Batman #63 Preview and Discussion

[Inversed]

I second pretty much everything you said. I get what he is going for, I just think the deconstruction in these cases feel much more excessive. It doesn't help we aren't really learning anything new yet about the character or thematic wise, its moreso about revisiting his fears and anxieties through these extreme examples. I'm hoping we do get some new revelations in regards to the character through this exploration, which I think may make all the reminiscing/torture worth it.

Wondering how much the Heroes In Crisis tie-in next is gonna impact the rest of the series. King has said HiC takes place between #54 and 55 (so before Nightwing got shot), so this will most likely be jumping back to that point in the timeline. Also looks like Gotham Girl is involved, so its probably connected in some way.

[Samson3191]

I totally understand why these nightmare issues aren’t everyone’s cup of tea, but I’m a sucker for them. I love the weird, trippy, surreal horror especially in Batman’s world. And I like how it’s peeling back layers of Bruce’s psyche in the process. Even the tiny bits like Selina mentioning the password on the clock is the time of Bruce’s parents’ murder. “It’s...not so healthy”. We’ve had a really, really emotionally battered Bruce for a few months now but I’m digging it.

[Pohzee]

For the first time, I feel like King is going wayy over my head here. I do not understand whatever he was trying to illustrate with that monologue. If someone could explain that I'd appreciate it.

[Naked Bat]

I totally understand why these nightmare issues aren’t everyone’s cup of tea, but I’m a sucker for them. I love the weird, trippy, surreal horror especially in Batman’s world. And I like how it’s peeling back layers of Bruce’s psyche in the process. Even the tiny bits like Selina mentioning the password on the clock is the time of Bruce’s parents’ murder. “It’s...not so healthy”. We’ve had a really, really emotionally battered Bruce for a few months now but I’m digging it.

Same here.

[Coco Loco]

Question: Constantine references Master Bruce killing “all those children”. But in # 61 Master Bruce is killing inmates who he accuses of murdering his parents. There’s no reference to him killing kids. Is this a slip-up or an intentional inconsistency? Anyone know?

[Korath]

Question: Constantine references Master Bruce killing “all those children”. But in # 61 Master Bruce is killing inmates who he accuses of murdering his parents. There’s no reference to him killing kids. Is this a slip-up or an intentional inconsistency? Anyone know?

Batman's loco and drugged, so I guess it's just him being messed up or something.

[SixSpeedSamurai]

I liked this one, but once again King drags something out into 2-3 issues that could have been done in just 1. The Daniels variant cover was great.

[Scott Taylor]

Every story could be done in one. But should it?

I appreciated this story. Most dream type scenarios are done in a single issue. Its rare that we get a more in-depth approach to this kind of thing so I appreciate the long-form version of it, and think King is doing a good job.

We've seen it done by Moore (Man Who Has Everything) and Morrison (the Coda to RIP) before. In Moore, it really worked I felt even in short form - just something about the art and density of the text. However in the Morrison story, where they are cloning Batman, the dream/nightmare feels rushed and trivial to Batman. But then I felt all of Final Crisis felt rushed.

Anyhow it was interesting seeing the wedding play out. This is Batman's internal coping mechanism for that whole affair - "well she would have gotten shot anyways." Who in Batman's circle hasn't experienced tragedy because they are close to Batman?

[millernumber1]

Question: Constantine references Master Bruce killing “all those children”. But in # 61 Master Bruce is killing inmates who he accuses of murdering his parents. There’s no reference to him killing kids. Is this a slip-up or an intentional inconsistency? Anyone know?

I think the inmates the evil kid was murdering were pretty young, so maybe it's just Constantine being all world weary and calling young people "kids." It's also possible that Bruce can't remember precisely from one dream to the next - "Constantine" says that he won't remember this dream in the next...though he did just reference the last two dreams...so...

For the first time, I feel like King is going wayy over my head here. I do not understand whatever he was trying to illustrate with that monologue. If someone could explain that I'd appreciate it.

If you're talking about "Constantine's" "My first cigarette" monologue, I think it was all about happiness and love, and whether it's worth clinging to the dream of happiness even though it always ends in death and pain. Which is kind of King's whole question in this Batman run, I think.

I totally understand why these nightmare issues aren’t everyone’s cup of tea, but I’m a sucker for them. I love the weird, trippy, surreal horror especially in Batman’s world. And I like how it’s peeling back layers of Bruce’s psyche in the process. Even the tiny bits like Selina mentioning the password on the clock is the time of Bruce’s parents’ murder. “It’s...not so healthy”. We’ve had a really, really emotionally battered Bruce for a few months now but I’m digging it.

I did not like the first one (#61), but 62 and 63 really got me with the thematic exploration. I'm a sucker for Pygmalion, and intrigued at whether King is trying to peel back Bruce's sense of overprotective/ownership of his family, saying he "created" them. And this issue just hit me right in the spot that #50 left me.

[tib2d2]

Remember when Batman comics showed him fighting bad guys?

[Schumiac]

I dont mind "delving into the psyche of the character" issues. But issue after issues after issue is a bit too much. I don't find King'a storytelling that captivating so tend to skip his long babbling ones... Like that "cigarette story" in this. The whole Bat-Cat thing feels like a story from a teenage angst novel so that doesn't help either.

[BatmanJones]

so random! story within a story. at least he isn't repeatedly saying that he is going to break bane (I am Bane) These Knight mares almost are lucid in comparison.

Nothing King writes is random. He's playing a long game and I couldn't be more excited by it.

[TheCape]

This reminded me a lot to those Post-RIP Morrison issues when Bruce was being held hostage by Darkseid, but even more obvious.

[Mataza]

Nothing King writes is random.

This is true. While i pretty much hate his incoherent storytelling the dude thrives on the details. You can have a lot of fun trying to figure out what he was trying to say with this or that.

My problem with him is that he writes a lot of characters really out of character, especially batman villains. And that he largely doesnt care about what makes sense.

[Inversed]

My only minor complaint is despite his great attention to detail in pretty much all of his issues, and how alot of the time you can go back and find missing details in previous issues, I've tried going back through the run with the "Bane is responsible for everything" knowledge in mind and tried to look for any hints, and I've come up with nothing that could logically connect it to that.

I could very well be missing something in the issues, or there's some piece of information we haven't heard about yet that'll be a clue to make everything so much clearer, but I'm still waiting to see what the answer is before definitively saying how I feel about it.