King Batman Run: Analysis and Enjoyment Thread

[millernumber1]

Solicts have been posted for Batman 76 and 77.
https://www.newsarama.com/45227-dc-a...man-76-77.html

spoilers:

Gotham City, and Batman is nowhere to be found. At least, not a Batman anyone recognizes. Flashpoint Batman is now patrolling the city, dispensing a violent brand of justice and taking out rogue villains who haven’t yet signed on with Bane. It’s all building to a rebellion among the bad guys who don’t want to play along— and distrust in those who do! Meanwhile, a surprising ally has come to Bruce Wayne’s aid, nursing him back to health so that he can get back to his city. “City of Bane” continues! The last of the independent villains are on the run, leaving Gotham City entirely to Bane and his cronies—including Flashpoint Batman and Gotham Girl! Though this means a semblance of peace on the streets, the iron grip of tyranny is squeezing all life out of Gotham. And with Bane’s machinations keeping other heroes out, the city really needs the Batman to return. Is Bruce Wayne ready to face his toughest foes yet…his father and the man who broke his back?

end of spoilers

Gee, I wonder who that could be?

I'm really interested in seeing the Dark Batman and Robin of Thomas and Gotham Girl.

[lilyrose]

Solicts have been posted for Batman 76 and 77.
https://www.newsarama.com/45227-dc-a...man-76-77.html

spoilers:

Gotham City, and Batman is nowhere to be found. At least, not a Batman anyone recognizes. Flashpoint Batman is now patrolling the city, dispensing a violent brand of justice and taking out rogue villains who haven’t yet signed on with Bane. It’s all building to a rebellion among the bad guys who don’t want to play along— and distrust in those who do! Meanwhile, a surprising ally has come to Bruce Wayne’s aid, nursing him back to health so that he can get back to his city. “City of Bane” continues! The last of the independent villains are on the run, leaving Gotham City entirely to Bane and his cronies—including Flashpoint Batman and Gotham Girl! Though this means a semblance of peace on the streets, the iron grip of tyranny is squeezing all life out of Gotham. And with Bane’s machinations keeping other heroes out, the city really needs the Batman to return. Is Bruce Wayne ready to face his toughest foes yet…his father and the man who broke his back?

end of spoilers

Gee, I wonder who that could be?

Is it Selina?

[Chubistian]

It reminds me of the premise of Arkham War but (I hope) done right. AW had great potential, but was wasted. Also, it seems as a callback to War of Jokes and Riddles, but this time with one side having vast control over the other (rogues who don't want to join Bane's army)

[lilyrose]

Seriously though, I really do hope the ally is Selina, because she needs to come back before the very end for that to resolve itself. However he's going to do it.

[TheNewFiftyForum]

It reminds me of the premise of Arkham War but (I hope) done right. AW had great potential, but was wasted. Also, it seems as a callback to War of Jokes and Riddles, but this time with one side having vast control over the other (rogues who don't want to join Bane's army)

I at least hope this has a better ending than "Batman comes back and beats everyone up - THE END -"

[lilyrose]

This article comes up with 7 ideas for the big change: https://www.ign.com/articles/2019/05...he-dark-knight

Sounds like they think the public unmasking is most likely. They think the issue with marriage to Selina is that it was dangled already once before. Still, going through with it would be the thing that actually makes the change.

They didn't think of the other kind of obvious option, which is a baby being born. I know some people think that wouldn't make any difference, given all the other kids he's got, but a baby actually being there is definitely something other writers will have to deal with in some way. Having him be dad to an infant would be newer material than the rapidly aged up kids that appear, so I think that's at least possible. Also it's a new dynamic for both him and Selina going forward.

[Chubistian]

This article comes up with 7 ideas for the big change: https://www.ign.com/articles/2019/05...he-dark-knight

Sounds like they think the public unmasking is most likely. They think the issue with marriage to Selina is that it was dangled already once before. Still, going through with it would be the thing that actually makes the change.

They didn't think of the other kind of obvious option, which is a baby being born. I know some people think that wouldn't make any difference, given all the other kids he's got, but a baby actually being there is definitely something other writers will have to deal with in some way. Having him be dad to an infant would be newer material than the rapidly aged up kids that appear, so I think that's at least possible. Also it's a new dynamic for both him and Selina going forward.

And it could make sense as a change for an entire generation (I remember King mentioning the word "generation" in an interview) if no plot device is put to make the baby grow faster. It would make 10 years of Batman comics where a baby and later a child is raised (possibly Helena Wayne). I don't have preferences and I'm open to any change (well, not "any", but a lot) as long as I like the story being told

[Inversed]

I at least hope this has a better ending than "Batman comes back and beats everyone up - THE END -"

King has mentioned in a bunch of interviews that his ultimate goal is to tell essentially a better conclusion to Knightfall, a story in which Batman doesn't simply win by just "punching harder". He even said "you can't beat Bane with a headbutt", so sticking by this I'm really interested to see where he's gonna go with it.

My prediction is just like how Bane manipulated the events in Batman's life to drive him to insanity, Batman's gonna win by doing the same to him, driving away all of his allies and resources until he's all alone with nowhere to go and nothing to do.

