DC Comics reviews 8/2/22 – Dark Crisis on Infinite Earths #3, Batman #126

Batman Killing Time #6

This is the final issue of Tom King’s needlessly frustrating time leaping experiment.

Last issue saw the reveal of the big mastermind of this chaos — The Clock King.

King writes Clock King like an all-seeing, all-knowing narrator who knows the exact amount of knock out pellets Batman carries in his utility belt capsule.
While it was clever seeing Clock King weaponize time, his plan accounts for every hiccup to his plan. It’s not hard to see how King found Clock King serving as a time-focused narrator was a unique angle, but it comes off flat since there’s no suspense. Clock King knows exactly how everything is going to play out.

For all the buildup, The Help was a non-factor in this finale.

King’s other new character in the series, Agent Espinoza, was a poorly developed addition since every other word was an obscenity. It made her a boring and childish character.

David Marquez’s art is phenomenal. There has been one consistently great aspect of this series and it’s been the stellar work of Marquez, colorist Alejandro Sanchez and letterer Clayton Cowles.

Maybe it’s not a shock that King’s latest mini-series couldn’t stick the landing. This has been a common theme of the majority of his recent work. He’s got plenty of ideas, but continually fails to put it all together even if he’s got all the time in the world.

Rating: 6 out of 10