#Anti tom king

[shyjusticewarrior]

Tom King is so full of shit

[fantastic-nonsense]

god I just want to incoherently rant about how the comic industry is so stupidly insular and has absolutely zero hiring imagination beyond their tiny existing pool of mediocre white male writers and their friends, because there are thousands of super talented and well-respected female writers across the globe who would literally kill to get their hands on Diana for a couple of years and all DC's willing to do is hire Tom King

[milowing]

guys we're so fucked

[5-7-9]

Tom King’s collaboration to the Robin WAR with other writers cannot be understated. Their plots will have to intersect, so I do not blame any of the writers for having to include Tom’s portion in their beats. But i will unfortunately have to dismiss Dick’s involvement almost entirely because i know Tom wrote his characterization which clearly derived from his plotline in Grayson #15. But the writing is so bad it severely undermines what Dick does and thinks in this entire situation, and ruins other characters in his radius. This unfortunately includes the Court of Owls “Grayson” plot. However, there is lots of room for speculation as to how he could’ve reacted hadn’t Tom written Dick.

(This originally started out as a deconstruction of the batfam’s relation with Duke but I’ve split it up so now I’m just bashing Tom King here).

Tom re-establishes Tim’s neutral and non understanding stance, but interestingly enough he also makes Dick Grayson agree with Tim. Tom believes Dick does not understand why the WAR movement wants to exist, and calls what they do a “job.”

Ironically enough, despite Tim’s wish to understand, he does not personally address anyone in this room. He doesn’t even respond to a WAR Robin’s banter.

Here is the only time Tim tries directly speaking to a WAR member, during a sneak in. Apparently he couldn’t have done this during his time training the Robins, but doing it while working is fine. His terrible conversation starter gets interrupted, and that is the last and only time Drake ever tries connecting with WAR. Apparently monitoring their private lives was not enough information, all he knows is somebody can play the piano. So much for trying.

Tom King writes Jason Todd contradicting himself previously, saying “You can throw whatever you want at these kids, but none of them are going to be Robin. I mean, you can’t have Robin without the Bat. He picked us. he trained us. That’s what makes us us.” As if the prior comic in this very same storyline did not just establish Jason’s enthusiastic support for Robins without Batman, and consider fighting as what Robin is all about.

“Kids should get together, figure out how to fight this. It’s what real Robins would do, no offense.” Then Tom contradicts himself and makes Jason state Robin is about confidence.

I can understand contradicting someone else’s writing, but contradicting yourself? In the same story?? Within the same panel???

Tom also makes Dick agree with this writing of Jason. Rather unquestionably loyal to Batman. I believe there is much evidence to suggest otherwise. As Dick left Batman to join the Teen Titans because of their disagreements, and Jason disagrees with Batman’s method so much so he became Red Hood. This is a rather complimentary perception of Batman, “Who among all of us is as good as Batman?” And a rather lesser perception of the Robins as a concept, similar to the popular idea that “Robin is just Batman’s sidekick.”

I do not know if Damian is consistently written to believe in blood or genetic theory regarding strength, but that is closely aligned with the previous establishment of Damian’s distain although it is not mentioned specifically before.

Then Tom directly contradicts his own writing again. Here he writes Damian explicitly stating that suffering is what makes a Robin means to be a Robin. So is it his blood or is it suffering? Which is it???

I am confused as to what Tom’s point is at the end. Is “they” the WAR Robins? Is “you” Tim, Damian, and Jason? Does Tom believe Dick to think WAR is trying to be better than the Robins (under Batman) but the Robins (under Batman) are still doing their “job” correctly??? Or is this stuck on the example (“they” being the crooks and “you” being Robin and Batman) and just implying that crooks are being effectively scared because Batman’s method is good????? That is my interpretation of the dialogue but I am unsure if that is the intended reading. Either way, it implies that Batman is right to do what he does.

This entire section is so illogical it messes with the foundational theme of the entire story. It heavily, severely, scathingly undermines the entire premise of We Are Robin. WAR does not wish to strike fear into criminals, they simply wish to protect their neighborhood when the system is not working. It is entirely dismissive of Gotham’s civilians right to self defense and to make their own choices. WAR cannot rely on Batman all the time, that is the very foundation as to its existence. To simply hand-wave WAR because Batman or the four Robins can protect the city when it is proven throughout Duke Thomas’s narrative that they can’t is SUCH AN INCREDIBLY IGNORANT UNDERSTANDING OF PEOPLE.

So Tom likes to undermine WAR’s importance a lot. What a swell guy /s

Edited: So i rechecked and I somehow missed the part about the Teen Titans 2014 tie in, so I change my previous assessment about why Tim Drake may feel neutral. I thought Tim really just didn’t care, but turns out Tim had his own part in another convoluted run. So i feel it’s unfair to judge Tim’s reaction as he might’ve had editorial issues.

Tim Drake not only does not believe in WAR, the plot proves Jason wrong just so Tim can be correct (because of course he is 🙄) by making Izzy randomly shove a police officer wielding a firearm 🤨

Izzy only a few months ago just experienced seeing her brother drive by Duke and then immediately get killed by a scary masked stranger right in front of her, all while being broadcasted on television and ruining the WAR reputation even further. She even got a quick gun violence kills PSA, so I think she’d know how dangerous a fucking gun is. Admittedly, they did kick ass then got their ass handed back to them and needed Alfred’s help in the end. But under all that duress? I wouldn’t blame them for reacting the way they did in the moment.

