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"City of Bane" chapter eleven! The end is near as one victory leads to another defeat. As Batman reclaims his city from Bane, can he regain his sense of family? More specifically, when a man who is your father from another dimension has torn everything down around you, what will it take to build it back up? Especially when that man is currently staring you in the face and threatening to punch it. The final battle for Gotham City...and the cowl of the Caped Crusader...starts here!
Tom King has given us a story that cuts to the heart of Batman's motivations. Will Bruce give into the demands of the man in whose memory he became the Batman? Or will he instead heed the words of the man who raised him and helped him become the Batman? Read Full Review
Jorge Fornes delivers some beautiful art in this issue. Showing familiar moments from different angles and perspectives gives a fuller sense of those moments to readers of the series. The layout of the panels is fantastic and there are some brilliant uses of shadow and negative space that make the characters pop. Read Full Review
So how will this all end? I have no idea. It has been a fun ride up until now. Let us hope that King can stick to the landing and make something great. Read Full Review
Overall, King does a fantastic job explaining Thomas Wayne's psyche during this event and sets up the final conclusion to the 'City of Bane' arc. Read Full Review
In the penultimate issue of his run on the series, writer Tom King uses an extended series of flashbacks to lay out the tragedy of Thomas Wayne's life and his motivations. It points to the central question of his run: "can Batman be happy?" While not the most action-packed issue, BATMAN #84 is a fascinating character study. Read Full Review
While this issue basically pauses the ongoing story in the middle of the climax to provide exposition, the exposition it gives is essential to understanding the story as a whole. Read Full Review
Even though this issue takes us away from the story, it is still a must read because of all the answers revealed and there is some amazing writing in each episode that happens that kept me entertained and engaged in the entire issue. King did a great job making sure to keep integrity in each event and making sure not to just cram a bunch of events that only showed us the answers and moved on. There is amazing art work to complement the story and I highly recommend you pick this one up ASAP! Batman #84 is available now, so get up off your butt and go pick it up now! Read Full Review
Batman#84 is a great, concise explanation of Flashpoint Batman. While the flashback sequences were elevated by King's expert use of reverse storytelling, it is ultimately marred by FP Batman's behavior in previous issues. Read Full Review
Batman #84 provides some much-needed answers and a novel approach to depicting the life of Thomas Wayne. Read Full Review
City of Bane will end very shortly, and Thomas Wayne's entire origin and motivations are now clear. While his reasoning for wanting to stop Bruce Wayne are sound, the methods he uses are suspect. Overall this is an interesting issue that is a fun read and overcomes its faults through its interactive nature. Read Full Review
Let's be honest; there are no big shocks in this issue. We get some new information but thats not really the point. This issue serves as an argument as to why a character like Thomas Wayne would essentially become the villain of this story, and I think its successful at doing that. Read Full Review
The second-to-last issue of Tom King's run arrives with Batman #84, but it's an issue that, with so much story left to tell, feels an awful lot like stalling as it takes readers not into a final showdown but reminds them how we actually got to this point. To be fair, it's a beautiful stall. Read Full Review
And I think that's the crux of my critique: while they are moments I do enjoy, the overall direction seems a little wonky and something that can't really be overlooked with the conclusion around the corner (which despite my fatigue, I will dutifully read). Read Full Review
This issue was a case of better late than never in terms of fleshing out Thomas motivations, but theres a real weirdness in the City of Bane arc culminating in a final conflict with Bruce and Thomas. Read Full Review
Batman #84 is fine. That seems like a lackluster assessment, but it really feels like a placeholder, biding time for whatever comes next while doing its best to stretch out the little bit of context that King wanted to give to Thomas Wayne's motivations. Read Full Review
The issue is almost all flashback as the creative team continues to delay the finale. The flashbacks don't reveal anything worth the delay. Read Full Review
This issue wasnt nearly as bad as the past 2, but it still doesnt crack adequate. Read Full Review
If Batman #84 was a standalone comic than it would succeed in telling a summarized version of Flashpoint Thomas Wayne's backstory leading into "City of Bane." But that is not what Batman #84. This is the penultimate chapter for the story that Tom King has built his entire run on Batman around. For there to be this big of a stalling tactic applied going into the final issue for "City of Bane" is inexcusable. If it wasn't for the strong artwork from Jorge Fornes and Jordie Bellaire this issue would've been an even bigger swing and miss than it turned out to be. Read Full Review
This issue wasnt nearly as bad as the past 2, but it still doesnt crack adequate. Read Full Review
Aside from a few nice moments, this issue is a complete waste of time that delivers a message that completely contradicts everything Thomas Wayne has been doing" So" Basically" Your standard Tom King comic these days. Read Full Review
This issue gives us some much needed context when it comes to Thomas Wayne's character. In addition we have a great artist working on this book. Unfortunately, this all comes with the extremely poor decision of putting the issue in reverse order of events. Now, there is a way to do it properly. I don't want others with great ideas that involve playing with story structure to be discouraged. However, understand that you are swinging for the fences and unfortunately that means you have a high chance of failing. That is the case with this new issue of Batman. That one decision affects the book so greatly that all the good that this issue does is immediately and decisively undone. This is beyond disappointing. Read Full Review
Yes, I gave #83 a 1 and #84 a 10. Allow me to explain myself. The Good News : FINALLY! We have the background story of Bat-Thomas and I think is just amazing, I really like this character since Flashpoint and I think this background story is very good stuff about Thomas so I spare a review of 10 for this issue but... As another "King" said (the singer Carole King) "It's too late baby, now it's too late". Too late after a terrible run from Tom King. And the Bad news are : I bet King kills Bat-Thomas the next number... I know because is King's way and because the infamous foretelling of Gotham Girl at the end of "I'm Gotham". So I'm expecting the worst. And you?
