Of this decade, Scott Snyder and Tom King are probably the two biggest Batman writers that first come to mind. So which writer do you personally think is better? Which writer do you think has a better grasp on Bruce Wayne's character and his world?
Scott Snyder
Tom King
Of this decade, Scott Snyder and Tom King are probably the two biggest Batman writers that first come to mind. So which writer do you personally think is better? Which writer do you think has a better grasp on Bruce Wayne's character and his world?
I wasn't the biggest fan of Snyder's run but I didn't bounce back and forth between being bored and being annoyed like I have with the latter half of King's
def synder. I feel like he understood the char more and brought more to the lore rather than just have every villain know Batman's ID and do shock value things that have no meaning in the end.
With Snyder you can jump in at any arc and know what is going, but with King it is one giant story so it isn't new reader friendly.
Also Snyder's Batman is bombastic big hyper excess; King's is reserved, completive, and poetic. So if you want big action go with Snyder if you want a long form story King.
Tom King and it isn't close. I liked Black Mirror and Court of Owls but otherwise I think Snyder is way overrated. King has had some misses but he always swings hard and his stories are characterized by emotion rather than the often empty bombast of much of Snyder's recent work.
Ah, right.
I would have to go with King simply because Snyder's run felt hollow to me, in the sense that it screamed "comic book" and it made it feel as if there are no stakes to Batman; which ended up bearing fruit because arc after arc Snyder kept ratcheting up the melodrama.
That's not to say King isn't melodramatic, but it feels like a work of literature as opposed to popcorn media.
Snyder's run made Batman human in the sense that I felt legitimately scared that he could die. King's Batman tries to be human, but often feels robotic. He's not the Batman Morrison's Bruce Wayne wanted to be. It's like there's no balance between being Batgod and being emotionally broken so he switches back and forth so unorganically it's like after all these years he hasn't found any kind of peace of mind. He keeps breaking and instantly switching to cold and aggressive with no feelings. Like a deranged psycho instead of a hero.
Of course talking about the runs itself Snyder's run was very comic-like but it was beautifully drawn and had lovely moments, and a handful of really good ideas. It's only when he takes hold like he thinks he owns Batman that it gets blurry, but otherwise really good run. King's Batman has a lot of filler, poetry and the like which don't fit Batman at all. Batman must be the most straight up character I know. Poetry doesn't describe him as action does. And I just don't really like long-winded stories. Deconstruction in comics must be in comic-format to me, like Morrison's Batman struggling to be social as Brucey and finding peace between his real life and his alter ego. The deconstruction of King's run attacks nothing really, just to what point can Batman be destroyed. It's just not appealing. I don't like seeing Batman hitting a point which he cannot return from, because as much as it is an allegory for depression it just creates an atmosphere where any sort of redemption or comeback feels vague (which is what eventually happened when he just recovered from it all. Like okay.)
We have had this thread a few times before and honestly, I don't know. They both have their strength and weaknessess, overall, I haved enjoyed more single issues Snyder wrote more. At the same time, I like the general idea King was attempting to tell in his run, even if I really disliked the way he wrote it.
Simply describing Snyder's run as big action isn't doing justice to his run at all, they were block buster stories sure, but there was a lot of detail that elevated them and is what made the run so critically loved.
I think its tougher to compare the runs to each other, just due to how very different they're both structured, like someone else already mentioned, with each of Snyder's stories being more individually self-contained, while also making them all big and epic in scope, while King's is built like one long narrative, consisting of a majority of shorter, smaller arcs. So alot of it is on just what type you prefer.
If I had to say, I would probably say King is the more appealing writer to me personally, just because of how much his run has attracted me as a whole in comparison to Snyder's, even though there are alot of Snyder stories I do prefer individually to some King ones.
Also in terms of as a writer overall, even outside of Batman, I would probably still say King is my favourite of the two by alot. Even though Snyder hasn't written anything I disliked as much as Heroes In Crisis; Vision, Mister Miracle, and The Sheriff Of Babylon far and away make up for it.
For the hell of it I took my rankings of each of the Snyder stories and King stories and paired them up to each other just to examine it, thought it ended up looking pretty interesting so thought I'd share. Regular is Snyder, Bold is King.