[Frontier]

Solicts have been posted for Batman 76 and 77.
https://www.newsarama.com/45227-dc-a...man-76-77.html

spoilers:

Gotham City, and Batman is nowhere to be found. At least, not a Batman anyone recognizes. Flashpoint Batman is now patrolling the city, dispensing a violent brand of justice and taking out rogue villains who haven’t yet signed on with Bane. It’s all building to a rebellion among the bad guys who don’t want to play along— and distrust in those who do! Meanwhile, a surprising ally has come to Bruce Wayne’s aid, nursing him back to health so that he can get back to his city. “City of Bane” continues! The last of the independent villains are on the run, leaving Gotham City entirely to Bane and his cronies—including Flashpoint Batman and Gotham Girl! Though this means a semblance of peace on the streets, the iron grip of tyranny is squeezing all life out of Gotham. And with Bane’s machinations keeping other heroes out, the city really needs the Batman to return. Is Bruce Wayne ready to face his toughest foes yet…his father and the man who broke his back?

end of spoilers

Gee, I wonder who that could be?

Holly Robinson?

King has mentioned in a bunch of interviews that his ultimate goal is to tell essentially a better conclusion to Knightfall, a story in which Batman doesn't simply win by just "punching harder". He even said "you can't beat Bane with a headbutt", so sticking by this I'm really interested to see where he's gonna go with it.

Well, yeah, in Knightfall Bane was defeated by AzBats cutting his Venom lines .

[Chubistian]

I didn't know that about Hush! Continuity is kinda weird in the Bat titles nowadays. In Tec #1002 Batman & Gordon were cool to each other while in the main Bat title they aren't on speaking terms. I don't give too much tought to continuity, but I get that it can be a problem to various readers, especially when it isn't a little detail but a big one, as Man-Bat's current affiliation not being respected. I don't have a problem with Batman defeating a large part of his rogues galleries depending on which villains appear. Given that they're not armed I get that he didn't have problems with Two-Face or Mad Hatter, to name a few, but Freeze doing nothing was odd

Weeks later, and just now I realized that the reason Freeze did nothing was because he is still traumatized after the beatdown Batman gave him in Cold Days hahaha I totally forgot about it while reading Batman #70

[millernumber1]

Weeks later, and just now I realized that the reason Freeze did nothing was because he is still traumatized after the beatdown Batman gave him in Cold Days hahaha I totally forgot about it while reading Batman #70

I agree. I think it can be frustrating that editorial won't keep who is in Arkham and who is friendly to each other straight, but so far, I like it best when a run is continuous with itself, so a throughline like that between Cold Days and now is cool (haha).

[lilyrose]

If King does have Bruce and Selina get married by the end of his run, and thinks that is in fact the character change "for a generation," what really stops the next Batman writer from getting rid of it, if they don't like it? It's only a change if it sticks, but if he only does it at the end of his run, he's not the one who'll be writing the actual marriage.

Honestly, I think adding a baby (like Helena Wayne) is the only thing that will force the next writer to keep it going, for a while at least. It's probably harder to get rid of the kid, storywise (they could age it up, but even with that she'll still be there). People didn't like Damian when he was introduced, but they had to keep it going, because they weren't going to murder Bruce Wayne's biological son.

I wish that Tom Taylor would write Batman next. I actually like the way he wrote him in the Injustice comics. He LOVES the Bruce/Alfred relationship. And he was good at writing Bruce/Selina too- he seemed to like them as a team (and a couple), because they were together for just about the entire series (five years of those comics!), and not angsty either. They were kind of funny, surprisingly. And in the great second annual at the end of last year, set eight years before the comics, he has it that Bruce and Selina are even then an established couple that just likes to play at the cat-and-mouse game sometimes.

So I could see him as a very logical person to take that new status quo up for a while, if King decides to end it by giving them their happy ending.

[K. Jones]

It's taken me forever, I'm only really just getting around to my kind of re-read of Tom King's run. I'm not really fully re-reading yet. I'm taking stock of the issues in a more perfunctory way, kind of tabbing out the pace, length of arcs, the sort of structure behind it, which I feel might be pretty apt since King is such a structuralist, and tallying up the cast of characters and such. Also keeping track of when other writers arcs make themselves part of the story (for instance, Duke becoming Signal in METAL and how "Signal" Duke turns up after the wedding and so forth. See also, Tim coming back to life, "Ric" Grayson, yadda.)

I'm starting to form an opinion.

But notable things off the bat ... the fact that this revolves around Bruce's state of mind, Bane, Gotham Girl, and Flashpoint Batman ... all intrinsic, right out of the gate.

[dietrich]

If King does have Bruce and Selina get married by the end of his run, and thinks that is in fact the character change "for a generation," what really stops the next Batman writer from getting rid of it, if they don't like it? It's only a change if it sticks, but if he only does it at the end of his run, he's not the one who'll be writing the actual marriage.

Honestly, I think adding a baby (like Helena Wayne) is the only thing that will force the next writer to keep it going, for a while at least. It's probably harder to get rid of the kid, storywise (they could age it up, but even with that she'll still be there). People didn't like Damian when he was introduced, but they had to keep it going, because they weren't going to murder Bruce Wayne's biological son.

I wish that Tom Taylor would write Batman next. I actually like the way he wrote him in the Injustice comics. He LOVES the Bruce/Alfred relationship. And he was good at writing Bruce/Selina too- he seemed to like them as a team (and a couple), because they were together for just about the entire series (five years of those comics!), and not angsty either. They were kind of funny, surprisingly. And in the great second annual at the end of last year, set eight years before the comics, he has it that Bruce and Selina are even then an established couple that just likes to play at the cat-and-mouse game sometimes.

So I could see him as a very logical person to take that new status quo up for a while, if King decides to end it by giving them their happy ending.

They did murder Damian rather violently. Twice. The killed him off in Inc and at that time he had become a popular character. He was brought back after months by Tomasi in Robin Rises.
They killed him again in Robin Son of Batman.

[lilyrose]

Yeah, but obviously he hasn't stayed dead. I'm guessing if they introduced another Wayne child (especially a biological one) she'll be another more or less permanent addition.