http://comicsalliance.com/tom-king-mitch-gerads-batman-14-exclusive-preview/

King continues with the robotic or mob-boss type of dialogue. I can't seem to understand why he thinks someone likes Batman talking like that, like he is an idiot or something but I guess we will be seeing that a lot.

I am happy that once again Bruce and Selina are trying to be together but if they are written this way I prefer for them to stay far away from each other.

What do you guys think about King's attempt at romance?

So the trend of King writing Bruce like a hormonal dumbass continues. Apparently, Bruce is very much positive that Selina didn't kill anyone, which makes the whole thing about her being a murderer a complete waste of time, and a very cheap attempt at injecting fake drama into the story. Once again we are treated to scenes of Batman and Catwoman acting as a crime-fighting dynamic duo, despite the fact that...you know there exist around 8 immensely more capable Batfamily members, including Robin who's supposed to be Batman's actual partner (and his son), who got kicked out of the book in favor of Catwoman, so that we can be rewarded with a cringy sex scene at the end. I'd take any of the Robins if it was up to me. Also, Bruce REALLY needs to stop stripping down on random rooftops, that's if we're still supposed to believe he cares for his secret identity.

From the beginning, I knew this was gonna be terrible, but King surpassed my worst expectations. We were promised an arc about Batman going against Bane and assembling his own Suicide Squad, and we ended up with a teen novel, Twilight-esque love story that only served to make Batman look like crap. At this point I don't know what to expect from the I AM BANE arc. At this rate, I wouldn't be surprised if the arc ended up with Bruce and Selina marrying, with a reformed Bane acting as the Minister, after having been touched by their true love. Perhaps after that the two would throw themselves off of a cliff to immortalize their love, and then Dick and Damian could come back as Batman and Robin.......please ?

Not sure why King felt this needed to be turned into a two-part story, especially since we already know Catwoman will be in the next arc, so whatever is gonna happen next issue won't have any bearing on future events. So I can't wrap my head around why we need any of this, or why King and DC felt like this love story is worth wasting 7 issues (so far at least). They could've just brought Catwoman back without the need for all of this. Isn't the fact that Selina can waltz back into Batman's life at anytime why DC like her so much ? Even when she wasn't a regular in the Batman books during the New 52, she was still present, and save for the time when Bruce lost his memory, he never had any other love interest, so why are they treating this as if it was a grand event 20 years in the making ? Not even Lois got that kind of treatment, and the New 52 treated her like garbage. This whole thing has been a colossal waste of time, and the fact that this garbage got approved by the Batman editorial pisses me off even more

@enzo991: It's an arc on Catwoman and Batman That is essentially your problem. No need to rant lol

@rabumalal: No, it's not an arc on Catwoman and Batman, it's an arc about Batman retrieving Psycho Pirate to help Gotham Girl, but I honestly can't blame you for forgetting that. I don't think King himself remembers that at this point. Also, I'm free to "rant" as much as I want, and unless you have something meaningful to add, I'd suggest you just ignore any rant comments you come across.

I thought it was a cosy issue...but I have a big bias towards Bruce and Selina being together, so maybe I'm giving it more of a free pass than I'd normally allow.

I still think the two have atrocious dialogue, and the use of the villains Bruce and Selina vanquish makes me question just how quickly it takes them to track all of these people down within the course of one evening, aka work out their crime etc. Why does Kite Man even say "Hell Yeah?". I would have preferred King stuck with either the fight with Clock King or The Cavalier, one of the two, for the whole issue, and hold off the rooftop sex and the retreival of the diamonds and the exploding apartment for the end of the second issue

Time to go over the Batfan Bingo Card of Whining:

"omg why is there so much talking"

"omg why do they call each other 'bat' and 'cat'?"

"i don't understand the plot why aren't there narration boxes"

"OMG WHY ISN'T BATMAN BEING A MANLY MARY SUE WITH NO FEELINGS!?"

