I Think This Controversial Batman Run Is Among the Best (Here’s Why)

Tom King is one of the best comic book writers working today, but his 85 issue run on Batman is remembered by the comic book community in infamy. King is no stranger to contentious comics, but this one is the most divisive by far. It garnered endless criticism when it was ongoing, to the point where many still call it one of Batman’s worst runs.

At the very least, no one can deny that it is one of his most controversial. Most of this criticism stared after issue #50, where the fans expected the promised marriage between Batman and Catwoman, only to be disappointed when Selina left Bruce on the altar. After that issue, the comic book community completely turned against King’s run and tore it apart.



It’s undeniably that this run has some pretty big problems, especially in the latter half, but writing off the entire run is just something I can’t abide. Tom King’s Batman storyline was actually amazing, one of Batman’s best runs ever, and I can prove it.Before I dive into what makes it so good, however, let’s take a second to establish why it garners so much hate in the first place.

As said above, a majority of that vitriol definitely comes from the feeling of betrayal that the wedding never happened. It’s not just that Batman and Catwoman said they were going to get married, but DC and King’s own run worked extra hard to convince the audience that this was real. There were wedding prelude books for every Robin, and spent multiple arcs establishing why Batman and Catwoman need each other.

DC promised everyone that this was a real, massive shake up to Batman’s status quo, the scale of which only happens once a Crisis. And so, when the rug was swept out from under all of us and the duo didn’t tie the knot, the betrayal cut all the deeper.Of course, there’s also the incredibly uneven pacing in the second half on the run.

Arcs tended to drag on for three or four too many issues, with the main culprit being the “Knightmare” arc that took way too long for Batman to fight his way out of the nightmare machine. Of course, there’s also the weirdness of everything Batman experienced in the entire run being part of Bane’s master plan to break him. The twist of Bane being the one who kept Batman and Catwoman from getting married was interesting, and Bane is one of Batma’s scariest rogues, but no amount of explaining and handwaving will make me understand how he managed to hack Booster Gold’s robot Skeets and recruit Flashpoint Batman, Thomas Wayne.

And let’s not get into how Thomas Wayne took out the entire Bat Family on his own. And beyond all of that, this is the run that killed Alfred and gave us the headshot that would transform Nightwing into Ric Grayson, so people are going to despise it just for that.With All the Negatives, What Makes it So Good?One of Tom King’s biggest strengths as a writer is how he manages to keep a tight theme running throughout the entire story.

While there are many themes present in this massive run, the most important one is the constant question of why Bruce is Batman in the first place. The opening scene of the run seemingly provides an answer as Batman is seemingly about to give up his life to guide a crashing airplane into the Gotham harbor. Just before they hit, Batman asks Alfred if this death is good enough, if his parents would be proud of it, and Alfred says yes.

Naturally Batman survives, but this scene sets the stage for the repeated exploration of this question.RELATED: Wonder Woman Just Made Batman Believe in GodIn his repeated battles against Bane and his cronies, Batman is forced to confront the idea of dying a good death over and over. In the “I Am Bane” arc Batman and Bane beat each other to within an inch of their lives, while Bane taunts Batman that after so long of fighting an unwinnable war, the heroes Gotham and Gotham Girl must have seemed like a way to finally win, except Gotham died and Batman would keep suffering until he found another way to win the war against crime.

After finally toppling the behemoth, Bruce has a vision of his long-dead mother, who agrees with Bane’s dissection of him, but Batman rejects her idea of why he fights. Bruce says that he fought Bane because Gotham Girl needed his help, that was it. Martha says that Bruce doesn’t need a good death for her to be proud of him, and he says that he knows.

The entire run continuously calls back to this question of why Batman fights, and always answers that he is a simple man. Batman fights because people need his help, because he made a vow the night his parents died. Not to avenge them or inflict punishment on the wicked, but to stop other people from feeling the same pain he felt.

As stated in issue #66, all Batman is is that vow he made. It’s a simple vow, and its simplicity allows him to put it above everything else. Pain, death, love, everything.

Batman is who he is because of his infinite desire to help others, and that’s why he is able to defeat not just Bane, but Thomas Wayne, who acts as the physical embodiment of the idea that Batman is a man driven by the need to avenge his parents. Thomas shows exactly why that isn’t the case, because by fighting him to save Gotham, and especially Gotham’s criminals who would die under Thomas’s watch, Bruce showcases that ultimately the death of his parents is just the start of the vow. He became Batman because his parents’ death made him feel that pain, but that Batman is so much more than Bruce’s pain.

Batman is the shield for everyone else, to make sure they never feel that pain.And beyond all of the fantastic themes and dissection of Batman’s character, a lot of the moments and fights are just really cool. The run opened with Batman literally steering a crashing plan from on top of it, and that’s awesome.

The “War of Riddles and Jokes” details a crime war between the Joker and the Riddler and holds one of Batman’s deepest regrets at its center. Batman’s confrontation with Bane in the “I Am Bane” arc is one of the single most iconic pages in all of Batman’s history, as he establishes that he will never be beaten by someone like Bane.This is barely even scratching the surface of all the awesome pages the run holds.

King’s run is chock full of epic moments and deep, emotional resonance. Yes, it has its problems, but almost no run is perfect. King’s offers a great dissection of who Batman is and some of the coldest Batman moments in the past decade.

It may not be perfect, but at its best it is utterly amazing, and I am tired of pretending that it’s not.What do you think? Let us know in the comments!The post I Think This Controversial Batman Run Is Among the Best (Here’s Why) appeared first on ComicBook.com.

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