Adam Graham's Blog: Christians and Superheroes - Posts Tagged "bane"

Batman, Volume 3: I Am Bane by Tom King

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This book collects Issues 16-20 and Issues 23 and 24 (with the two issues from the Button crossover in another book.)

The main story is in the first five issues and represents the conclusion of an arc that began back at Issue 1. Batman has retaken Psycho Pirate from Bane's island prison fortress in order to cure Gotham Girl. Now Bane is determined to retake him and to once again break the back of the Batman.

I was not a huge fan of the I am Suicide story, but this is another matter entirely. In many ways, this is the reverse of that arc as instead of Batman monologing on and on about his lief and how tough he is and to be honest that looks better on the villain. Plus in this, we see Bane as a legitimate threat. Batman has hidden Psycho Pirate at the back of Arkham and gotten the inmates to cooperate in Arkham's defense in exchange for some lenient treatment (because He's Batman, I guess) and really all they can do is serve as a delaying tactic.

The story shows Bane as a legitimate threat to Batman and everyone around him. It also makes King's argument (which I don't entirely by into) that Bane is a counterpoint to Batman. It's an epic story with incredibly high stakes and moves a very solid clip because of being only five issues long.

Issue 23 is a team up with Swamp Thing team up with a nice set-up and some homage paid to the Bronze Age team-ups. The story's okay. There's some funny moments in it and it does work better than Swamp Thing's crossover into Batman Annual #1.

And then there's Batman #24, an issue that is kind of a pause that allows us to reflect on Gotham Girl, what happens to her, and who Batman is, and what he wants. While Tom King has frequently examined who Batman is, I think this is the problem one of the more effective examinations of that question and the ending with Catwoman is a twist that people have been talking about for months and rightly so.

Overall, most of the book is good, but Issue 24 really takes this book to the next level to make it a really good Batman collection.



View all my reviews