Originally Posted by
SiegePerilous02
I personally don't care about spoilers, but this might be a good idea.
Anyway, brief thoughts on positives and negatives:
Main Positives: I love moving the Bat/Cat relationship forward. They've been doing this dance since before most of us were born, and it seems like something is actually happening for a change. I've shipped them since I was like 3 lol, and I love how he writes them as two damaged individuals who view each other as kindred spirits and want to help each other find happiness. The War of Jokes and Riddles was essentially Bruce laying himself bare to Selina and saying he's not the hero everyone views him as, which is honestly just him him being too hard of himself and not something we are meant to agree with (IMO), and I love that Selina accepts him anyway.
Utilizing pre-Crisis lore in fun and interesting ways. Seeing the parade of Selina's various costumes through the years was great (wish they could have worked the Batman Returns and B:TAS ones in there somewhere). And I love the cameos by Captain Stingaree, Col. Blimp, the Monk and of course Kite-Man. Making me care about the latter was a Herculean feat. And bringing back Ace to continuity in an awesome and touching way.
Strong characterization for certain characters: Bruce and Selina, Alfred, Dick and Damian (especially when they are in scenes together), Superman and Lois, Bane, a surprisingly awesome take on the Ventriloquist and Swamp Ting spring to mind.
Main Negatives: I think he misses the mark with some characters. I'm not terribly invested in Holly or Booster Gold at all, so the uses here don't bother me personally to much but I can see why their fans would be upset. Holly's story at least doesn't appear to be over so maybe things will turn around. She's one of the bridesmaids on one of the alternate covers for #50, so if that reflects what will be in the issue, what's going on there? The use of Wonder Woman was also a big letdown. She deserves far better than that, especially now. Still, that seems to be the one controversy where King took to social media and seemed willing to learn from his mistakes. I'd be more than willing to let him have another shot at her, particularly as he referenced Jumpa (yay!) and after dealing with Robinson, I'll take anything I can get.
The characterizations for some of the rogues gallery are a bit iffy. The Joker worked fine in TWoJaR due to the context of where he was at, but jury's still out on the present day one. I read the DC Nation 0 story in the store and that was great, but I'm on the fence from what I've seen/heard of the latest issue. The Riddler is more brutal than I typically like; I was actually fine with Ivy killing those thugs, and am not thrilled with him back tracking as I like my Ivy with a bit more teeth, but he would be lining up with the current anti-heroic take on her I guess. Eager/cautious to see Mr. Freeze.
The dialogue can be annoying at times, but complaints about it are overblown IMO. Every writer has their quircks. You can tell a Grant Morrison script, a Geoff Johns script, a Greg Rucka script, a Gail Simone script and Scott Synder script apart from each other by the way the characters speak.