Enjoying Batman Post-Morrison?

[Flex Mentallo]

Hi all,

Ok so I was a huge fan of Morrison's run on Batman.. coming here every month to read everyone's thoughts and analysis.. reading older silver age comics it referenced.. it was like a huge puzzle to put together and had so many impactful moments it really drew me back into comics as I had been away for several years.

Since then it hasn't been as fun and I wonder what are the best Batman books?

I thought Snyder was OK (I honestly liked his Black Mirror stuff with Jock better) and while I did love the art cinematic storytelling style of Capullo it kind of felt like Snyder was cribbing some of his stuff from Morrison some of the time.

Now we have Tom King and for the life of me I don't see what everybody else is seeing. I haven't been able to get into his work at all, I find his storytelling kind of confusing (ironic I know) and it just doesn't seem to connect. A couple lines here or there hit home but overall there's this jumbled approach and constant use of captioning that interrupts the story flow for me.

So I guess the question is what am I missing about Tom King? And also what are the best of the best Batman runs or books Post-Morrison that I maybe I have missed??

THANK YOU!

[SixSpeedSamurai]

I liked Snyder more than Morrison on Batman. Morrison's JLA though is the king. I honestly enjoyed the Grant Batman stuff between Death in the Family and Knightfall better. Street level action and super villains.

[Batman Begins 2005]

I love and still do Grant Morrison's Batman run, smokes the rest.

Enjoyed the majority of Snyder/Capullo's Batman run with Endgame the highlight. The Black Mirror is by far Snyder's best Batman book.

I really liked Tomasi/Gleason Batman and Robin run though the first two issues had rough characterisation.

Super Sons is a lot of fun.

[Batman Begins 2005]

I'm hit and miss on Tom King's run, it's weak to Snyder and especially Morrison's work.

[KC]

Morrison's run was a bit hit and miss for me. I loved some of his stories and I did not enjoy some of his stories.

I loved most of Snyder and Capullo's run and The Black Mirror From Snyder, Jock and Francesco Francavilla.

The current Red Hood and the Outlaws book is fantastic. It is one of the best books coming out right now.

I think King's Batman is legitimately awful and I think your criticisms of his run are spot on.

[oasis1313]

IMHO, Morrison was the BEST. I loved everything. Except killing Damian--that wasn't nice.

[Batman Begins 2005]

IMHO, Morrison was the BEST. I loved everything. Except killing Damian--that wasn't nice.

Second all this. Poor bugger had a right bad death.

[Chubistian]

Well, I love the three runs (Morrison, Snyder and King's), they have been a lot of fun and have made me make some deep thinking about certain stuff and inmerse me in their respective atmosphere. But I don't think by explaining what I see in King's run I can make you interested in it, probably they're things that you don't care about or think are poorly done, which is fine. I think the current Bat panorama is so full of options that is more about finding a comic that appeals to you than to be dissapointed until the next writer comes (which happens with characters that only feature in one book or just appear spontaneously).

I read the first two issues of White Knight and really enjoyed it. I didn't keep reading because I chose to wait for the tradepaperback by the new DC line, Black Label. Also, I think an eye should be keep in Batman: Damned, it can be great as well as a train wreck, but at least it's going to look beautiful, same with the next Bat story by Snyder and Capullo. The short sting of Hill in Tec was entertaining, but dissapointing, since it was more a prelude to an Outsiders book. Still, I think that book will be worth checking out

[K. Jones]

The stuff I've enjoyed the most post-Morrison hasn't actually been the Batman runs at all.

It's been GRAYSON, and then Tim Seeley's follow-up run on Nightwing. I liked them so much I bought the omnibi (well, not the Seeley-Nightwing omnibus yet) and have them sitting behind my Absolute Morrison books in the "sequel" position. Tomasi's Batman and Robin stuff was certainly sibling material to whatever Morrison was getting up to and had real sequel aspects to it, but tonally, stylistically and just ... offbeat weird and cool, it's all the Seeley-era Dick Grayson books.

I like Tom King's writing a fair bit more than I probably should but it is hard to reconcile his solo writing with his co-written stuff with Seeley. When he cuts loose he gets so into the form and structure stuff, whereas Tim Seeley introduced fast, loose wild ideas and DC Universe deep cuts that made sense in-story and were just fun and weird connective tissue, and so they balanced each other fantastically damn well.

[jb681131]

Snyder started out good with Gates of Gotham and the Owls arc, but then it went down. As for King it's ups and downs. But I really enjoyed Batman, The Dark Knight especially Cycle of Violence. I also enjoyed a lot Batman & Robin a title, with one of the best story Batman Impossilbe (Annual #1). Then I will all so mention the mini-serie We are Robin.

[BruceWayneJr.]

Morrison's run is pretty much the end of Batman as I knew it. Snyder's plots are blandly derivative and his version of the character isn't a detective. King is just hammering his own shit in over Batman with no regard for continuity (similar to Bendis and his time at Marvel).

I'm a huge fan of Batman going way back to childhood and Superfriends, but I've learned to let him go. A lot of properties that I enjoy took hard breaks from tradition, and now I see their classic runs as complete stories. I don't really need any more Batman or Avengers or Star Wars if it's so far removed from what I already enjoyed. There's a world out there of new stories to appreciate instead of the half-baked retreads that modern comics offer up.

[db105]

Like OP, I loved Morrison's Batman. It was a privilege to be able to enjoy it as it was published, rather than discovering it decades later like some of the old Batman stories I love. Snyder... well, he's ambitious, but the execution is not good. I like Capullo's art, though. Outside the main books, Grayson was surprisingly great. I also enjoyed Tomasi's Batman and Robin and Supersons (I guess I like Damian as a character).

[Batman Begins 2005]

Liking the love in of Grant Morrison's Batman run. Best run on the character and my favourite comic book run ever. I keep going back to it.

[DragonPiece]

If you want something similar to Morrison, I recommend checking out tom king and tim seeley's grayson run, which continues into Seeley's Nightwing run.

Only other book in the bat family I can think of that does big ideas like Morrison.

[ispacehead]

Morrison's run concluded my interest in Batman comics.

Really looking forward to some Arkham 2 news.