Batman #23 Preview/Discussion

[Maxpower00044]

http://www.cbr.com/exclusive-preview...R-TW&view=list

Can't help but notice that Alec's step father looks a lot like a certain author. This looks like it's gonna be great!

[Fearless Heart]

Wow! I love how Batman is unfazed by Swamp Thing. This does look great! Can't wait for Wednesday!

[Frontier]

Oh hey, it's Alan Moore without pants on (and getting shot in the face) .

I think Gordon sometimes misses when there were straightforward murders in Gotham, before giant avatars of the Green just popped up out of nowhere at crime scenes .

I like the kind of...I don't want to say Film Noir, but the kind of classic mystery/horror movie vibe they're going with this, right down to the handling of the creative team being introduced like in a title sequence.

[JBatmanFan05]

What a preview, I am excited. Excited to see Tom try a one shot murder mystery here.

I love these team ups, you never want too many but you never want too few. I think we perhaps had too few for a bit, so it's nice to see Tom sprinkle this in.

Having Tom use Swamp Thing (and also seeing the Flash crossover) kind of reminds me of the Moench/Jones run, or the Bronze Age, or etc.

[JasonTodd428]

I'm not going to spoil myself by looking at the preview but I'm stoked for the issue.

[Caivu]

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[Caivu]

More (textless) pages:

https://www.bleedingcool.com/2017/05...nie-wrightson/

[The Whovian]

This looks really cool. I like how Batman seems to interact with Swamp Thing without being surprised by him

[K. Jones]

Kite man! Hell yeah.

Loving this artwork. I've really enjoyed King's run but I've also thought it was a little shallow. Good substance and good play with the comics form, biweekly pacing, that kind of stuff, but like, not very dense. And in light of Detective being a really totally effing cool team book that features all the biggest bat-players, is likely to feature smaller bat-players, has these global running undercurrents, and feels like a sequel to your Incorporateds and Eternals and such, I've really been missing the sort of Brubaker/Rucka-style "smaller" stuff. Although I don't mind either when "smaller" starts small but warps into something weird and large.

I feel like King could do good with that sort of stuff. Imagining Gotham/Suicide/Bane as the warm-up/introduction to his run makes it hard to guess where he's going to go from here, though, especially because our next big storyline is a jump back to the past (that'll obviously lay groundwork for the future).

Lovely to see the famous Batman and Robin family portrait up there with Darius Wayne in the study.

[Korath]

"Why do you have a body ?"

It was the highlight of a great issue. I've liked interaction between Bruce and Alec here, and man would I wish to see this issue expended into its own mini-arc for both Swamp Thing and Batman, because of the philosophical implications, the tension between the two heroes at the end. I liked how Kite-Man seems to have a really hard time saying anything else than, well, Kite-Man, how the issue managed to show how connected Gotham underworld really is but also how so many deaths happen only because of a random series of occurence, like it just happened with Alec's dad.

[Rakzo]

Better than the last few stories at the very least.

I suppose that is because of the short nature of the one-and-done format but this worked much better than the long storylines with unsatisfying endings that King has been producing lately. Even King's overwhelming style is more fitting here thanks to the inclusion of Swamp Thing due that his character allows for a better use of the usual unnatural narration and dialogue from this book and the interactions between Bruce and Alec were enjoyable.

THEN AGAIN, King's style can still be too overwhelming for its own good with characters still talking in way too unrealistic manners and even to themselves. Not to mention that the conclusion of Batman getting mad at Swamp Thing because he thought his parents were going to return one way or another is pretty silly since this is freaking Batman and I believe he made peace with that a looooong time ago which seems like another classic King case of "Forcing characterization to push a theme" (Hell, I think it even contradicts some of the messages that King has been trying to create in this same run which makes things even worse).

Gerards work was pretty good though, really fitting for the premise of the story with great storytelling.

Solid as long as you don't think too much about it I guess.

[Soldy]

Not what i expected, but good read nonetheless. There were a few pretty funny moments, i even laughed, but the ending was grim.
Gerads' art looked a bit different here than in issues 14 & 15. I think he altered his style to fit the mood of the story. Great stuff but i prefer 14 & 15 issues art.
Kite man! Batman.

[lightsout]

Better than the last few stories at the very least.

I suppose that is because of the short nature of the one-and-done format but this worked much better than the long storylines with unsatisfying endings that King has been producing lately. Even King's overwhelming style is more fitting here thanks to the inclusion of Swamp Thing due that his character allows for a better use of the usual unnatural narration and dialogue from this book and the interactions between Bruce and Alec were enjoyable.

THEN AGAIN, King's style can still be too overwhelming for its own good with characters still talking in way too unrealistic manners and even to themselves. Not to mention that the conclusion of Batman getting mad at Swamp Thing because he thought his parents were going to return one way or another is pretty silly since this is freaking Batman and I believe he made peace with that a looooong time ago which seems like another classic King case of "Forcing characterization to push a theme" (Hell, I think it even contradicts some of the messages that King has been trying to create in this same run which makes things even worse).

Gerards work was pretty good though, really fitting for the premise of the story with great storytelling.

Solid as long as you don't think too much about it I guess.

My thoughts exactly. I had to re-read that part as I didn't quiet understand what was going on and had to make sure that's what King was trying to get across. It just seemed a out-of-character.

[Katana500]

I'm really interested in what comes in the future. This issue and the latest issue of Flash makes me feel like we might see Bruce retire for a bit. This issue goes really well after the meeting of Bruce and his father - you can tell its still on his mind and I like it

[Alycat]

I don't know what to say other than that this was an excellent issue.