Batman #82 Comic Review: I am Pretentious Action

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Batman #82
Writer: Tom King
Artist: Mikel Janin
Publisher: DC Comics

"City of Bane" part eight! Batman and his allies wage war on the City of Bane, but an unexpected turn of events will send everyone reeling. Will there be another death in the family, or can the Dark Knight break Bane's iron grip over Gotham City?

After a year and a half of meandering, pretentious, nonsensical comic issues, Batman finally confronts Bane. The villain who destroyed his marriage, tortured him and killed his beloved father figure Alfred. This should be the thrilling culmination to Tom King’s 3-plus year on DC Comics flagship series. Highlighting the evolution of his story arcs, as King readies to move on to the Batman Catwoman and Strange Adventures maxi-series.

Tom King’s Batman has been a smorgasbord of bad storytelling techniques. I prayed for the days he stopped jamming in copious amounts of poetry and classic literature. That served nothing but making Batman feel like an oasis of self-indulgence. King stopped than nonsense a while ago, but honestly the storytelling hasn’t improved. It remains exceptionally mediocre on the best issues and all but unreadable on the worst. Batman #82 firmly sits in the worst of bucket in Tom King’s Batman.

I’m well past going in depth about the art in Tom King’s Batman. It’s Mikel Janin’s turn in the rotation this week. Mikel Janin’s illustrated a lot of the final half of Tom King’s Batman. His style is very clean but normally has a static feel. Not the best choice for a comic that is essentially one elongated fight sequence. Mikel Janin’s art isn’t nearly as pristine as normal in Batman #82. I’m not sure if that’s by design or he was rushed.

Catwoman is always shimmering in gold. She’s always portrayed as the more important hero whenever she and Batman are on the page together. Catwoman’s a better fighter than him, she’s a far superior strategist. By this point I bet she can even beat Bruce in a frown-off. Because Catwoman’s superior to him in every single way in Tom King’s eye’s.

In Tom King’s mind Batman is weak because he’s a loner. Batman has never really operated alone. He’s always had Alfred as his rock and moral compass. He’s been surrounded by Robin’s almost his entire run as a comic hero. He’s literally the most competent hero in DC Comics vast lineup of superheroes. And he doesn’t even need a superpower to do it. Because he’s always been the best. That’s why this entire run feels off. Batman never feels like the elite hero he is during Tom King’s run. He’s made to look like an incompetent fool over and over.

Tom King’s Batman #81 was severely compressed filler. Batman #82 is very decompressed filler. At least he’s mixing it up a bit I guess. Every piece of characterization about this comic feels wrong. Except bane fighting with a batarang stuck in his face the whole time. I think he would probably do that. The dialogue is as poor as you would expect from Tom King’s Batman. For a comic run to lead up for seemingly 3 years to this moment, it fell extraordinarily flat. Batman doesn’t really do anything but take his shirt off and watch Catwoman dismantle Bane with ease.

The good news is there are only 3 more issues of Tom King Batman left. The chances of series redemption have long since passed. City of Bane isn’t the story to restore positive feelings about King’s Batman. Just another, in a long list of disappointing Batman story arcs. Of course, it’s not truly over after the next 3 issues of Batman. Tom King’s Batman Catwoman event series finishes King’s epic Bat Cat love story.

#batman #cityofbane #dccomics

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