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. Catwoman, the Riddler, and the Penguin join forces to pull off the greatest robbery in the history of Gotham City. And their prize? A mysterious and priceless artifact in the secret possession of Bruce Wayne! But, as the events unfold, what fun is a heist without a bloody double cross or two? Riddler is seeing a resurgence in comics following The Batman. After Detective Comics wrapped up its 12-part "Shadows of the Bat" event, it was revealed that the Riddler would be the focus of the title's next arc. Similar to his onscreen portrayal by actor Paul Dano and unlike how he is seen in Killing Time, the Riddler has been speaking directly to Gotham City's citizens over the radio and televised broadcasts in the book. 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.

Batman: Killing Time - The Batman Universe TBU Collected Review: Batman: Killing Time - The Batman Universe

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. It seems to be set in the early days of Batman’s career for no real reason. It definitely doesn’t follow King’s Batman run as the Batman/Catwoman relationship is completely non-existent here. In fact Catwoman is written very differently from the Cat in King’s run - here she’s very vicious and quite mad. Oh, and David” Let Him Draw Everything” Marquez and Alejandro “Let Him Color Everything” Sánchez are involved too? Yeah, I’m in even more. Batman: Killing Time #3 is written by King with interior art by Marquez, colors by Alejandro Sánchez and letters by Clayton Cowles. Main cover art for the issue was created by Marquez and Sánchez, with variant covers by Greg Smallwood and Kael Ngu. The issue goes on sale May 3 from DC Comics. May 5: In St. Catherine’s Church in Gdansk, Poland, Jon Protva steals the so-called “Eye of Christ” to try to heal his sister. She dies.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.

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

January 18: Catwoman and Riddler, robbing a jewelry store, talk about their frustration with Batman’s constant capturing of them.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. A true masterpiece. A non linear story happening in the early years of Batman's adventures. Riddler is still young and hip, Catwoman is still a psychotic freak. It's essentially a heist story that feels epic and smart and very, very elegant. I just love how much style King's writing has, I feel like I'm watching the most elitist European-director movie. So good! June 18: A monk from Gdansk, Poland, buys the Eye of Christ, sold by the line of nobles who were deposed three years before. Despite the beautiful, incredibly sexy, and energetic art by veteran superstar artist David Marquez (a new collaborator with King), the message of this miniseries is much, much more nihilistic than the messages of both his main Batman run and his Batman/Catwoman run, both of which try to show the meaning and help that love and family can bring to a life of trauma (A small link between Catwoman and the Joker early in the chronology of the run provides an Easter egg for fans of King’s Batman/Catwoman series, which shows that relationship developing throughout their lifetimes.). This story has none of that to levan the flat misery that the four villains unleash on Gotham – but King and Marquez’s brilliant storytelling makes the dark pill slide home much more easily. 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.

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

The narration gets tied down in tedious detail that makes sense in the story but gets to be a little much to read. One very interesting discussion point on the series centers around how King creates two unique villainous/antagonist characters in this miniseries. Unlike his eighty-five issues of Batman, which very much feels like a deep mining of Batman’s history, with barely any new characters created or used by King (in contrast with the extremely prolific inventor James Tynion, who invented at least one new character per issue in the run immediately following King!), the Help and Agent Nuri Espinoza have distinct personalities and looks.There’s a new villain introduced called The Help, who’s like a slightly zombified mash-up of Alfred and Batman. He’s terrifying - some of the scenes put me in mind of Anton Chigurh from No Country for Old Men - and I liked how his past ties into Batman’s. He’s a very capable match for Bruce too. I think he’s the best new addition to Batman’s rogues gallery we’ve had in a while and hope to see him in more stuff in the future.

Batman: Killing Time on the way from King and Marquez Batman: Killing Time on the way from King and Marquez

Despite Batman being the titular character, in which he has been the Caped Crusader for a couple of years, he isn’t really the main character, continuing a recent streak of King not that interested in Batman as a character. King is clearly more interested in the villains who are always double-crossing one another and no doubt there is some fun with the banter between them, but because the comic is so fixated on being non-linear, it’s ultimately hard to care. November 7: Vera buys the Eye in a pawn shop, who got it from a stewardess, who got it on another flight. For 3000 years, the Eye of God traveled from Ancient Greece to Gotham, surrounded by the legend that if you held it, you controlled the world. But in reality, it held the power to unleash the bloodiest, most depraved frenzy on those around it. The Help gives Vera (Croc’s flame) the money for being Penguin’s patsy, telling her not to spend it. It could be that the story is about the transient nature of power, how the item passes from one to another, each briefly empowered before losing it to another, and so on. Or perhaps the stupidity of superstition. Or perhaps it’s simply a story meant to kill time, as the title suggests, and that it’s not really about anything more than what we see on the surface. Maybe it’s a commentary on the nature of superhero comics, that are all middle story and no real conclusion, that gets repeated over and over again ad infinitum. As Riddler intones at the end, “What did we… solve? Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing.” Maybe it’s a superhero retelling of The Bacchae.That night, Penguin tells a huge crowd of Gotham gangsters about the meet at the Iceberg Lounge. One of Batman’s informers texts him but is murdered as a result. Killer Croc enters the bank in the rain, and the guard lets him in without challenge. He begins the robbery. New Commissioner Jim Gordon is alerted and turns on the Bat-signal. Riddler approaches Mr. Barrington, bank president. 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.