this issue was a real slog!
the story has gone on way too long! the plot barely advanced.
they really need to stop this rushed bi-weekly schedule.

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by the time we got to Nora's betrayal of Victor
i just didn't even care anymore.

Sigh... well, it could have been worse, I guess, *cough* Snyder's Batman Annual #1 *cough*. The comic, while surely better than New 52's butchered origin story of Mr. Freeze, faile to impress me in the slightest. It feels cheesy, silly and quite frankly nonsensical. Gotta love how all of a sudden Nora found herself enjoying the life of a villain, with absolutely no signs foreshadowing it. She was good, and then click, she's bad, she was happily married and then she wasn't. No character development nor story needed, when you can simply introduce or change something, hoping people won't notice, let alone give a damn. I do, though. I do.

I'm sad to say, but for the first time in my comic reader's career, I'm tired of Peter J. Tomasi. This entire arc feels like one giant mistake, and one that scarred Mr. Freeze for several years to come, until the next time Nora is inevitably ressurected. more

It's OK. The art is not the problem here even as Gleason is testing out styles throughout the issue. Just the LMD bullet Head banger is worth the price of admission! But Spencer is cramming too much in an issue where Spidey 2099 does nothing. What's the point of leaving threads hanging and starting others and not answering anything about 2099?? Two issues in and nothing just so I go and buy the 2099 event books? NO! Silver Sable's story is OK but not enough to keep me paying attention. I'm always there for ASM but I can't wait for January when we go back to regular schedule. more

This is a well paced issue with great subject matter and awesome art. What else is new?

I don't know, I find myself finding it harder to be interested in Spencer's Spider-Man anymore. Besides Gleason's excellent art, I've found this series bogged down by event after event (Hunted going into Absolute Carnage and now this) that I don't care about. Maybe all I cared about after all is the Kindred storyline and MJ but that continuously keeps being put on the back burner. It might be time for me to drop this book for the time being. more

There is a lot that I liked about this issue. I liked the twist ending of Thomas shooting Bruce and Bane. I hope Bane is dead but I doubt that will happen. The fight between Batman and Bane was good. Loved Catwomans part in it. It was cool how they tricked Bane into fighting fair only to double cross him. Wicked cool. I loved how it appears I was right about it really being all Thomas's show and that he seems to have been playing Bane all along. I was hoping that was the case because I have always thought Bane was a pathetic weak character. I am Bane. I broke your back. I'm the smartest biggest bad of all. Catwoman got it right with the ....blah blah blah. I totally loved the banter between Cat and Bat during the fight with Bane. It added much needed humor into the mix. I am looking forward to seeing the showdown between the Bat's. It should be good. I think Thomas wants his family back but he wants to still be Batman more. And I think it's those two facts that keep him going back and forth with his actions.

The art was good. It could have been better, sharper at times but over all it worked.

I know a lot of haters will hate on this issue but I liked it for the most part. I think some of the dialogue was unnecessary an needed rewording but over all I liked it. more

I liked the ending, the art, and some moments through-out the issue, but the story is just not that interesting.

This issue is pretty much a one big fight scene between Batman and Bane. And because of that, not much happened up until the end where Thomas steps in and changes the story in a meaningful way.
It was short but a fun read due to the fact that it's one big fight scene. And as usual, Janin's art is great.

Most times people complain that stories are stretched out to a snails pace but here it's done way too quick. I'm trying to stick with this book but it's inconsistent especially the art which was all over the place.

That cliffhanger... Can't wait for the next issue.

The story is decent, but it resolved too quickly.

Pretty Meh.
The problem with Dceased is, that it doesnt have any depths. In every issue we saw some heroes getting effected& dying. Thats pretty much it. The Anti-life Equation, a possible cure ( that was wasted with Desaad getting killed off in the first issue) never get explored & we don’t see real character interaction. Why Harley& Ivy out of all survive without a scratch never gets explored, they just do.
So overall this is just a slasher Comic& I am not hyped for a sequel. Guess the horror Covers were the only cool thing we got thanks to Dceased. more

Meh.

Batman Annual #4 is a collection of short stories - told by Alfred - that perfectly captures the everyday life of Batman. There is no dialogue between characters, only Alfred explaining what we see on paper. And what we see on paper is beautiful art by Jorge Fornes and Mike Norton that makes this issue even better.

THE GOOD:

-This was a fantastic issue. This series keeps getting better.

-The best thing here is the art. I think that's expected by now. It's a spectacle book and the art is definitely the biggest contributer to that.

-I thought the opening was pretty heartbreaking. Especially that last panel before the title page.

-Barbara feels like a real person here, which is great. It;s interesting how she's gone from the child-like character in the original WK to her character here as well.