But nOoOo, Tim has to seem superior and correct 🙄 so Izzy and Dax just had to jump right at a cop’s gun barrel for no reason, because of course they’re that incompetent. (Apparently Lobdell wrote this chapter? Sounds familiar but rn I can’t remember why that was important… something about him wronging Jason tho i think?). Tie-in over, back to Tom’s writing

After Dick sells out his team and WAR, he had the double nerve to tell Duke that he’s a leader??? The guy that empathizes “we” so darn much that it’s in the title? The guy that works together as a team? He’s the important one??? As if WAR doesn’t have their own goals, opinions, and motivations????? Don’t get me wrong ✋, Duke would make a good leader, but it’s not about who’s in a position of power at all. WAR has always been about being equal to each other and moving as one. They are all leading themselves in unison, that’s what it’s all about. Collective power!!! ✊ Also i dislike the “guts to glory” phrase, way too militaristic for a youth movement.

I have no clue who wrote this part, or how collaborations affect the story. Like whether or not all the writers agree on one story, or they write their bits and try linking them together after seeing what the other person is doing, or whatever! I assume the artist sticks with their current writer, so this art style doesn’t seem the same in Grayson. All i know is, Tom King was apart of this story.

Hot take: What if I told you Tom King made Duke “The Signel” because he didn’t want Duke to be Robin? 🤔

Tom 100% confirmed wrote this part. According to Tom, Duke hasn’t seen the whole mansion yet (true, it’s huge). And seems well integrated enough to know Selina and Jason’s past. I’d add in finish each other’s sentences but Tom is only ever positively known for his comedy, so I’m not sure if he did it because it’s funny or because Duke really does fit in. Anyway, according to Tom, Duke ONCE AGAIN doesn’t consider himself Robin. It’s official now! Duke isn’t Robin anymore 🤪😒 I bet Tom’s real happy about this.

[thatstheproblemwithnapkinman]

let’s be honest, after devin grayson, scott lobdell, tom king, and tom taylor

can nightwing really get any worse??

[wowshadowyoudehydratedbuddy]

So this page here is really funny to me, cuz its so ooc for everyone that is ridiculous, but the weird thing is that when i saw it for the first time it came to me a weird dejavu sensation, realizing later its because this is just Tom king's characterization of the batfam

Donna troy is portrayed as the older mature sibling/ dick grayson

Yara flor is the loud, rude and dirty mouthed second child/ jason todd

Cassie is the young but responsible third child/ tim drake/ damian wayne

And diana is portrayed to be reckless parental figure/ bruce wayne

This is just Batman, tom king is just doing his run on Batman again kskskskskskks

[redwiccanrobin]

DC: We released a trade paperback of essential Talia comics.

Me: Oh, fuck yeah!

DC: We included some Grant Morrison and Tom King comics.

Me: … what?

[kermit-coded]

tom king: the guy who had bruce punch tim in the face when tim was trying to help him, then a few issues later excused it as bruce sending tim a secret message using ‘the language of violence’

i mean bruce hitting his kids isn't exactly new but this takes the fucking cake.

[tuxedosaurus]

It’s still wild to me that Tom King was allowed to make a whole series about superheroes going to therapy by himself despite knowing jack-shit about it, as said series betrayed.

Like I know DC higher ups are historically extremely inconsiderate but it really did not occur to ANYONE to hire psych ppl to co-write/consult for this particular series.

[corpsedisturbed]

tom king why do you hate brown people

[theflashjaygarrick]

Tom King is one of the main writers in the upcoming Green Lantern show. Well, I guess we've had a good run...

[fantastic-nonsense]

Why don’t you like Tom King?

I mean, I know why I don’t like him but I would love to read the opinion of someone with a much more extensive comic knowledge, accurate grasp on dc characters, and who doesn’t struggle to put down in words their thoughts (you 💗).

The short version is that I do not like how he writes basically any pre-existing character he's handed, I do not like how he writes women, I do not like how racist he is about MENA people in his stories, I do not personally like his trend of long-winded external narration, I think he's bad at writing dialogue, I think his understanding of politics is terrible, and I think letting a man who is proud of the fact that he helped plan the invasion of Iraq continue to write comics where he uses the characters to subtly prop up his old job is abhorrent.

I could do a novel-length rant about him, of course, but what good would that really do? It's exhausting that DC continues to not only give him books but has seemingly appointed him as a go-to writer for female-centric books despite the fact that his writing of women is largely garbage. Stop hiring the nepo baby war criminal and hire more women, DC. It's not hard!

[milowing]

guys im fucking losing my mind this literally seems like a bit making fun of him. "tom king writes jenny sparks witnessing 9/11" sounds like a bad joke how the fuck is this real.

[5-7-9]

Never forget Tom King wrote AN ENTIRE STORY ARC just about how Duke Thomas was NOT a Robin without letting Lee Bermejo know beforehand ✌️

[mostsanescarletspiderfan]

Tom King, Tom Taylor and Chip Zdarsky are 3 writers that give off the M*U effect to their stories.

[guiltyofbitchcraft]

Honestly now that I've finally finished Jeremy Adams' Flash run (which was fantastic) I'm now even more mad about all the Tom King Wonder Woman stuff because Adams literally created a perfect setup for what Tom King actually wants to write which is very clearly not a Wonder Woman comic. DC should've just let him write a superkids comic and do babysitting shenanigans with the super sons that Irey and Jai ran into from the other world!! Just say that world also has toddler Lyta running around and boom! King gets exactly what he wants to actually do, we get Lyta back in comics along with seeing young Jon again and DC gives the Wonder Woman title to someone (please not a man) who actually cares about Diana and her lore. But I guess that would make too much sense