(Also worth noting, I don't dislike any of these issues or really think any of them are bad, just the ones near the bottom tend to be the least memorable or not as enjoyable as the others above it)
Annual #2 – Some Of These Days
#36-37 – Superfriends: Superman
Elmer Fudd #1 – Pway For Me
#1-11 – The Court Of The Owls
DC#871-881 – The Black Mirror
Dark Nights: Metal #1-6 (+ The Forge, The Casting, The Wild Hunt, Lost)
All-Star Batman #1-5 – My Own Worst Enemy
Batman: Last Knight On Earth #1-3*
#14-15 – Rooftops
#27, 30 – The Ballad Of Kite Man
#66 – Knightmares: Cat
#23 – The Brave And The Mold
Annual #4 – Everyday
DC Nation #0 – Your Big Day
Annual #1 – Good Boy
#18 – Resolve
#19-20 – Nowhere Man/Ghost Lights
#12 – Ghost In The Machine
DC #1000 – Batman’s Greatest Case
DC#27 – Twenty-Seven
DC#1000 – Batman’s Longest Case
#21 – The Button Pt. 1
#25-26, 28-29, 31-32 – The War Of Jokes And Riddles
#16-20 – I Am Bane
#9-13 – I Am Suicide
#51-53 – Cold Days
#24, 44, 50 – The Wedding Album
#33-35 – The Rules Of Engagement
All-Star Batman #6-9 – Ends Of The Earth
#41-50 (+D#1) – Superheavy
All-Star Batman #10-14 – The First Ally
#48-49 – The Best Man
#39-40 – Superfriends: Wonder Woman
#54 – The Better Man
#0, 21-27, 29-33 – Zero Year
The Batman Who Laughs #1-7 (+ Grim Knight) – The Laughing House
#13-17 – Death Of The Family
#35-40 – Endgame
#41-43 – Everyone Loves Ivy
#55-57 – Beasts Of Burden
#63, 67-69 – Knightmares: Smoke And Mirrors/All The Way Down/Solitude/The Last Dance
#51 – Gotham Is.
#34 – The Meek
#45-47 – The Gift
#1-6 – I Am Gotham
#22 – The Button
Batman And The Signal #1-3 – Gotham By Day
#70-74 - The Fall And The Fallen
#58-60 – The Tyrant Wing
Tales From The Dark Multiverse: Batman Knightfall #1
#28 – Gotham Eternal
#52 – The List
Batman: Rebirth #1/ Rebirth #1
Annual (vol. 3) #1 – Silent Night
#7-8 – Night Of The Monster Men
#38 – The Origin Of Bruce Wayne
#61-62 – Knightmares: Suddenly Indeed/Lost
Annual #2 – Cages
Annual #4 - Madhouse
Annual #3 – Friends
Futures End #1 – Remains
Annual #1 – First Snow
Secret Files #1 – True Strength
I enjoy Snyder more. I have my annoyances, like the amount of narration, the worship of Alfred that I feel went a bit much, and the fear of Joker though that could be because he's writing a younger Bruce, his issues are dense and he can juggle multiple character motivations and have them fit. They don't always land, but what his characters do and why have a place and explanation in his story.
King in comparison, there are plot points and character motivations or actions in his stories that are unanswered or went on unanswered for so long and don't get me started on his plan of making 25 issues of Sad Batman.
It's very disappointing considering how dense the issues of Grayson he wrote. At that time he didn't know when they're gonna pull the plug, so he really gave it all every issue. He said those old comics used to be able to tell a story in a single issue, so that's what he did in Grayson, but now his Batman is the slowest progressing ongoing story in the last few years, and not because there's a delay.
Snyder. He's wordy and he doesn't always deliver on his big ideas, but he's generally fun and understands the characters. King doesn't have enough dialogue, most of his characters are out of character, and he takes way too long to get to where he's going, at least where Batman is concerned.
Pulls: Batman, Detective Comics, SiKtC, Catwoman, Nightwing, Titans, Godzilla, Wonder Woman, Batman & Robin, Brave and the Bold, No/One, Kill your Darlings, and Deviant.
My runs: Batman #230-, and Detective #420-