The Highs and Lows of Tom King's Batman Run 

the things he does for intos , how can you not love the man

The best part of Tom King's run on Batman was Kite Man. Hell yeah!

"Wedding falls apart because of villain's actions" is SUCH a cliche, though.

Rebirth? More like afterbirth. That was some intro.

Holy shit this intro really raised the bar Chris

"He joined the CIA and where became a counter terrorism operations officer" what the fuuu?

Does Batman even have a secret identity anymore? Seems like everyone knows who he is

High point: "Kite Man, hell yeah!" Low point: Everything else. Worst point: Bringing back Flashpoint Batman and totally wasting him.

Actually, sales were part of the reason that King’s run was cut short. After the wedding didn’t happen, sales on the book dropped by more than 40%. That’s when immortal hulk started outselling it. DC obviously wasn’t happy about this and saw the writing on the wall. But, since it’s in King’s DC contract that he writes a certain number of issues, DC gave him the batman/catwoman miniseries to fulfill it.

The larger storytelling in this run never struck me as notable, but I can’t lie in how much the smaller character moments King litters throughout are wonderful. Batman and his family in the burger joint. Batman in court. Batman and Superman doing a double date with Catwoman and Lois. Kite Man. All that stuff is wonderful. But the repetition and stagnated pacing of the plots at large really sour me on the run as a whole. I cannot deal with the “Bat. Cat.” thing, reading it was grating and I’m predisposed to liking those two together.

Hi Chris, love the video! Just had a small point to make: It wasn't Tim Seeley who left after Nightwing was shot, it was Benjamin Percy. Tim Seeley had left the book after issue #34, and Sam Humphries took over for seven issues. After that it was Ben Percy, who ended up leaving after not wanting to do the "Ric" Grayson arc. Just wanted to clear that up!

I think King sometimes imposes tenuous motivations on characters in order to support scenarios that are really cool but ultimately feel unearned.

Does anyone remeber when King dedicated an entire issue, just to waist it on a Roadrunner reference.

I genuinely want a video that's just a compilation of all the intros of this channel.

The best part of Tom King’s run of Batman for me was the Elmer Fudd crossover one shot. I don’t know how but King managed to incorporate the Looney Tunes in the DC Universe as humans and they managed to make it hilarious. Not only that but he incorporated these elements later in his run such as the Porky Bar or hell as much as the Knightmare arc was pointless and dragged on, I like the Roadrunner chase tribute

One of my favorite issues was that single issue story with Swamp Thing. I got it signed by Tom King.

You should check out Batman: Wayne Family Adventures. It's a slice of life webtoon about basically every sidekick and protege Batman has ever had living together with him as a father figure

I really felt that most of his characterizations are off, especially Batman himself and Commissioner Gordon. It was his idea to have Nightwing shot in the head and altered in an illogical way afterward. He turned the recently returned and well-received Wally West into a mentally unwell murderer. And, I stopped reading, but Alfred supposedly died as well? Talk about character assassination . . . Then, all the build-up to that non-wedding, with so much promotion and all the "extra" merchandise to support it, was a real sour note for me. I can see where the relationship might not have moved forward, but Selina is a far too independent person to let her friend talk her out of something that she felt so strongly about. And, finally, how can Thomas Wayne Batman not only survive the destroyed Flashpoint Universe but move into the main universe and turn on the son that he had been so glad to meet? I can't say I'll be sad to see him move on.

This is how you write reviews for comics, you provide insight but at the same time you tell a story. You don't ruin things or finish the story for someone else. I will go out and buy the these comics because of the synopsis given, and that's the way it should be. Keep making these videos and I honestly believe the comic book industry has a chance to survive.