-Those scenes with Batman and Leslie were really great.

-Interesting flashback scene. The lore behind this sequel is quite intriguing.

-Damn. That ending.

THE BAD:

-I dunno. Azrael's not a great villain. I preferred Neo-Joker, and I wasn't even a huge fan of her. He just feels very villain of the week, I guess. more

i enjoyed some things this issue quite a bit.
it was very well written. opening very emotionally powerful.
the art was also terrific.

point's lost for Paul's nagging reminder of 'Batman#77'.
points also lost on this issue for being slow at parts.
A LOT OF PARTS! not enough action, LOTS of talking.
also wasn't a fan of the constant references to Year of the Villain.
OH! and Mr Freeze kills a whole butt-ton of people like it ain't no thang!

i did really enjoy Alfred lamenting his choice of mask, though.
it's just a pity Tomasi won't be able to write him into his stories for a while. more

Aside from the fact I generally love to write, and take pleasure from doing it, I regularly review comics because it's a great way to interact with other fans of the medium, exchange opinions, and learn from them. We recently had a great discussion with myconius and Darkseid24 regarding bi-weekly comic releases, and how this tight schedule hurts DC's flagship series. We all know (or should) how divisive and loathed Tom King's Batman is, but Detective Comics seems to suffer from the consequences of keeping such tempo as well. Naturally, not to this extreme degree, but still, Tomasi's writing in the series is a far cry from what he's proven he can do, and what established his name as one of DC's best writers.
Surely, this issue is NOT on a par with Super Sons, Batman and Robin or his take on Green Lantern Corps. It's not bad, not really, but feels... cold, heartless. Maybe not as much as Snyder's disastrous Batman Annual #1 from New-52, which completely butchered the character of Mr. Freeze, as well as his back story, but it's hardly a tale capturing what makes him such a fascinating character.

Nora was resurrected, again, and this time turned into a copy of Victor. Okay, so be it, it's not the most original plot device, but I'd be all for it, if it was used in an interesting way. Sorry, but I don't think Nora having a ballet performance in the middle of frozen theater, with icy corpses all around, is interesting in any way. It just doubles down on New 52/Dark Nights Metal idea of Victor being a murderous maniac, inctead of a tragic anti-hero he once was. And suddenly, Nora is as well.

It may feel like a nitpick, but to me, it isn't. What made Mr. Freeze one of my favourites is the fact he's not evil to begin with. His actions may cross legal lines, yes, but that's the beauty of it - it puts Batman in the awkward position of enforcing the law, or doing the right thing, preferably ensuring it doesn't endanger anyone in the process.
Now, have you seen any real conflict like that in this comic? I haven't - all I've read was a tale of a generic bad guy who is crazy and evil, and so is his wife. There's no heart, no spirit, no tragedy to be found here.

Yet more proof there's not one story with the character that could top Dini's Heart of Ice. more

I don't know how Sean Murphy does what he does. Pure love for the mythos, combined with some otherwordly storytelling skills and talents? Most likely. The man knows how to tell an intriguing story with several parallel story arcs, where each character has a purpose, instead of just... being there. This issue focuses mostly on Batgirl and her emotional struggle - it was a fantastic idea to include a retrospection of her childhood, and how the scene was mirrored in the present day. Not only it gave her so much depth, it also helped to flesh out Gordon, and actually highlighted something that regular comics never touch - their relationship, motivations. There's not much complexity when it comes to Barbara in the main continuity, she's just a Bat-centric vigilante, and her father is nothing more than a good cop there. Good to see them in a more relatable, human way, for once. I wish DC took its notes and it's not going to be the only time I see these two as father and daughter.

Now, I wonder if this issue contains a parallel to The Killing Joke, that's the question. If so... man, did Barbara have a bad day. First her father was murdered, and now this. more

Okay first off let me start with saying I liked parts of Tom Kings run a lot and have disliked parts of it equally as much. This issue however just pissed me off. I didn't mind the " plan" to a point. Some of it was Batman-ish enough to believe he would do that. But seriously him allowing himself to be beaten by Bane to further along his plan to bring him down. Seriously!!! What if Bane had grew a pair and decided beating him wasn't enough this go around and just killed him instead? Are we the reader to assume he had a plan for that to? Or what if the "broken" back wasn't fixable and he was left unable to move? Then what was the so called "plan"? I'm sorry King but that whole Batman's - it was all according to my ''plan'' is just BULLS - - T !!!!! It would have been more believable if Bat had said I had planned this but this happened instead and I had to do this.... To have Batman make a mistake or admit a failing would be more realistic then this "plan" crap. I mean come on Batman is just a human male.

