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.

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. This issue of Killing Time pushes action over plot, but in a balanced way. The story presses forward less because the characters are talking and more because events demand it. King juggles the cast of characters well, keeping everyone true to their motivations, and readers entertained throughout. It’s another strong entry into this series. David Marquez draws yet another great issue that’s detailed and exemplary at pace. Make no mistake, the idea of how this issue starts and is structured is great, but Marquez makes you believe these faceless villains lived full lives. Meanwhile, Batman moves through the narrative like a force of nature. He’s laser-focused and still trying to catch up to Catwoman and Riddler since the first issue. That culminates in an exciting rush to possibly save Catwoman and stop the United States government from doing something stupid. Furthermore, I’m not really a fan of the tone of the comic. While it gets you in heist mode, Matina, I feel like I’m reading a really dry, boring police report about a crime that took place. To me, the comic is very monotone. It’s almost like every sentence in the narration boxes has the same rhythm and pace, and like we’re just getting the writer’s notes for the narration, instead of the narration itself. It keeps me at arm’s length and it makes reading this comic a bit of a chore.Batman : Killing Time is a story from the Dark Knight's earlier years, written by Tom King with art from David Marquez. The story jumps around moments in time and coincidentally focuses on the same characters who appeared in The Batman (save for Killer Croc), starring actor Robert Pattinson and directed by Matt Reeves. Unlike like King's main Batman run or his limited Batman/Catwoman series, the title is set to be a miniseries that only lasts six issues. And I figured what better way to write a review about a team up story than to do it team up style! This time you all will get to hear from both me and Casper as we share opinions on just how well King’s pulled off the first issue of this series. 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.

Oh, and David” Let Him Draw Everything” Marquez and Alejandro “Let Him Color Everything” Sánchez are involved too? Yeah, I’m in even more.

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. 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.

Having made a name for himself at DC as one of the best Batman artists, David Marquez’s work is top-notch here, presenting hyper-realistic, hugely detailed art. When you look at his work of numerous Spider-Man comics, Marquez can illustrate action and that applies here with Batman being a figure of theatrics through his cape. The second thing that I find really detrimental to this narrative is the frankly cloying use of narration. It sets a tone for the book, and immediately gets your brain in heist mode, but there’s just too much of it. As I mentioned, King tells us the exact time and place of everything going on, every time the scene changes. In some instances, this is genuinely helpful, while in others it feels a little insulting. For instance, there is a scene with Selina where she mentions it’s going to rain soon, the next time we see her they’ve moved inside ahead of the rain. It’s a natural shift for the characters, yet the story still takes time to point out the time and new location. Before we close, I do want to critique one aspect of this book, and that’s the fact that Batman feels more like a supporting character than the main hero. While that’s not necessarily a bad thing, because the story works well enough as it is, I do think that Batman doesn’t get enough moments to shine. There are even times that I forget Batman entirely because I’m so tuned into the other parts of this story. So far Batman has just been running after Riddler and Catwoman, and he’s been punching people. Long story short, I think Batman is underused. Take him out of the story, and it wouldn’t even change that much. Hopefully King will show why Batman is needed in this comic from a narrative point.Exactly. The problem is that King gets too specific with little details. I don’t think we need to know the exact times when things happened, and I don’t think we even need this nonlinear narrative at all. It just makes it seem so much more complicated than it really is, and that’s never a good thing in my book. Constantly jumping around through time and getting time stamps as well as various names and locations thrown at you is indeed making me feel kind of dizzy. As a result, I find it hard to connect with the story and focus on the plot, because I keep getting distracted by my frustration with all these unnecessary details. Agreed, while I think this is a good opening issue to get me invested, the time jumps, overuse of narration, and plot issues take away from my enjoyment in a way that strips away the joy of a con gone well. I’m interested in the story, but I have a feeling even that might be tempered if the structure stays the same going forward. Alejandro Sanchez increases the tension in the issue thanks to warm oranges to convey sunrise. Those oranges enhance the violence in the opening and the immediacy in the closing scenes too. This is just another good example of how specific things can be, while they’re not really that important for the readers. Every time that the creative team gets this specific, it almost seems like this is something to remember for later, except it’s pretty obvious that these are just minor, unimportant details. I think the comic would’ve been much more enjoyable without so much focus on inconsequential fluff. 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.

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 and Catwoman take to the road, both weighing how long they can go before they need to take the other out. And as they move about the city they’re hunted by an inexperienced Batman who knows two things: One, he’ll need to be better than he’s ever been to catch these two psychopaths; two, Penguin survived and if he gets to them first, it’ll be a bloodbath like Gotham’s never seen.