I found it interesting that you didn’t address what I thought was one of the biggest controversies in the Tim King batman run, which was when Bruce punches Tim hard enough to send him flying across the floor as the bat family watches in horror. Personally I hated that moment, and I saw a lot of people debating about whether it counted as child abuse or not. I’m not really familiar with the new 52 as I prefer the pre rebirth comics, but I do think Tim was underage, and that he was at least Bruce’s ward, if not his son at the time. Tom King then tried to explain away the scene in a later issue by having Batman say something along the lines of “I would never punch my kid, I was communicating to him and everyone else there that we needed to scatter.” Which is just... so weird. Especially since one of the biggest things he tries to teach Cassandra is that she doesn’t need to communicate through violence, which he then admits to doing. I don’t know, I thought the justification was kinda bullshit, and while you could argue that Bruce punching Tim shows how far he’s fallen, I wish Tim King didn’t do that in a way that made people question whether Batman was a child abuser. Edit** I didn’t mean this to come off as a criticism of your video at all, I love your channel and your content, I just kinda wished you talked about this too, because the scene was pretty decisive among fans

The thing I disliked about Tom's writing is how I didn't feel he was giving different voices to the people he was writing. Long monologues or poetry don't bother me. It's the fact that everyone, unlike in real life, seemed to speak as if everyone's thoughts were indistinguishable from one another. The same voice reflecting either how he sees women talking or how his own voice comes out. As an example of him not writing people in charter: Lois Lane, during the girl's night out with Catwoman, was being written as a woman who had settled for her life as appose to the strong willed woman who was not only a award winning news reporter, a caring mother, but also had bagged the perfect man (Superman). Lois Lane Kent is a woman in control of her life if ever someone was. I also couldn't see her wanting to do the girl's night out with Catwoman; because I felt that she would view Catwoman as the Superman's work-friend's wife. Catwoman is a criminal and I can't see a good reporter trusting her enough to take her to Superman's fortress. For whatever reason, Tom feels that the only way a woman has depth is if she is either giving a round about insult or giving short jabs. He also made Catwoman a better fighter than I ever felt she had been in the past. Of course she could handle her own, but (as we saw in the fight with Bane before Thomas Wayne killed him) she seemed to be a more skilled fighter than Batman. Perhaps it was the trauma that King was trying to illustrate, but I felt his take on Batman made him seem less like the world's greatest detective/ fighter and more broken then he was in Knightfall. At least in Knightfall it had been a series of events that began when Jason died; instead this felt like a poor repeat of that. Taking more elements from the 'DarkKnight Rises' where Knightfall and No Man's Land were already combined. Making the real only difference the ideal that Catwoman was his rock. While I could see someone giving support and helping him in his hardship; I felt it was coming off more forced rather than natural. The reason some fans had complained that it felt like it was written for trade was because of the issues where you phrased it was sped up. There were issues of nothing happening except shots of people walking or having dialogue with each other that was take up an entire page. Like the page of them on their jet boats, "How have you been?" "Good." "Liar." Really. It needed that much padding when I'm spending almost the cost of the collected format for just this one issue. An example of what I would have like is Grant Morrison's All Star Superman. where each issue felt like a single stand alone story in issue form, but was clearly a larger story in collected form. Overall a decent review, good job. I just feel the reason why it wasn't interesting or new (Catwoman had married Batman before for the Hunters origin) is because everything he did had more or less been seen before.

Even as someone who mainly reads things like Hellboy or Hellblazer i still love all your episodes regardless of the subject matter. Your love for comics is contagious. I have also loved every single episode when you show us some of the fairly terrible "silver/golden age" heroes like "Mr Whiskers" or "Black Condor". Thanks for all your hard work!

Around the Nightwing part, King initially wanted Tim Drake to team up with Dick and step in as Nightwing temporarily. DC changed this last minute in order to "update" Dicks character.

Poor Wonder Woman. I remember a time in Superman in the 2000's when she and Superman got stuck in another time compressed dimension battling for 200 years. This is just another Tuesday for her.

Pros of the run for me: First few arcs actually told measured and logical stories, the Brave and the Mold issue, the wedding lead-up including Date Night, the wedding issue itself. Sins of the run for me: repetition, Bane, logic completely getting left behind, suicide, the failed wedding that didn't get cleaned up well, more repetition of issues where Batman punched his entire rogues gallery, the abominable treatment of the Gotham Girl storyline, Alfred, shooting Dick Grayson for no good reason, Bane, Bane, Bane, more dream sequences, using poetry and songs repetitively.

