Enzo991

Reading Batman #59 was just soul crushing. I have never felt so much hate and contempt for Batman from any writer before reading King's sad excuse of a run. So much stupidity, inconsistencies, and absurd mischaracterization. King truly does not get any of these characters or the Batman world as a whole.

He still thinks he is being clever and meta by having the characters lampshade their own quirks and other things they are known for, but all that accomplishes is making it seem as if the characters are actors pretending to be Batman and the Penguin, who believe that they can break character at any moment to get a laugh out of their audience. I have never read a Gotham less authentic and fake. Who knows that might end up being the big twist at the end.

Also, King's obsession with marriage rears its head once again. He wanted to draw parallels between the Penguin and Batman, and did not know of any other way of doing it aside from killing Penguin's none existing wife

King's Batman continues to be laughably written. Batman is always portrayed as a bumbling idiot who is completely clueless to everything happening around him, and with the emotional maturity of a 5 years old. That entire scene with Bane and Gordon was nothing short of wretched. King has zero understanding, love, or respect for any of these characters or the world they inhabit

Hey, this actually makes a lot of sense. King seems to have an "end" in mind, he just does not know how to get to it. He knows he wants to do it in at least a 100 issues, but that is all he knows.

He is obsessed with the idea of doing something with Batman that he will be remembered for. He wants to be the guy who had Batman married or the guy who returned Bane to his former glory. Something that would look good in a headline.

That is why there is so much filler in this run that is supposed to be so jam packed not even a 100 issues are enough. That is also why there are so many ass pulls in his writing. He writes Batman like a moron, but he seems to think that him pulling the "I AM BATMAN" meme is his get out of jail card.

With that being said, I disagree with the article insinuating that people just don't get the brilliance of King's run. His run is by far the worst that I have ever read, and no end will ever justify the terrible writing plaguing the title since its beginning. Bane nominally returning to his former glory won't amount to much when his entire time was spent making nonsensical plans about ruining weddings.

It's sad to see people still trying to push this tired narrative about how the readers are simply not evolved enough to understand King's writing.

@morpheus_: I for one never attributed anything that happened in the Button to King's writing, seeing how the biggest moment between Thomas and Bruce was immediately thrown out the window the very next arc. The Button was all Williamson. King's complete disregard for Damian pretty much confirmed that suspicion (god forbids a child by someone other than Selina is treated with respect).

As far as I am concerned Williamson is light years ahead of King as a writer if only by virtue of actually knowing how to write. King is utter garbage who lacks any talent for writing or even basic plotting. A complete hack through and through. I realize my dislike for King might be on the extreme side, but he represents everything I feared would happen to Batman, and he seems to enjoy prolonging the torture by adding more issues to his sham of a run, so my patience for him has ran out too long ago.

I am very happy to see the Hellbat sticking around long after its debut. It is far too awesome a concept to be forgotten quickly. It is exactly the kind of device that should be reserved for special occasions to be used for a huge climactic battle scene. It adds a whole dimension to Batman, giving writers the ability to create crazy battle situations, with just the right amount of draw backs for it to not be abusable. I remember getting somewhat miffed when I saw Lois pretty much taking the armor for her own, but I am glad it is back in Bruce's hands. It really seems the suit shows up wherever Tomasi goes.

@entropy_aegis: My god this guy cannot stop pissing me off. You know a situation is bad when the things you say jokingly turn out to be exactly how the writer is thinking. I agree that at this point it really is nothing more than King getting drunk on all the power DC has given him, and basically not wanting to relinquish control over one of DC's biggest properties until somebody forcibly removes him. Being the main Batman writer strokes King's ego, and he cannot have enough of that. The smugness permeating his writing did not come from nothing.

Tomasi is a great example of a writer seizing the opportunity to diligently build up his portfolio at a time when the competition is very weak. He did a great job on B&R and managed to wow people with his Superman run. He deserves all the hype and recognition he could get, and his upcoming Tec run is rightfully the best thing to happen to Batman since the start of Rebirth.

I agree that it is great to see Jason Blood back in Batman. We both love the more supernatural side of Gotham so it is good to see Bruce dealing with the supernatural once again especially since it is becoming dubious whether Damned will deliver on that front. I personally love Zatanna and the thing she has with Bruce, but I understand not wanting to bring her on a Batman book at this time. Constantine can stay the hell away from Gotham though.

@entropy_aegis: Sorry, crazy Batman is not good or readable. Once again King loves to portray Bruce as unhinged and emotionally immature. He continues to use that lame "Bat-x" joke that has gotten so old by now that any comedy has been stripped away from it, and it was not funny to begin with. It is as if King is writing a meme version of Batman based on what those who hate the character think of him. This looks like trash, same as always.

