This sure does exist. I wish some of this stuff was in the actual run because that'd be more interesting than what we got. So much reading for so little reward. A microcosm of the entire run.

More garbage from Tom King in an even bigger format.

How was he ever given the chance to write Batman?

it's sad to see what passes for a Batman comics these days.
for a comic that was twice the length, it sure was a whole lot of nothing.
this comic tried to be trippy, adventurous, and i'm guessing poignant,
but it just came off as - "who gives a crap?"
Tom King feebly trudges his way to the finish line.
even the art was nothing i enjoyed looking at. a waste of paper and printer ink.

Tynion may not be my favorite writer, but i sure as hell can't wait for him to save this series from a dullard that has absolutely no clue how to write a proper Batman story. more

This was a useless issue filled with nonsense. Riding horses across horseback? Seriously? Why would Gotham have a missile defense system? What city in the US, other than DC, has a missile defense system? This issue didn’t provide any new insight to Batman or anything else. It was a complete waste of an issue. This could have been used to explain a lot of stuff that STILL hasn’t been explained in the main comic but instead we get a notebook that shows Batman stays busy I guess? Such a waste. more

If you suffer from ADHD then this is the Annual for you. Instead of a stand alone story about ANYTHING, we get 3-4 page stories about nothing. Ohhhh look how different Batman has been over the years. That's not a story it's a comic version of a clip show. Annuals are intended to be special yearly events that are to be celebrated by loyal readers...This, I don't know what this was intended to be but it wasn't that. more

This Annual issue did absolutely nothing to make me feel... anything. It exists, and that's all I can say about it. Maybe I grew so tired of Tom King, I simply can't force myself to experience any emotions reading his work. Not satisfaction and joy, not disappointment and anger. No - it's just nothingness, absolute black void.
It's not as bad as Snyder's annual from New-52, which to date i the worst Batman annual comic I've got displeasure to read in my life, but I can't find anything redeeming about it, either. Oh, yeah, look, Batman's fighting a dragon, how random and goofy, and look, now he's riding a horse, tee hee, because comic books!
Amazing how King's run was cut by 15 issues, yet he still finds so many ways to inject filler into what's left.

So, skipper it is. more

Not as bad as Knightfall but not much better either. Again, a case of having so much potential to tell a story for an easy rewrite and completely botching the job on almost every level. The book reads almost like a flip book with very little character development other than to illustrate why Lois Lane has become almost completely unlikable not only in the current books but this one as well. By making Lois the central character of the story 99.99% of the interest is sucked out of the book. The story was over on the 11th page. I know why the decision was made to make Lois a central character by the "powers that be" at DC but make no mistake the needless pandering hurt the over all story not to mention created plot holes in the story you could drive a Mack Truck through. The story that would have saved the book is if the focus had been on the 4 Superman arc and the ramifications of the 5th and true Superman not returning. The artwork was hit or miss with some panels capturing elements of the original story while other panels were very lackluster and thrown together. Over all this book isn't worth the cover price. Strike 2 Dark Multiverse Series...
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Here's a joke, what do you get when you cross Dan didiot, bob harras and bendis with a bunch of "smart" readers who thinks bendis is a freakin genius and keep buying this trash?

You get what you f#&@ing deserve!!!

Another 30-page Bendis jackoff/commercial for his latest attempt at creating another Miles Morales.

Boo this man! BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Meh,
Solid story, the art left much to be desired.

Many golden age stories didn't age very well. Readers' expectations have evolved and changed - we now expect more character development for our heroes, narrative complexity and deeper themes than just punching irreeemably bad guys to save the day. Superman Smashes the Klan proves a good story and political commentary are timeless, and is as relevant as when it was aired on the radio in the 40's. Especially now, in the age of rise of nationalism and xenophobia all around the world.

The story is pretty simple - a Chinese family moves to Metropolis, and faces racism from the local charter of KKK. What makes it all work so well, are character interactions, as well as presentation of different views on certain issues, most notably assimilation, xenophobia, and what it means to call a place your home. It's surprisingly deep, and I feel like Yang did fantastic job explaining them to us, readers. Or, should I say, giving us room to interpret the plot ourselves, without being preachy and plain annoying, like Mariko Tamaki, who can't handle a tough subject even if her life depended on it, as shown in Supergirl: Being Super, and Harley Quinn: Breaking Glass.

It's a great, character driven, fun comic I could recommend to anybody - kid, adult, doesn't matter. The main characters are instantly likeable and believable, while villains aren't just one dimensional bad guys - they have their twisted views and to a degree you can understand what they think, while of cours not agreeing with their racist nonsense.

The art is great - it's colorful, expressive, and, just to put it simple, pretty. I dig it.

Overall an outstanding comic anyone can enjoy. I love it, and can't wait for #2. more

The story might have been decent had it not that the "Who Laughs" crap thrown into it or the left leaning political insinuations. Honestly the writers should be embarrassed.

rubbish story on black adam

Jesus I’m so bored. Why are we doing this?

"...in case son of Superman hits puberty..."

Good art and I like the premise behind the story, but the issue itself was just all over the damn place.

The opening pages made no sense. Sam Lane supposedly being Leviathan was very out of the left field, then things happened and suddenly everything clicks for Damian and now they know who Leviathan is. All seemingly without any rhyme or reason.

