Take this Job and shove it!
Written By: Tom King
Art By: Lee Weeks, Elizabeth Breitweiser, Clayton Cowles
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: August 15, 2018
It's time to find out the verdict to the case of Gotham City VS Mr. Freeze now that Bruce Wayne and the rest of the jury deliberate over whether or not this Batman Rogue killed three women....... and really, that's about all you'll find out in this issue. Let's jump into this issue of Batman so that we can see Bruce Wayne talk at a table for another issue. Let's check it out.
So yeah, there's not a lot to say about this issue at all. In this we see Bruce continue to put doubt into the other jurors heads about whether or not Batman is fallible and with that they'll decide if Mr. Freeze was the one who killed those three dead women................ and because that's all we're doing here, we just have Bruce Wayne be a mouth piece as he spouts on about God and Job and comparing Batman to God and then people to Batman......... It's all rather boring as King continues to try to be deep........ and boy do I mean try.
All in all, while you'll continue to get decent art by Lee Weeks, this issue is just more bullshit as a writer tries his damnedest to anything other than write Batman in a Batman book and with that we just get an issue that talks shit about our favorite hero, while getting absolutely no clue to who actually killed those women to get Freeze arrested in the first place. Not only that, but nothing about Dick Grayson as Batman either, even though it was made a point to tell us that he's out doing Batman stuff while Bruce is doing jury duty. No real story at all here and I'm getting really tired of that happening.
Bits and Pieces:
Bruce Wayne talks for an entire issue about.......... Well, nothing really. It's just some faux deep moments that fail to do anything other than bore the shit out of me as we get another issue of nothing. The art is decent, but I'm stuck just sitting here, wondering what happened to Batman.
3.5/10
Eric Shea talks for an entire review about.......... Well, nothing really. It's just some faux deep moments that fail to do anything other than bore the shit out of me as we get another review of nothing.
ReplyDeleteI got faux-deep? Nice, I wasn't even trying.
DeleteMartin Kralik talks for an entire comment about.........Well, nothing really. it's just some faux deep moments that fail to do anything other than bore the shit out of me as we get another comment of nothing.
DeleteEric, you can be happy that you have loyal fans. And maybe it can be a little said that you are repeatedly writing bad reviews for comics which likes lot of comics sites (see https://comicbookroundup.com/comic-books/reviews/dc-comics/batman-(2016)/53) and readers (see users reviews there, or Diamond charts) even after such letdowns as Not-Wedding.
DeleteYou know, it can be really interesting to read your arguments why King´s Batman isn´t good. But a) you have to have other arguments then "not so good for make me a fan" (it´s in several your reviews) or "it´s about nothing" and b) you can have bigger effect if you can mix good reviews with bad reviews. At this point, I´m just sure that if I will scroll Batman reviews to the end, there will be your with rating 3. It´s really boring.
How do you mix good with bad? Pretend you like it sometimes? My solution is we just stop reviewing batman because we cant find anyone we know who likes it and wants to review it. Even DispatchDCU who would do a second opinion said his review would be the same.
DeletePlus, will you now go off to other sites and tell them they should mix it up too since they keep giving it 9s and above? Click on them on the roundup and see how much their scores never change.
We can do what others do and just review the stuff we like...we try to review everything which does lead to a rut when a particular writer isnt your cup of tea.
DeleteI can do it, but sorry for my bad english :) . Just joking, these comments are not about my selfpromotion.
DeleteJeff, your´s or Reggie´s reviews aregenerally way more balanced then Eric´s. I know that if you give bad rating, it´s just bad, because you can give also good rating. But if you see Eric´s ratings at roundup, he has low for all DC titles. And then you are just ignorring his reviews, because you know, that he will never give good rating. At this point it can looks that you give all issues, which you and/or others from your team don´t like, to Eric and he will just rate them low :).
I don´t say that other sites who love Batman (but I´, not talking only about Batman, almost all issues which he is reviewing have low degrees) do good when they all give 9 or 10 to all issues. You can be balanced. I know that it is hard. I don´t say that you have stop reviewing Batman (Eric will have same reputation apparently in new Justice League, Superman or Hawkman). But at this point is Eric´s opinion just not important, because he is generally against Kingś Batman - with argument "because he is not fan".
Hawkman's been getting 7's from me since it started and I gave the last issue of Batman Beyond a 7.5, while Red Hood has gotten a 7.5 for the last one and an 8.5 before that. Not to mention Doomsday Clock which has been getting decent numbers from me. Everyone always says that I focus on the negative, but it seems that everyone just focuses on my negatives.
DeleteWill you revieew Archie Meets Batman '66?
ReplyDeleteSomeone on the site may end up doing that book eventually, but as of right now it seems to have slipped through the review cracks.
