A group of unintended casualties in Batman’s war on crime have banded together under the cringey name of The Victim Syndicate. If Batman doesn’t renounce his vigilante ways, they’ll make Gotham pay! Sigh…
There are some fundamental problems with the premise writer James Tynion IV sets up in his increasingly crappy Detective Comics run. Batman’s accused of not improving Gotham City after all this time, therefore he and his crusade against crime is useless. Except Gotham City can never be a haven of peace because then there’d be no need for Batman and therefore no more Batman stories and DC loses their biggest money stream.
Stephanie Brown accuses Batman that everyone around him gets hurt. Well, yeah, dramatic things need to happen to a dramatic character, hence why he’s had a rich 75+ years history! What is Tynion doing? He’s critiquing the entire concept of superhero vigilantes in a superhero comic. You know what this book reads like? A writer who’s come to dislike the character they’re writing and is utterly fed up and disillusioned. These are invalid criticisms that add a redundant layer of reality to an obviously fictional world. It’s like he doesn’t even understand the genre, let alone Batman’s world!
Flawed setup aside, the story plain sucks. The Victim Syndicate are a pitiful bunch of unmemorable nobodies we’re meant to believe represent a challenge to Batman and co. which I never bought for an instant - they’re just the villains of the week. Tynion also writes two great characters very poorly: Batwoman is written as a total bitch while Stephanie Brown acts like an idiot.
It’s impossible to care about anyone mourning Tim Drake’s “death” when we were shown at the end of the last book that he’s alive and well and as a result Tynion’s hackneyed attempts at emotion fall flat. I couldn’t care less about Clayface’s feelings - FFS, Clayface?! Meanwhile Luke Fox, the new Batwing, is a derivative Iron Man/Tony Stark wannabe.
The book closes out with a couple of immensely dull Batwoman-centric issues setting up her solo series which I’m not looking forward to as it seems to be picking up where the godawful Monster Men crossover left off.
I can’t think of a single positive thing about this one. It’s just terrible. James Tynion IV was never a great Batman writer but he was capable - now, after two stinkers, I’m hoping he gets the boot sooner rather than later!
It's a pity this one isn't so great. His work on the short-lived Talon series during N52 was quite good. The first volume especially was brilliant.
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