I'll just say this. I was furious when the Bat\ Cat wedding didn't happen.

Wait, hold up, time out. Mister Freeze was on trial and in danger of getting the DEATH PENALTY, okay... So uh, how come they never thought about doing that to the Joker?

I genuinely like King as a writer but his run on Batman was interminable for me! Major leaps & stumbles in logic that were never properly resolved frankly! Bane, who hates Batman makes Catwoman think if they marry he won’t be Batman anymore? Wouldn’t that be a GOOD THING to Bane as opposed to pissing Bruce off by breaking him & Selina up & forcing him to double down on being the Bat!? Also the logic of Thomas Wayne doing all the despicable & stupid things with Bane really bothered me. In all his run has the worst story & character logic. Nothing makes sense and the “wait and see” excuses NEVER panned out. As someone that was an uber King fan before his Bat run (Mr Miracle & Vision are masterpieces) I was SO disappointed by his Batman run & was extremely happy to hear it came to an early close, whatever the so called reasons they gave at DC. I purposely stopped buying the title out of disinterest & as a “vote” of my dollar.

I don't know about you all but i thought "I am Bane" and Kite Man story arcs were fucking masterpieces

You are with out a doubt one of the greatest comic RU-vids ever. You seriously know your stuff! I look forward to ever video. I think King is a great writer but he should probably stick to limited series instead of ongoings. And sometimes his writing style just doesn’t fit certain characters, it works in things like Vision and Mister Miracle but in Batman it is so jarring and weird having to hear Catwoman and Batman say “Bat” and “Cat.”

For clarification, Nightwing was not Tom King's call, but Dan Didio's.

I can see Riddler becoming obsessed with the riddle of 'why can't Joker laugh anymore'. His character was always one of narcissism and obsession. It does seem off however that he is trying to make Joker laugh instead of finding out why he won't laugh though.

Tom king REWRITING his stories on twitter, saying "should've included this or this or that, sorry"

I hated the love letters in 'I Am Suicide'. They were so cringe-worthy and went on for so long. The War of Jokes and Riddles was completely unconvincing to me. There was nothing in the issues to make it seem plausible that the supervillains would take orders from Riddler or feel safe working for the Joker.

Tom King focused more on Batman's humanity, we saw him lose it and almost killed someone, we saw him fall in love, make mistakes and miscalculations, we actually saw him as a human in this run compared to other runs where he is depicted almost like a god, super smart, everything he does is calculated and never makes any mistake.

Another excellent piece of description, explanation and analysis. I don't think I have the ability to take the absolute mass of information, philosophies and ideas - and then reduce it to just 15 minutes. And do it with brilliant clarity. This year - in particular - you've been tackling immensely complicated and long storylines and reducing them to something understandable - both in terms of the story and the ideas motivating it. There's a real artistry in what you're doing these days. I look at - and enjoy - other comic blogs. But none of them have your ability to bring your holistic clarity to the stories, the artwork, the philosophies motivating both and put it in a context of the personal lives of the artists. I think we've reached your Golden Age, man. And there's still a Platinum Age and Diamond Age to come if you keep up this form. Thank you.

Tom King's run was so bloated and disappointing. It's really a shame, because he is a great writer. I think he should've been given a shorter run. He's shown in his one shots-like the Batman Annual a few weeks back-that he does well with a tight story and brief length.

To be honest, I was all for this until Thomas Wayne showed up. I just didn’t get it. My favorite was the comparison between Bane and Bruce. I didn’t like was the terrible use of the bat family. I understand he focused on the BatCat relationship but Batman seemed unBatman to me and I think that’s why I wasn’t feeling this run as much.

My main issue with King’s run is how self indulgent it is. It is always so heavy handed in its take on all of the characters. The characters are almost become caricatures of themselves, becoming slaves to the themes Tom King is insistent on exploring.

