Batman: City of Bane
This isn’t quite the end of Tom King’s “Batman” run. It is for his tenure on the ongoing monthly “Batman” title, with James Tynion IV having succeeded him and restored the title to its former sales glory, but the writer still has something to say about the character. He’ll just be doing it in the currently ongoing “Batman & Catwoman” maxi-series. “City of Bane,” however, does feel like a pretty conclusive end to the story King started in the “Batman #1” that he wrote. So when you get to the end of this story, picking up “Batman & Catwoman” doesn’t feel like an obligation, but something you should only do if you liked what the writer was doing here. Which is to say that I will be picking up the collected edition of that maxi-series when it’s collected. Even if this volume doesn’t hit all the right notes on its way out.
“City of Bane” does start off with all the pieces in place for a great, if familiar, “Batman” story. Bruce Wayne has been driven from Gotham by the efforts of his father, Thomas “The Batman from ‘Flashpoint’” Wayne, and Bane. The latter has been slowly working to this point ever since the Bat beat him back in vol. 3 and now he’s taken his nemesis’ city and turned it into a fascist funhouse nightmare. Where order has been imposed upon the city by the gallery of rogues that used to be locked up in Arkham. The few rogues that resist are subject to the ruthless methods of Thomas and his sidekick, Gotham Girl.
Where is the Batman we know in all of this? Struggling to get his mojo back after his dad tried to beat some sense into him at the bottom of a very deep pit. After an attack during a visit to an old mentor leaves him on the brink of death, he’s rescued by Catwoman who knows exactly what he needs: A tropical vacation where he’s grown his own “Magnum P.I.” mustache! While this is going on, Damien is growing restless at the thought of not doing and not being able to do anything while Thomas and Bane hold Alfred as a hostage to keep the rest of the Bat-family out.
Beaten, but not broken. Up against an enemy who holds all the cards. With the fate of his city and loved ones at stake. This is a situation that Batman has been in many, Many, MANY times over his 80+ year history. There have been plenty of good stories done with this setup — “Knightfall,” “Batman R.I.P.,” and “Superheavy,” spring immediately to mind — and there’s no denying that King has done the hard work necessary to invest us in it over the course of the past few volumes. It’s why the story gets off to a strong start as we see the Riddler and the Joker patrolling Gotham as part of its police force, reporting to Commissioner Hugo Strange, who calls in Thomas to go in guns blazing when things get dicey. Gotham needs Bruce Wayne back as Batman and King makes sure that we want to see it as well.
While there’s a certain amount of twisted fun in seeing Bane’s vision of Gotham, the first half of the story does take a little while to get going. Though I do think that the way King writes Bruce and Selina is cute, we really didn’t need two issues of their tropical island getaway. Batman is entitled to his happiness, absolutely. It just feels very out of character for him to be doing this considering what’s going on in Gotham. Moreover, there’s no real arc to these issues. While we’re promised to see Batman get his mojo back, the two of them come off effectively unchanged by the end of this little detour.
Then you get to Damien’s attempt to infiltrate Gotham and take out its Batman, and… I realize the consequences of his action are well over a year old at this point, but I still don’t feel like spoiling what’s meant to be a pivotal part of the story. The problem is that this feels even more reckless than what I’d expect from the character, given what’s at stake. We get something of an explanation for this later on, which has the effect of making what happens here a major miscalculation on Batman’s part.
It’s one thing to make Batman come off as fallible and human. It’s another to have him get one of his closest allies killed because he underestimated how serious his opponents were about keeping their word. The fallout from this isn’t really addressed here, and that’s a shame. This character deserved much better than what they got here, and their end doesn’t feel earned as a result. It feels like something that was done to give this story gravitas. Still, the character in question has been here before, so it’s entirely possible that they could be back in another couple years.
Once Batman gets back to Gotham, things start to pick up as we start heading into “Batman Has a Plan” territory. It’s satisfying to see him intimidate these villains-turned-police as he reminds them of whose town it is, and as he makes his way to Arkham to settle things with Bane, explaining his plan to Selina all the while. The Bat-family also gets a chance to make an appearance in a way that’s at first satisfying, and then quickly disappointing as they give their opponent a chance to collect his thoughts and it goes badly for all of them. I’m familiar with the Law of Inverse Ninja Strength, but the scene in question makes it feel like it applies to Bat-family members as well.
