I’d forgotten the cliffhanger in the previous issue. I only remembered—Dick Grayson: Murderer!—when Dick shows up in that lame new Nightwing outfit and he and Bruce talk about it.
It’s a strange thing to establish so early—the series is going to have unfulfilling cliffhangers. Maybe Snyder’s trying to do something retro with it. When Batman stops the museum robbers, it felt like Batman is supposed to be a mix of innocuous and extreme.
Snyder’s also working on his bromance. Bruce and his twin (Capullo can’t keep Bruce and the mayoral candidate straight… not even with different hairstyles) have a lengthy, talky scene together.
Capullo’s a lot better with the costumed stuff (even Nightwing) than he is with the people.
There’s some cool, movie-ready technology stuff with Gordon and the issue’s generally fine.
The ending, which ties to the opening narration, should be a lot stronger though.
Agree with you on Capullo, his general scenes with people are something he has to put more effort into. They are easily upstaged by his costume sequences. I actually like his pages with the action scenes. They are nicely designed, and not cluttered like many of the Image graduates with style and clutter over storytelling (he’s miles ahead of Jim Lee, for example). Snyder, at least, has a clue on how to tell a story and an actual story to tell, unlike the other three Bat books.