DeleteI actually forgot it came out...I will be reviewing both issue #1 and #2 this week
DeleteI know a bunch of people I hang out with online that no longer come here because the site is always the lowest scores on every single book. I don't think it is on purpose, but there just is no real reason to show up anymore. Same with sites that keep giving perfect scores. I just assume you guys are not going to like most books and rarely go past seeing the score on comicroundup.
ReplyDeleteMan I especially hated this arc. It breaks my heart that the Batman book is so awful. I hated the idea of this story all along, because I think the idea of Bruce Wayne on a jury, especially in a case that at all involves Batman, is utter garbage. The fact that he bribed his way on to the jury to sway the verdict feels decidedly UN-Batman to me. Of all the possible ways for him to admit a mistake or clear an innocent person, this is the most bullshit way I can imagine.
ReplyDeleteThink I'm done coming to this garbage site. You guys don't actually review anything. There's no actual criticism here. It's very much just another "Boring. I didn't like it - 3 stars out of 10." And the "I didn't like it" is always code for "They didn't punch enough people" or "I'm being contrarian for contrarian's sake" too.
ReplyDeleteCompared to other sites which are "OMGZZZZZZ itz Tom King 100/10" for the sake of seeming relevant
Deletehey anonymous...please don't ever come back! take your bullshit trolling somewhere else!!!! That wasn't in code, btw. We have over 4000 reviews between the two of us so whey would we suddenly be doing it for contrarian's sake? I get it...the business plan of having assholes like you yell at us. You are right...that's so much fun!
DeleteFuck you, you lazy piece of shit. Based on the way you crap out reviews like this one, it's no surprise that you have 4,000 of what I'll generously call "reviews". All you literally do is fart out 300 words that don't actually discuss the book, just that there wasn't enough punching.
ReplyDeleteYou spend a sentence on the art (which was top notch by the way) and even then it's just a lazy "decent art." You call King's writing "boring" but make zero effort to back that up. It really just seems like you're mad that Batman didn't find clue A, then clue B so he could punch villain C. Anything written with any nuance whatsoever goes right over that thick fucking head of yours, which is half the reason I'm being so blunt.
I put more effort into making coffee this morning you dumb fuck.
There was plenty of punching of villains in this issue. It just had nothing to do with the story and was just used as padding, while Bruce talked about his parents death again and then talked about how he'd been hurt to a bunch of strangers like that really matters to the case at hand. It felt so forced when at the end of the day it meant nothing. Last issue Bruce just went on and on saying "But what if Freeze didn't do it" and this issue he's going to prove it by saying that Batman's not God. The whole legal system has been broken by a man who bribed his way onto a jury.
Deletego make more coffee!
DeleteNuanced? This whole issue is so heavy handed that it's laughable! There is punching...Tom King punching the reader in the face over and over with his pretentious quoting of the Bible. Plus, the issue makes Bruce a criminal and none of the so called evidence wouldn't have been allowed in the trial but that's okay since evidence is not the focus, just that Batman isn't God so Freeze must be free. So, if I'm not mistaken, you can't ever convict anybody unless the evidence is found by god??!!???!!! Gordon isn't god, Bullock isn't god... Whether or not we know that Batman went overboard and Freeze in not guilty, you have to follow the evidence in the trial and it seems like the evidence points to Freeze being guilty BUT Tom King really doesn't care about the trial and uses it to have Bruce go on and on about Batman and God without ever seeing what the other jurors think because when he is done forcing this bullshit down our throats, everything important about the trial is mentioned off panel after the fact.
DeleteThere is nothing to "get", there is really no story, just a long monologue. Take out the trial and just have Bruce sitting in Wayne Manor saying the exact things to Alfred and we get the same end result...that is a problem!
And seriously, why do you even care what Eric thinks or does...go read reviews you like and calm down
DeleteThat is the goddamn stupidest thing I’ve ever read in my life. Actually go back and read the book you mouth breathing moron, because it’t clearly went over your head. You may also need to google what reasonable doubt is, because it doesn’t seem like your old, crusty ass has any idea what that is either. The evidence from this arc needs to both make you feel that Freeze committed the crime AND that there could be a reasonable doubt. If the evidence does not do these two things, then there would be no trial or it would be blatantly obvious that it was Freeze. King was clearly successful at this, despite your mouth breathing objections, which aren't centered in reality, but more that it was "boring." This website is awful and and you should feel bad even calling this pile of shit a collection of “reviews.” Fuck you.
Delete“Oh no Bruce is a criminal! Won’t someone think of the children!” Jesus fucking Christ. Batman is a vigilante and has been presented as a criminal in dozens and dozens of stories over the years. Someone who actually read Batman for 20 years instead of drooling all over the issue should know that. “He doesn’t care about the trial” after King spends 3 issues on the trial. Do you even read what you type? I doubt it, but ether way, your asshole must be real jealous of all the shit coming out of your fingers.
