Batman: Killing Time

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There’s a subplot running in parallel to the modern-day one, set in Ancient Greece and revolving around Euripides’ play The Bacchae. We don’t find out the significance of this until the end not only for its connection to the mystery item but also in understanding the point of the story. The play’s end also mirrors the end of the main storyline.

Batman: Killing Time by Tom King: 9781779516985 Batman: Killing Time by Tom King: 9781779516985

The plot is fairly simple: Catwoman gets a tip from the Joker about the MacGuffin. She recruits the Riddler to set up a buy for the MacGuffin. Batman catches wind of the heist and is especially upset the MacGuffin has been stolen. Penguin, who has been double-crossed in the midst of all this, calls in reinforcements in the form of The Help, who also becomes interested in the MacGuffin. These narratives converge in a big kerfuffle. Tom King and David Marquez’s Killing Time is a decent done-in-one Batman book that’s always unpredictable and never boring, with fantastic art throughout, though ultimately the story is a forgettable one with a very underwhelming finale. Penguin screams at all those who betrayed him. Later, he hires Two-Face’s gang, as well as many others, to avenge himself. Having made Kite Man interesting, Tom King tries to burnish the reputation of another of Batman's lesser rogues but with much less success since he goes for grimness instead of humor. Mostly, this is a heist story with Riddler and Catwoman stealing a MacGuffin from Batman and going on the run as they try to sell it to the mysterious mastermind behind the whole affair.

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Analysis: In 2022, two and a half years after he completed his 85-issue run on the main Batman title (though just overlapping the conclusion of his 13-issue Batman/Catwoman series), Tom King returned to Batman for Batman: Killing Time. Probably commissioned as part of the promotion of The Batman film released in March 2022, King focuses heavily on Batman as a solo crimefighter, Catwoman and Riddler as the main visible antagonists with a strong Penguin presence, all elements directly mirroring the film. Batman: Killing Time is the latest Batman-related project from prolific writer Tom King. The comic book author, who penned The Vision, Mister Miracle, and The Sherriff of Babylon, wrote 85 issues of DC's main Batman title, taking over for Scott Snyder. Following the run's conclusion, he's worked on a follow-up Batman/Catwoman maxiseries alongside Clay Mann, Liam Sharp, Tomeu Morey, and Clayton Cowles. King is also currently writing Supergirl alongside Bilquis Evely, and Human Target with Greg Smallwood. Meanwhile, David Marquez has done the art for Justice League alongside Brian Michael Bendis as well as Batman/Superman with Joshua Williamson. In Batman's second year of his crusade against crime, while he is still changing and perfecting his craft and the art of the vigilante, the cowardly lot of criminals in the city are changing as well—giving rise to darker, specialized rogues. I've been a bit tepid with some of King's recent output—except for his and Bilquis Evely's Supergirl, which is excellent—but reading this reminded me why I love his take on the Batman and Gotham as much as I do. It's very much a Tom King book, with all the poetic narration, semi-untraditional narrative structure, and literary references he's known for at this point, but they're all in top form.

Batman: Killing Time (2022—2022) | DC Database | Fandom

The call for Riddler's head isn't without warrant. In the title's premiere issue, the Riddler/Edward Nygma betrayed the Penguin/Oswald Cobblepot, who had bankrolled a shared job between the two villains, Catwoman and Killer Croc in obtaining the mystery item from the bank. When Penguin requested the item at their meeting spot, Nygma instead beat Oswald with his own umbrella 46 times, leaving him battered and bruised in the hospital. BC, April 21: Euripides’ play The Bacchae premiers, about Penthus and his mother. Agave’s father tells her Dionysus drove her and her sisters mad because they denied his deity. Overview: In Batman: Killing Time, during year two of Batman’s career, Batman stands against Catwoman, Riddler, the newly created villain, the Help, and the US Government in a plot to control a mystical artifact connected to the slaughter of hundreds.And if you are looking for a longer version of what happens in Batman: Killing Time, read on for a much more detailed version of the events as we travel through time. The Help does basically feel like the supervillain version of Tom King – obsessed with history, knowing all of Batman’s teachers and allies, but also willing to do serious damage to all of them in pursuit of his mission (I say this as a big fan of a lot of what King does. But even his biggest fans must admit that King’s stories do tend to be very destructive). Nuri Espinoza, not surprisingly, shows off another side of King’s life – the potty-mouthed (in Nuri’s case, ludicrously, even hilariously so) government agent who is passionately committed to solving the world’s problems with the Very Big Hammer she’s been handed by the US government. For the past several years, Tom King has been writing Batman in one way or the other, be it the main title, miniseries, or one-shots featuring Elmer Fudd that stand up as some of the finest Batman content the world has to offer, full stop. King’s presence in the Batman world will continue in 2022, as a new six-issue miniseries titled Batman: Killing Time has been announced. February 26: Croc, motivated by his former girlfriend Vera Angleton’s disgust at his current form, decides to be the patsy for Riddler’s plan.

DC Reveals New Batman: Killing Time Miniseries From King/Marquez

After the disappointing Batman/Catwoman, which served as King’s conclusion to his ongoing narrative during the main Batman title whilst playing with non-linear storytelling, Batman: Killing Time is basically a repeat of that storytelling. When Catwoman, The Riddler and The Penguin join forces to pull off the greatest robbery in the history of Gotham City, Batman investigates the deadly heist that goes wrong. Throughout the six issues, whilst you may have the main narrative of these villains trying to resolve this heist that has gone wrong, as well as a plethora of new characters such as the Help, who seems like a formidable foe for everyone he confronts, the story keeps going off in these detours. There’s a whole subplot about Killer Croc’s fiancée, which I don’t think is a big deal, but there’s also sections where we cut to periods of ancient history, which supposedly ties in with the current heist. The final issue does reveal some answers, but reading through the other issues is a chore to get through. June 18: A monk from Gdansk, Poland, buys the Eye of Christ, sold by the line of nobles who were deposed three years before. None of these explanations though are especially satisfying for me and that’s partly why I found the final act disappointing. It’s also not the most memorable story. A bank heist, a chase, lots of fighting - it’s well done, but it’s all stuff we’ve seen Batman do before numerous times.

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The Help gives Vera (Croc’s flame) the money for being Penguin’s patsy, telling her not to spend it. March 4: Catwoman (disguised as a blonde) teaches Mrs. Barrington (the bank president’s wife) tennis, has tea with her, then changes into Catwoman and holds her hostage, taking down the guards brutally.