Tom King Batman: Reread & Bat/Cat Appreciation 2020

[millernumber1]

DC is . . . re-trenching? re-orienting? re-screwing up? . . . their collected line right now, and has queued up No Man's Land (probably 2x omnis, more if they back fill Contagion/Legacy as a Before NML) and by Snyder (probably 2*?) omnis, plus Dark Nights: Metal is due for a big omni in there, somewhere, too, that I expect DC will feel mostly tapped on Batman omnis through 2022 (unless they decide to massively increase their output, which I support wholeheartedly). I assume with that much distance, plus the likelihood of at least two more big hit books by Tom King by then, they'll put out the start of By Tom King omnis around 2023.

Everyone please save this prediction and throw it in my face when it's wrong

*One Snyder and Capullo to do the rest of Batman + Last Knight on Earth and one for Black Mirror/BWL/ASB/and the Signal

They already did Road to NML with Contagion this year - I saw it a couple of weeks ago in my shop. REALLY gorgeous book.

They did do the Tom King/Lee Weeks Deluxe collection a week or so ago, which was beautiful.

[bob.schoonover]

They already did Road to NML with Contagion this year - I saw it a couple of weeks ago in my shop. REALLY gorgeous book.

They did do the Tom King/Lee Weeks Deluxe collection a week or so ago, which was beautiful.

The Road to NML has Cataclysm, not Contagion/Legacy. Those two stories are already completely collected in three thick tpbs and would be a lovely omnibus if you're listening, DC! You just have to concatenate them

Anyway, I think it's when, not if, on King omnis. Too many good artists, too much cache with King's name, plus their most popular character.

[millernumber1]

The Road to NML has Cataclysm, not Contagion/Legacy. Those two stories are already completely collected in three thick tpbs and would be a lovely omnibus if you're listening, DC! You just have to concatenate them

Anyway, I think it's when, not if, on King omnis. Too many good artists, too much cache with King's name, plus their most popular character.

My bad - I confused the two storylines.

I do think that we'll probably see some King omnis in about...2-3 years, as you say.

[Godlike13]

Jumping though time was a bit off-putting at first, but overall this was very Tom King. I think this format just suites him better. Oh and Mann was on point with his Selina

[charliehustle415]

One last thing - WHY, for all that is Holy, do they insist on using the Joker? While he wasn't offensive in this issue I'm just so damn tired of seeing him. Suffering from Joker-fatigue.

But look at this joker!

We have never seen him look this dope, I wish we can see more of Joker like this instead of the gross rotting version we've been getting.

tlQCaF60coPKGbT-dtesnvErE0PlsuSz_knSS-YIdjY.jpg

[Kurisu]

I definitely get the exhaustion. We have just had Three Jokers, Joker War, not to mention Batman Who Laughs all over the place.

But King's Joker reads differently to me, so it doesn't feel like the same thing.

I guess it all depends on what you’re reading. I didn’t read Joker War, or any of Snyder’s Justice League books, and I certainly didn’t read Three Jokers. The last Joker story I read (Harleen notwithstanding) was Best Man, so I don’t feel the fatigue at all.

On the topic of omnibus, I often wonder how and what they would collect. I’ve been toying with the idea of doing a custom binding of the run myself and making a proper reading order has proven quite difficult. Do you include Night of the Monster Men? What about the Button? It’s hard to say no because there is so much build up to Monster Men in I Am Gotham that without you leave a lot of loose threads untied. And of course Button, despite being a DD Clock vehicle for Williamson is the catalyst for the later half of the run. I also think at minimum, the first arc of Catwoman should be collected with Cold Days and Knightmares for emotional context.

I wonder if there’s a way to build a omnibus by focusing on the good, like Catwoman, and trimming the fat that doesn’t work or gets forgotten about, like Duke and Claire, while still keeping things readable.

[millernumber1]

I guess it all depends on what you’re reading. I didn’t read Joker War, or any of Snyder’s Justice League books, and I certainly didn’t read Three Jokers. The last Joker story I read (Harleen notwithstanding) was Best Man, so I don’t feel the fatigue at all.

On the topic of omnibus, I often wonder how and what they would collect. I’ve been toying with the idea of doing a custom binding of the run myself and making a proper reading order has proven quite difficult. Do you include Night of the Monster Men? What about the Button? It’s hard to say no because there is so much build up to Monster Men in I Am Gotham that without you leave a lot of loose threads untied. And of course Button, despite being a DD Clock vehicle for Williamson is the catalyst for the later half of the run. I also think at minimum, the first arc of Catwoman should be collected with Cold Days and Knightmares for emotional context.

I wonder if there’s a way to build a omnibus by focusing on the good, like Catwoman, and trimming the fat that doesn’t work or gets forgotten about, like Duke and Claire, while still keeping things readable.

