Scarecrow tries to mentally break Batman, once again, in Kings of Yawn…
As someone who’s read a batload of Batpants books, there’s wayyyy to much familiar material rehashed here. Scarecrow telling Batman that: he’d do more good as a billionaire philanthropist than a masked vigilante; that constantly putting away his rogues gallery in Arkham only for them to break out again is a pointless cycle; and that Batman is the cause of the many performance artist supervillains anyway.
It’s nothing I haven’t heard before in other, better Batman books and Scott Peterson’s regurgitating these stale points without a new spin isn’t revelatory or interesting whether you’re a new Batman reader or a seasoned one. Nowt much happens and what little that does is bo-ring!
Some of Kelley Jones’ horror-esque art is strikingly dramatic at times though it’s by turns equally silly-looking. His Scarecrow is beefier than usual - not a bad choice as it was different for a change – but that’s not really the point of the character; he’s more cerebral than physical. Some of the covers are cool and Scarecrow as a building was a trippy visual. It’s not a whole helluva lot of positive to give the book though – you’ve gotta be a big Kelley Jones fan to make Kings of Fear worth checking out!
Trite, uninspired and unengaging throughout, Kings of Fear is an easily missable addition to the Batman library.
On the surface it looks dimple bit frankly if you look deeper you would have a better understanding of what Scott was trying to do. It feels like a good entry point for nw fans so maybe instead of acting cynical you could at least recommend it to new fabs by I I guess complaining about every fucking comic you read is easier for you.
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