Comic Book Resources

Yeah, I liked the opening, but I was a little confused as to what was happening. The fake Batman shot the Joker… then what happened to the fake? It looks like the REAL Batman picks up the Joker, brings him down to the street, is told he is alive, then chucks him, hard, into a dumpster? Is he TRYING to kill him now? It was weird.

I think Morrison was the weak link of the book thus far and the Kubert art kind of carried the story. THe first third of the story dragged, all the talk about explicitly reestablishing Bruce Wayne and Alfred giving all the talk about going to Africa to explicitly do it, it just all seemed like it was trying to hard to explain itself. And Alfred explicitly retraining Bruce Wayne to be a playboy, it all felt like it was trying too hard to be metacommentary on the new Bruce Wayne depiction in the comics (kind of like Morrison was saying “We as writers have to work harder to retrain ourselves to write Bruce Wayne. We write Bruce Wayne with the same gravelly voice we do Batman). The actual playboy banter by Bruce Wayne was also horrible and felt disingenuous.

It’s a decent start and all, but Dini’s issue blew this one out of the water. Instead of wasting a chunk of the book giving an in-story reason for a change in the Bruce Wayne depiction, Dini just showed us a new Bruce Wayne depiction. Also, Dini gave us a much more engaging Bruce Wayne as playboy performance and made it look effortless and intriguing.

Kubert was definitely the strong part of the book for me.

The fake Batman died of his injuries; if you look in the foreground while Batman’s carrying the Joker’s body you can see him under a sheet.

Bruce and Kirk Langstrom are in London, by the way. The charity is for Africa.

I read this review after I wrote mine, but it’s strange how closely we are aligned in our opinions. It will be up later today.

Argh, I actually knew they were in London, just typing fast before heading out to work.

What a weird issue. I was, ultimately, disappointed. That intro sequence was confusing — and I’m used to Morrison’s mental gymnastics, so I have to say Kubert shoulders most of the blame. WIth clearer visuals, Morrison’s action usually makes more sense. For example, when somebody said, “He’s alive!”, I wasn’t sure if they were talking about the Joker or reassuring Batman that Gordon’s alive.

Anyway, I decided this whole issue is some sort of wacky future tale, like a Batman Elseworlds. I mean, Batman’s rid Gotham of all its crime? WTF?! And the tossing-the-still-living Joker in the trash? While that’s what some of us might want for its emotional payoff, didn’t DC just go through a two years of Crises (and dreadful associated tie-ins) to prove that heroes don’t act that way? Bruce’s unyielding stance against Diana for snapping Max Lord’s neck doesn’t mean anything if he can toss anybody, even a seriously wounded Joker, into a trash heap. At least Max was still a threat when Diana offed him.

Having said that (and I’m growing more disgruntled about the issue the more I reflect on it), it’s Morrison’s little touches that always impress. Like, yes, Alfred feeding the bats. And, even better, Bruce sleeping alone in the middle of the day, cuddling a body pillow. So: I’m not a big fan of Kubert and I’m not sure why the editors are letting Morrison run amok, but I’ll hang in there for now.

The Africa benefit was in London? Huh…totally missed that! Will correct!

Yes, Brian; we clearly see Big Ben and Bruce name-checks the Earl of Wordenshire… aka the Knight, of the Ultramarines. (Also, the grapphitti on the splash of Batman holding the Joker is a reference to the old 1958 Super-Batman of Planet X story, oddly enough).

This issue hit a lot of beats I would’ve hit in my surely-eventual-I-swear Batman run, such as learning to be Bruce Wayne again, and ridding Gotham of all its crime (though mine was an ongoing plot of that, rather than a sentence of exposition), so I can’t complain too much. Also, Bat-Poles.

But the art was pretty bad, and the opening sequence was messy. It wasn’t the perfect comic I’d been hoping for.

The best part of the issue, though, was the “next issue” blurb: NINJA MAN-BATS!!! Come on! That’s good stuff.

I completely agree that Kubert was by far the worst part of the comic. His blocking, Eisner’s term Ellis used in Fell #5, I believe, is awful when it matters. The Joekr splash page doesn’t clearly show his death, or anything besides a little bit of blood and a BLAM. The shot could’ve hit his shoulder. This led to the problem of who died and lived after the scene. Fortunately, it mattered very little for the rest of the comic, so it wasn’t a big problem. The most interesting part of the comic’s art was the seemingly too obvious allusion to Batman’s back being broken and the death of Jason Todd, on the credits page and right after it. It seems too obvious to be unintentional, but if it is, there seems to be little reason to show a drastic change in Batman’s life from those events, at least with the future plotlines Morrison described here (Spoilers!!!)

Morrison’s writing was also disappointing to me, too, probably from the lack of crazy ideas or intense action. It’s clearly setup for the ninja were-bats next issue, but besides the opening that won’t last as long as Magneto’s death did, the comic just wasn’t energetic. Kubert’s sometimes wonky, sometimes effective panel composition made the issue dynamic, certainly, but Morrison didn’t really have any of the dynamicism inherent. The craziest idea was relating Batman to a Joker crazed Gordon when both made the same joke, and it was little more than a gag, at least in the plot if not thematically.

I would second the motion that Dini’s debut was much more impressive, but that’s largely becuase I have a man-crush on J. H. Williams III and he didn’t disappoint.

Thing that struck me was that the impersonater batman looked alot like a Frank Miller Batman. Swollen face and the round, 3d blood looks exactly like Miller. Noting that, Morrison’s message was clear to me.

Just a thought.

Peter Hensel: the Joker makes a noise just before the real Batman throws him in a dumpster, so he’s probably not dead. I think the point was just to establish that Gotham has been cleaned up for the moment, so Bruce can leave the city and practice being a playboy and so on.

Now that the previews for the upcoming issue are up they’ve sort of reaffirmed my thoughts on this issue. Specifically being that it reads like it’s trying to be tongue in cheek but it looks like it’s trying to be cool. Meaning that certain parts that read like they could’ve been rather amusing came across as bizarre because of the way it’s rendered. “Batman tosses Joker in the trash” sounds like it could be a funny sequence when said aloud but Kubert goes for “dynamic” and it throws the whole thing off.

The same thing hits me about those preview pages that are up today, the ninja man-bats just aren’t absurdly “ninja-y” enough (think the Samurai robots in Nextwave for example). I do like the how the art in the background is juxtaposed with the battle in the foreground but that sequence comes out as being a bit “off” as well.