Worst Part of 'War Games'?

[AnakinFlair]

All of the above.

I may be in the minority, but I hated Steph as Robin. Not because I thought she was a bad Robin, but because the entire thing seemed to be one long attempt at character assassination, ending with her actually assassination in War Games. It's like the went out of their way to make her look bad, and in the process made almost every other character look bad as well.

Robin 129 where Tim Drake defends his High School from a gang war was incredible and easily the crown jewel issue of Bill Willingham's run on Robin.

That being said the death and resurrection of Stephanie Brown has to be the most ineptly handled editorial decision in DC's history, that or Cassandra Cain turning evil during One Year Later.

I'd have to say Evil Cassandra was even worse, actually. Take a character that has eschewed her parents legacies of being the best killers in the DC universe, who has actively tried to be a hero and has refused to kill.... and make her the head of the League of Assassins. Huh?! Just stupid, through and through.

[Blight]

Everything. All the above.

[km_sus]

There is pretty much no redeeming factor in this event. Killing Orpheus is one of the most egregious. Not only killing the only black hero in Gotham, but also killing a character with real promise. Stephanie obviously gets **** on the most. This is Steph's One Year Later equivalent that her fans criticize to this day. Of course Leslie Thompkins too gets an unbelievable character assasination. If Denny still worked for DC at the time he would've slapped every editor upside the head. War Games is easily the worst Batman event I've read, if not the worst story of his ever. It's such a colossal snafu from the top down that the only real answer could be: "The Clear Malice this Story was Written with."

Really, I love how no one actually involved in this book wanted to do it. Grayson and Simone heavily protested the killing of Steph, Willingham felt so bad about her death that he wanted to give her a last hoorah by making her Robin and Dylan Horrocks infamously quit wholesale from Batgirl and left DC disenfranchised with the whole medium after being in meetings for the event. It's probably no coincidence that one of the few characters that comes out of this event relatively unscathed is Cassandra, who spends her War Games issues completely removed from the plot of the event. Even characters that don't get killed or completely character assassinated are having a bad time just by proxy. Nightwing, fresh off sexual assault by Tarantula, has a mental breakdown while Tim yells at him for having it. Like... what!? What a garbage fire of a story. Jesus wept!

[Blue22]

War Games was like...the freaking zenith of Didio's immaturity. Dude had a room full of writers telling him it was a bad idea, telling him readers would hate it, giving him alternatives, and practically begging him not to go through with it....just for him to do it anyway out of an extremely childish vendetta against a character that he personally didn't like. That's not how you lead, Dan.

Just like with every unsuccessful hit job he's orchestrated against Nightwing and the original Teen Titans. If you're a character in his line of fire, he will go out of his way to destroy you in the pettiest, most humiliating way possible. Regardless of how much the readers (you know...the people buying these books) love you. War Games wasn't a story that was made because the Batoffice thought it would be a good story. It was made out of pure spite.

[Celgress]

I can only pick one? There was so much bad. This is going to be the toughest poll yet....

[Celgress]

Okay -

The Character Assassination of Leslie Thompkins followed close by what happened to Steph. *shudders*

[Gaius]

This story ought to be plastered all over the walls of the Bat offices at DC as a monument, like when slaves would mutter in the ears of victorious Roman generals to remember that they're mortal.

[Light of Justice]

Wost part? Everything. So maybe it's existence is the worst part of 'War Games'

[The Cool Thatguy]

There any summary of the behind the scenes stuff as to why this dreck was published?

[Timothy Hunter]

Is War Games considered by fans to be the worst Batman event? What are the other contenders?

[godisawesome]

Is War Games considered by fans to be the worst Batman event?

I don’t know about worst overall... But I do think there’s a general concensus that, at best, it’s the weakest of the “classic” Batfamily crossovers of the 90’s and 00’s, and that very few specific fandoms were happy with its impact on individual characters... and that in general, it’s hated by Leslie and Steph’s fans, disliked by Bruce fans, seems as just another part of a nadir in Nightwing’s run by his fans, and generally seems as something that was good to see retconned.

I think the most positive feedback about anything to do with it tends to be a “in spite of this” kind of thing - some fans liked the Batgirl and Robin crossover that started shortly afterwards, and Black Mask was put in place for the Under the Hood storyline which was a general success.

[Light of Justice]

Is War Games considered by fans to be the worst Batman event? What are the other contenders?

I've seen many, if not majority, Batman/Batfam fans hate this 3 particular events : War Games, Battle for the Cowl, City of Bane.

[MajorHoy]

I've seen many, if not majority, Batman/Batfam fans hate this 3 particular events : War Games, Battle for the Cowl, City of Bane.

What about Death of the Family?

[godisawesome]

What about Death of the Family?

While it’s not really loved by Batfamily fans, the most that happened was Alfred losing a hand. It’s hard to stack that up against War Games for what it did to Stephanie and Leslie. Battle for the Cowl was basically a needless event that could be quickly forgotten, while City of Bane might be fairly close to it given how it killed Alfred.

[Jackalope89]

Why can I only choose 1 option?