I’ve recently decided to catch up on some Batman stuff and I noticed that James Tynion is back on the title. I really enjoyed his last Detective Comics run. How does this run compare to runs by Snyder, King etc.?
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I’ve recently decided to catch up on some Batman stuff and I noticed that James Tynion is back on the title. I really enjoyed his last Detective Comics run. How does this run compare to runs by Snyder, King etc.?
Headline heavy, yet surprisingly boring.
7 out of 10.
A decent take on Batman but nothing really grabbed me yet.
Too much Harley.
The moment Joker was mentioned I was like, skip... XD
The new characters are interesting though, their designs are good, so I'm more interested to know the characters than the plot.
The last few issues have been decent. I’m sure it’ll start shaping up the further he gets away from editorial mandates.
I think he’s introducing a lot of interesting ideas, interesting new characters (Punchline and Clownhunter), and bringing characters back to a place where people enjoy them(yes I’m talking about Cassandra Cain and Nightwing).
That said I’ve got problems with Joker War, first it was way too soon after the Bane take over city story, I get the concept was that he was supposed to leave on that but it’s still a little too soon and I certainly hope we do not get another villains taking over the city storyline any time soon. I’m also not a fan of the ending, for all its talk of Batman having to change and how it can’t end the same...it ended the same, maybe Batman didn’t rescue the Joker and was willing to let him blow up but nothing changed, Jokers still out there, and apparently they’re are setting it up for him to come back and fight Bane.
A whole lot of nothing tbh.
The ideas of questioning Batman's connections to GCPD and limiting Wayne's wealth are both great but I don't see much happening with them.
Immediately going to the Joker, as well as making it an 'event', does not bode well either.
Its been average but much better than King's entire run. And as has been said too much Harley and trying way to hard to humble Bruce.
Good not great. Felt like something as big as Joker War shouldn't have happened so early. But I thought the story was good.
I commend anyone who throws in new characters. Even if one of them stick, it’s an impressive feat.
Punchline and Clownhunter seem to be promising new characters with a potential for longevity.
I'm not really following it, not regularly anyway, but of what I have read I've dug all the designs and premises of most of his new additions tho. my only apprehension is whether they will give characters like Clownhunter and Punchline the room to grow considering how much they're popping up. I'll take the bait everytime but I'm getting tired of investing in new visually interesting characters that don't get fleshed out properly.
[QUOTE=The tall man;5204747]Its been average but much better than King's entire run. And as has been said too much Harley and[B] trying way to hard to humble Bruce.[/B][/QUOTE]
That's kind of been Tynion's shtick since his 'Tec run. It probably comes from growing up with the later 90's Batman books where Bruce was a jerk and the Batfamily was constantly calling him out.
I wish King was still on the title
[QUOTE=Fergus;5204873]I wish King was still on the title[/QUOTE]
Only if he leaves the Basic stuff and the Meows behind. Had enough of that.
So far I think he's taking the Batman books back to the 90s and early 2000s which is one of the worst eras of Batman ever
The worst type of nostalgia is peppered throughout his writing and ultimately I like some of the anime influences but of course when you have a character like Batman its hard for stuff like that to not come off as weebish
Don't like how he's using Harley Quinn but that's not a big deal he has no control over her character vs say what he's doing with Babs
I miss Snyder and King but I guess DC doesn't have a huge big name writer to hand off the book
I’m glad it’s still double shipping. We were told (I think?) that DC was going to stop that heading into 2020, but this run has thus far worked very well shipping twice a month — not sure I’d like it as much as I have if we were just now wrapping up Tynion’s first arc.
Both Bat books are solid right now, IMO. Perhaps nothing definitive, or runs we’ll all look back on and marvel at, but I’m consistently enjoying what I’m reading, and that certainly isn’t always the case with Batman and Tec.
It's been way better than I thought it would be but man can we please stop with all the Bruce "I got everything all wrong" stuff. I get that people want comics to reflect some of real life but it can't connect on some issues because of the fantastical world comics take place in. In real world any superhero would be tracked down and arrested inside a month, joker and supervillains would be executed etc. when ever writers go all "shouldnt batman give his wealth to gotham" it breaks from the comic world too much. That and tynion basically having that every character in costume other than bruce really "knows" gotham but bruce doesn't just rings untrue. It comes across like an angsty teen complaining that parents don't get it, that might work with some superheroes but bruce had his parents murdered in front of him and recently lost his only other father figure, pretty sure he gets the stakes of things and how dangerous things can be. Instead we are probably gonna get more stephanie brown, clownhunter, punchline and everyone lecturing bruce that he doesn't know what struggles are, which is just stupid.
Least it's not Tom King at his worst. I'd rate Tynion decent-good, no more than that. Book's dropped off since Morrison and Snyder.
It's far better than anything King wrote on the title, and it's slowly offering ways to undo most of the damage the Rebirth run did.
Not perfect, I don't care for the whole "doesn't have money" thing. But it's been so refreshing and fun compared to Tom Kings borefest of a run.
Plus he seems like he's going to keep fixing the Batfamily, which is always good.
Alot of interesting consepts and setups, but needs to stick the landing better
[QUOTE=Nite-Wing;5204938]I miss Snyder and King but I guess DC doesn't have a huge big name writer to hand off the book[/QUOTE]
I get that impression, too. My problem with Tynion is that there's always a whole lot of bluster, but without much substance.