This and Superman #16, not the best week for BMB. Maybe, you have put just a tad too much on your plate, hm? more

I am so sick of this story, it's unreal.

5 issues in and nothing of significance has happened. Boring and let down would be an understatement. This book is built around the promise of something happening and then nothing does, garbage issue and garbage series.

Compete Garbage! This "Event" has been boring at best and it looks like Leviathan is going to be a character hardly anyone knows and less care about and I can only wonder if Bendis was told otherwise. If it is who it seems to be hinting at, this who piece of crap story is going to end with a monumental thud!!!

Recommended for people who love reading comics where people stand around doing nothing except act out of character! more

I expected what would happen in this issue. Part of the “bendis” method is to talk in circles around something without actually saying it so I was fully confident Leviathan’s identity would not be disclosed. I also called the end text of “Next: Leviathan Revealed”.

This issue’s dialogue was a chore to get through, completely irksome and most of all devoid of substances. Something sort of happened so in that sense it’s far better the most of the other issues in this title. Only issue away from the finale and barely anything has happened and the plot continues to progress at a glacial pace. Abysmal writing with nonsensical team-ups and twists and turns.

This is the second “event” title DC has released this year that essentially failed to deliver because just like Heroes in Crisis, I highly doubt 1 issue will be enough to compensate for 5 of nothingness. more

Detective Comics continues to be one of the better written DC titles and this book delivered in both terms of artwork and story telling.

How do I put this nicely? I don't care. I don't care about the Red Cloud. I don't care about Bendis' Court of Owls. I don't care about Naomi. I don't care about anything Bendis is doing here. He's just as tired as his writing, from the looks of it. Only way I can rationalize the constant repetition in his work. And I don't just mean the dialogue. Characters, plots, all recycled again and again and again. I don't care. more

Bendis dialogues + Kudranski art = this atrocity

This issue exists only to promote Naomi and draw people to that title. It’s hardly about Superman despite it being one of his main ongoings, as thusly I would not recommend it to anyone interested in him. Last issue was serviceable, this one is not.

As a Superman book it fails to deliver, it showcases him losing to a C-list villain only to have Naomi show him up and save the day.
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The art doesn’t really work and the dialogue contains some lines which are facepalm-inducing; a stand-out among them being Batman stating “I’m Batman” to have Naomi’s mother reply with “Damn right you are”. Has this man ever engaged in actual conversation.

The premise of the issue, red cloud being a threat, is laughable as she should hardly register within Superman’s radar. However, as he is wont to do bendis forces his creation’s to be the “best”. more

Yet another "filler" issue where nothing of importance really happens. There is a lot of dialogue that is for the most part meaningless in the form of citizens of metropolis telling a reporter how "Bad Ass" the Red Cloud appeared fighting Superman. When the term "Alien Privilege" made an appearance in the dialogue the book hit an all time low. As far as villains go she would be a C-level villain at best in terms of interest or originality the character wouldn't motivate me to buy a book with her as the villain. Bendis shoehorns the character of Naomi into yet another issue because I guess he expects fans to care about her when again she is very VERY generic and if she is given her own series I can see it being canned within 16 months. The art was better than last issue however that bar is very low. It's sad to see that 16 issues out from Action 1000 which was very well done Bendis appears to be running out of steam for this book and the proposed G5 change would be the worst thing they could do for the Superman brand. more

Is Superman going to star in this book at any point????

Big miss on the characterization. I'm not buying Alfred's sudden turn into hippie logic. And the detective work was all flash, no substance. Bruce just figured everything out spontaneously. Like he was being fed insights from a script, rather than coming to any logical conclusions. 12 issues? No thanks.

Nothing really to see here. It goes by way to quickly for me to care much.

This is the worst issue of Batman I've ever read.

King does it again! Just like in Heroes in Crisis where he wrote himself into a corner, he tries to get out by overexplaining everything that was supposed to be part of his long Batman run from the beginning, but he seemed to never show at all! Seriously, if you believed his lies after he lied about the wedding, then you are just not all that with it! This run has been full little to no setup and a storytelling style that lets the reader fill in a lot of the blanks while reading. That comes back to haunt everyone including King since we all have different ideas of how we got here and so we get pages of narration to tell us (not show us) everything so we can all get to the ending together. To top it off, some of it is just pure rubbish! Batman punched Tim a while back as a form of communication the Robins all know??? That might be the most assinine thing ever in a Bat book! I hated John Romita Jr's art so much, but at least let him give us the crucial scene at the end. We get to look at a wall as the action happens off-panel and suddenly, we are left filling in the blanks again. I guess we will just get 15 narration bubbles to explain that in two weeks! I think most people have realized that Tom King is hardly the Batman writer they thought he was a year or so ago, but some will still praise this or again blame Didio for King's awful writing, but get woke - this is and always was Tom King and that's why he is off of Batman and heading to his Bat/Cat book where he can do less damage to the character I used to love. I can't wait to love him again! #86 can't come soon enough!!!


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When you have to publish an issue to explain the story in previous issues, it's pretty clear that you've lost focus and perspective in your own story. Just end the damn story already and start another story arc already...At this point I just want to read a two issue story about the Clock King.