"The Batman is Gotham City. I will watch him. Study him. And when I know him and why he does not kill, I will know this city. And then Gotham will be MINE!"-BANE
"We're monsters, buddy. Plain and simple. I don't dress it up with fancy names like mutant or post-human; men were born crueler than Apes and we were born crueler than men. It's just the natural order of things"-ULTIMATE SABRETOOTH
This issue left me cold. I don't hate it, but I don't like it either. It's basically more of Tom King "almost nothing happens in 22 pages" but the art was great.
My only complain would be that Thomas gave Bruce his Batman helmet. He is supposed to want him to stop being Batman, why would he do that ? A plain turban or something could have worked just as well to protect him from the sun and veil his face.
I also found Bruce too easily forgiving, but it may be due to Janin's art more so than the plot, so I don't hold it against the issue.
The Chaos Shard is also the demonic Apokoliptian presence that (retroactively) made Talia be so OOC evil in the first place. And also McGuffined Damian's accelerated growth, too. Good bit of McGuffin, that there Chaos Shard. Doctor Hurt? Leviathan? IT WAS ALL DARKSEID BEYOTCHES.
I'm of a mind that the Martha in the box is Flashpoint JOKER Martha and things are going to get weird.
Retro315 no more. Anonymity is so 2005.
retrowarbird.blogspot.com
so Bruce actually got his spine broken yet again last issue and somehow he is up and walking in the desert now because Thomas magically fixed it somehow? And Bane just allowed Thomas to take Bruce and go off to the desert because... Bane just wanted Bruce broken and out of Gotham and doesn't mind the father-son bonding time I suppose?
Thomas is crazy and Bruce is probably playing him so I don't mind the whole father-son routine they have (no way Bruce sees this man as his father, this man wasn't just part of torturing Bruce, he was part of a plan that got those closest to Bruce hurt and harmed and dont see Bruce forgiving THAT).
But then I am half expecting this whole thing to turn out to be something of a dream/hallucination too because Thomes DID say it was a dream (just not Bruce's) and it all just feels so random and weird.
Where was it ever said that Bruce had his back broken last issue?
And I don’t see the problem with Bane allowing Thomas to take Bruce when that was probably Thomas’ price for helping Bane. The bat’s (seemingly) broken so it’s not like he needs Bruce anymore.
Bruce talks about how Thomas sit there as Bane beat him up & Thomas says Bruce was broken soul and body (and in that issue we see the spine-breaking move)
and Thomas also says he did his best to put Bruce's spine back together (which makes me think of a shattered spine). and something along the lines of how it is best Bruce should ride and he will walk.
Is it supposed to be a simple injury and operation as putting in a dislocated shoulder back?
and Bane knows Batman/Bruce... he knows he will get back and come back to Gotham the moment he can. So does feel weird for him to let Thomas take Bats off to safety where he can heal (with Thomas' help no less) and prob gather his strength back. Maybe he is too confident in how much he broke Bruce this time, maybe he trusts Thomas to mess with Bruce even more. But kind of feels like that "careless" move villains in movies always do where they get overconfident and don't deliver the finishing below on the hero, giving the hero the opportunity to get up/regroup and turn things around...
Last edited by Schumiac; 06-23-2019 at 04:17 PM.
Got heavy Berserk vibes with the coffin being dragged around. The artist draws bruce extremely handsomely too which is nice to see. The singing feels off (Is Thomas supposed to be that kind of mad?), and the pacing is still slow as snails, but hey someting actually happened! Probably the best issue in the past few months, but that's not exactly saying much since it has been filler for what feels like forever
The only thing that’s felt like filler to me was the Knightmares arc
Someone's dream, not Bruce Wayne's. Whose dream is it?
It's the Dynamic Duo! Batman and Robin!... and Red Robin and Red Hood and Nightwing and Batwoman and Batgirl and Orphan and Spoiler and Bluebird and Lark and Gotham Girl and Talon and Batwing and Huntress and Azreal and Flamebird and Batcow?
Since when could just anybody do what we trained to do? It makes it all dumb instead of special. Like it doesn't matter anymore.
-Dick Grayson (Batman Inc.)
I have to be honest, ever since the whole "Batman was actually having a dream this whole time" I have no idea what's going on in this book. I don't what is the dream and what isn't. Completely threw me off track.
Dreams ended once batman got free from scarecrow's machine.
Still, Knightmares lasted way too long and completely killed the momentum of this run for me.