Moving on from the so called "plan" what really pissed me off the most was the hideous art work and the clock. WTF !!! What would have been the best part of the issue we don't get to see at all. Instead we get a clock over and over along side of snippets of the fight that are drawn so that you don't really know who's doing what to who. Also the dialogue written for it was incredibly lame and down right stupid. AND it makes us fans of the comic stupid as well because we paid 4$ to look at panels of a badly drawn clock!!! So F- you Tom King and John Romita Jr for giving us fans a trashy issue.

One last thing. If Bane made this venom that makes you so powerful why isn't Bane using it to make himself unbeatable?

All that being said as I am not nor have ever been a Bane fan I still say this is the BEST Bane story ever!!! There is hardly been any Bane in it. more

I'll be damned, I don't know what worse in this piece of filth of a comic - writing or art. It's bad on every considerable level, from the storytelling perspective, through dialogues, to sketches and inks. It's trash. Just trash.

Back when King started his Batman run, he created I Am Suicide arc - and as I said many times before, I like it, a lot in fact. The final plot twist, showing how Bat outsmarted Bane, was fun, surprising and somewhat fresh. Doing the same thing the second time simply doesn't work, and as much as King would like to build his story on similar themes returning multiple times, every now and then, it's, in the end, just tiresome and predictible. Tom King is not Noam Chomsky, who actually can get away with repeating certain facts like a broken record, to show how significant and interconnected they are.
On top of that, I'm sick and tired of everything interesting happening behind the courtains. Look how much filler King insterted in this trainwreck of a run, while he could have explored his investigation of Gotham Girl, and her connections to Bane. It surely sounds way better than having two issues dedicated to Bt banging the Cat in tropical paradise.

Now, the cherry on the top - art. Holy shit, this comic looks like an amateur hack job. I'm not a fan of Romita Jr. nor Janson, but both of them seem to had a bad day drawing these illustrations. Not only they're awful, they're also anything but dynamic, and I guess that's the main problem, since the issue is very action oriented. There's a lot of fighting, yet it all looks so still and motionless. Compare that to David Finch's outstanding job from the very beginning of Rebirth Batman. Yeah, this guy knew how to draw an action scene which feels dynamic.

My final verdict - avoid this dumpster fire like the Hot Topic face tattooed trailer trash abomination which is DCEU. more

oh for pete's sake!!!
the painfully obvious back-peddaling that this issue starts with
just proves that Tom King had NO plan of what the heck he's doing.

King never bothered to read Flashpoint to learn that Thomas Wayne uses his guns
to make up for the fact that he lacks the years of training that Bruce had.
Tim Drake's lack of reflex skills was just LAUGHABLE!!!
King made Batman & the Bat-family into just as big a dope that he himself is!

this is seriously EMBARRASSING!!!! Tom King, have you NO shame?? beyond pathetic.

along with awful writing, even the art was phoned in. more

Come on King, you have 4 more issues left, you can't do a recap now, that's not the right time.
Even the little bit of progress we did get was unsatisfying because Bruce's plan doesn't make any sense. And on top of that, the art was underwhelming and boring to look at.

What a waste of time.

As an end to HOX-POX and a re-contextualization of the X-men as a whole, It's easily a 10/10. But as a stand alone issue it is a 9 and still very good and has plenty of great moments and more than enough to satisfy me and give me hope for dawn of X. But did they really have to charge 1 more dollar to print 6 pages of advertisements at the end ??
I still enjoyed this issue very much and Hickman delivered yet again! This has years worth of storytelling ahead just to wrap your head around the ramifications of what Moira and Charles have set upon the world. The fact that the good and bad guys lines have been blurred could take years to dissect since we still don't know who this Charles is truly and what Moira's plan is either? Plus all of these evil men and women on the council is heading for an explosive showdown when the cards are revealed. The art is as usual outstanding and RB silva pencils/inks were only enhanced by Gracia and Curiel's colors! more

A fantastic ending to the series

With both House/Powers of X, Hickman has managed to create something truly special. From the story to the art, every aspect of this series was great. Hickman not only changed X-men forever, but he also saved it. I honestly can't wait to see what will come next.

A must-read for every X-men fan.

This felt very light on story, but even though it was over too quickly... I dug it. I am a fan of John Romita Jr sometimes and I would have never put him on a Batman book, but his art here is at least well inked and coloured which makes for a very interesting look, but not up to the high standards of artists this book has had.

Hickman, Larraz and Gracia delivered a great end to House of X and a beautiful beginning for the X-Men. So many possibilities. I'm very excited for the X-Men and that hasn't happened for a long time. Also those two maps hold so many clues....mmmh?
Kudos everyone!