One of my notes for the review I wrote was a small drawing of a hand slamming into a face against a wall. That what I felt when I read this, the necessity to facepalm at what I was seeing.

*That’s

Unfortunately I think “pseudo-intellectual” has defined all of King’s writing after the Vision. I don’t read this series but I’ve kept up with it generally and it does seem like a bit of a garbage fire, which is sad because I know how capable a writer King is and his stuff has just gone so far downhill.

You can literally smell the pretentiousness coming from the page. Completely agree, it’s like watching someone stroke their ego.

Yeah, I absolutely agree, King went completely downhill. I loved his firt 2 Batman arcs, but his comics were on downward spirl ever since. Jordan nailed it by saying that you can smell the pretentiousness coming from the page. Couldn't agree more.

"smell the pretentiousness" yeah, that's pretty good. Sums things up well. And DCEU should be ended. Like a mercy kill, maybe?

Found a really good article about how sufferers of PTSD and other illnesses are finding the series. Definitely worth a read. https://www.comicsmnt.com/?p=1685

yes. definitely worth a read! …as sufferers of PTSD will find out that when they try to get treatment for their PTSD they’ll be murdered by someone else who has it as well. ...it's a cautionary tale.

JordanT4021 - i'm glad people are calling out Tom King for trying to exploit mental illness and people who suffer from PTSD. hopefully more people will come to this realization.

Good find, it's definitely worth reading and very insightful, especially if you don't know anyone who may have suffered from PTSD, thus may not know how to help someone with PTSD.

Hang in there! You are not the only one that is upset about it.

Your review made me sad. Tom King has gone from "the new Alan Moore" to "a total douchebag".

I don’t take these stories so personal, but I also don’t think King was disrespectful towards mental ill people. All he did was showing, that heroes also have issues. Happened before, Jason also went psycho, because he couldn’t deal with his trauma.

Darkseid24 I face the same problem on Facebook, every time I try to talk about MY experience and how I feel for a book, people try to nullify my opinion and experience. I've supported everything from Tom King. This book, I feel it's disrespectful towards people suffering from mental disorders. Being one I feel it was disrespectful towards me. It's very simple and very clear.

Sorry to hear that, but how is it disrespectful? Nothing happened apart from characters getting killed off& heroes talking about their problems.

I sniffed out this series before it began and only bought issue 1 to sample. Even the most supportive fans have acknowledged odd characterization, non-traditional methods, and sour tone of this series. I've said it before, but I think this series is more about Tom King sharing his PTSD than presenting characters dealing with PTSD. I just don't think mainstream comic books should be about characters suffering from depression and PTSD. Superhero comics should be aspirational.

I keep reading it, because it affects so many characters. Could be true, but isn’t PTSD reliving trauma through flashbacks? I don’t think that was shown in any issue. As a fan of the villains& I’m reading comics just because of them, I don’t think they need to be aspirational, but that’s only my opinion. I understand if people have other expectations than me.

"I've battled with my thoughts, battled with my sexuality, I want both depicted correctly." How can King possibly depict your exact experiences?

You give a one on every single Tom King Batman is she there is and it’s getting super annoying. Stop being pissy because of the Bat-Cat marriage debacle and appreciate a well written, enjoyable story that is present in this issue.

not much written that was original at all in this issue.

He keeps giving low scores because King has yet to write a story worth a shit.

RyanSmith28 - you said "You give a one on every single Tom King Batman"

that is not true. every now and again i'll give it a "3" or "4". sometimes even a "5" or a "6".

It always annoys me when one person tells another person to “enjoy an issue” just because that first person did. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, and blaming someone else’s differing opinion on being pissy about a previous issue annoys me even more.

yeah exactly. ... it's hard to have your own opinion these days when so many fans think they can police other people's thoughts. ..i wasn't crazy about this run from the start, and stopped buying it. i was lured back in by a good sales pitch, and now i keep reading just to see what could possibly happen next. i wasn't crazy about King making Bruce suicidal, never did i imagine that he'd have Batman more-or-less murder someone.

