What is the Consensus on Larry Hama's Batman run?

[Timothy Hunter]

Apparently Larry Hama and Scott McDaniel had a very brief run on Batman during the New Gotham era starting with 575. I wasn't even aware of this stint on the title happening until today.

I'm interested in the opinions of those who did read it.

[Aahz]

Just looked it up, the run consists basically just of a few one shots with unknown villains and one longer story that introduced Orca.

[Coco Loco]

Really really bad. Hama was fired from the book after 7 issues.

But it did give us Orca the Whale Woman. So there's that.

[Elmo]

Bad bad bad. it's like if Batman were in GI Joe. an absolutely abysmal run. Scott McDaniel was the worst part of it though, coming off a stellar run with Chuck Dixon in Nightwing he had done a great job focusing on Dick's acrobatics and body movement, none of which worked with Batman. and since you had Rucka writing the mystery stuff, Devin Grayson doing BatFam stuff, and LOTDK for anthology stories set in the Year One era, Hama was left with one-off superhero stories consisting of forgettable villains and incredibly bland action sequences.

Brubaker came on after him and blew him out of the water but the sales actually stayed the same for a while

[SixSpeedSamurai]

it was pretty meh. I like McDaniels work myself though.

[JAG2045]

Bad bad bad. it's like if Batman were in GI Joe. an absolutely abysmal run. Scott McDaniel was the worst part of it though, coming off a stellar run with Chuck Dixon in Nightwing he had done a great job focusing on Dick's acrobatics and body movement, none of which worked with Batman. and since you had Rucka writing the mystery stuff, Devin Grayson doing BatFam stuff, and LOTDK for anthology stories set in the Year One era, Hama was left with one-off superhero stories consisting of forgettable villains and incredibly bland action sequences.

Brubaker came on after him and blew him out of the water but the sales actually stayed the same for a while

My thoughts exactly! McDaniel IMO is a really bad fit for Batman and the stories were forgettable, I remember one about a giant sewer gator that was really boring (honestly the only thing most people remember is Orca who returned in the Rebirth era of Nightwing and was even featured in LEGO Batman)

[kevink31593]

Here is an internet time capsule with reviews of Hama's run, this link is almost 20 years old. The reviewer "JYD", used to be a prolific poster on DC's official message boards back in the late 90s/early 00s, and he posted lots of reviews on the Batman forum. He later archived some of his reviews on the linked site. The link below are his reviews of Hama's Batman issues and the following issues written by Brubaker. I personally joined the DC message boards in the middle of Hama's run in April 2000 (I was a less prolific poster), and I recall Hama was very unpopular at the time, and Brubaker was a very welcome replacement. Brubaker even posted in the Batman forum on the DC message board and interacted with the fans. If fact, if you click the "home" tab on the link below, you can find transcripts of a couple Q&A conversations with Brubaker.

http://batman-superman.tripod.com/pob/jydbatman.htm

[Muadib]

I love Hama's GI Joe, Wolverine and Nth Man runs to death and will defend them to my last breath, and i can say his Batman run was possibly among the top 5 worst Batman runs of all time.
He just doesnt get Batman, at all.

[charliehustle415]

Orca was very weird and it was kinda surprising since we are just coming out of No Man's Land, I think he should have focused more on the new status quo of Gothamites and their animosity towards the "Deezees" (deserters who left Gotham during NML).

The only redeeming thing was the art which carried over into Brubaker's run. His run lacked focus and I don't even mind his characterization because "why not?" but there was no cohesion to his run and it felt so out of place.

[K7P5V]

it was pretty meh. I like McDaniels work myself though.

In agreement with you about Scott McDaniel.

I'm a fan of his artwork, but only for Nightwing

[charliehustle415]

Hell Yeah, his perspective shots were amazing and so dynamic it was always a feast for the eyes.

It's weird as a kid I didn't like him much because I thought it was too cartoony but as an adult I see the craft on full display

[Frontier]

Orca was very weird and it was kinda surprising since we are just coming out of No Man's Land, I think he should have focused more on the new status quo of Gothamites and their animosity towards the "Deezees" (deserters who left Gotham during NML).

Wasn't that more of a focus of Rucka's run? I could see why Hama wouldn't have addressed it in-depth?

[charliehustle415]

Wasn't that more of a focus of Rucka's run? I could see why Hama wouldn't have addressed it in-depth?

Yeah he did, but more in superhero terms since this was the main Batman book.

I was thinking with maybe looking at Batman's relationship with Gothamites as he tries to stop supervillains from re-destroying the city. Some may become anti-Batman thinking Batman is inviting more problems than he stops or pro-Batman because he was the only force of good in Gotham during NML.

Rucka did his part, but it was so little; I kinda wanted more of that status quo

[Shadowcat]

*Awkward face gif*