Batman #27

by Batmanaruto on July 19, 2017

Writer: Tom King
Artist: Mikel Janin
Colourist: Gabe Eltaeb
Publisher: DC Comics

This issue perfectly encases my views on Tom King’s Batman perfectly. It has some cool moments and ideas but ultimately the ideas are not carried out well. It feels like every arc starts strong, then goes weak at the middle and then just ends all right. The arc of the Jokes and Riddles is literally following this pattern.
 
Kite man was a character that King has used in his run heavily and it was always cool to see the character pop-up and say ‘Kite Man, hell yeah’ and then just get defeated by Batman. With this issue King provides us an origin story for Kite Man and in all honesty I’m split on how I feel about the idea.
 
Tom King writes a new origin for Kite Man involving his son and the origin part of the story is actually really interesting. I would also say that King seems to embrace the joke like nature of Kite Man in the origin as, all the events in his life cause him to dress up with a huge Kite on his back. This part was really well written.
 
The great thing about Kite Man in King’s run was he was never a serious villain. When he appeared we knew he would be defeated easily, so King deciding to focus on the character already feels like a major flaw and I would have to say it is, as it almost feels like King is forcing the joke.
 
When you have a situation where it is a war between two characters it is always interesting to see those that are caught in the middle of it, and this is more or less what Tom King does with Kite Man, however he seems to be more like a pawn than an outsider looking in, and giving a fresh perspective. We see him bounced between Riddler, Joker and Batman, which is all interesting to see, but also feels like it doesn’t add to the story.
 
In conclusion, it does feel with this issue as if Tom King wasn’t too sure what to do. There is not even a time frame with this issue as Joker and Riddler seem to have assembled their teams already. Maybe this issue would be better if it focused on all the villains’ motivations to join either side as it just seems random, other than Poison Ivy. Hopefully this does really improve.
 
 
 

Our Score:

5/10

A Look Inside