I enjoy Tom's writing and I believe PTSD is a serious real world issue but I'm not convinced I want to read about it in a mainstream superhero comic. I'll give it a shot and see if Tom can change my mind.
Ugh. I hate this notion that Batman has to have PTSD. If I was reading any DC, I’d skip this without hesitation.
Batman wouldn't be Batman if not for the trauma that he sustained as a child.
The only place that I picked up on Batman in either article was the reference to Batman getting into fights 5 nights a week.
I think that there's a topic here worthy of exploring and given Tom King's previous work, which very much deals with damaged characters, he's the guy to handle it with a good amount of nuance.
Ugh. I hate this notion that Batman has to have PTSD. If I was reading any DC, I’d skip this without hesitation.
Batman wouldn't be Batman if not for the trauma that he sustained as a child.
The only place that I picked up on Batman in either article was the reference to Batman getting into fights 5 nights a week.
I think that there's a topic here worthy of exploring and given Tom King's previous work, which very much deals with damaged characters, he's the guy to handle it with a good amount of nuance.
Agreed. I think we can all agree that superhero comics are generally escapist fantasy, a source of fun entertainment. But we can also agree that comics, even superhero comics, are a powerful medium for communicating ideas. Yeah, if every issue of Batman was him dealing with PTSD, it would be a drag and not be something I would want to read. But to have a (non-Batman centric) miniseries deal with this important topic, written by someone who has experienced PTSD and who is an excellent writer, can only be a positive thing in my opinion.
Ugh. I hate this notion that Batman has to have PTSD. If I was reading any DC, I’d skip this without hesitation.
Batman wouldn't be Batman if not for the trauma that he sustained as a child.
The only place that I picked up on Batman in either article was the reference to Batman getting into fights 5 nights a week.
I think that there's a topic here worthy of exploring and given Tom King's previous work, which very much deals with damaged characters, he's the guy to handle it with a good amount of nuance.
Yup, born out of trauma. Since then, he’s master everything about himself. He’s one of the characters who knows more about what makes himself tick then most people know about themselves. Just like Kent Allard does.
The last several years, they’ve crammed Moon Knight into the psychological issues category, it’s only a matter of time before they force Batman into the same fate.
Was it King who wrote that Batman’s mindset is that of suicide each night, but he just survives instead?
After reading both articles, it sounds like Tom King has some very interesting ideas to share. Here's the problem, though. Every time a writer comes along and starts trying to get inside the minds of super heroes and villains and tell psychological stories, all of that work is eventually undermined two or three creative teams down the road. That's what happens when one writes for a shared universe. It sounds like this topic would be much better suited for a creator owned title that King could develop himself that had no ties to any previous or future work. J.M. DeMatteis' The Life and Times of Savior 28 is a perfect example of an instance where that worked better. Most of DeMatteis' best stories for Marvel and DC over the years have been undone by lesser writers (and editors). He had originally pitched the idea for what would eventually become The Life and Times of Savior 28 to Marvel as a Cap story and they rejected it. Years later, Brubaker did something similar with his "The Death of Captain America" story arc. Of the two, I prefer The Life and Times of Savior 28 because it's less cluttered and is a complete story with an end that won't be undone in the future by anyone else because it belongs to DeMatteis. This is why I also enjoy Matt Kindt's creator owned work far more than anything he's ever done for Marvel, DC or Valiant.
Comments
The only place that I picked up on Batman in either article was the reference to Batman getting into fights 5 nights a week.
I think that there's a topic here worthy of exploring and given Tom King's previous work, which very much deals with damaged characters, he's the guy to handle it with a good amount of nuance.
The last several years, they’ve crammed Moon Knight into the psychological issues category, it’s only a matter of time before they force Batman into the same fate.
Was it King who wrote that Batman’s mindset is that of suicide each night, but he just survives instead?
It sounds like this topic would be much better suited for a creator owned title that King could develop himself that had no ties to any previous or future work. J.M. DeMatteis' The Life and Times of Savior 28 is a perfect example of an instance where that worked better. Most of DeMatteis' best stories for Marvel and DC over the years have been undone by lesser writers (and editors). He had originally pitched the idea for what would eventually become The Life and Times of Savior 28 to Marvel as a Cap story and they rejected it. Years later, Brubaker did something similar with his "The Death of Captain America" story arc. Of the two, I prefer The Life and Times of Savior 28 because it's less cluttered and is a complete story with an end that won't be undone in the future by anyone else because it belongs to DeMatteis.
This is why I also enjoy Matt Kindt's creator owned work far more than anything he's ever done for Marvel, DC or Valiant.