I don't see it as the way Bleeding Cool does, King's run hasn't been told in linear time, and Bane's had a mini-series as part of an ongoing altering of his disposition to dominance.
The idea that it's Flashpoint Thomas Wayne makes no sense, it's not even his outfit. And he ceased to exist. There's many more faux-Batman running around.
Poison Ivy isn't there, nor Talia. Two post-engagement storylines, both of which fell pro-wedding/pro-Selina.
The best "theory" is that Bane allowed the heist, or at least had contingencies, and a number of those happened within the storyline itself iirc. The War of Jokes and Riddles has been over for at least decade now, that's why it was a weak storyline, Bane roping those two in isn't some weird thing, especially those two plus Hugo Strange as part of an effort to attack the Bat's mind. What they would have figured out is that they needed to attack Selina. That's where The Joker and Holly came in at the end. A corrupt Skeets was part of where Bruce stopped having his doubts and when King started noting that he was finally vulnerable. The Joker was needed to both sideline Harley, an ally, and "crash" the invite to attack Selina.
There's no resolution to #49 in #50, it skips time.
Bane's obsession with Batman in King's run feels manufactured. Like yeah it was always a thing, but Bane doing some super Xanatos gambit to "break" Batman's emotions? Come on.
That was Bane's original introduction into the comics. A year long plan to break the Bat physically, emotionally and mentally until he broke into Wayne Manor and literally "broke the bat" by snapping his spinal cord.
It involved a whole menagerie of the villains too, because Bane was utterly ruthless.
The Joker isn't necessarily hired help as much as he sees fun. At momentary disadvantage. That was why he let The Black Glove call the shots in RIP, and Bane in Knightfall. He'd double cross them both, though he never had it out for Bane like he did Thomas Wayne.
Even Sherif of Babylon which is set in the real world has a similar feeling of surrealness that his Batman does. It’s not for everyone. And while I do like King, even some issues of Batman annoy me. Like 48 and 49 which featured a bit too much of his style and created a situation that felt too unreal. I don’t like the way he writes the Joker.
To add onto this,
Sheriff of Babylon's "surrealness" was supposed to reflect the nature of limited information in occupied Iraq and King's feelings of general untrustworthiness towards everyone.
His
Batman has been interestingly a deliberate rejection of this instinct of Bruce's by introducing Selina as a companion, rather than trying to foist it up through a Robin or SIGNAL, especially since the current Robin is worse than Bruce himself is. A lot of the stories rely on Bruce having to trust something he can't control. It started in the Gotham storylines. Most recently in the Ivy storyline, he has to trust and rely on Harley to point that he can let her see him using the machine for putting his pants put on in the car.
