Arkham War/Aftermath: Batman vs. Bane - what is your verdict?

[MajorHoy]

So, is it finished now? Have people had a chance to evaluate this whole big story?

How many people enjoyed it, or did you have other feelings about this Bat-offshoot of Forever Evil?

[MajorHoy]

(For the record, I read Arkham War recently and wasn't exactly thrilled . . . I did buy Aftermath yesterday but haven't read it yet.)

[Bane]

I enjoyed War pretty well but Tomasi whiffed with Aftermath. Even with the bigger page count some of it felt rushed and there was no drama to Batman's return. I imagine this would have made a pretty good 3-4 issue mini but I'm sure they needed to clear the board for Eternal.

[AlexanderLuthor]

Before the board rebooted...I posted that I thought this was just ringing the cash register. I was disappointed for the most part and I usually really like Tomasi. Just so much potential with the whole idea and then it fell flat. My biggest problem with the whole thing was the severe downgrade of the Talons - one of the best new threats Bats has had in a long time and now they can all be neutralized in 2 pages with an ice gun. That just felt cheap

[bat1987]

I thought it was OK, but there wasn't really much to it other than one fight scene after another. Some cool moments ofc, still gonna get the TPB when it comes out.

[PyroSikTh]

It was a strictly average affair. There was some great art (Bat-Bane against the Gotham skyline will always stay with me), but by the end of it I just felt underwhelmed. It was basically just a series of fight scenes one after the other, only ever flirting with the idea of some actual story. It wasn't bad by any means, but it wasn't anything special either.

[MajorHoy]

Read the Aftermath issue and wound up choosing "Arkham War was disappointing, but Aftermath was good".

But it wasn't really "good" . . . more like "better" than War had gone, and that's because it felt like at least there was something accomplished. I've gotten tired of the relentlessly dark and gloomy aspects that seem to be a majority of the New 52, so having Batman actually come out ahead at the end almost seems novel these days.

I am curious as to how the effects of Forever Evil (and Arkham War in general) may effect the overall tone and direction of Gotham City in the future, though we apparently get to look forward to the city being messed up again at some point in Batman Eternal.

[darkseidpwns]

Before the board rebooted...I posted that I thought this was just ringing the cash register. I was disappointed for the most part and I usually really like Tomasi. Just so much potential with the whole idea and then it fell flat. My biggest problem with the whole thing was the severe downgrade of the Talons - one of the best new threats Bats has had in a long time and now they can all be neutralized in 2 pages with an ice gun. That just felt cheap

Batman was heavily powered up in this issue,he took out Bane in h2h when he was fully pumped on venom that's far more significant and kind of a under selling of Bane's capabilities(but Batman did look awesome when he did it).Talons are peanuts in comparison especially when you consider that Batman used their weakness. No biggie here,after all it's Batman vs Bane not Night of the Owls all over again,this time Batman knew their weakness and struck when they were least expecting it.

I'd also like to mention that Tomasi has a higher appraisal of Batman's capabilities than the other writers in the New-52 generally speaking,his Batman is easily heads and shoulders above Snyder's,Johns,etc.His Batman is really Pre-52 Batman.

[darkseidpwns]

It was a strictly average affair. There was some great art (Bat-Bane against the Gotham skyline will always stay with me), but by the end of it I just felt underwhelmed. It was basically just a series of fight scenes one after the other, only ever flirting with the idea of some actual story. It wasn't bad by any means, but it wasn't anything special either.

My thoughts exactly,it had cool moments and additions to Bane's character but ultimately sorely lacking in depth.

[Naked Bat]

I liked it. It was like a 80's actioner. It's far from Tomasi best work, but it's really entertaining, and both Penguins and Bane had really strong characterization. The same couldn't be said about Pyg though. Batman was really cool too.

[exile001]

I'd say this was average at best. That goes for the writing and art.

The only thing I really "liked" was that Bane was not wearing his rediculous 'bat-suit'. Luckily, he was wearing the coat from The Dark Knight rises for no good reason so that irritated me in its place.

Also, Bane using poses directly from that movie annoyed me. No offense to Tomasi/Eaton, but it is a bad idea to constantly remind the reader of a much better Bane appearence than the on he/she is currently reading.

It wasn't as bad as the horrible Arkham War, but was still pretty weak and I felt it completely negated the huge build up that Bane has had recently, especially as he was hopped up on Venom when Batman so thoroughly kicked his ass.

One of the best tricks the 90s team pulled with Bane was to have him and Batman (Bruce) stalemate most of their fights after Knightfall. This made Bane seem like a threat every time we saw him, even though we knew he wasn't going to break Bruce again.

[Big Geek]

I have to go with Okay overall. While I enjoyed it at the time. After looking back, it really wasn't as enjoyable as I would have liked. I thought the Bane vs. Batman aspect was easily the least enjoyable read of them all. It was a fun popcorn flick kind of book that ended up feeling a little flat. As someone posted above, the way the Talons were taken out felt hollow to me.