beautifully stated, Nihilist.

Hahahaha that was well put, better written than the issue itself. That said, I feel you are being generous with your score.

I may as well be, RBL, but it really hurts me to give a Batman comic even lower score. It's like watching your favourite sports team losing because they absolutely suck, but even then you try to somewhat defend them. 4/10 possibly would be a more accurate rating, but I need to think it through and browse the comic again to be certain whether or not I should change it.

I understand that, I hate I am rating the current runs of Nightwing, Action Comics and Superman below 5’s but to me they are legimitately that bad. That said, this non-issue could be up there due to the artwork which was great but the writing is a decided 0/10 because as verbose as it was nothing was actually said and the overall story had nil progress.

how do any of these last few issues tie into one another. this series becomes more and more of an incoherent mess.

Well, I wouldn't give it 0/10 story-wise, personally, even if there's no story to begin with. At least it didn't insult me, like Batman Damned, or Heroes in Crisis. To me, it was just a shallow, meaningless filler, and as myconius said, the series is becoming more and more of an incoherent mess.

i'm thinking more and more that this 100+ issue Batman run is solely an editorial mandate that King had thrust upon him. IF that is the case he should at least do better than phoning in this jumbled mess of empty fillers.

my predictions for the course of the series .... next issue, Batman goes to the Dentist. he has a cavity. ....following issue, Batman & Alfred eat cucumber sandwiches. .....next issue, Batman punches Kite-Man. .....next issue, Batman rearranges his Bat-a-rang collection. .....next issue, Alfred teaches Batman how to Dougie. you know why? cuz all the girlies love 'em.

Oh, yes, a batarang organizing issue. I can already see it. "How did they get so disorganized?", "How do I organize them?".Preferebly with a legend serving as a parallel to it.

I’d actually find an issue devoted to the organization/functioning of the utility belt amusing. But as that seems like a sensible choice and something people would enjoy, I doubt it would happen.

King said this issue would fit with the last one in the end, so Ill wait. As for this one, it was ok, but nothing great either.

i'm still waiting for the follow-up to the cucumber sandwiches.

Well Pyg still wasn’t that bad portrayed here, but since it was just an illusion, it ruined him somehow

i just felt Pyg's appearance here was totally out of left field and ultimately pointless. especially since the series left off with Alfred all beat up in the bat-cave with Flashpoint Batman sneaking up on Bruce. this is now TWO whole issues wasted that should have furthered the plot. ..or whatever it is that Tom King is trying to pass off as a plot.

I know& agree, but I’ll wait until I fully judge it, because King said that after Flashpoint Batman there was this 7 issues Knightmare arc& that it would all make sense in the end. I didn’t hate this issue, it was ok, but nothing special.

Loved your review, don't know how I feel about the CIA comment.

i always felt that someone bragging publicly that they were in the CIA was just a bad idea. i mean IF you have knowledge of covert ops of any kind, wouldn't you want to keep that secret? it just seems like very immature behavior and very irresponsible. the guy's as subtle as a bullhorn.

It somehow makes King cooler. FBIwould have been cooler though. Think of X Files I mean.

i personally think it's been cooler of him to not boast and be more humble about it. plus if you really do know some deep dark secrets of the government you shouldn't make the wold aware that your heads full of all kinds of private information.

Yeah that’s kind of true, but maybe it’s just me, but I think it’s weird, that DC hires a former CIA agent, they aren’t authors.

Tom Clancy was not involved in espionage yet wrote almost solely about that. It can be done, ya dingus. Just having writer as your profession doesn’t mean you’ll be able to produce great comics.

You should have some talent& with the bad dialogue King often is writing I think I have a point. The way Dick sounded in Batman 55 made it unreadable for me.

At first there was hope, at least I fel like it. I Am Gotham and I Am Suicide were great, and then Mister Miracle was generally praised. It just feels like King burned out completely in recent year, year and a half. Batman went completely downhill with #50 causing an avalanche of hate, and Heroes in Crisis is utter trash. Don't know what happened, he's just unable to write well anymore.

DC has burned Tom King out. he rose far too quickly, and now he's peaked and is nose diving FAST! ...if DC editorial was smart (which they are NOT) they'd end his run at the original planned 100, and get a few co-writers in there to help him finish the run. he had a co-writer with Grayson, but even then he didn't actually finish the run. it was passed off to another team.

First Batman titles were ok& I was disappointed by Mr. Miracle in the end, but 100# are just too much for him& he has this 2week schedule, so I’m not surprised, that the quality isn’t that good. But overall he’s a mediocre talented writer.

DC's biggest problem is they enjoyed the success of Grant Morrison's incredibly long Batman run, and have been trying to replicate it ever since. they can't! they prolonged Snyder & Capullo run on Batman and that overstayed it's welcome. and now DC is running Tom King's Batman into the ground.

I didn’t like Morrison’s Batman run, but Doug Moench& Chuck Dixon did a great job with Batman in the 90ies. They deserve to write 100 issues, but I can’t see King managing that.