Chris, that intro... looked like something else... on another note, your lighting and the film quality looks great!!! Thanks for the video, I loved it!

Great review and very well presented. I think time will be kinder to Tom`s run which did a lot of good in it. The War of Jokes and Riddles especially.

Appreciate your research, knowledge and well articulated review. Great work as always!

This has got to be in the top 5 episodes of Comic tropes of all time.

Two years after this video and Tom King (along with Tom Taylor) remains one of the top 3 comic writers, right now

I'd argue and say that the I Am Trilogy are the stronger arcs

I'm surprised Vision was 12 issues. Felt like it was a lot shorter.

this is my favorite RU-vid channel. your videos are so great and consistent and I have never seen a comic book channel like yours. keep up the stellar work!!!!!!!

yknow...i haven't been consistent on comic tropes but every time i come back, the intros get better

I just have to say, your videos are very entertaining. Your passion for the subject matter really comes through, and that means just about everything. Plus, your personality and sense of humor make for a unique take on things, and are very engaging. I really enjoy watching your channel, and keep up the good work. I am proud to be a subscriber, and will further my support as soon as I can. But for now, may I offer a very heartfelt "thank you".

gotta say i'm glad kings run is ending soon and dc is actually giving tynion a part in the main bat book city of bane especially was a complete shitshow while detective comics was consistently great all throughout

I love that you avoid spoilers, thank you. That's one of the reasons why you have become my favorite channel since I discovered your channel two weeks ago.

The thing I like about King is the same as what I like about Scott Snyder or Grant Morrison, namely that he always swings for the fences. He doesn’t always hit and his hits don’t always become home runs, but the fact that he swings with all he’s got every time regardless is admirable.

The first three arcs are what got me back into reading comics.The part in the first issue where he asks Alfred if his parents would be proud of him was so good. I bailed right before the wedding. It felt like there was this huge stretch after The War of Jokes and Riddles where Tom King was just spinning his wheels. It sounds like he managed to stick the landing which is good but buying issue to issue was such a mistake on my part.

The very high quality of your videos is what makes this channel stand out from the crowd. Your channel is the standard for excellence in your field. Please endeavor to maintain the high standard you have set for yourself, even if it means you only make one video a month.

This is definitely the best and most comprehensive channel on comic tropes, history, and creators I have ever seen. Always look forward to your videos, Chris.

Oh hi! Happy holidays & great to have you back friend! Great ep in store methinks

Thanks for giving Lee Weeks some love. I’ve thought he is a great artist since his Daredevil days.

Pretty good bane impression. love the episodes Chris, keep up the great work.

Seriously one of my most prized YT channels.... The intros you do are the absolute best!!!

I enjoy and truly appreciate what you do. If it takes longer than a week, that's fine! Life happens. Thanks for this newest episode. I mostly listen while I'm moving around the house, so everybody in my house gets to know about the newest tropes.

This run has a magnificent little story about Bats and Swamp Thing with art by Gerads, reminded me of Mr. Miracle

The increased quality is worth the wait. That was a great break down.

I haven't read comics in 10+ years and this run sounds incredible. Thanks so much for the depth and detail, this is a great channel.

Happy new year! Great analysis! Thanks for being the best comics-related channel on youtube!

I think Tom king started writing himself as Batman. If you listen to his interviews you will see him talk about how he was told he has to make his Batman run his own. I think at the beginning he tried to make Batman consistent with the Batman we know. King started out decent. Lots of people liked his first arcs but once he got praise he started making Batman in his own image and didn’t care about being consistent with the Batman of the past. He wanted to make his Batman in his image and didn’t care about the past. When you don’t respect the character and their history and canon then you mess up. Tom king does a horrible job of writing heroes consistent with who they are and instead writes them the way he wants. He always has to include a bunch of trama and ptsd in his stories. I don’t know if king had a messed up childhood or personal life but the way he consistently writes all his comic characters I have to wonder how messed up he really is.