"somethingsomething power levels"

"omg this doesn't fit muh fanfiction reeeeeeee!!!!"

The dialogue for this arc has been straight terrible.

I'm sure some people will be happy at the Holly Robinson shout out though.

King's Batman is already a gary stu, the events of I am Suicide never a challenge for him and he one shots every single villain he comes across with no fricks given. King Batman is a gary stu and worse a BORING gary stu. Yes it is possible for stus' to be entertaining and certainly almost all of them elicit a strong response from the audience. Gotta hand it to King, he's created a bore stu.

So did Batman use Psycho Pirate to save Claire? I dropped this book, just saw a page on Bleeding Cool of Batman one shotting guys like King Snake and Amygdala like they were Condiment King. I wonder if King writes his comics in a drunken state?

I don't think you're too far off; although, I think instead of Bane being a minister, Batman and Catwoman are going to adopt him and have him baptized as their baby while they feed him venom from a sippy cup. I think that's the real reason why Bane is naked. It's was set up when issue 5 said Batman was going to die. Bruce Wayne died when Batman was born, and now Batman will die so Bruce Wayne will be born again. Bane's nudity and the rebirthed Calendar Man foreshadowed all of this.

Nightwing is a really good book so I don't know if I want him as Batman.

@entropy_aegis said:

Nope, she hasn't been mentioned yet, and if the next issue is a direct continuation of this one, I think Batman is gonna be too "busy" to even remember her. Also, that was Catwoman who one shot Amygdala, and ironically it took both Batman and Catwoman to punch Condiment King simultaneously to knock him out. The whole thing reads like an episode of The Brave and the Bold, so I wouldn't take any of it seriously. They even had a scene with Batman and Catwoman before they went on their rampage, where Catwoman asked Batman what he had on his mind, and Batman just went "Well...." before it cut to the two of them one shotting bad guys. The whole thing makes more sense if you read it with music from the Brave and the Bold or Batman '66 playing in the background. I don't want to imagine what goes through King's mind when he writes this crap to be honest.

I don't know man, with King's messed up sense of priority, I wouldn't put anything past him at this point. I honestly don't care for whatever faux symbolism King is going for, as nothing about it makes sense, and even if it did, it ultimately doesn't matter since King's crappy romance is taking precedence over everything else, so whatever symbolism exist they only relate to plot points than's been lost in the background by now.

I don't know, if Nightwing could maintain a similar quality as Batman, and be more in line with the Batman & Robin book from the pre New 52, I could see it working out for everyone. The readers get an actual Superhero comic book to read instead of a Twilight novel in disguise, and DC can get more profit from Nightwing by utilizing the Batman name, instead of how they've been bleeding readers since Rebirth started. I mean one can dream...

@enzo991: Yeah, you're right. Heck, I didn't buy Nightwing until issue 7 because I had no interest in beta male Batman especially since it had the "Better than Batman" title. Ironically, Nightwing is better than Batman. I never cared for Nightwing's solo title before, so I was surprised how much I liked it. I would never have read it if Entropy didn't recommend it to me, so it would be better for him to just become Batman again. He has a wonderful relationship with Damian.

I know but I think King is doing many of these characters a disservice, Mad Monk for instance isn't some cookie cutter fodder and neither was Grundy, even Midnighter puts more effort than King's Batman, I dont like it at all because like I mentioned previously the events of the narrative never seem to bother Batman at all. More than anything, King's Batman is simply boring and on every level. It tries to go for fan service and it fails, it tries to go for action and it fails, the book has still yet to find its hook. Frankly I think DC made a mistake when they told King they wanted him for 5 years, I believe DC should give all their writers a year and then continue if they are performing up to mark.King is deliberately wasting time trying to learn how "standard" super hero comic with action and fan service are written. He should just have a chat with Dixon, O'Neal etc instead and stop wasting our time.

Wait, King's Batman run is going to last 5 years? My God...