The perfect penultimate issue.
Comicbook goodness!
Things I liked about the issue........
1. I rather liked that Thomas had a history with Selina in his world. It's kind of cool that she was like his Robin sort of. It was an unexpected twist. And the fact that Martha kills her was sad but cool also. The whole we met here no we met here thing was over kill. I can understand it between Selina and Bruce but to use it between Thomas and Selina takes what was kind of cute it to far.
2. The art was good in some place not so much in others. Over all it was okay.
3. I liked the story. It was a bit confusing as you read it, but that is due to the way it's lined up. Once you have read it all through, it sorts it's self out order wise. Though still leaves you with ques more
So questions were answered. Plotholes were loved. Origins ans background were added. But hey that only means that King doesn't know what he is doing. That was the tale of a broken man and it was profound and touching. It give more depht to the overall run and it really prepare for the last showdown. Not particullary fan of the reverse narration but it was done correctly.
Thankfully this issue happened. I was so used to detractors complaining about not knowing what happened to Thomas Wayne for *ages*. I knew from the start it would be explained. So I would reply "It's a mystery. Keep waiting. That's what mysteries are... a mystery." Of course now that it is revealed they will continue to say things like "Tom King never had anything planned, he just made it up on the spot". It used to be "Tom King forgot".
As for the actual issue itself, umm it sure isn't the kind of penultimate issue you would expect. The way it is delivered is a bit of a clusterfuck, likely due to the premature ending. It seems the flashback is being told in reverse from Thomas Wayne's perspective. I would have to reread it to c more
Oh man, what an unfortunate time to release this issue. This could have been so much better if it was released instead of issue #81.
As it stands, this issue does a good job establishing Thomas's motivations. It gives us a much-needed explanation of what Thomas was doing all along and why he did it.
However, I can't say that the fact this issue came so late in the arc didn't affect my enjoyment, because it did.
And as usual, The art is beautiful, just as you'd expect from this run.
The issue's heartbreaking in that it's a window into how much better this series could've been with both a re-prioritization of... priorities and tighter pacing. We needed this dive into Flashpoint bat so much like 30 issues ago, maybe showing the character motivations so we know why things are happening or something, maybe dropping bane entirely because he doesn't do anything interesting and thomas is so unexplored. there's easily an arcs worth of cool stuff in this that's just breezed by. It also highlights king's inspired structural experimentation, it took a lot of work to fit this big of a story into 22 pages. it's as clean as it possibly can be and the little thomas bits we do get are potent.
If I'm being honest this wasn't my favourite issue of King's Batman, but I still liked it. The issue felt like it tied a lot together, explaining the reasons for the events in both king's run as well as things in in Brian Azzarello's original batman flashpoint book. I could go into more detail as to what I liked and what I didn't but I have a feeling others did that already, so do I agree with the haters, no. Do I agree with a perfect score, also no. It's a good story with great art, two months too late.
"My little boy..."
Not bad, I enjoyed this one.
Filler? Yes. Should have been released much earlier to reveal naggingly missing plot details? Most definitely.
