Oh wait, marriage will fix his depression. Because depression works that way.
The story feels like payoff for bearing through a lot of bad filler issues in this run, even though the arc itself has a lot of filler moments as well.
I'm not going to debate it on terms of quality, as the run is so divisive at this point. But in terms of "selling" the story to a new reader, City of Bane is intended to be the payoff to the previous 74 issues, but more specifically the cliffhanger at the end of issue 50. If you haven't read the series to this point, jumping in at 75 probably wouldn't be the best idea.
Last Read: Aquaman & The Flash: Voidsong
Monthly Pull List: Birds of Prey, Daredevil, Geiger, Green Arrow, Justice Ducks, Justice Society of America, Negaduck, Nightwing, Phantom Road, Shazam!, Space Ghost, Suicide Squad: Dream Team, Thundercats, Titans
Sorry, but a protagonist like Batman finally getting off his ass after how many issues of acting like a secondary character in his own book isn't payoff, just the end of a terrible narrative choice.
Any idea who is taking over after King's (ahem) masterpiece is done?
To me, for it to count as “pay off” it has to justify the last 74 issues. This definitely does not and I can’t imagine there is a way it I’ll in the next 7 issues. You can’t tear a character down for 75 issues and then build him up in 10. This bad story telling. Especially considering that he still hasn’t actually started the building back up. When is that going to happen? Issue 84? Nah man. This is just the start to the ending of a long and short run.
I would advice users to avoid spoilers of the current storyline or hide them since the OP hasn't read the comic yet and we don't know how much he knows about the story. If the OP doesn't care about spoilers, then it's fine, but until then, I think it's best to avoid them.
About the thread, I think it depends on why you jumped off the run in the first place. If you didn't like nor care about what King was doing back then, I don't see a reason to like it now. If there's another reason for you leaving the title back then, I recommend you to try City of Bane. I have been a big fan of it and I think so far is one of the best arcs King has done in the title
"The Batman is Gotham City. I will watch him. Study him. And when I know him and why he does not kill, I will know this city. And then Gotham will be MINE!"-BANE
"We're monsters, buddy. Plain and simple. I don't dress it up with fancy names like mutant or post-human; men were born crueler than Apes and we were born crueler than men. It's just the natural order of things"-ULTIMATE SABRETOOTH