Is King slipping?
Since the start of the DC Rebirth campaign the book I have been most excited about is Batman by Tom King and David Finch. King can still be called a rookie to the comic book world but so far every single one of his stories has been well crafted and critically acclaimed. His and Seeley's Grayson run was previously the best DC Comics book and his current Marvel work, Vision's ongoing is probably the best superhero book out there. Given all of these amazing things I can say about King I was highly excited about his take on the Caped Crusaderbut this opening arc has been a up and down thingy. One issue is great and then the next one disappoints me, and given the fact that after two issues we are getting our very first Bat-crossover since Rebirth started I am already getting frustrated.
This fourth and second to last part of the first storyline of the new volume was probably the most disappointing issue so far from King. From the beginning till the end everything seemed both moving too slowly and too fast at the same time. Before this issue we were getting a slowly developing story which I wondered how exactly will it be able to wrap itself up for the remaining two issues and in this chapter I got the answer I was looking for - we are about to get a rushed story so we can jump ahead to the upcoming crossover. I am not going to spoil anything from the issue but I will only say one thing, we got a dialogue heavy exposition for the next concluding issue and we got a Batman who tried to talk his way out of the situation which was strange given the circumstances.
The issue however did a really great job of describing the upcoming threat from Hugo Strange and the Psycho Pirate who can be pretty great and dangerous villains if they are written right. Tom King seems to be understanding them well and knows what he wants to do with them and I want to see how the Monster Men will be introduced. There was also a pretty big step for an upcoming storyline in this book, Batman getting his very own Task Force X, and the discussion between him and Amanda Waller was great but there was a slight problem before it. The way General Lane was explaining of the various reasons why Batman cannot find Waller's location seemed to be trying too hard to make Batman look like a badass, which it did, but the part where it tried too hard was too much for me.
David Finch and Jordie Bellaire's collaboration was the best thing about this issue and all of the previous ones too. Bellaire's colors are beautiful and make Finch's art look fantastic and I can even say that this is his best work ever. I really hope he manages to keep up with the tight schedule and he doesn't slip after some time because if we continue to get such a great looking Batman book then we are up for a joyride. I know the inkers are doing a terrific job as well but the person that we really should be thanking is Jordie, all hail this woman.
Basically this is everything I have to say for the issue. Being a big fan of Tom King's work I was really disappointed by this issue but I believe in him and I know he will redeem with future arcs and all. I really want to continue seeing Finch at his peak but I also want to see Janin's issues and the one Reis will be doing. However, I really hope that the colorist for both artists will continue to be Jordie Bellaire and that she will continue to shine. If you thought this would be this week's top pick you will be disappointed.
Rating: 3/5