But we finally learn how Thomas Wayne got to the Prime universe. It fits, involves a speedster (there is a coloring error in the issue), makes sense and fills a plot point that really should have been filled much, much earlier. And I also like the twisted version of the Batman oath that Thomas took. That man is really too far gone.
Also, no pretentious dialogue or repetition. Unfortunately, we do get another variation of "we met on..."
Yeah, not bad, but where was this type of writing for the last 30 something issue? Where Mr. Kin more
I liked that we finally got some answers to flashpoint Batman, but his motivation is unconvincing. He clearly knows this is not the same universe Batman as flashpoint so he can't assume it will all turn out the same. Also the art was not good, especially with an egregious error in coloring flash's suit that caused a ton of confusion.
Nooo no no nonono no. This is not what this series need at this exact moment. It's way too late to waste another issue trying to explain Flashpoint Batman's actions - and they're not even justified, most of the stuff shown here either was a no-brainer or makes no sense. And King tries to sort of do the thing he did so well half a decade ago (wow, time flies!) on the Grayson Future's End oneshot, where he tries to tell the story from the finish to the beginning, rather than telling it from beginning to the end, like, you know, regular writers do. But it does not work here. At least the art was nice.
If Thomas wanted to spare Bruce the pain and misery of being Batman, wouldn't he have made SURE Bruce and Selina got married? After all, the reason they Didnt wed was because Selina was convinced if Bruce was happy, he couldn't be Batman?
This isnt as bad as the last few issues, but still bad.
We are finally getting an explanation for why & how Thomas can even be in this timeline. I don’t read Flash, but I don’t think Reverse Flash is powerful enough to bring people from already erased timelines back to the canon ( if so, he should bring Pre52 Darkseid& Desaad back to me), so this feels like a deus ex machina.
It also pisses me off, that Thomas is still thinking he& Bruce are the same kind of Batman. Thomas is nothing more than a psychotic mass murderer asshole, so why doesnt Bruce point this out? This isnt his father, his father died. All of this should be emphasized more. Dialogue is missing, but thats because all of this is way too late. Thomas more
Another Grayson futures end or Pax Americana like issue. I don't like it.
King is really asking a lot by giving us so little story progression each issue
"Hey, everyone! Tom watched Memento and got a real swell idea for his Batman comic!"
Other than Fornes's art, this book is garbage. However, I am delighted that King didn't get the chance to spread his hare-brained plot over the 100 issues as initially planned.
One. More. Issue. Left.
Okay then.
Eh. Just eh.
Reverse flashbacks might sound very artistic and deep. It actually makes it a bit more jarring, especially since I don't remember Flashpoint so well. So if someone wants to enjoy this issue more, you need to read Thomas bits backwards.
So, we finally got a Thomas backstory. In a penultimate issue of King's run. There wasn't any better place to put this? Like, after "Fall and the Fallen"? (I am ashamed I remember the names of King's arcs) Put this really needed to happen before City of Bane.
"Present Day" arc doesn't go anywhere. Summary is again so misleading. In other news, water; wet.
What is in this, isn't actually that bad IMO. I don't hate it. I hate the idea of this, I dislike C more
Not gonna lie, whatever this was, good isn't it.
Using the word "earlier" for every panel makes it feel incredibly messy, and as we're talking about a character from an entirely different Earth it muddles it even further. I'd say there would have to be a better way to indicate where and when things happened but simply "earlier" is not it.
While I can't recall the Flashpoint story, I am fairly sure there are inconsistencies or retcons present here.
How the story develops seems to be for the most part unconnected with Doomsday Clock as people believed, so that's another concept thrown out the window.
It's disappointing that while it presents the motivations of Thomas Wayne it does so in a poor fashi more
I don't know what linear story telling did to King as a child, but it must be terrible. Because King just refuses to tell a story in linear order.
Apparently Thomas Wayne's whole motivation is that he fell in love with the Selina Kyle of his world and he wants Bruce to, in some sort of weird psycho-sexual transference thing, seal the deal.
Apparently Martha Joker killed Selina and Thomas Bats doesn't want Bruce to miss out. Again, we get huge amounts of decompression. The Bruce Thomas confrontation amounts to one punch then we cut to non--linear flashbacks that don't really amount to anything.
