Thanks for the other recommendations. I appreciate the rec, but the War of Jokes and Riddles didn't interest me very much. At that point, I was so goddamn sick of the event stories in Batman. Snyder's Batman run was just a big mixed bag and exhausting. Can't the man write a damned simple story? And I'm starting to get tired of Joker showing up all the time. With him, the less the better as he's more threatening when he shows up once and a while.
I completely agree with you on Snyder. I have found myself saying your exact same statement. Why can’t he write a simple story? Even Court of Owls started great and I consider it a very good story, but it was bloated and limped to the finish.
I stopped reading Snyder's overwrought Batman run after the first issue of Death of the Family, but picked it up again for Zero Year which wound up being a thorough mistake.
All of the excitement built up by Court of Owls went out the window with City of Owls...because Batman's piecemeal takedown of the Court doesn't even happen in his own book. It happens in the tie-in books for Night of the Owls, and then City of Owls ends with such a painfully cliche whimper.
Black Mirror is Snyder's best Batman story precisely because it's the opposite of what he did in Batman. Reading that story month to month was so exciting. Reading the collected edition was an even better experience. He's never been able to match it.
That said, I never considered The War of Jokes & Riddles to be an event book. King's run was largely self-contained. One of his strong points as a writer for me is that he usually takes what should be MASSIVE moments and subverts it to something smaller and intimate, which is basically what The War of Jokes and Riddles was. It wasn't a loud, stupid event book. Not to mention, The Joker shows up in King's Batman run all of like 4 times as a functioning character: The War of Jokes & Riddles (Batman 25-32), DC Nation #0 one-shot, The Best Man (48-49) and All the Way Down (67).
I think writers need to do a better job of differentiating the two and focus on making Riddler a uniqe character. If you do that but keep the Riddles aspect, honestly, Riddler could be Batman's greatest foe, if not top three for sure. The Earth One version is probably the best version I've seen. Making him an actual serial killer is a good approach and I'm glad to see Reeves going somewhere with it too. If it's done right, it could be the best interpretation of the character. I wouldn't be surprised if serial killer Riddler becomes the norm in comics too.
I think this is where we disagree. I think the difficulty of writing the Riddler is that he requires very smart writing and not many writers can deliver on that. I don't think the serial killer route is the one to take though, because then it just makes the Joker/Riddler comparisons all the more prominent. Plus, I think Batman having more villains who commit mass homicide ad nauseam just makes Batman look all the more ineffective and it highlights the bankruptcy of the writers who come up with this stuff (which is why I 1.am generally sick of the Joker and 2. liked what King did with him, or rather, didn't do with him).
I think the best option for the Riddler is to bring back what Paul Dini did in his Detective Comics run from a few years ago. Make him an arrogant private detective: Batman's competition rather than his opposition. I never felt that the Riddler's main compulsion was to commit crimes than it was to simply outsmart Batman. I think this development would make for a more interesting dynamic, where the Riddler plays a more "I told you so!" role to Batman's stoic, subdued detective. It could make for a pretty interesting mini series as well, seeing the Riddler struggle with the decision to give up crime to go straight, but still wanting to spite Batman as they develop a begrudging respect for each other. He'd make for an interesting addition to the Bat-family, too. -
Thanks again. 