I really dont like Mikel Janins work because he has the same 3d character model for everyone and it just looks dull.

Really enjoyed the video, keep up the good work!

Great episode! And the image and sound are perfect, man! The pinnacle of Comic Tropes!

Wait their were highs? If I had to guess the highs were when we the readers thought something big was about to happen as it was leading up to the climax we were then welcomed by a big low as usual.

Can you do a video on Jonathan Hickman next?

Hey Chris, Genuinely love your videos. I especially love the longer videos that go into more detail about what you like and dislike about a particular comic book run. Just wanted to say I appreciate you putting quality ahead of quantity. Cheers!

I've watched comics reviews and analyses by different RU-vidrs but yours are clearly the best. Thank you for another great vid.

I recently reread King’s run and enjoyed it. I think it reads a lot better in trades than bi-weekly issues

I loved Vision and Mister Miracle, but overall King's Batman run was really frustrating for me as a lifelong reader. I always appreciate your thoughtful enthusiasm. Thanks again for consistently great content.

you crack me up, best intro ever ; )

Love this video, one of your best 👍🏼will read those batman stories, some stuff seems very interesting for me

The thing I remember most about this run is the cringy "I don't believe in God, I believe in Batman."

I remember Batman/Catwoman’s wedding happening around the same time as the weddings in X-Men. I think that’s why it was controversial.

Great video !!!! Excellent analysis and summary

Man! I love your videos.

I will say I've enjoyed King's run in more of a collected editions instead of reading it in singles. Singles was brutal with some of the arcs.

Tom King's Vision is still one of my favorites. I also like Miracle Man (cause I like anything with the New Gods), but I'm not too proud to admit that I found it difficult to read.

Great episode! That is a lot a content you are covering in this, so no wonder it took a little longer.

"Batman has rarely taken superpowered heroes under his wing". I think we need a video on Batman and the Outsiders.

I miss the "Oh, hi! You caught me..." intros

Maybe his time with the CIA got Tom interested in the effect of trauma on personality. Inflicting traumaa on people so they become compliant is a big part of CIA operations

Love these longer analysis videos

Thanks for the summary!

Let's be honest. Didio wanted Nightwing dead for almost 20 years to make room for Tim Drake to be "best Robin."

Really enjoyed this run personally and it's the first entire run of TPB I have bought in a while. Its hit and miss of course but it's so entertaining all the way through.

Great video and analysis!

Great video, thanks!

Always enjoy the content. That intro though has to be one of my favorite ones so far. King's run on Batman had more lows, than it did highs imo. Then after that whole Bat wedding debacle was the icing on the cake that Batman should be handed over to someone who understands the Bat, compared to King's run.

I like some parts of it like the kiteman story, gotham girl, duke, the stuff with superman, the wonderwoman story, the freeze trial and the booster gold stuff, but I felt like some of the stories feel like they drag on for faaarr too long. But at least they haven't been as infuriating to read as the BMD.

Love this, thanks for the intro on Tom's work. I'm currently reading Mr Miracle and Strange Adventures. Great stuff.

Thanks for doing this video! It's a great help for me who's trying to get back into reading comics.

I am really digging the recent Tom King stuff. Strange Adventures and this new one, Human Target are mysteries with a C-List characters. My favorite Tom King stuff so far. Keep up the great work!

Creepiest intro ever, and yes, I'm counting the furry intro...

It should be noted that the Ric Grayson affair was never intended to be the debacle it was. King wanted it to have a minimal effect on outside books, suggesting Tim Drake take over as Nightwing while Dick went through rehab. DiDio choosing Lobdell's pitch for Ric Grayson threw all the Nightwing Adjacent books off track, such as Titans where he had just taken over as leader for the New Justice Relaunch, to King's run where he wasn't able to use Dick for City of Bane or Batman/Catwoman, and the main Nightwing book, of course, which led to Benjamin Percy (not Seeley) to leave for Marvel full-time. Dan DiDio: He sure hates Nightwing!

Cool video, thanks for all your labor.