This series is really all over the place. It's bad when a few pages of Batman are better than the last 8 issues of Lois Lane, plus the pages she's in this time around. This series feels almost enthusiastically uninterested in Lois Lane herself. Which, y'know, I can see, when she's doing her Instagram pose on the cover to show how hard she cares. She's an increasingly arrogant character that never really shows, even in her own series, why she's so full of herself. Or why we should like her. Or why she deserves the praise she constantly gets. I don't know what the plot is anymore beyond the assassination attempt and the tendrils of plot outreaching from that, but I know that's not how this series started. We've got 3 issues before this is over, and it feels like barely anything of note has happened. Just make the rest of this series a Batman/Question comic. That would be fine with me. I know it's what the creative team really wants. more

Excellent art wasted on a boring story. A thriller that offers no thrills or excitement. Also the book is nothing more than an ad for things to come. As I said in other reviews, Bendis stopped caring because none of these stories will matter with the reboot.

And thank you ... For one last perfect day with my kids.

Usually when the backstory of a character is expanded on, it adds to them and showcases more of who they are. All this is issue does is elaborate on the “secret origins” of the 3 so-called “leaders” of the Legion.

Thing is, this simple premise is botched completely. Somehow each of the leaders feel like less of a character and just a pointless addition to the roster than before.

The actual information added from the multiple pages of this issue expanding on character story could be fit into a small blurb in a character introduction.

This is lowest tier writing. I kinda question why I even read it, because it’s a waste of time and NOTHING HAPPENS. more

A very slow start for a book with limited number of issues. It's OK I guess if you like DCEASED but it lacks the plot density of the original book. Art feels plasticky.

Don’t listen to Mr. 5 Paragraphs, he hates everything, it was really enjoyable

Prelude:
It's the conclusion to The Witching War and Tynion's run on Justice League Dark before he begins his handover to Ram V next month. Let's see how it goes.

The Good:
Love Kirk's question and framing at the start of the issue. How everyone sees magic in it's own different way but still something negative and to be feared.

Constantine's idea of magic sounds right.

Triple Wonder Woman! We have Hecate, Lord of Chaos and Traditional Wonder Woman. Way to tie the series together.

Why can't Tynion write Wonder Woman's solo? He understands her so well.

It'll be interesting to see where things go from here.

Alvaro Martinez Bueno's art is great.

The Bad:
Nothing.

Conclusion:
A wonderful conclusion to the Witching War and Tynion's run on the series. All that's left to do is the passover to Ram V. more

Prelude:
It's the final issue of Scott Snyder's run. But after everything that has happened, can it conclude itself in a satisfying way?

The Good:
Loved J'onn's speech.

The tying together of everything was great.

It's going to be interesting to see where things go from here.

Jimenez's art is great.

The Bad:
It doesn't really end.

Also it ends on a loss. Not sure how I feel about that.

Conclusion:
Hmm... this was a hard one. It was good but it's not really concluded is it? more

A series of short stories loosely connected with a murder mystery framing device which itself only exists to pimp Empyre. The other stories all exist solely to hype upcoming storylines of various current and upcoming titles. This would have been great as a free comic giveaway, but to charge $10 for a glorified preview comic is shady even by Big Two standards.

Nothing of consequence here. Save your money more

Prelude:
Incoming aims to solve a murder mystery while showcasing the Marvel Universe going into 2020. Let's see how it goes.

The Good:
It was nice seeing how the entire Marvel Universe is going right now.

The Bad:
The detective story fell flat.

It is boring at certain points which isn't helped by the length of the issue.

Conclusion:
If you want a catch up on the Marvel Universe, this works well. However, it is just set-up and falls flat in it's main selling point. more

It's not bad...

But these type of initiative starting one-shot advertisements should be FCBD giveaways or 1$ promotional issues at most... not 10$ overpriced/sized collectors bait.

Pure garbage. Miller really needs to move on to something new.

Why did I read this? I felt like wasting my time and sanity, that's why. Ugh, this was an insane slog filled with social commentary and all the bullshit that entails. I was getting hints of Legends Darkseid until he became... whatever he became. And then he was taken out like a chump *yet again* by Wunderkind Jon Kent. So, I guess he was Legends Darkseid throughout. I don't know if any of this was set up in DK3, as I opted out of reading that one. I hope so, or else this book is even worse than I am giving it credit for. When is DC going to learn that sometimes dead is better? more

I don't even know why Miller insists on writing comics.

this has to be the worst piece of nonsense i have read in 2019. what a trash

Utterly forgettable issue, adds nothing of consequence to the overarching story or furthers Donna Troy's character. All it does is give is create "edgy" Donna that is somehow just a far less effective Troia, so it's not even original.

