who is one of Batman's first ever rouges comic wise; We see a Dr Pamela Isley cameo as-well as the Penguin, and of course we see the wonderful Edward Nygma, AKA The Riddler. Alongside discussing the main story i will be focusing on mainly Edward, and of course a few of the other rouges since you cannot really understand the full story without them. I will also be describing this story in actual order, since i have the collection book rather than the individual issues.

The story starts out and we see Gotham 'six years ago' which for a first time reader is a little bit confusing, but we see Batman speak to this boy who tells him that someone thinks he is dead, Batman says good. Then we immediately skip backwards to five months prior. The first time skip serving as a what is to come, we are now put into the actually progressive story itself. This beginning is also very odd through first read because we see Bruce Wayne, wearing some face mask to disguise himself as he attempts to transport hostages through an area. We then see his actual face and he tells us that he is legally dead, which i do find a little interesting as it gives him even more of a reason to conceal his identity to the gang and anyone else, shows us that even before actually becoming batman he is hiding behind a mask as is, Bruce Wayne is NOT this mask. 

If i sit here and summarize this entire story this will be a longer essay than what i wrote for my English final, as well as a poor representation of this entire story, so with that introduction out of the way you sort of know what half of the story is about anyways. (I'm also going to skip over the young Bruce flashbacks for the most part unless i speak on his characterization.) From here i suppose ill just go in order of Edward appearances. 

A lot of pre-batman storyline is based around bruce deciding wether or not to show his face again and tell everyone he's not dead, that eventually gets out thanks to his uncle, and quickly goes sour- thanks to Edward Nygma, which we don't learn until a little later but I'm bringing it up now because thats who i want to talk about the most lol. From the very beginning of this story, upon first introduction of Ed, we see his office space, his seemingly messy area that is actually carefully crafted for him and him alone, all these strings making connections in his head are displayed for everyone else to see, which immediately gives us an idea as to what he's got going on. I'll put the picture in here so you guys can see too if you have not already. 

I LOVE this room so much, can you tell? This tells the reader so much about him dude like ahhh!!!! ANYWAYS Edward's immediate advice to the man is he speaking to (Bruce's Uncle Philip- who is one of the characters that you really dont know how to feel about until later) Is to KILL Bruce Wayne. He says it so plain and simple, because in his mind that is just the easiest way to go about it- THIS shows us that Edward is not in fact a sane man, if you didn't have any doubt after seeing his first panel above. I do love the depiction of Edward in such a way, as a man that is so so brilliant but also pretty deranged, if he was not so intent on having people acknowledge him, on getting that attention that he did not get for so long- he could get away with whatever he wanted, hell even with putting himself in the spotlight he almost got away! Its his fatal flaw, and thats what makes his character so great to me here, his need to show off and have others understand his greatness will always become his downfall. 

In his next appearance he interacts with Bruce as he tries to escape his 'welcome home' party, naturally giving him little riddles and hints as well as random facts about Egyptians. This is also a really fun scene because of how calmly and casually Edward speaks to this guy, how normal he seems on the surface, as if he didn't just tell his uncle to murder him. (and as if he isn't getting that 'sorted out' himself after his uncle's refusal.) There is also the panel with the snake and both of them talking that i love love but i cant find it anywhere currently so you will just have to believe me on this one. 

Bruce then gets his temporary home exploded by the Red Hood Gang (which is alsooo because of Edward like i previously mentioned!!) So it appears that he does die, we get an in-between issue with a flashback where Bruce was given a challenge by the spynx, which is also a call back to when he tells Edward that he has seen the real Spynx before. And then after Bruce gets exploded he also gets really beat up too and Red Hood 1 (eventual joker) goes on and on about his parents and whatnot, and how the two are connected, how he was also affected by his parents death- i also like this part with the knowledge that this is infact the joker, but if you're unfamiliar with the whole red hood thing before this story i'm sure you would be a little confused. 

