Opinions on Tom King's Batman

[Panfoot]

Bruce Wayne eats pie, Batman does not. Or maybe this is one of the changes to reality post Superman Reborn.

[Judge Dredd]

His Batman has been good, but some bumps along the way hopefully gets into a groove with the character soon. Have not read Vision yet as I was very disappointed with his Omega Men. With all the praise I was expecting some amazing piece of work, but felt it was decent at best.

[Milton Fine]

His big arc, The War of Jokes and Riddles...the story he originally pitched to Batman editors is coming up so we'll get a more definitive view of it. Also when I think of writers who have failed...I think of Larry Hama's Batman tales, Tom King is not even close to that. I find the title of this very click baity and just plain wrong.

[SiegePerilous02]

Tom King failed? News to me.

[Batmaniac]

He didn't, as far as I'm concerned.

[SIN TZU]

Strongly disagree that King has failed on his run thus far... I had set a high bar when he was announced as the writer and he's lived up to my expectations atleast. The roughest stretch might've been the I AM GOTHAM issues but even rereading it just after the conclusion of I AM BANE then rereading I AM SUICIDE and about to reread I AM BANE he wrote a well rounded epic featuring batman with good motives throughout, introduced good characters that the audience can grow attached to (Gotham Girl & Gotham), made Bane menacing again while making us empathetic to his origins as we see his path isn't much different than Bruce's.

[the illustrious mr. kenway]

I thinks its more of a stumble than an outright failure (like Daredevil under Soule/Garney) but I'm a Tom king fan and I think this run is pretty cool with lots of interesting ideas and character beats.

[bretmaverick2]

Hey, it's head and shoulders above David V. Reed!!! (for those of you old enough to get that line)

[bat39]

I think King simply has a different style from Snyder which people find jarring.

Snyder was better with the complex plotting and mysteries. King's story structure tends to be a lot simpler and a lot more brisk.

King's stories basically take one simple idea and let loose with it.

'I Am Gotham' = Gotham gets a couple of honest-to-God 'superheroes'

'I Am Suicide' = Batman forms a Suicide Squad to take on Bane

'Rooftops' = Batman and Catwoman chase each other on the rooftops of Gotham

'I Am Bane' = Bane declares all-out war on Batman


Now I may be simplifying a bit, but to a large extent, King's stories are really that simple in terms of basic concept and the plot mechanics tend not to be too sophisticated. His entire run, to a large extent, has also been simply about getting from point A to point B.

First, its saving Gotham Girl. To save Gotham Girl...he needs Psycho Pirate. So he abducts Psycho Pirate from Santa Prisca. That p#ssed off Bane. So Bane comes to Gotham and Batman has to fight him again.

The subplot with Catwoman is the one thing that branches out a little from the otherwise uni-directional story. Which is probably why he got rid of the mystery surrounding it fairly quickly. In Snyder's hands, I could envision a six issue arc at minimum dealing with the mysteries surrounding who REALLY killed all those terrorists and whether Selina was innocent or guilty...King finishes it off in a few lines of dialogue during a 'breather' issue.

So yeah, King's style is very different from Snyder's - very different from a lot of what we've come to expect from a 'Batman' story. Doesn't necessarily make it 'bad' though...just different.

[Red obin]

I reckon the reason why Batman has not been raved about as much as other rebirth books was because it lacked a trope, No, Duke becoming his partner does not count. Most Rebirth books had a trope to pull in readers eg.
Black Canary and goatee back in Green Arrow
Damian leading teen titans
original wally in Titans
Classic BoP team
Ted Kord back on Blue Beetle
Terry McGinnis back on Batman Beyond
et cetera et cetera et cetera.
Dc have relied on Batman selling "because he's Batman!" In a sea of great books, Batman is just Ok in my opinion, maintaining a consistently good, but not great, book.
I am not saying this is the definitive reason as to why someone may dislike it,(personally like I said I like it, just don't love it like Snyder's run) it is merely my two cents. The same can be said about Aquaman, Cyborg and Justice League. JL also shares with Btaman that it is hot off the heels of a popular run.
I believe these reasons are why it is not as greatly praised.

[dietrich]

I'm enjoying King's run don't know what you mean by failed. He hasn't.

[Scott Taylor]

Snyder's run was too complicated for its own good, tried to be too fancy. And many of his stories didn't quite stick the landing, imho. King may be doing more basic, meat and potatoes material, but its a welcome format for me.

[stain]

I'm really enjoying his run. The stories are not destined to be classics, but they have been fun to read.

I liked the two part Catwoman story.

[SicariiDC]

Strongly disagree that King has failed on his run thus far... I had set a high bar when he was announced as the writer and he's lived up to my expectations atleast. The roughest stretch might've been the I AM GOTHAM issues but even rereading it just after the conclusion of I AM BANE then rereading I AM SUICIDE and about to reread I AM BANE he wrote a well rounded epic featuring batman with good motives throughout, introduced good characters that the audience can grow attached to (Gotham Girl & Gotham), made Bane menacing again while making us empathetic to his origins as we see his path isn't much different than Bruce's.

This. I had a little trouble with the first arc, but have since settled in as a reader...Which may be more of the point than Tom King doing something wrong. People are gonna like it, hate it, love it...I don't think I could call it a failure until it's complete.

Nor would I, ive been locked in since I AM SUICIDE. I like the updates he's bringing, I like the tone, the progress. I just read Omega Men btw, I thought it was really good. But not amazing.

[btmarine23]

I really like the book overall. I think he's doing a great job.