Some thoughts about Batman #53

Is Batman God?

Bruce once believed in a higher power but he ultimately realized such deity is not perfect and can commit mistakes just like everyone else.

And this, THIS is how Tom King decided to finish his story. As I said before, I liked the two previous chapters but I knew to keep my expectations low due to King's usual poor way to conclude stories and dear Lord, I'm glad I did.

You see, King uses this opportunity to talk about Bruce's faith, about how he stopped believing in the Christian God and started to put his faith in Batman and therefore, himself instead which is fine enough. Such thought leads to the conversation that Batman could be considered God by many and thus most people believe he's perfect at judging others which at the end makes everyone realize that he's not infallible.

This is an acceptable direction... until you start thinking about it and as with most of King's ideas in this book, it gets worse and worse once that you do it.

First of all, do you see ANYONE starting a talk like that in a jury? Think about it, do you see anybody starting to say that they believe in a cop, a judge or anyone in a higher position being God? Most importantly, do you THINK that such conversation could lead to people actually believe in the innocense of a man due that the one who caught him might have made a mistake? I mean, yes, the law can make mistakes but one sure as hell don't come to that realization from such topic.

And this comes to my next point, King clearly just used this theme to talk about religion and Bruce's faith and is a pretty shallow execution because King ultimately didn't say anything about them. We all know that Bruce doesn't believe in God, that has been explored before and in more interesting ways and the take on religion is terribly forced into the plot since it tries to connect both topics in a really illogical manner.

Lee Weeks' artwork is really good at least, solid expressions and storytelling.

Aside from that, good GOD. King never changes, instead of trying to deliver a satisfying conclusion, he wanted to go profound and more important than he actually is and for that reason, the story just becomes pretentious and unfulfilling as hell. Just go.