Batman #1 REBIRTH Preview

[AlexanderLuthor]

Gotham and Gotham Girl?

It's supposed to be cheesy

[PurpleGlovez]

They should've called him Gotham Guy.

Was that supposed to be Damian on the plane...?

[Godlike13]

I enjoyed this. Trying to save a plane is not quite as epic as fighting Joker or some other super baddie, but it was interesting nonetheless. Batman, as ridiculous as he is, is after all still just a human. Seems this is gonna be exploring that. Im game.

[ABH]

There must be something wrong with me, because I really didn't care for this much at all.

It just seemed overly-dramatic with the stuff Bruce was asking Alfred. To me, that kind of thing has been done plenty of times, but in better ways.

[JBatmanFan05]

Great read, high octane start. I loved the technical stuff, emotional, and loved the art. Plus loved the JLA & Nightwing sprinkles.

Batman should be checking with the JLA on certain things like this and King didn't dodge that.

Very early, but feels like King is emphasizing the realistic/rational (with technical stuff) and embracing the social with Batman.


I like that King made the plane's impending doom bigger by showing Bruce's contingencies if he dies this time. This isn't Superman. He could die with these threats that Superman is better suited for.

[The Nuke]

I quite liked it. I was invested to say the least. Very classical in it's story telling, and it was nice seeing Batman play the hero again.

I have a theory about the Batmobiles. He modifies them. He doesn't have 1,000 Batmobiles. What we see are the same Batmobiles just modified. Bruce likes to tinker, I guess. So every time you saw a 89 like Batmobile that was different in such and such a way, and there were a few, it was the 89 Batmobile.

Just like the Batmobile in this comic is the Animated Series version, but it's been modified. In this case this would be about the 4th mod on this version of the Batmobile Bruce has made, going by the appearances it's made over the years in the background.

[joybeans]

Great read, high octane start. I loved the technical stuff, emotional, and loved the art. Plus loved the JLA & Nightwing sprinkles.

Batman should be checking with the JLA on certain things like this and King didn't dodge that.

Very early, but feels like King is emphasizing the realistic/rational (with technical stuff) and embracing the social with Batman.


I like that King made the plane's impending doom bigger by showing Bruce's contingencies if he dies this time. This isn't Superman. He could die with these threats that Superman is better suited for.

Which makes the presence of Gotham and Gotham Girl even more interesting. It calls into the question of "Can Batman be obsolete?"

[JBatmanFan05]

Which makes the presence of Gotham and Gotham Girl even more interesting. It calls into the question of "Can Batman be obsolete?"

If you think (too) hard about it, Batman wouldn't ever be obsolete as much as being insufficient, not the right fit for Gotham in his current main dominant protector role. Batman can always not be obsolete being in the JLA or seconding someone Superman-like, Batman can always at least contribute, but is he enough to rule Gotham as its main hero? Is he obsolete by Gotham being too much to handle for non-metas?

So far, I'm kind of reminded of LOTDK Venom, which explored Batman feeling incapable physically for his role. Though I think King might be going deeper than physical insufficiency, that passenger in the plane perhaps suggests that, even symbolically, Batman may not be enough to really reassure Gotham's citizens that he is their trusted protector.

[dan12456]

If you think (too) hard about it, Batman wouldn't ever be obsolete as much as being insufficient, not the right fit for Gotham in his current main dominant protector role. Batman can always not be obsolete being in the JLA or seconding someone Superman-like, Batman can always at least contribute, but is he enough to rule Gotham as its main hero? Is he obsolete by Gotham being too much to handle for non-metas?

So far, I'm kind of reminded of LOTDK Venom, which explored Batman feeling incapable physically for his role. Though I think King might be going deeper than physical insufficiency, that passenger in the plane perhaps suggests that, even symbolically, Batman may not be enough to really reassure Gotham's citizens that he is their trusted protector.

I'm hoping they don't answer this question by having Gotham/Gotham Girl have some major flaws or issues later on. Because then the question would remain, wouldn't Gotham be better with some metahuman who just doesn't have their issues.
I'd rather the answer be that there is something unique about Batman that makes him the only one suited to it.

[ChargerKB]

Really, really dug this issue. In my opinion, there are two 'extremes' to the Batman character - the man who relies on his wits and uses science, detective skills, contacts excessively (and with all the subtlety of a billionaire living in a superhero universe) and the 'Bat-God' who does things like shoot god-killer bullets at Darkseid and builds Bat-Suits with suns inside of them. This issue seemed to find the perfect balance for both. King really seems to 'get' Batman.

For some reason, I wasn't too fond of the regular cover so I picked up a variant by Tim Sale. It's cool to see him take on Batman even if it is just for one variant cover...now if only he'd have drawn Batman in his new Rebirth design which is probably my favorite of his more modern costumes.

[Atlanta96]

I'm hoping they don't answer this question by having Gotham/Gotham Girl have some major flaws or issues later on. Because then the question would remain, wouldn't Gotham be better with some metahuman who just doesn't have their issues.
I'd rather the answer be that there is something unique about Batman that makes him the only one suited to it.

I'm expecting them to have a bit of a sociopathic side revealed, and the story will focus on the importance of heroes having a strong moral code, as opposed to just raw power.

Also, I hate being so hard on Duke cause I don't hate his character or want him erased from existence, but he is incredibly superfluous so far. His brief role in the story could easily have been filled by Tim, and the Gotham duo are way more interesting new characters than he is. It could change but at the moment, he feels like dead weight.

Edit: I did really enjoy this issue. It got me invested in the story and I feel like the plot was well executed, so my issues with Duke are more of a nitpick to a promising new Batman run.

[Clark_Kent]

There must be something wrong with me, because I really didn't care for this much at all.

It just seemed overly-dramatic with the stuff Bruce was asking Alfred. To me, that kind of thing has been done plenty of times, but in better ways.

I didn't like this at all (well...I guess the art was nice in places). "Would mother and father have been proud?" is just too cheesy. Batman doesn't have to be dark all the time, but this was too far in the other direction. It read poorly. Perhaps his thoughts would have come off better if they'd been inner monologue instead ("I hope mother & father would have approved...perhaps this is a good way to die" -- something like that).

I'll check out issue 2, but so far I'm not seeing what's so great about King.

[Ragdoll]

Man, I was already expecting to like this, but I am completely blown away. We got to see Bruce do some truly insane Batman stuff without it requiring some A-list villain or world threatening scenario. The dude McGuivered the crap out of that situation.

[ZeroBG82]

I thought this was really good. Yeah, maybe a little melodramatic with Bruce's requests to Alfred when he thought the plane was going down, but a really nice reintroduction to Batman. Dude just managed to board a crashing plane, from the ground, and was prepared to give his life to save everyone on board, without a second thought. That's as Batman as it comes, for me.

Then again, I really liked Snyder's first issue of New 52 Batman as well. And that series turned out to be not at all to my taste. Still, some interesting ideas here. And no sign of the Joker, thank god. Hopefully King let's that dead horse rest for a good long bit before we have to see him again.

Overall, intrigued enough to pick up issue 2. Which is really all one can ask for.

[My Two Cents]

Liked Batman #1 very much.