I’m not the biggest Batman fan. That being said, I’ve read Grant Morrison and Snyder’s run. I always give it a shot here and there.
I’m wanting to pick up either Batman or Detective from their current arc. Which would you recommend?
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Detective as written by James Tynion.
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I am reading them both. Right now I am enjoying Detectives comics more
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Of the two right now, I’m really not into Detective, and would recommend Batman more…HOWEVER, it’s basically closing up it’s third act right now and I think it’s harder to get into straight from this point. It’s sort of like watching Infinity War without watching any of the MCU movies beforehand – you can follow what’s going on, but it doesn’t have the same feel, you know?
For some reason, I find that Detective Comics is almost always better than Batman, and since Rebirth is certainly no exception.
That said, my experience is that Tom King (current Batman writer) is highly polarizing. You either love him or hate him, so just because I hate him doesn’t mean you will, I guess. I still think he crutches on obtuse storytelling to cover up his shaky plots and messy characterization (he makes a decent effort at drama, but everyone sounds the same in terms of dialogue, so it all falls incredibly flat for me).
Apparently, people have a lot of issues with James Tynion IV’s writing on the Batman Eternal and Batman and Robin Eternal weekly series, but I haven’t read those. I did enjoy his work on Detective Comics starting in 2016 and leading up until sometime in 2018. It didn’t have the most groundbreaking plots, but it did have a main cast of likable, well-written characters. I found it solidly and enjoyably above average. It’s just that Batman plots from the last ten-to-fifteen years or so all feel very samey, and Tynion’s work is no exception.
I think the issue recently is writing for the trade (and this applies to both King and Tynion): Because every story takes up 4-7 issues, every story has to be Big and Epic, so it’s always this new, melodramatic, groundbreaking threat that’s targeting the Bat-family themselves. It starts to feel less like Batman is waging a war on crime and more like crime is waging a war on Batman, which kind of defeats the point.
I haven’t read much of Peter Tomasi’s current run on Detective Comics, but what I’ve read of his work elsewhere is good, so I imagine he’s at least doing a passable job.
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I’m normally a fan of Tomasi’s work, but his stuff on Detective is honestly…kind of bad, IMO. It’s been pretty much stupid and nonsensical since the very start. I’m pretty much convinced that if it weren’t for the fact that it’s more in style to hate on King, more people would be nailing this book to the ground.
Rebirth Detective is a slam dunk read.
So’s Tony Daniel’s run on the New 52 'Tec.
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@BatJamags As someone who read both series (twice), I can say that the any problems people have are well-deserved. Batman Eternal is okay, but is way too long. Batman & Robin Eternal is really just about how we’re mandated to adore Harper Row; it’s half as long but so many times worse. While Tynion shows some interesting ideas, the execution is often lacking, and I felt neither story fulfilled their intention of delving into what makes Batman tick, or why Robin is necessary. For a guy that claimed to be a fan of Cass, Tim and Steph, his portrayals only go worse as the stories progressed. To make up for this, I suppose we were supposed to be “dazzled” (rather, distracted) but some visually cool moments, even if they came out of nowhere or were foundationally flawed.
I’ve noticed some people praising his Detective run, but he’s the reason I dropped the title. I saw no sign that he’d actually fix what he screwed up about Cassandra (or Steph), and I’m not going to settle for subpar. Yet he was okay giving Tim Drake his old origin back; most curious. I don’t think he’s a terrible writer, but he has certain idiosyncrasies that seem amateurish and make his work suffer. I think it was a mistake to let him be the one to reinvent these characters, regardless of if his buddy Scott Snyder helped him out.
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So if youre looking at the DCU library, read Batman first because Detective comics in getting a reboot to DCU in two months. At #984. That being said detective comics is fantastic!
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Currently, it’s no contest: Detective Comics. Tomasi writes rings around King.
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On that rhyming note, here’s The Penguin from Batman Returns:
“Rats with wings, do your thing!”
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In a big fan of the current Tom King Batman but if you’re going to read that I suggest reading it from the beginning seeing that it’s 100 issue story. Detective comics is great too although I prefer the Batman solo stories opposed to the Bat family stories that began the Rebirth run
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I’m not reading the current Batman series but I just started detective comics: rebirth and it’s pretty good so far
This is just my opinion… mileage my vary with other opinions… If you choose BATMAN then (as pointed out by others in this thread) you have to start at the beginning with Issue 1 (its easier to buy the Graphic Novels and work your way up) because it is supposed to tell a much bigger story. In my opinion Tom King’s writing is great in issues #1-58… but after that it drops way off (No writer should ever use dream sequences for more then one issue… EVER. That goes for Tom King… and I hope its OK to mention this but -SPOILER ALERT DONT READ IF YOU’RE A Daredevil Fan and are not current```
- Daredevil by Charles Soule lost all credibility with some of the last issues and the fact that alot of the events didn’t happen. They were in Matt Murdocks head. ITS LAZY WRITING. IT JUST IS) OK Sorry, I digressed…
The Detective Comics Run has been well done and I recommend it right now because the current Peter J. Tomasi stories have been entertaining… especially from 1000 up (The last two issues :-}ha! …) and the intro of the Arkham Knight!
I stopped paying for a subscription for Batman or Detective at the end of 2018 to save money, so I can’t tell you where the comics are these days. I can say I love Tom King’s run on Batman. I’ve read most of it between the beginning and the end of 2018, and though there were some missteps, it’s had more excellent stories than any other run in my opinion. Same thing on Tynion’s launch of Detective Comics Rebirth run thought that ended before 2018. I haven’t read Tomasi on Detective, but I’ve read a lot of his other work. He tends to be very good though he can sometimes miss the mark by a mile. I find him less predictable than most in quality.
I also will say I think Grant Morrison and Scott Snyder are vastly overrated as Batman writers. Morrison has interesting concepts that seem like they are going somewhere amazing and then somehow end nowhere interesting. He’s like concepts over plot. The stories never pay off properly. Snyder’s extremely entertaining, but his Batman is a God who can shrug of grenades, beat up his entire Rogue’s Gallery with an arm and leg teleported to another dimension and has a Bat gadget to get him out of every conceivable situation. He probably has a Find My Arm and Leg in a Another Dimension App on his Bat-Phone. I feel this take on the character removes all vulnerability and tension. I just roll my eyes at every action scene.
Just saying there are better takes on the character out there in my view.