My feelings for this series differ from issue to issue. I liked the Wedding issue (I know, shoot me), but very much disliked everything leading up to the Wedding issue (issues 33-49). I hated the “I Am” story arcs and loved the War of Jokes and Riddles. But I don’t go attacking everyone who hates the Wedding issue or loves the “I Am” Trilogy just because they disagree with me.

Also, I haven’t read the issue yet, but this story arc is going downhill so fast that at this point I don’t even care if its spoiled.

Also, my Wedding issue feelings are completely subjective. It is by no means a good issue in terms of quality (i.e, the forced pinups, the “letters” that are just copied storytelling techniques from Suicide, and the shoehorned in Bane). It’s just one that, for some reason, I kinda liked.

no. i'd never deny someone to enjoy what they enjoy. but i can definitely agree with issues 33-49 and the I AM arcs. i especially did not enjoy 48 & 49 at all. ...i think it was at i am suicide when i stopped with this series, before getting roped back in with the wedding announcement. i just can't accept Batman as someone who gives up like that. like in issue 1 when he's about to ride atop a plane to his death. Batman always finds a way no matter what.

The "is this a good death" thing is what put me off about that 1st issue. And… yes. The Best Man sucked, in my opinion. I didn't like the characterization of the Joker or that the arc had no effect on the overall story whatsoever.

Tom King says his Batman story is formatted like a novel. Because apparently a novel has characters that talk like robots and huge chunks of fillers that has no affect on the story. For example, the double date issues. What purpose would that have in a novel? I'm fine with a few kind of less-important, self-contained issues, but 16 in a row is just too much for me.

YEAH! that “is this a good death” took me right out of the story. it was like- ok it’s TDKR fan-fiction time. …definitely! i was very disappointed with the Joker in 48 & 49. …hahahaha! Tom King must have some great publicist to come up with sales pitched like his story being like a novel. i think if i bought a novel and the characters kept repeating the same dialog over and over i’d be pretty pissed! at least the comics usually have decent art to sugar coat the bitter pill that is the writing.

Yeah… fan-fiction is an excellent descriptor of King's run as a whole. As for the novel thing, I read that in an interview somewhere, and it was also stated that Bane will be the main villain all the way until issue 100.

yikes! it just feels to me that the concept of Bane being the main villain through this entire run was an afterthought. when i read the the first arc and monster men cross-over, there were no indicators at all that Bane was behind everything. even the whole wedding idea felt very tacked on. like it was a stunt to pull readers in, but fizzled out. ...i just read my review for Batman issue #1 back from 2016, and i think i had Tom King's number pegged even back then.

Yeah, it seems that most everybody else liked the first story arc, so its nice to know I'm not alone in disliking that first issue.

I hated that first issue. The whole “good death” thing was ridiculously bad and set the tone for the whole series.

Tom King totally missed the point of TDKR. Bruce was at the end of his rope, retired and just miserable since he stopped being Batman. ...it's not like he started being Batman because he had a death wish and vigilantism is a good way to get yourself killed. ...i wonder if he had ever read a Batman comic prior to getting signed at DC? ...or did Dan DiDio just toss him a stack of "Batman Essential reading" and tell him to just skim it.

Ha. That would explain… a lot.

Tom King can only write robots or stories about terrorism. That is all. If he wants to be praised again as "the next Alan Moore" he better starts writing a story about Machine Man fighting yihadists.

i have to wonder if DC Editorial even bothers to review these books? ...in Batman #50 on the splash page by Fabok & Anderson, there's a line- "Another cowardly and suspicious criminal caught." ...i'd always thought it was "Criminals are a superstitious cowardly lot".

That just seems like they were playing with the alliteration of it.

possibly so, but it didn't really improve on the analogy. ...a superstitious person would be more likely to fear an omen such as a bat, a black cat, broken mirror, the number 13, spilled salt, etc... ...a criminal being suspicious really doesn't add up to them being fearful.

Yeah, being suspicious doesn’t really have anything to do with being fearful. Hadn’t really paid much attention to that but you’re right. Should definitely have been superstitious.

i mean it is kind of a minor thing, but that tiny attention to detail i notice quite a bit. especially since i've read so many of these classic stories in reprints over and over as a kid.