Those are incredibly pertinent questions! I agree about Monster Men (despite my dislike of that arc) and The Button - they are key for the run. I think the first issue of Catwoman, maybe, but it doesn't really feel very connected at all to me. I would personally ditch The Price like a hot potato. Though I actually could see the argument for including Heroes in Crisis.

That reminds me...I think King said that Claire was gonna be in Bat/Cat...

[charliehustle415]

I guess it all depends on what you’re reading. I didn’t read Joker War, or any of Snyder’s Justice League books, and I certainly didn’t read Three Jokers. The last Joker story I read (Harleen notwithstanding) was Best Man, so I don’t feel the fatigue at all.

On the topic of omnibus, I often wonder how and what they would collect. I’ve been toying with the idea of doing a custom binding of the run myself and making a proper reading order has proven quite difficult. Do you include Night of the Monster Men? What about the Button? It’s hard to say no because there is so much build up to Monster Men in I Am Gotham that without you leave a lot of loose threads untied. And of course Button, despite being a DD Clock vehicle for Williamson is the catalyst for the later half of the run. I also think at minimum, the first arc of Catwoman should be collected with Cold Days and Knightmares for emotional context.

I wonder if there’s a way to build a omnibus by focusing on the good, like Catwoman, and trimming the fat that doesn’t work or gets forgotten about, like Duke and Claire, while still keeping things readable.

I feel like the Doomsday Clock really screwed up King's story, because it just left a dangling plot thread... dangling.

I think in any King Bat omni there should be like a 1 page coda at the end of City of Bane where Thomas came from.

Can you imagine if a new reader who has heard all of this acclaim about King's run picks it up and sees Bruce Wayne's father alive!?

This is probably my only gripe with King's Batman and it's not even King's fault - it is so frustrating because Bruce barely even addresses it and tries to explain it.

Ah, the world of superhero comics

[Batman Begins 2005]

Haven't read this as I REALLY didn't like Tom King's Batman. King's a very hit and miss writer. Heroes in Crisis was terrible. I still want this to be good though, least the art will be with Clay Mann on it. Want justice to be done for Andrea Beaumont. The Bat/Cat dialogues, ugh and double ugh. May try the first three issues and see from there.

[Scott Taylor]

Definitely a welcome revisit to King's Batverse. At first, it was difficult to follow the jumps but a second reading took care of that. I had no problem with it, its no different from the kinds of things Morrison would do, like introducing new characters or concepts and then not explaining them until much later. You had to reread his stuff as well. It makes for deeper more inter-connected storylines.

I'm on the bubble at re-visiting Phantasm. Mainly because I was hoping for more connection to what King did in the rest of his run and to see development of more of those elements here. But I shouldn't complain about it. Snyder essentially connected his "final Batman story" with his run and it was disastrous imho.

Mann's art - wow. Joker has never looked better. Did anyone else think Andrea looked exactly like Poison Ivy, though? Kind of miss seeing how he draws Harley, and wish she would show up just because Mann's depiction of her was so epic, but I am thinking we aren't seeing her in this one.

[Hilden B. Lade]

I guess for the crossover events whenever DC gets around to King's run they could always just pack in the full issues that King wrote and add new one-page summaries for what happened in the rest of the crossover. I think this is how the Grant Morrison omnibuses dealt with the Resurrection of Ra's Al Ghul crossover.

I found Bat/Cat #1 itself to be a promising start, and I think anyone who enjoyed King's run will get something out of it. Do wish it was one of King's less cheesecakey frequent collaborators doing this (and the three timelines structure of the book was a perfect excuse to get multiple artists from King's Batman run on this book), but Mann's art does get the job done spectacularly.

If nothing else, I'm glad that Bat/Cat will give me a DC monthly book to read since DC cancelled Si Spurrier's Hellblazer and I'm tradewaiting everything else I'm interested in.

[Pohzee]

I'm definitely looking forward to reading this. Does anyone have any recommendations as to reading this either monthly or waiting for the collected edition?

[millernumber1]

I'm definitely looking forward to reading this. Does anyone have any recommendations as to reading this either monthly or waiting for the collected edition?

It really depends. I like reading King in both monthly and collected formats. I think it will be rewarding either way. He does tend to click together better in collected, but then you miss out on all these discussions

[Pohzee]

It really depends. I like reading King in both monthly and collected formats. I think it will be rewarding either way. He does tend to click together better in collected, but then you miss out on all these discussions

That's the main thing tempting me to read it! For King's run I held out in chunks at first, then started reading monthly with 50. I much preferred the first half of his run, but I don't know how much of that was due to editorial interference and how much is it reading better in trade.

[millernumber1]

That's the main thing tempting me to read it! For King's run I held out in chunks at first, then started reading monthly with 50. I much preferred the first half of his run, but I don't know how much of that was due to editorial interference and how much is it reading better in trade.

I was similar, actually, in terms of collecting pattern. But I actually much preferred the second half of the run, even though there is a huge amount of editorial interference visible.