Crisis on Infinite Earths gave us a less-pleasant goodbye between Batman and the original Robin. This issue seemed to repair that rift that was torn with Dick's departure. He gives Bruce an overdue piece of his mind and tells him how disappointed he was not to turn to him in the first place, and instead put his trust in an unstable born and bred assassin. Bruce also gets to say what he's had so much trouble saying in all that time.
The end is amusing. Poor Robin's so worn from fighting a high flying monstrosity it takes a moment to realize Dick is even in his Nightwing costume again. more

Too early to say anything definitive. But I have worries. One of the reasons Robin was created was to give Batman someone to talk to. Now Bats has an AI holographic Alfred. That doesn’t strike me as mentally healthy, especially considering the fact that there are 174,964 Bat family members Bruce can talk with.

This better not be another arc where Bats learns the value of family. Just saying. Gordon is now a beat cop again. I don’t think you can go from commissioner to beat cop. Wouldn’t he just retire. A beat cop that’s well into his 50s is just a bridge too far for me. Your mileage may vary.

Bats spends most of his time tracking down a child-like Killer Croc, who is regressing because he’s is molting or something. It involves dinosaurs and new Batcave trophies, which always struck me as something serial killers do on Dexter.

Bat has new tech, which strikes me as Iron Man, not Batman. There is no detective work and Vandal Savage is creating a goon squad outside regular police channels. Didn’t Tynion already do that?

This seems like more of the same to me. Batman is stuck in a holding pattern, where he keeps getting redone but it keeps getting rebooted to a tired status quo that leaves out charm, fun, and originality. Don’t have high hopes.

Or I could be wrong. more

This story is basically a stand alone issue for Sue RICHARDS with a bit of Reed spread throughout (I mean that literally as Reed has never looked sillier).

We're expected to believe that Reed Richards covers the entire planet in arrows made of diamonds, that somehow haven't had a tectonic movement in 8 billion years.

Sue RICHARDS won't drink the water because she'd... rather die?

Later, they have Doom on his heels and then the FF just stop thier attack allowing Vic to psuedosciencebabble his way to victory.

And Doom's new tactic of time manipulation? Stolen straight from Rick & Morty's "The Vat of Acid" episode (which was taken from a Futurama episode).

These last two issues rely completely on forced plot devices that North sets up just for the specific needs required to move this story.

That said, I'm beginning to think that North isn't so much the problem as it is the editorial team. The letters page apologizes for a massive creator credit problem from last issue and if they're that sloppy with credits, that might explain why my favorite Marvel team suffers on and on and on from poor story telling.

Never been a Ramos fan but he's hasn't been too bad - but then he draws Sue RICHARDS when she tries to protect the team in a field in such a laughable way that's it's not even funny.

As for my capitalization of Sue RICHARDS in this review, she is called that on the credit page, but then in the recap just below it, it's back her maiden name - heck even Reed (twice) refers to her by the name she hasn't had since 1965!

Just sloppy. more

An enjoyable read, but I can see how some may not rate it too highly either...
***SPOILER***
Namely the fact that Black Manta so quickly goes from "I hate Aquaman, because he killed my father" to "I hate the Crime Syndicate, because they washed my father's body away." Kind of a cheap and silly revenge tale. However, they only had one issue to work with, so they did what they could. The nod to Ocean Master, who will appear in the next issue, was a neat tie-in. more

Prelude:
After that skip of #20 that I won't be covering, let's continue with Death of a King. Hopefully Johns fixes the problem of Arthur and the Ice King (apparently Dead King now?) being barely featured in this issue.

The Good:
I do like the Xebel sub-plot and exploration.

It's very overwhelming (See The Bad) but I think it's designed to be that way. Arthur is King now and has to deal with the consequences of his actions or inactions unlike when he was just a superhero.

It's good that Vulko knows whats going on and that if Arthur talked to him first, he could have better dealt with the Dead King.

Pelletier's art was good like always. He's a consistent artist and it shows.

The Bad:
We've got too many plots running at the same time. There's the Dead King, Orm's Rescue and Scavenger's Attack. It just feels like too much.

Conclusion:
While I do really like this story, it feels too crowded. I think the Scavenger is just a bit too much to have at the same time. more