When was it the least fun to be a Batman fan?

[Jackalope89]

Morrison's run. Great artists, but outside of that I didn't care for it and I loved many of Grant's other works.

Tom King's run was so drab and depressing, glad they ended it sooner than it was supposed to be ended.

I also didn't like the Moench/Jones Batman run after KnightsEnd.

Nightwing before Taylor was pretty bad too.

Well, even for bad DC runs, that was a low bar to eclipse. Because for most of that run, it was "Ric Grayson".

[Astralabius]

When I started reading comics and got around to look at what DC was currently doing Bruce beat Jason to a pulp, Dick got shot in the head and turned into Ric and the character that got me interested in comics in the first place had all his character developement stripped away to build a secret torture chamber under the Teen Titans base. And the only thing the main Batman book cared about was to make Bruce cry about Catwoman.
It was truly an awful time to get into comics.

[bob.schoonover]

War Games at least only lasted 3 months with some trivial lead up. It's a bad story, but it didn't really arrest the momentum of most of the books and I liked Robin and Batgirl relocating to Bludhaven afterwards. I think the beginning of the New 52 might be it for me. Court of Owls was pretty good, but I hated Death of the Family from Snyder (and Zero Year was pretty uneven after that). 'Tec under Tony Daniel was just okay, Morrison's final season of Batman Inc was interrupted by all of the continuity changes and what Snyder was doing in unfortunate ways. Kyle Higgins' Nightwing run was bland, Simone's Batgirl run was relentlessly dour, there was no Robin book, and Steph and Cass were just gone. Batwoman was really good until DC screwed up the proposal, then that book went off the rails. Hard.

Everything picked up with the DC You era, though - Robin Reborn, We Are Robin, Grayson, Batgirl by Fletcher, Gotham Academy, Endgame, Batman & Robin Eternal, and the Gordon era as Batman. Great rebound, and why I stick around with the Batfamily, but around the end of Year 2 of the New 52, I was really struggling

[Bruce Wayne]

War Games absolutely War Games.

Don't understand the criticism of Rebirth. Seeley's run was good and you had King/Seeley before that with Grayson. It was just Ric was bad.

[Aahz]

Honestly I still take the "Ric Grayson"-era over the era between Block Busters Death and Thomasis run.

War Games is pretty terrible but it was at least jst one event that lastet for 4 month or so. And while the previous events (Officer Down and Fugative) were imo also pretty bad we got at least Hush and UTRH after that.

For me it is between Morrisons era (who's stories allways felt to me like half of it was missing) and Kings era.

[exile001]

How in the world could Morrisons era ever be the worst. No run has even came close sense. The whole line was killing it. It’s probably the best era for the character tbh.

Obviously, several of us disagree.

[Dr. Skeleton]

Knightfall/Knightquest. I really feared Jean Paul was gonna be Batman permanently.

Final Crisis and R.I.P. Seeing Bats dying twice? I just couldn't stick around any longer.

[Iclifton]

Obviously, several of us disagree.

Still quite a large minority.

Even if you were not a fan Morrisons run, DC was putting out a ton of Bat books with variety. No way this period was the the worst.

[exile001]

large minority.

Ummm... What?

Even if you were not a fan Morrisons run, DC was putting out a ton of Bat books with variety. No way this period was the the worst.

Again, that's just your opinion. Feel free to enjoy this era all you want, and there are tons who do, but it doesn't negate MY opinion that most of the books were complete trash to the point I stopped reading Batman altogether.

[Iclifton]

Ummm... What?



Again, that's just your opinion. Feel free to enjoy this era all you want, and there are tons who do, but it doesn't negate MY opinion that most of the books were complete trash to the point I stopped reading Batman altogether.

Large minority in that Morrisons run is widely pretty well received.

[Jim Kelly]

What really broke me as a Batman fan in the 1990s was a series of developments. The Knightfall comics, I believe I bought them all, were so many and so much that I couldn't read them all and fell behind (and still haven't read a lot of it, even though I have the comics). Then they upped the price and "improved" the format. This pushed me to do some house-cleaning and dropping most of the titles I was buying and just sticking to a few different comics. I dropped all of the Batman titles except BATMAN by Doug Moench and Kelley Jones. I thought that art style worked for the snow-blinding paper (which otherwise was a waste in my opinion and only done to justify the price-increase). But then they did the whole Earthquake thing which stopped the storyline that Moench and Jones had been doing--so then I dropped BATMAN and have never really gotten back into being a Batman fan, although I've since bought some of the comics every now and then.

[Talon1load]

Tom Kings run was the worst Batman has ever been. He was a useless character in his own book. Constantly needed Catwoman to save him. Dude broke his back at least twice and magically recovered within an issue each time. Worked for the Riddler. I honestly don’t know how it lasted as long as it did.

[JBatmanFan05]

Let's lament the lows:

Batman Forever (1995) and Batman and Robin (1997).

The redesigns in The New Batman Adventures (1997-1999).

The Dark Knight Strikes Again and All-Star Batman and Robin.

War Games.

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016).

Man, you really got it right naming these. They break my spirit even now, just thinking of those times.

King's run I disagree on, not that it was a great overall run per se, but I just don't put in least fun category, but more a meh/average category. Some great issues and arcs, I was excited at times. Enough to pull it from the "least" pile, despite some negative things in the run I didn't care for like overplaying the "suicide" thing with Bruce and just King going too dark like that at times.

[lefthanded]

Kind of a throwback, but Batman No Man's Land was something that overstayed its welcome. Excess focus on Gordon and putting him through the wringer. Definitely, not fun.

[phonogram12]

Large minority in that Morrisons run is widely pretty well received.

I don't think anyone's arguing that. I think that all people who didn't enjoy the run are saying is that there gripes with it are just as legitimate as the praise that it gets.

Because when you get right down to it, it's all subjective.