I can't say the writer did much of anything, while the artwork is decidedly what carried the issue.

Not worth a purchase, not really even worth reading to be honest. more

100% garbage. There is no reason to buy this. Zoe Quinn is an awful writer and I wonder when this madness will end and they hire someone who can actually write a decent story to replace this crap. Writing lots of words doesn't mean you have anything to say and by the end, we are left with an issue that will be forgotten by this weekend.

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. more

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 pushes the story to its end, nor offers satisactory flashbacks to give us some insight into what, how and why. If Miller's horrendous All Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder was euthanized, I see no reason why King's run wasn't. I mean, it was cut short by 15 issues, so let's be thankful for that, but 85 issues is still way too much, considering the writer didn't tell us anything of value since 2016.
This trash ain't even worth torrenting at this point. 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 "Father Knows Best." I remained unconvinced.

Just be over story. It's SOOO SSSLLOOWWW. Everything hits with the impact of week-old bread, stale and moldy. Do things so the story stays fresh. Any baker knows that.

Or I could be wrong. 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 goddamn pointless, on top of being bloated and stupid. I don't have it in me anymore... One more issue and then we're mostly free... Here's hoping Batman/Catwoman continues getting pushed back. 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 fashion and shows little else.

This was not good. more

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 never saw what happened in that alt-Gotham!!! Also, we go through round 3 of "whose plan was it anyway" and I want out! Thank god we have only one issue left because this run is full of lazy, uninspired writing that doesn't hold up under any sort of look and it the fact this HACK has won Eisners just makes that award lesser. In conclusion, Tom King is just an awful writer, an even worse storyteller (which has to be why he keeps putting others' literature and poems in his stories), and a 100% hack who has barely written one story in 84 issues and even stolen one on the way more

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**!!!!!

Sooo funny. Hickman delivers yet again!

Yet another filler issue.
The good: The art is excellent in every aspect. This is a beautifully drawn book.
The bad: #82 is pretty much a big fight scene and it STILL fills like a filler issue. Even the "twist" is something everyone expected from #81.
We have three more issues to go and we are presented with a filler issue.
The editor should have combined #80, #81 and #82 into a single issue.
Definitely better than #81 but still the plot is not moving forward. Or better: there is no plot. And... the... dialogue... we... get... it...
I'm afraid King is saving everything for Batman/Catwoman. more

TRASH!
EXTREMELY decompressed
typical Tom King Garbage dialog.

still ridiculous how Tom King thinks that Flashpoint Batman is well enough trained to take down the entire Bat-family by himself. Tom King also is under the misconception that Bane is nothing more than a muscle-headed oaf. the explanation for why Bane has it in for Batman is weak at best. barely even a reason. r/>i did fid it extremely comical how Bane just left the Bat-a-Rang stuck hanging out of his cheek the entire time.

the way the fight ended between Batman and Bane was a bad parody. so damn stupidly ridiculous! this will go down in history as one of the worst Batman runs in existence, because Tom King can’t write a Batman story worth a crap. more

You know the archetype of an empty blockbuster action movie? It's shallow, so shallow in fact, you have to completely turn your brain off while watching it, to enjoy anything. People like Michael Bay and to a degree Zack Snyder built their careers on this. Oh, here's an explosion, and there's fire, and a car crashing, oh, oh, and some CGI monstrosity, you have fun already, have you forgot there should be some, any, story, dialogues, character development? Apparently many people have forgotten, because trash like Transformers, Justice League or Black Panther have been making decent profits for last 20 years, becoming more and more common each season.

King's Batman has become pretty similar to them in it literary shape and form. It's empty, lacking any real plot, so much so, there probably are some porn movies with more... depth... and... character exploration.
Damage was heavily criticized for putting mindless action over anything else, but Batman puts him to shame these days. So Batman and Bane finally fight, and not counting the small twist at the very end, nothing more happens in this issue.

Once more King wasted good art on non-existent story and pathetically weak dialogues, without adding anything to the character's mythos. What did we, Batman fans, do to deserve this atrocity of a run? more