Then then boom!! another Ed scene - which i think is his turning point scene, the one where he does really snap, thanks to good old Philip and his rambling about how Edward is a nobody, a shadow- after all, what good is all his smarts if no one sees them? This essentially gives Edward an identity crisis, and it appears that he shoots philip at the end of their back and forth, but he shows up again later so he's actually fine, were gonna ignore that until i triple check that bit. After this we once again don't see him for a little until he comes on the city screens announcing himself as 'The Riddler' under the guise of "Making Gotham Smarter" at quite an inconvenient moment and then, next issue, he's GONE. Disappears for a good long while, appearing occasionally but in a way that tricks the reader into thinking he is the side story. But he doesn't become less relevant oh no, he is there, he is behind everything, pulling all the strings in every which way behind the scenes, just like his office had been in his very first appearance- his master scheme so carefully crafted and meticulous that we as readers don't even expect it at first, don't even connect the dots, and neither does Batman. 

 Cutting this in here, I love his whole thing about "forcing Gotham to progress" because he feels thats what they need and whatnot. It speaks volumes of his character that he sees himself as a savior of sorts, thinks of his intellect as something that is necessary of all individuals, making it appear that he believes himself to be above the "average human" which is also an interesting look into his psychology, i wish i had enough energy to delve deep into that but thats for another day!!

 Batman comes in with a sick ass blimp and all that, and we get the scene between at-this-time-lieutenant Gordon, in which Riddler holds a giant ass rock over his head which he controls by a string wrapped around his finger, strung about in every which way on the roof above, he also has a fun quippy thing in this scene where he nerds out about his inspiration behind said rock. (once again with the string connections think teehee) Then we cut back to Batman and Doctor Death, which i love the fight scene here, Greg Capullo is such a treasure and i don't think i would like this story nearly as much if he wasn't the artist for it. And then after this even more of Ed's scheme goes through, and he blows up the retaining walls around the city and has it flooded, which i really appreciate that The Batman 2022 took inspiration from this story because it is such a wonderful story for Eddie.(if i start talking about how i feel about that movie though we would be here even longer, ive already been here all day) 

The city floods, Batman disappears, and then nothing. 

The last chunk of Zero Year is such an eventful one, after Batman reawakens (which i really don't like how sudden this is) he is met with a city no longer flooded, but covered in shrubbery, green from head to toe- and also under Riddler control. He covers all his bases, exits blocked, entry blocked by threat of toxic gas, you know, the like. He renames the YEAR, comes on a screen and encourages people to challenge him, again all under the guise of 'Making Everyone Smarter' which i do really like this piece because he's just like "well if you guys weren't so STUPID i wouldn't have needed to take control over the whole city" which i think is a funny way of displaying his motives and attitude and whatnot. i also just adore how smug he is everytime hes onscreen-i AHHH i love him dude. Even when confronted with Batman who he thought was dead he is still so full of himself, because he knows he has the upper hand! he knows and believes that he has already won and that theres nothing that can be done, which in essence is true- even after they think they've caught him, found out where he was hiding it turns out to be a trap because he knew EXACTLY what Batman's plan was, he was one step ahead. 

After this encounter Batman finally physically is face to face with The Riddler for the first time, not counting their meeting as Edward Nygma and Bruce Wayne, since Ed doesn't know the Bat's identity i wont count it. Here we get more Riddles and the Edward shenanigans continue and its super fun. But then in the end, Edward is of course bested, but i feel it is in a sort of half assed way, maybe i'm stupid but the robots suddenly not responding to him because they found an extra blocker or whatever is a little unsatisfactory to me, but i do like that he is bested in physical combat rather than outwitted. Finally wrapping this up after seriously 18 hours, I do appreciate that Edward still has one final trick up his sleeve here, with the thing on his chest or whatever, but the entire time i was just mentally saying to myself that a thousand volts is nothing to the man in the batsuit, but i also had to force myself to remember that this is the batman origin and he isn't that high-tech yet. So it is a very fun final challenge even if Edward is on the floor beat the hell up. And finally we see him where he belongs, in a mental asylum!!!!! 

All in all, I adore this story and most everything about it, it is so special to me that one of my favorite artists gets to draw alongside one of my favorite Riddler stories, and its impact is undoubtable. (no shit... its the new batman 52 origin) If i try and keep yapping i will literally NEVER finish so im gonna stop here, i really hope no one reads all that but if you do ily!!