Tom King's Batman: Yay or Nay

[Timothy Hunter]

As I usually don't go on the Batman thread, I would like to know the general consensus is on Tom King's Batman run with Batman fans, because It seems to be popular and it gets talked about heavily, but simultaneously I've only seen it get lambasted by people over at the general DC Comics thread.

[Godlike13]

Yay.
......

[qwerty3w]

Too decompressed for my taste.

[Assam]

Nay.

Mediocre to bad writing dragged down into awfulness by the treatment of Holly Robinson.

[The Whovian]

It started out slow, but I'm starting to get into it now.

[Spiderboy12]

Generally, I've liked Tom King's Batman.

[Frontier]

Depends on the issue/day .

I think it's definitely a run that's an acquired taste and probably dependent a lot on your personal feelings about Batman and his relationships.

[MASTER-OF-SUPRISE]

I like it but I've only come to reading it recently.

[TheCape]

It's..... complicated.

[Rise]

So-so.

I like his characterization of Alfred much more than Snyder's take which was awful. He has some good ideas and I like how daring some of his themes are.

On the other hand, his dialogs are painful to read, his stroies makes no sense most of the time and he suffers from "tell, don't show" type of writing which is extermly lazy.

I always felt King was extremely overrated anyway and that he is only good in doing one shot or mini books instead of ongoings. So, I didn't have any expectations for his run on Batman and think it's going to be forgotten in few years if he continues to refuse to learn from his mistakes.

[adrikito]

I don´t like.. and with Bendis here now... I think that Batman luck will not be better without King..

[DanseMacabre]

I like it. I know he has some pacing and dialogue issues, but it seems a lot of the Jason and Damain fans don't really like King's run.

[okiedokiewo]

It's a firm no. I detest his work more and more with every issue.

[SiegePerilous02]

Yay.

His dialogue can be annoying at times, but I find complaints about that to be way overblown, and actually more annoying than anything on the page. It can be kind of a slog on a monthly basis, but reads VERY well in trade. It's experiments don't always land but I appreciate it for how different it is. Definitely the best the main Bat-book has been since Morrison, and is probably the most notable Bat-book on the stands right now.

[Pohzee]

I've enjoyed his run.

It is one of the two ongoing Rebirth titles that I still bother reading, albeit in trades. I prefer trades anyway, but I don't think that I would be satisfied if I read it month-to-month. I read the "I Am..." trilogy in one sitting and enjoyed it as a single story, but I feel as though there wasn't enough in each issue to satisfy individually. That's fine though, as someone who waits to read complete stories, I don't mind if writers take the time to let the story breathe.

You have to take or leave King's dialougue. King has said that it was Bendis who ultimately influenced him to start writing comics, and it shows. I don't mind his repitition necessarily, but because I've read all of King's work, I've come to notice that his dialogue ticks. When he tries to scratch on his big ideas, he does so with statement-questions or question-statements. For that reason, Gotham Girl talks the same as Chris, the same as Hal Jordan, the same as Kyle Rayner, etc. I'm fairly certain that I've read the phrase, "This should mean something," in at least two or three of his works. And though it's started to wear on me, I really do appreciate King's dialogue. His repetition and stilted speech may read a little awkwardly at times, but it is with the best intentions. It makes each issue read lyrically and more memorable than other writers.

My only major nitpick with his run in how he treats the former Robins (and Snyder's pet) as an ensemble. I believe that the importance of "Robin" has been destroyed in the Batman mythos by fandom and oversaturation, but having them only appear in a group diminishes all of their importance to that of a sidecast or a peanut gallery. I would rather see individual interactions between Batman and Robin(s) that does each character justice than what we have now, which is a flandardized bunch that reads like fanfiction and benefits no one. I take issue with the notion that that people refer to the former Robin's collectively and interchangably, and everything from King's writing and interviews seem to show that he views them this way. He never talks of the importance of Robin, only "the Robins" and the characters only appear lumped together. Each Robin was created to compliment Batman, and while interactions between two of them may be fine, it becomes apparent in interactions with three or more of them that they really have no good dynamic. Each character becomes boiled down to a one-dimesional cartoon character defined by their most surface level traits. Tynion has loving likened them to "Ninja Turtles." This is crap. Each Robin past and present is an individual character defined by more than "the mad one," "the funny one," "the smart one," and "the generic leader." If each Robin is too similar to write about together, then write about them seperately. I'd rather have one good Batman and Nightwing and Batman and Robin interactions than two chibi Batfamily scenes where papa Bats hugs all of his tiny little Robins as they play around his feet.