I AM BATMAN #1 spoilers and discussion

[Lal]

For some readers Superman Jon Kent and Wonder Girl Yara (among other new characters) have a very different origin.
You wouldn't mind giving their origin stories to your children as "heroic" stories. We have a different situation here.
As a reader who tried to get interested in Future State, in the event Bruce Wayne decided to (deservedly) retire as Batman.
They lost me altogether with Tim Jace Fox's origin in Second Son. To me that was a huge disaster.
I am surprised there has been no discussion on Jace's origin as "Batman," as I thought it was very controversial to say the least.
I don't know how they continue with that path and be successful here in this series. They hint at it.
But at some point unaware readers will be curious, and some will be pretty shocked.

But for context, Saturday 9/18 was "Batman Day" on Twitter. There were at least 145,000 Tweets. I searched for some on Jace. I found 13 (total).
I don't think DC has thought this through the entire way. It is one thing to kill off Earth-Two Batman, as they did in 1979. Totally different to work to get rid of Bruce Wayne as Batman in mainstream comics.
I know there was that effort with Azrael. But those were different commercial times, and WB didn't have as much invested in major films/videos, as they do now, and are dependent on their success. I think it is the wrong change at the wrong time for WB.
I guess we will see what future sales are like on this series. If they are anything like digital only "Second Son," they might be going digital only on this series too.

It seems like DC are aware that Jace Fox won't be their main Batman, but they hoped that he could co-exist alongside Bruce like Peter Parker and Miles Morales (again, it's absolutely not clear why they think it's going to work unless they move Jace to different earth or an Elseworld story)
With the way things look right now, Jace doesn't really manage to generate enough interest.
We already know that the digital sales of issue#1 aren't great (a new Batman #1 title released during the weekend of Batman day was supposed to be a major hit, but isn't), and the book wasn't in Bleeding cool's best selling titles of the week (but take into account it's a small sample)
https://bleedingcool.com/comics/x-me...-splashy-mess/

I hope they'll move Jace to an elseworld story because right now his current story - and very existence - is a literal mess.

[Aahz]

It seems like DC are aware that Jace Fox won't be their main Batman, but they hoped that he could co-exist alongside Bruce like Peter Parker and Miles Morales (again, it's absolutely not clear why they think it's going to work unless they move Jace to different earth or an Elseworld story)

Miles has kind of nice as a Teenage Spiderman, Jace doesn't really have niche. And nothing about him feels particularly fresh or compelling.

[Frontier]

After the entire "City of Bane" arc and "Joker war", not even talking about Urban legends in which Batman is just working with Red Hood in broad daylight, it's really impossible to say that people don't see Batman. He's literally all over the streets and in the news. They city passed the entire anti masks program just to stop him.

The 6 years sentence really makes no sense whatsoever, unless it's meant to imply that Jace really hasn't been in Gotham for years, and in this case, it's best unsaid.

Maybe Ridley is working like he's in a Post-Zero Hour Gotham...

[BatsUSA]

Jace doesn't really have niche.

Just hit-and-run murder. I don't know how you inspire people with that. I really have never seen that in costumed hero comics.
He is "damaged," but not due to injustice against him, but due to injustice by him towards others.
I would have liked to listen to the DC Comics editorial board, while John Ridley was describing this as a good idea.
Maybe editors will find a way to have Luke Fox take over the role and salvage this story line.