"Batman is a vigilante and has been presented as a criminal in dozens and dozens of stories over the years" You are right...so how does the evidence stand when it was gathered by Batman? I think Freeze is innocent, not because Batman is not God but because the major bit of evidence (the autopsy) was done by Batman. Case thrown out because "Batman is a vigilante". No need to wax poetic about Job or that Bruce has been hurt recently! See, me and you agree!!!!! Now please just go away to the 100 other sites that gave this a 10/10
Deleteand btw, please stop with the mouth breather insult...2012 called and they want it back.
DeleteHey, guys I have being following your reviews and I find it funny that people come here to just criticize your opinions. I actually find your reviews more honest than most. Even the Batman News are more moderate in their reviews and do actually call in the nonsense of Mr. King. I been reading Batman for 20 years and never before I being so bothered by the writing. Starting with the dialogue. Bruce totally feels out of character and I just can't picture him saying the things that Tom King makes him say. Or behaving in the way he makes Bruce behave. Is like instead of having a story we are given statements of why Batman shouldn't be this or why he should be that. And it has killed my interest in the book. I mostly only see the first pages for the art and then skip the whole issue this days. But the pretty drawings cannot save the awful writing for me. Is a pain just to read it. So thanks for your reviews :(
ReplyDeleteI agree with you 100%. The voices are way off. When I read it, I don't understand why people defend it with such vigor, but people certainly love it. I think it's kind of a Emperor's New Clothes thing (along with Mister Miracle), but what do I know, I am told I am a mouth breather.
DeleteOh, Thank you for your reply!! :O And I'm sorry for that Anon insulting you. I think is OK liking Tom King if people is into that. But is quite childish to fight over a review, after all I think that people should make their own opinions first and not just rely on reviews. And its funny, I actually being reading Batman for over 25 years, and Tom King seems to really not get the character right. He is not the first writer to have been controversial (Grant Morrison comes to mind), but is the first time I really just can't finish reading a comic book without cringing. For me, his Bruce is too melodramatic and whinny to be honest. He lost his son before (two Robins actually) and he didn't act like a drama queen. But it looks like Tom King's Batman is isolated from the character's own previous history. And this tendency of "deconstructing the heroes" is so very cliché. Also, one thing that bothers me from this particular interpretation is the way Mr. King believes that Batman is a punishment that terrorizes Bruce Wayne since his childhood tragedy. If anything, from what I understand of Batman, his dark alter ego is the reason Bruce keeps going, Batman exists because he wants to avoid more innocents from suffering what he went though. Batman isn't a punishment to Bruce, is his release. In a way Batman protects Bruce Wayne. And Bruce Wayne sort of "died". Even Scott Snyder made that argument on his final arc having an amnesiac Bruce making the ultimate "sacrifice" to protect Gotham. And he was also engaged to Julie Madison and Bruce also sacrificed that "happiness" and it was actually his decision. So I find it stupid that, after all those important events in Bruce's life, the comics suddenly feel like a bad version of 500 Days Of Summer. I would have preferred that instead of having Bruce acting like a suburban cat in heat they would have explored his father's last words to him since the Button, "be happy". And to discover that Batman isn't about suffering, but about a selflessness to others like no other super hero have ever sacrificed. A mission that no matter how dark the night becomes, Batman is the light that brakes it away. That in the darkness you will always find light. But I guess making statements of why Batman isn't god and why he is so broken over a shitty letter about his eyes is the new rap this days. All so very interesting (yawns).
Deletesorry about the grammar :P I was in a hurry
DeleteDon't apologize,it was great!
DeleteWell, well, well. . .it looks like SOME people don't like to hear the painful truth. A sad commentary on the general state of things in today's world encapsulated in a most unlikely place. Truth is truth. Fragile emotions or ego don't really matter. Reasons don't matter. Sometimes the truth is bitter. Sometimes it hurts. But that doesn't make it any less the truth.
ReplyDeletePandering to those unbalanced individuals who want only to hear opinions that they agree with, or to those who don't have the mental strength to understand why negative criticism exists is a great disservice to the field of criticism in general.
I thank Weird Science for standing up for what they believe in, and for being a voice for truth.
Now here's the truth as I see it: This issue of Batman had some great artwork, but Bruce Wayne was completely out of character. His creepy ramblings were the sort of thing that would make at least a few of his fellow jurors head straight to the tabloids for a sweet little paycheck. His odd statements would at the very LEAST raise an eyebrow or two as to just HOW much Playboy Bruce is obsessed with Batman.
The only good thing I can say about the past few issues is that they were better than some of King's extreme fanfiction entries of the past (Poison Ivy taking over the world, anyone?). He's starting to tone things down a bit, and that's a step in the right direction.
Keep doing your thang and flip the bird to the ones who want you to change, Weird Science!
I would have taken him as a guy with a very unhealthy obsession with batman
Delete