@morpheus: Oh god last time that happened, King punished us by adding three more issues to his blasted run. I shudder to think what he will do now that he is off the book for an entire month. On the up side Williamson has written a great Batman in the past (The Button, Red Death), so I am looking forward to see what he will do next. My gut feeling is telling me that Williamson might be a favorite to take over the Batman book after King's much awaited departure, seeing how close he is to Snyder.

Hell yeah I am excited to see the Hellbat armor returns. If you had asked me a few years ago when the Hellbat first debuted if I thought it will stick around this long I would have said no, but I am pleasantly surprised to see it show up again. While I do not necessarily care for the armor's combat capabilities, I simply adore it from a visual standpoint. I love how demonic it looks, and the fact it gives Bruce a chance to duke it out with heavy hitters is a bonus. This will be fun.

@morpheus_: It could be. I am not reading the book so it is difficult for me to verify things myself but from what I have heard everything seems to be in line with what we know about how King's mind work.

Just because he hides his bullshit behind a sorry attempt at depth and artistic vision does not mean the end results are anything but what they seem on the surface.

Regardless of how many different interpretation there could be for Mister Miracle's ending, that still does not bode well for Batman at all.

I don't know about that. While I do not follow King's Mister Miracle book, or anything else he writes for that matter, I have heard about the spoilers from his Mister Miracle finale and oh man I do not think I could put anything past King at this point. The guy clearly has some serious issues that he is incorporating into his writing, and if his Mister Miracle is anything to go by, I truly fear for poor Bruce's future.

I am not sure if King would go as far as killing Bruce though, if only because that would ruin his bat/cat fantasy and King would never do that to catwoman, but I am starting to think that nothing good will happen to Bruce at the end of King's run.

God rest his soul.

@entropy_aegis: The thing about King is that nothing he says means anything to me. He will always say whatever he thinks will score him the most brownie points with people. The same goes for his writing which has this mechanical and manufactured feeling to it save for the PTSD obsession and the Catwoman wanking.

So King pretending to be humble and in awe of GL means absolutely nothing since I am positive he only said that after seeing how much people were loving it.

I actually haven't gotten around to reading GL yet but after all I have heard about it, I will need to make it a special read.

@entropy_aegis: Que people screeching HALGOD. Writing superheroes as something bigger than the readers and as something to aspire to is just not trendy enough, especially when it is Batman. This is perfectly in line with how Morrison wrote Bruce in his amazing Batman run and I love him for that. This could actually mean that I might have to change my opinion on Hal if Morrison's run on GL turns out anywhere as good as his Batman run.

@entropy_aegis: Deathstroke Arkham is fantastic. Somebody for the love of god give Priest a Batman. The guy clearly has so much love and respect for Batman and his mythos, what more does he need to do to be handed the character ? I liked DS vs BM, but this Arkham arc has been a lot more interesting so far. Such a great utilization of Batman's characters, and that final twist was genuinely exciting. I can't wait to see what happens to Slade after this, and how his standing within the Batman world will be affected.

King's Batman was surprisingly not as shitty as usual, ignoring the attempt at poetry and crappy "humor", but this is par for the course at this point. The first issue of every arc tends to read decently if only because King is busy setting up questions and raising the stakes, which can trick readers into thinking that the story will be better. Things fall apart in later issues when it comes to payoff and providing answers. Gotta hand it to King though, he at least can write Alfred somewhat decently, which cannot be said for all the other Batman characters.

Justice League was just fun. Snyder continues to write the only good Batman at DC even when he is not present a lot in the issue. The book is light and fun and is giving me serious pre N52 vibes which is appreciated. Snyder continues his habit of introducing many new concepts that never feel like they will ever be important enough to stick around after he leaves, but otherwise JL is a really fun read. Next issue will be especially interesting after today's cliffhanger.

Have yet to read GL but I am very excited to see what Morrison and Sharp managed to make of Hal, seeing how he is my least favorite GL.

Please tell me where I can read that interview. Reading one of my favorite Batman writers taking a dig at my least favorite comic book writer might be cathartic, and I need that right now more than ever.

I think King has finally stopped pretending to like Batman. Hic #2 and that terrible secret files "story" sealed it for me, if I still had any remaining doubts about it before. It seems all he cares about is finding new ways to shit on Batman while pretending to write a deep and introspective character study that only questions the character without providing any answers. Sad to see too many morons falling for it.