Yup and the first 2 will lead in to the Rebirth story. However I think he will be removed sometime in 2018 just before the film if he continues to make the main Batman book look unstellar . At the end of the day DC for better or worse wants Batman to get the most attention and chatter. All in all I believe Tom King will go down to Scott Snyder what Tony Daniel was to Grant Morrison which is sad really cause Daniel is a bad writer but if King wants to be lazy suck up then that's the fate that awaits him. Today no one cares about Daniel's Batman or Higgins Nightwing.

@tdk_1997: The hell is up with that cover? Selina looks a Chinese schoolgirl in a Catwoman cosplay, and Batman's got a creepy pedo smile on his face.

Also, dialogue is garbage, as per usual.

@entropy_aegis: I thought he was going to be done after I Am Bane. What did you read by King that made you like him so much originally?

If he stays on for the full 5 years that'll be a real shame, since i'll be dropping the title now. But, there are always other comics featuring Batman to read.

Grayson, GL: Darkseid War and he displayed good understanding of Damian's voice in Robin War. I followed Omega Men for the first 3 issues and it was a legit great read. Unfortunately I didn't have enough to keep up with it so I chose Midnighter which I thought was a bit more deserving. I've heard good things about Vision from people whose opinions I do value.

But to be honest I sensed danger the moment the first round of solicits were released with those silly Gotham siblings and the general vagueness they contained. Then he started buddy buddying with Snyder and shilled him, I dont mind them being friends but an active Bat writer saying the other active Bat writer writes the best Batman scripts was too much for me. Why should I read the guy with inferior scripts by his own admission if I have to follow just one book? there should be active competition not collusion between the Bat writers.Then they published that worthless Rebirth one shot and since then it's been a trainwreck.

King was never perfect but Batman doesn't highlight ANY of his strengths as a writer and mind you he has plenty. Instead this book is a perfect illustration of his weaknesses. He can absolutely write these characters better but he's trying to be different for the sake of being different, it's the same thing as New 52 Superman.

Most importantly he's just insincere about his priorities, I dont believe for one second that Bane will pose a threat to Batman. What Bane will do is kick some underling ass and then get his face stomped in to the dirt. King routinely shies away from giving Batman actual conflicts, he did nothing with his premise of having Batman assemble a group of villains and control them, he did nothing with Batman facing people with Superman like powers and struggling with the idea of being obsolete and so he wont do anything with pitting the wills of Batman and Bane against each other. He'll be too busy shilling something else, some other mundane detail like some silly reference/cameo/homage/easter egg or a few pages of screen time for Duke or more on the mystery of Selina's kills or some lame attempt to twist the situation so that Batman can trumphantly say "I am Batman, I am Bane" and so on. If he cant even stick to the premise of his own stories then what's the point?

These bat threads are gold . I recently dropped all Batman books - Tynions, Snyder's and King. The best part about it is seeing the Batfanboys tears and their constant whining. Never understood how people frequently and continuously express their disgust and constant dislike for books, yet continue to support and buy them

@casper4690: I'm not speaking for anyone, but myself, but you're right. I just like conversing with my fellow fans, but I need a reality smack once in awhile so I don't fall in unproductive negativity!

I actually really like King's Batman. The dialogue is definitely something you get used to, as that tends to be his "go-to" way, even in Grayson. I like how he tell stories. He doesn't give the readers all those narration boxes to ruffle through to get the story details. The art in of itself does all that. And when he does do narration, it only in service of the art.

Yeah, it's not the greatest Batman runs yet, but King's batman is a slow burn type of story. It's not just 3 arcs, it's 1 GIANT arc that encompasses all these issues so far. He hasn't finished his first story yet, but we already finished 2. I am Gotham, I am Suicide, I am Bane. These stories are all connected in such a good way if you read from start to finish.

I feel that if you read the story as a continuous linear story, you might find that it's complete narrative is better than the single issues. If that make sense.

But I also really like the guy, and his writing from his novel to grayson, omega men, darkseid war, and robin war