As for the big showdown between Bruce and Thomas, King takes a few big swings and most of them connect. We get a character’s final speech and it’s appropriately moving, even with its considerable length. The writer also takes an entire issue to show what Thomas has been doing in the margins of the story up to this point, as well as how he got to this universe and all the bad stuff (with a couple good things) that happened to him in the “Flashpoint” universe. This is all done backwards, which works because each page turn builds on Thomas’ character, right up until the end/beginning when his motivations become crystal clear. “City of Bane” may be uneven, as is King’s run in general, but it’s still easy to appreciate both when they lead to ambitious stories like this that aim high and succeed.
Which brings us to the final issue of the storyline, where the fight between Bruce and Thomas becomes an afterthought as the writer cuts between it and epilogues to the story involving Bane, Gotham Girl, Catwoman, and yes, Kite Man. That’s right, the supervillain whose real name is Chuck Brown is watching a football game featuring a perennial underdog in the bar that features the writer’s human stand in for Porky Pig. It’s a… lot to take in if you’re familiar with everything being referenced here. This is another crazy swing that connects because it does a good job of summarizing the storyline’s emotional core while providing the characters who feature in it a happy ending. It’s bizarreness is also welcome in the context of the issue itself as most everything plays out as you’d expect.
Yes, even the big climactic fight which isn’t really a fight, just a battle of wills. It’s also something that can be summed up thusly:
Thomas: “Son, you can’t be Batman because I’m Batman!”
Bruce: “Shut up! You’re not my real dad!”
King phrases it a bit more eloquently, but it’s basically the same. While it’s interesting to have a conflict that hinges on Bruce simply deciding to be Batman rather than fisticuffs or outsmarting his opponent, it also leads to an outcome that has considerably less drama than those other two setups.
Still, the battle of wills and words looks great coming from Mikel Janin. The artist of most of this volume, and of King’s run in general, he provides the same quality work here as he has done previously. While it’s easy to appreciate the detail in his work, there’s also a softness to it that accentuates the characters’ expressiveness. It’s a good trait to have in a storyline where the characters’ emotions run high and where there is a WHOLE LOT of fighting going on. Janin was a credit to King’s run overall and I look forward to seeing where he’ll turn up in the DCU next, assuming he decides to stick around.
Tony Daniel also contributed a couple issues to this storyline, including the opening ones. I’ve said before that his style feels perfectly geared towards supherheroics, and that remains true here as well. In that regard, he turns out to be an inspired choice to give us our first look at Bane’s Gotham. John Romita Jr. also delivered a couple issues in the latter half of the arc, and while his style may be looser and slightly more cartoonish than the other artists in this volume, it still works. He gives us a Gotham that’s lively and gritty, with characters who have plenty of energy whether they’re dishing out or taking punishment. Then there’s Clay Mann who gets the novel task of drawing Bruce and Selina being (mostly) normal on a beach for a while. He does this, and it looks good, but he doesn’t do a lot to jazz up what is one of the slowest parts of the storyline.
Jorge Fornes not only gets to draw the story told backwards in this volume, but he, along with Mike Norton give us a nice big finale for this volume with the main story in the “Annual #3” that’s collected here. First it involves Batman chasing some thieves across some roofs on horseback. Then it has Batman slaying a dragon(s) with a magic sword. Then it has Batman fighting an abusive MMA star in the ring. Then it has him solving a locked-room mystery. Then it has…
Well, what follows is essentially every Batman story ever. Some are serious. Some are violent. Some are extremely goofy. Yet they all make sense for the character as they illustrate his narrative flexibility. The story, “Everyday” is essentially a celebration of “Batman’s” versatility as a character by showing how many stories he can be a part of and still have them make sense. It also features great art from Fornes for the opening vignettes, though Hawthorne is the real star as he switches genres and settings like a pro as King speeds things up to make his point.
“City of Bane” is ultimately a good storyline where Batman fights his way back from nothing to take back his city and deliver justice upon those who struck him down. It’s not a great one as the story has some pacing issues, an arguably needless end for a character, and a central conflict that probably could’ve been phrased better. I still admire the ambition that King showed in this storyline, as well as the efforts of Janin, Daniel, Romita Jr., and Fornes in executing it. All of this is enough for me to see how the writer wraps up his time with the character in “Batman & Catwoman” because I want to see what other big swings he takes there, and whether or not they’ll connect.