Batman #30

THE BALLAD OF KITE MAN pt II

Written by Tom King

Penciled by Clay Mann
Cover by Mikel Janin
Published Sept 6, 2017

   Kite Man meets with the Tweedles with orders from Joker fight Batman in Riddler territory. The problem is that now, batman has apparently joined the Riddler faction. He defeats them all handedly and hangs Kite Man outside on the Joker's theater. When told of the defeat, he beats Kite Man with a chair, and that's sadly where the conversation with his son begins...  

No love for Kite Man

   Later he meets with the Ventriloquist, also defeated and stripped of his dummy. He flies high with Man Bat giving air support but Man Bat is struck down by the Batwing. Later he kneels on a bridge with a gun to his head while Two Face argues with himself about why he shouldn't kill him. He's systematically beaten at every turn while the sad inner monologue plays about his son thinking he's a joke.

Not Pictured: Two Face

   He meets with Cluemaster and they hatch a plan to get out of the war. It of course fails at the hands of Scarecrow. Again he lies beaten on the side of the road, picking himself up off the pavement as the conversation sadly plays. He and Mr. Freeze work together to take on Riddler but they're again beaten by Batman. The Mad Hatter and he try something but again, they're foiled. Finally he sits in the Joker's theater as the madman addresses the audience as the triumphant side, but there he sits all alone.

Kite Man. Party of One.

   The issue ends with yet another brutal beating. Batman punches him again and again. He finally sits in what I assume is a police station interrogation room and the conversation lingers as he cries and puts his head on the table... a completely broken man. There the Riddler and Batman tell him the war is over. Even after he killed Kite Man's son, he'd still squeal. Because in the end he's Kite Man.. And with that, this insanely depressing issue comes to a close.

...because you're Kite Man.

   Geez, if this isn't the saddest and most disturbing book I've read in a long time, I don't know what is. Tom King is becoming the King... pardon of the pun.. of the dark knight.. But they should call him Dark King, because this takes the cake as the most maniacal and dark that Batman has gotten in a long time. I don't know how many interludes this arc can have but I'm about ready for them to end. And in fact, if it ends here, it ends on a high note. I give this one a 10/10.

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