I couldn't stick out King's run (with the whole "Bat"/"Cat" pet names and over-laying that, I also thought his run lacked focus), I've only read the DARK DESIGNS tpb of Tynion IV's run but to me its far better then King's run was (and may even be better then Snyder's but its too early to say that for sure)
Un-offensive, but incredibly dull.
Generic "high stakes" story filled with popular characters to establish a new status quo.
[QUOTE=Flash Gordon;5204676]A whole lot of nothing tbh.
The ideas of questioning Batman's connections to GCPD and limiting Wayne's wealth are both great but I don't see much happening with them.
Immediately going to the Joker, as well as making it an 'event', does not bode well either.[/QUOTE]
I imagine the Joker storyline was mandated. Assuming it was, I'm hoping he really runs with the whole being relatively broke thing and we see a less omniscient Batman now.
One thing I really like about Tynion is his dialogue. There are a lot of great character moments (for lack of a better term, I know that technically every moment is a "character moment" but indulge me) in his stories and he can establish a rapport in just a panel or two. It would be cool to see him establish himself as a crime fiction author as much as a Batman writer during his run.
I know we should judge comic runs on their own merit, but it really should be noted a lot of the weirdness surroudning the nature of his run so far comes from outsdie editorial interfences.
-The book was originally going to be monthly, but then got changed to twice a month when batman/catwoman got delayed
-Was originally only going to 100 issues and Ridley was supposed to replace, but 5G got cancelled and DC saw the book getting huge sales numbers with his run run
That being said, I'm enjoying his run so far. I dislike the art sometimes, but I think Tynion has right frame of mind when it comes to working on this title and I'm excited to see him really get to be on this book with less craziness going on behind the scenes after future state.
[QUOTE=cgh;5206146]I imagine the Joker storyline was mandated. Assuming it was, I'm hoping he really runs with the whole being relatively broke thing and we see a less omniscient Batman now.
One thing I really like about Tynion is his dialogue. There are a lot of great character moments (for lack of a better term, I know that technically every moment is a "character moment" but indulge me) in his stories and he can establish a rapport in just a panel or two. It would be cool to see him establish himself as a crime fiction author as much as a Batman writer during his run.[/QUOTE]
I think Joker War was originally supposed to be the last Batman vs Joker story to lead into 5G, but things changed.
Big "eh" from me. I don't enjoy Joker War as a part of the ongoing OR as the "last Batman vs Joker" story. Just too much in the vein of Snyder's "biggest story possible" philosophy but without Snyder's panache.
So far, over-promised and under-delivered.
It's better than Tom King at his worst, but it's so much worse than Tom King at his better. And he is the writer who finally completely tired me out of the joker. Time to put him aside for two or three years, when someone has a really original story to tell with him, not an umpteenth story of "Joker completely destroy Gotham and kill thousand of people to give Batman a lesson". Stop, we get it.
I really liked their dark designs. It was better that city of bane. I haven't read joker war or the tie ins yet but I'm assuming it will be as good as TDD was.
I do hope after this future state nonsense we have a new writer on batman soon. I'm really exhausted with these 3 to 6 year runs. If really like a solid three years of small runs, 20 to 25 issues tops. I don't want to go on a 65 to 100 run again for a while.
I'm enjoying it so far though I'm kinda indifferent about Punchline and I don't know how "Defund Batman" will be any different from previous stories where Bruce has lost the Wayne fortune. But I trust him, Joker War felt different from previous big Joker stories.
I'm excited to finally have Harper Row back in comics (it's been over three years now), so I'm excited to find out what role she'll be playing in upcoming storylines. I'm also interested in seeing Tynion's thought process about characters. He's said that Harley and Punchline are polar opposites, and that Harper and Punchline are reflections of one another. If you were to assume that it's laid out on a 2-by-2 grid, then I'm guessing the fourth slot is supposed to be Clownhunter.
one thing I can say I appreciate about Tynion's run so far, it feel more accessible than Tom King's. That's one thing that bothered me about Tom Kings run, even when he was at his best King's run felt like it was always reaching for something more artsy than necessary; I feel Tynion writes with a more consistent and creatively balanced voice.
Its more by the numbers. King got a bit lost in it, but at least he's was trying to do something different. King's run was King's run. Its wasn't an imitation of what he was influenced by. Personally i'd still rather see creators try that and fail, then be safe and lean old eras and marketing techniques.
Man tynions story from joker war zone was AWESOME!!! It was like he was speaking through joker to King through Bane! Damn was it savage!!! Loved it!!!
[QUOTE=Godlike13;5213916]Its more by the numbers. King got a bit lost in it, but at least he's was trying to do something different. King's run was King's run. Its wasn't an imitation of what he was influenced by. Personally i'd still rather see creators try that and fail, then be safe and lean old eras and marketing techniques.[/QUOTE]
I'd put King in-line with Tynion in that I respect their intentions, but their execution often ends up getting the best of them and not selling their ideas well to the audience.
Good but not great, 7 out of 10 thus far. Still, IMO, he's far better than what came before if only for his return to well-worn Batman tropes. If not for the King debacle I might very well rank him lower, say a 6.5 or ever a 6 out of 10.
[QUOTE=Godlike13;5213916]Its more by the numbers. King got a bit lost in it, but at least he's was trying to do something different. King's run was King's run. Its wasn't an imitation of what he was influenced by. Personally i'd still rather see creators try that and fail, then be safe and lean old eras and marketing techniques.[/QUOTE]
About a million times this. Tynion has always seemed to be a company man, more willing to tow the company line than do anything truly interesting or creative.