So what is wrong with me? I am not enjoying anything Bat related that is new

[K. Jones]

I think it's okay to not have enjoyed a lot of it. But I'd point to some gems that I enjoyed even amidst a lot of hard looking and critiquing of just about everything that's gone on for the last, oh, ten years of Batmanning.

Tom King & Tim Seeley's GRAYSON is probably my favorite comic of the Post-Morrison Bat-books. Because after a bit of a rough spell being just second-fiddle to everything going on, it gives Dick Grayson a proper direction, and that direction is "This is the Sequel to Batman Incorporated". Tim Seeley's "FUN" and obvious love of Morrison-era and Silver Age weirdness really removes all of the problematic parts of Tom King's "form over function" storytelling and balances it out strongly. As a writing duo they're actually immeasurably stronger than either of them is as a writer solo. The shame is that they moved on to working on the next phase because of Line Turnover before the last arc was completed so guest writers had to finish the script based on their story notes, but the ending at least still comes through as consistent, and thankfully just transitions into Seeley's Rebirth Nightwing run, which continues that momentum for another 20 or so issues. King was gone from that but it was clear since King was writing Batman and the time and Seeley Nightwing that there was still a communication and direction influenced by each other. I mean until at some point, Seeley more or less wrapped up his ideas and King was like ... well okay, now in Batman I'm just going to write Nightwing out horribly - which could have spun into a neat direction but did not, did the total opposite, where DC really botched it and we're still stuck in it.

I thought the original Burnside era of BATGIRL revamp was pretty strong. Simple, good concepts for villains and costuming. Some nice revamps of "Lost" Batgirl rogues gallery from the Bronze Age into the modern. And it went on concurrently with GRAYSON which made that period ("Divergence", basically the last year or so of the New 52 period but with a bit of follow-up in early Rebirth era) pretty strong for Batman's allies even while Batman's stories himself were a bit meh.

I quite liked Pat Gleason's ROBIN: SON OF BATMAN series. It ends with a writer and art transition and a pretty dull story ending, but the Gleason stuff feels good, picking up from the Tomasi Batman & Robin New 52 run but without the awkwardness as Damian finds himself in situations that feel like the actual things Damian should be doing, like teaming with a young girl "rival" / "ally", bumping up against Deathstroke again, bucking his maternal legacy, and dealing with Al Ghul drama. While that story kind of breaks down and stops working, it does pick up briefly in another place - the opening act of Rebirth Teen Titans, which feels pretty good as a coda where Damian finally deals with some Grandpa Ra's al Ghul drama and meets his cousin. But after that it's not really a Bat-Book feel anymore, it's just a TT book (although I love that incarnation, Damian's Rebirth TT, because every one of them has a super-villain parent and the book is ostensibly them dealing with that for 20 or so issues).

Lastly, every time Batman enters the picture in Priest's DEATHSTROKE, including the ridiculously goofy but kind of amazing "Damian paternity battle" of BATMAN vs. DEATHSTROKE.

Is there anything else I can think of off the top of my head that delighted me? Unsure. I liked the "Eternal" revamp of Catwoman where she was a crime boss.

[Powertool]

Yeah, Genevieve Valentine's run on Catwoman made me genuinely invested in Selina's title, something which hadn't happened since Pfeiffer's 1-Year-Later relaunch. Of course it lasted only 12 issues and it was followed by Frank Tieri's unmpteenth showcase of the many reasons why he's a terrible writer -- and then the astoundingly awful characterization of Catwoman in Tom King's Batman title -- and then Joelle Jones showing the world why sometimes a penciller making the transition to writer-and-artist is not a good idea...

Now that I think about it, quite a few of my worst experiences with the Batman line in the past years involved Selina... interesting.

[gregpersons]

Maybe I got spoiled on the older comics but I just hate most Bat stuff since New 52.

I am contemplating just checking out and reading my giant pile from the 70's up to 2008


Am I an idiot, what is wrong with me?

You're not an idiot but hopefully you have already realized what is wrong with you... you're sitting on a mountain of fascinating stories! I made a "Post-Crisis DCU Appreciation Thread" somewhere that was active not too long ago. It's the best and most coherent "Universe" that DC has ever provided, IMO, even with its imperfections. And it was better, in hindsight, when it was messy and the story actually progressed and the scope of the story changed to be more about the "Gotham Universe" in a sort of way that was definitely inspired by The Wire on HBO, by looking close at the cops and justice system a bit more along with the vigilantes and super villains. The supporting cast seemed to matter.

When you read the comics in a binge mode, you can almost imagine they really do work out as one complete story. It's end point is a nice one, too, as that universe ends with Batman Incorporated in full bloom (remember Damian's death occurred in the New 52 continuation of that story) -- Dick and Bruce both operating as Batman and continuing the work in a bigger way. You go from "Year One" to "Batman Incorporated" and everything in between. It's a story of Bruce losing his family as a child, and creating a royal dynasty that will literally rule the world in order to save it, which has the capacity to become an evil empire, if not for the heart & soul of Dick Grayson, who like Superman, provides a beacon of light to keep the Dark Knight focused on what matters. The "Black Label" way to look at it is -- it's the story of how Bruce Wayne basically killed children to create that family, Jason Todd and Stephanie Brown, because he was unable to recognize Grayson as his family and not an employee. I'm getting heady but there's a lot more fun psycho-drama in the Post-Crisis version of the Family. At the time, Murderer/Fugitive was exhausting and tedious, but it reads pretty well now. I feel the same way about War Games and a bunch of other arcs that I wasn't crazy about at the time -- or I way over-valued their importance because I was 10 or 11 at the time -- they all kinda stitch together now.

Anyway I think this is the reason to subscribe to the DC Universe app. It's pretty janky compared to comixology unfortunately, I wish it collected stories better, the UX is pretty bad.... but for any Batman fan, I think it's a much better purchase than anything else. Virtually every Batman comic ever published up until a few months ago is available in there.