King Batman Run: Analysis and Enjoyment Thread

[Chubistian]

I mean, I’ve enjoyed the run myself and I am not upset by the news in the slightest. I’m here to read the story King has set out to tell, not for a wedding.

I couldn't help myself and saw the spoiler haha. spoilers:

I'm with you, but still I don't like DC advertising the wedding for over a year just to not go along with it. If the story was the same, without DC making a huge deal of it, I would've been fine, but it's the way the business works. We still have to see how King will play this out, I expect a few surprises at least, and we have a huge number of artists working in the issue to delight our eyes

end of spoilers

[Vermathrax]

I enjoyed Kings run. I am disappointed in the ending, IF it is how it seems. I really thought several of the story's were well written, some air had problems with. Overall, I can say it was like a great meal, with a very bad dessert.

[millernumber1]

I enjoyed Kings run. I am disappointed in the ending, IF it is how it seems. I really thought several of the story's were well written, some air had problems with. Overall, I can say it was like a great meal, with a very bad dessert.

I am right there with you in being disappointed, but I don't think we can say this is the end. I do hope King has the space to finish this right.

[Mateo3000]

Already posted this in the NY times thread but then I realized I should post it here:

To me it seems like Tom King and DC comics want to move Batman further into the status quo to inevitability prop him back up again. What I mean is that they're going to make batman even darker, more brooding, drive him into depression, and be even more unhappy than ever before. It looks like King (and DC) want to put Bruce through the ultimate hell and is using Bane as the final boss. I do think that after Bruce inevitability takes down Bane he'll get back together with Selina, and maybe even marry her. The issue I have with this payoff (aside from all the bs DC false advertising and marketing) is that I feel it will come at the very end of King's run and only last for about 2 issues. I worry that the only meaningful new development that comes to Batman's characterization will only last for those few issues because I assume King will leave after that. And then a new author will probably revert batman, at least a little, to the old status quo and it just won't be written well.

[Chubistian]

King returning to Bane would be great and gets me excited as a fan of the character, but I don’t want to get hyped with rumors. I’m still eager to see what we will get in issue #50, wedding or not

[oasis1313]

Already posted this in the NY times thread but then I realized I should post it here:

To me it seems like Tom King and DC comics want to move Batman further into the status quo to inevitability prop him back up again. What I mean is that they're going to make batman even darker, more brooding, drive him into depression, and be even more unhappy than ever before. It looks like King (and DC) want to put Bruce through the ultimate hell and is using Bane as the final boss. I do think that after Bruce inevitability takes down Bane he'll get back together with Selina, and maybe even marry her. The issue I have with this payoff (aside from all the bs DC false advertising and marketing) is that I feel it will come at the very end of King's run and only last for about 2 issues. I worry that the only meaningful new development that comes to Batman's characterization will only last for those few issues because I assume King will leave after that. And then a new author will probably revert batman, at least a little, to the old status quo and it just won't be written well.

Back to depressing old Bat-God. Yawn.

[gregpersons]

#50 was a bummer.

I enjoyed the Bane reveal, and like his plot, i guess, but I'm annoyed that it worked. A more powerful ending would've been revealing Bane was manipulating Selina, and making it seem like she would fall for it and run away, and then see her make her own decision — the one she showed herself to be comfortable with owning for the past 25 issues — and make the choice to go through with it.

Their dynamic has been the major joy of this run, and the fact that we now have to go through their break-up is .... well, it's just kind of annoying. It's not the most fun or interesting or challenging path the story could've taken.

For a run that has so often brought a great freshness and new life to Batman tales, to fall back on something so routine, it's just disappointing.

The hype balloon I had for this run has deflated. The desire to keep re-reading the back issues of this run, as I had been, has gone away, knowing where it leads.

[CPSparkles]

Can't understand why everyone so surprised with the twist didn't anyone think it was strange that Bruce was only proposing because Thomas and Gotham Girl of all people convinced him he wasn't happy prompting him to propose?

Personally this is the 1st time in like a year I've been interested in King's batman.

