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hinn_raven's review against another edition
1.0
War Games might genuinely be one of the worst things that have ever happened to comics. It's riddled with horrific art, bad writing, bad treatment of beloved characters. The few attempts at brevity, goodness, or even relief are frequently undercut by homophobia, rape jokes, transphobia, and sexism. As a fan of multiple of the storylines which were interrupted to produce this all-time low in comic event storytelling, and a fan of characters who were fridged, character assassinated, or otherwise shoved aside in favor of a narrative where Batman shoves aside his family and is more convinced than ever that he is right and blameless in the events that happen... it was awful.
hinn_raven's review against another edition
1.0
War Games Part Two: It's still bad. It's emblematic of some of the worst Batman writing: the character is pig headed, cruel, and even abusive, but we are told by the narrative that he's smarter than everyone, so they should just deal with it. And the ending goes out of the way to explain that it's not his fault that beloved character Stephanie Brown died, not really, it was because mean old pacifist Leslie Thompkins was overtaken by the "Batman is blameless" virus and decided to deny a girl medical treatment. Batman declares that what happened was a war crime, and there must be war trials, but in the end, he fails to take any responsibility for his own actions, and inflicts massive amounts of trauma on the entire city.
viera's review against another edition
4.0
I liked the plot, even if the characterization of the heroes felt off. Everyone is extremely unlikeable and petty. They all treat each other terribly and are extremely reactionary. Its like a procedural but everyone has a huge ego and wears costumes. The stories span across several comics (detective, Catwoman, Batgirl etc.) so of course the art and writing are different per comic, but the whole concept is interesting.
viera's review against another edition
4.0
Honestly if it weren’t for the shoehorned “twist” in the last few pages, it’d be 5 stars. This is better than the first book imo.
zglotz's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
oddmara's review against another edition
3.0
Can't believe they fucking friged Steph.
Also can't believe they won't ever give Bruce a new character arc ever. It's always. I refuse to communicate. My family/friends get upset at me. Increasingly. More. I refuse help and end up hurting my family members. I act as if I don't care. I have an epiphany. I apologise. I get to work like normal. Together we fix everything. Power of friendship wins (until the epilogues which were BANGER in this one however they couldn't make up for the rest of the book).
Can I just say. Leslie's character arc in this one?? The BOLDEST move dc has and will ever pull. AND I FOR ONE LOVE IT. She started off as an endearing character in the early stories she was involved, another parenral figure to Bruce. She got extremely annoying as time passed, refusing to acknowledge that when someone threatens her life she can't really be like "ohhhh violence is so bad please guys let's not be violent". HOWEVER. TWISTING THAT AND MAKING HER KILL STEPH (as much as I don't fucking agree with it don't even get me started). FUCKING BRILLIANT. Literally only time I've ever cared about this character. Evil old lady 10/10. This is how you actually make a character interesting, not whatever they've been doing with Batman since like. No Man's Land.
Still can't believe they friged steph though.
Honestly I got quite bored whilst reading this because so many times instead of developing plot and connections between characters Batman loves introduxing6either fight scenes or random shots of mobsters doing stuff and the only time that ever worked was Cataclysm. Please. I beg. I'm bored. I'm sure all the gothamites are having a terrible time but I like I am only here because I care about Batman and the gang. Not the gangs. His gang. The group. Easy mistake.
Dick's arc throughout this? Also brilliant. When Alfred threatened to break his other leg I nearly lost it. When he started crying after not seeing Tim for 2 seconds in a fire and thinking he died???? 10000/10 exactly what I signed up for, more of that please.
Poor steph. She deserved so much better. She was the cataclyst in this story and also the only one that again had a character arc and they stole that from her by murdering her. Insane.
Also can't believe they won't ever give Bruce a new character arc ever. It's always. I refuse to communicate. My family/friends get upset at me. Increasingly. More. I refuse help and end up hurting my family members. I act as if I don't care. I have an epiphany. I apologise. I get to work like normal. Together we fix everything. Power of friendship wins (until the epilogues which were BANGER in this one however they couldn't make up for the rest of the book).
Can I just say. Leslie's character arc in this one?? The BOLDEST move dc has and will ever pull. AND I FOR ONE LOVE IT. She started off as an endearing character in the early stories she was involved, another parenral figure to Bruce. She got extremely annoying as time passed, refusing to acknowledge that when someone threatens her life she can't really be like "ohhhh violence is so bad please guys let's not be violent". HOWEVER. TWISTING THAT AND MAKING HER KILL STEPH (as much as I don't fucking agree with it don't even get me started). FUCKING BRILLIANT. Literally only time I've ever cared about this character. Evil old lady 10/10. This is how you actually make a character interesting, not whatever they've been doing with Batman since like. No Man's Land.
Still can't believe they friged steph though.
Honestly I got quite bored whilst reading this because so many times instead of developing plot and connections between characters Batman loves introduxing6either fight scenes or random shots of mobsters doing stuff and the only time that ever worked was Cataclysm. Please. I beg. I'm bored. I'm sure all the gothamites are having a terrible time but I like I am only here because I care about Batman and the gang. Not the gangs. His gang. The group. Easy mistake.
Dick's arc throughout this? Also brilliant. When Alfred threatened to break his other leg I nearly lost it. When he started crying after not seeing Tim for 2 seconds in a fire and thinking he died???? 10000/10 exactly what I signed up for, more of that please.
Poor steph. She deserved so much better. She was the cataclyst in this story and also the only one that again had a character arc and they stole that from her by murdering her. Insane.
oddmara's review against another edition
5.0
generally great all that I cam focus on is Tim's return to being robin, I loved that with all my heart and that one issue where they kill darla is the highlight of that book. civilian tim acting as protectively as he can is a 10/10 in my book.
mboyette252's review against another edition
5.0
I love a Batman story where we see him focus on the city and its problems. War Games does just that while showcasing the usefulness of the Bat-Family.