Morrison's Batman is definitely not for everyone. though i can understand why some are turned off from it. though i'm still baffled as to why anyone can praise Tom King's Batman as anything more than being mediocre at best. even his 'I AM...' stories were very cringe worthy. hell! i was cringing at issue #1.

Yeah I agree, maybe they see it from a different point of view. If it was an Elseworld it would be way better. King at least uses the villains. Doug Moench was one of my favorite writers. Wish he would return. Or Manning could write Batman.

my thoughts are that some folks just worship and praise anything he turns in, no matter what the level of quality. that can actually be said for just about any writer honestly.

That happens, inversely as well, but I think regardless of that people can agree that these past 2 issues have done nothing to advance the plot and are thusly pointless. Regardless of dialogue and presentation it did not do what a comic is meant to do which is tell a story.

textbook filler.

Yeah some fans do, but I’m not. Like Dan Jurgens for example. Hunters Prey was great, but Batman Beyond is so disappointing.

I have never believed in the whole “praising every work from x writer because I liked all his/her other stuff.” I am constantly disappointed by some of my favorite writers. In fact, before Batman I was a pretty big King fan. :)

Wasn’t disappointed by my favorite writers yet, but I expected more of Dan Jurgens. Yeah sorry to hear that, maybe Batman becomes better at some point. It’s just too much work King has I think.

i can't blindly praise. Grant Morrison, Peter Tomasi, Chuck Dixon, Frank Miller ... (OH! especially Frank Miller!) have all done stories that i don't care for.

With Chuck Dixon it’s weird. I like many of his stories, but his newest Babe story was underwhelming. Doug Moench never disappointed me so far.

but it's perfectly normal for a writer to have an "OFF" story that doesn't quite cut it. people are only human. can't reach perfection all of the time.

That’s true though.

that being said... i think King might be holding the comics record for the most consistent "OFF" Batman stories in a row.

Ive read stories where characters were way more out if character, so King is ok for me. Nothing great, nothing bad, just mediocre.

i find King's Batman to be a parody of the character. funnier than most comics that are actually trying to be humorous. unless that was his intent all along?

I mean, if you want to look at the gold standard for off character’s look at bendis writing event books and anyone iconic or long-storied. If you don’t want to look far, look at current state of Superman and pretty much everyone in the book and Lobdell’s Nightwing.

Comics from The 80- 2000+ were funny. Don’t think it’s that bad, I’ve read worse like Darkseid War or Rock of Ages both were awful in so many ways. Nightwing was great.

there's a big difference between intentional comedy versus trying to be taken seriously but coming off as a joke. ...case and point "save Martha".

With Martha I think many didn’t get it. The jokes are funny, but I didn’t think it was funny, when I first watched the movie, because I got what Batman was thinking.

I didn't find it funny either. I mean, it was clearly poorly written, after all who normally calls their mom by her name? The joke indeed may have been a bit funny at first, but after few days it got old. But as with anything normies touch, it has become painfully overused.

Some people do indeed, but it made sense for calling her Martha, since how else would Batman know if he saved the right woman? Besides it was to show, that Superman is human.

at least he called his mother "Martha" and not "Brick House". . . . . . she's a BRICK . . . HOUSE.

maybe he should have? ... The lady's stacked and that's a fact Ain't holding nothing back

Very true, nothing really happens anymore in this book. I used to read Batman because I was excited for the story. Now I read it because it's Batman and I'm just curious what King will come up with next.

I also thought of Hush, but I think the difference is, that the scene in Hush was greatly written. Bruce doesn’t have sympathy for all his villains, but he normally does some detective work before beating them up. I might sympathize with Penguin more, if his marriage didn’t come out of nowhere& werent out of character for him. Without any explanation I just don’t buy it.

Same here, friend. It came out of nowhere - "oh, look, he got married and now his wife is dead". That's inexcusable, but at least Oswald got any development in this issue. Its backstory may be half assed, but considering King's quality in recent months, I'll take it.

That’s true, I however wish King would give us some backstory for her. I am glad when his Batman run is finally over.

I think he's more than unlikable. He's being a bastard. Never have so many horrible things happened to him in such quick succession and never has he been so lost as to what's actually going on to cause these tragedies in his life. I certainly can't say I'd handle it any better than he has been. Always appreciate your thoughtful reviews even or maybe especially when we disagree.

I really don’t think breaking up with one of his many women would bother Bruce so much. King portrays him as the average guy, who is going mad because of it. As for Nightwing it was shocking for him, but Bruce would never go so far as he did with KGBeast. He needs his no killing rule. King portrays Bruce as a weakling. Bruce isn’t psychological damaged in that way.

You have a solid point, Batman Jones. I think I indeed may have forgotten how much Bats suffered recently, with Nightwing being shot - the entire KGBeast arc fell out of my head for the most part. I still think the man lost what makes Batman Batman, but now I have few more things to think about. I probably should also re-read past issues to understand the bigger picture, but I really don't want to do it. Like REALLY.