[Armor of God]

So where does the run go from here? I like Bane but King used him in 2 stories. What can King do with him now?

[gregpersons]

Can't understand why everyone so surprised with the twist didn't anyone think it was strange that Bruce was only proposing because Thomas and Gotham Girl of all people convinced him he wasn't happy prompting him to propose?

Personally this is the 1st time in like a year I've been interested in King's batman.

Because the twist is lame as hell, that's why. It means that neither Bruce nor Selina were really "in charge" of their decisions. They were being carefully manipulated by Bane.

It sucks for both characters, because it removes them of agency.

[gregpersons]

So where does the run go from here? I like Bane but King used him in 2 stories. What can King do with him now?

My guess is that, eventually, Bane will reveal his hand. Or that it will be discovered. At some point down the line, Batman & Bane & Catwoman will be in conflict again.

After Bat/Cat reunite to take Bane down, again — revenge for revenge for revenge — then they will probably wonder, "What if we stopped this cycle? What if we changed?"

And they will wonder, and wonder, but never change.

That's my guess for something that would be in keeping with the run's themes.

[CPSparkles]

Because the twist is lame as hell, that's why. It means that neither Bruce nor Selina were really "in charge" of their decisions. They were being carefully manipulated by Bane.

It sucks for both characters, because it removes them of agency.

We already knew Bruce wasn't in charge of his decisions. I didn't see it being Bane that was a twist. I was expecting someone or something much bigger and darker.

[Restingvoice]

So I read the spoilers and... I still don't care, because that's not the story I'm interested to read. So apparently there's a villain planning and manipulating everything. That's nothing new. That's Light Yagami saying "just as planned"
Batman and Catwoman marrying in actual Earth... whatever number this is... will be new and different, as I will see a new dynamic that Earth-2 skip. Their marriage life before having a child, and how both of them adjust to this new life.
Enough difference, actually, for me to ignore all the other inconsistencies DC had throughout their universe and their delayed timeline-fixing plot, to actually start reading again, and maybe also pick up all of the story leading up to this.
So now, Batman #100... I guess? If they actually get married there, maybe I will pick it up? ...and maybe the story leading up to that? But that's a big if, and only if they're actually get married and last more than at least a year. So that will be... at least two years from now.

[dietrich]

Okay there's no way this run stays part of DC canon unless Bruce is about to retire. All the villains can't know Bruce is Batman.

Holly at the Manor That one scene shows why Batcat can never happen until both are ready to hang up their masks. It felt wrong Batman hobnobbing with those he's supposed to be fighting.

Also ewww Selina put some underpants on you're a grownarse woman. Way to keep it Classy.
And No Selina you are not a Hero. You are a thief who stole her wedding dress.

This is possibly the worst comic I've ever read. Bruce and Selina sound like dunces and it assumes readers are stupid.

[Chubistian]

I will be spoiling the issue, so for those who haven't read it and are still trying to stay safe from spoilers, jump my post.

As a PR stunt, the wedding was underwhelming, why bother to go to such lenghts, even offering so many expensive and exclusives variant covers is beyond me. Some secrecy was in order, and this story could've benefit from receiving less attention and just tell the story it needed to tell.

Because the story fits the tone and path the serie was following. Both ways were possible, they marry or they don't, the seed of doubt was already there, especially with Joker two-part arc. The issue is rather well told, with some amazing art, and I like that the idea of the letters came back, since the way Selina and Bruce talked about each other was more fitting that way.

What this issue does best is, like #24, make the whole second year (and a little more) of King's Batman come full circle but it also ties the first and second year. Everything that happenend in the first 24 issues regain importance and I, sincerely, don't know where the story will go from here (except for Batman being angrier), which is always exciting.

Now, I'll let some of my fanatism go out... DAMN BANE, YOU REALLY DID IT THIS TIME. Janin owed me a Bane in costume, so I'm satisfied in that aspect and really wondering wtf with Bane's team. I don't know if the payoff will be satisfying, but if there's a place where such a twist could work, it's in comicbooks.