We see how Thomas came to Bruce's world, but the labored backstory was overly complicated. All it amounts to is "Fat more
Ugh, you know I have to get a pesky wisdom tooth extracted today and I think that will be at least 5 times better than this issue. His "explanations" aren't explanations. This is just shitty. "Thomas Wayne is an asshole because... he's always been an asshole." My mind is blown. We knew that Thomas Wayne was an asshole, we didn't need most of this. And again, what happened with Booster? He told Batman a story about a spooky alternate timeline, like Batman hasn't seen countless of those. And Bane is in a coma?? Getting shot in the head isn't something you typically survive, but I guess in the DC universe, brains are stronger than bullets. That's just so fucking typical. Have some balls, go all out. At least then this shit wouldn't feel so god more
whoever wrote this need a helmet on they head
I see no reedeeming qualities here. Not one. Everything in this issue is just bad - writing is awful, dialogues, the very little there is, are even worse, which is nothing new in this series, art is bad, story is pretty much nonexistent. Aside from maybe two pages, every panel is a retrospective of Thomas' life, but it... sucks. It lacks any real depth and emotional weigth for us to truly care about it. 84 issues, that's how many opportunities King had to explore the character, to set up his motivations, slowly, step by step, foreshadow some things, explain others, creating even more questions in the process. But no. This is what we got instead - a piece of meaningless filler, because there's no other term to honestly call it, which neither more
This was all very dumb, and I can't wait for it to be over, but I'll bring up one very stupid point.
If you take King's motivations for Thomas Wayne at face value, then he would have shot The Joker I the head as he lay prone in the church. That would be the single most helpful thing he could have done for Bruce.
One more issue of this masquerade.
Prelude:
Hey, I'm finally caught back up to the week I'm in.
Anyway, this is the second last issue of Tom King's Batman and an important one apparently. Seeing as there are many questions that are yet to be answered, let's see how this issue tackles at least one of them.
The Good:
Jorge Fornes, I am so sorry that your art was wasted here because it is absolutely phenomenal.
The Bad:
Ok, so I understand Thomas' logic. It's very shitty logic but it is logic. So that helps I guess.
Why is Eobard messing with Thomas? I guess it makes a certain sense due to Flashpoint but Thawne only screws with the Flash's lives.
Colouring is incorrect for a VERY crucial panel. Just takes me right more
King fans after this issue: The book was kind of rushed and sloppy in execution; not a great penultimate issue either. It also has some plot-holes and raises more questions than before.
Also King fans after this issue: 10/10 rating
I don't care anymore. This book is an embarrassment to the comic industry. I feel bad for anyone who enjoys this book.
You can say what you will about taste being subjective, but Tom King is nothing more than a stain on the legacy of Batman that urgently needs to be removed.
Another issue that only needed to be 3 pages long instead of 20. That's King, folks. Jesus Christ.
Man, what can we really say about this book? Thomas promises to his dead parents that he will spend the rest of his life warring against anything that might cause Bruce pain. Except for him apparently. He can completely fuck Bruce's life up and that's all okay. Bruce also doesn't see what Thomas sees in the Joker, whatever the fuck that is, we don't know because it's also not explained. Thomas also magically knows about the whole Booster thing despite the fact that he wasn't there and should have no frame of reference for it. Reverse Flash somehow traveled to Flashpoint and kept Thomas alive? No explanation how he did that. Also, Thomas now decided to kill the Flashpoint world not to save Bruce and the real world but because he hate more
Tom King's horrible run on Batman continues. I can't wait for him to be off of this book.
Batman has become a parody of a book. I'm very suspicious of the perfect reviews it gets from some reviewers.
Tom King HAS to be making this S**T up as he goes!!!
the bozo probably had NO idea what he wanted to to for this run, NO PLAN...
just a lot of pretentious hot air!!!
F**K YOU, Tom King!!!
take this miserable pathetic excuse of a Batman run, and stick it right up your A**!!!!!
9/10 for the EXCELLENT art. -9/10 for the writing.
I don't blame Tom King though. I get it now. He got pulled off his book and he is taking the piss at DC. But he is alienating his fans. We get a recap of things we know. That's all. A recap. And a small twist that changes nothing. Both the solicit and the cover have absolutely nothing to do with the plot.
Another issue trying to retroactively show that there was always a story here when it is obvious that King was too lazy to do anything of the sort and needed these last dozen or so issues to cover his own tracks. We were supposed to get the answers to Thomas Wayne, but I guess it's the questions that King didn't understand, namely, how was there a Flashpoint timeline for him to come from and why wasn't he dead there? Having the Button story happen isn't the explanation, that is just the first time we asked the same question. Plus, pushing this idea that Batman knew what happened in the Gift with Booster Gold is just wrong and it's the second time it's been brought up as a key point in the story. Batman didn't go with Booster and thus ne more
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