A deus ex machina in a comic book? Whatever will they think of next?!

I’ve also just figured out why I just didn’t get a lot of Morrison’s writing more recently. I haven’t read all his stuff. There are waaaaaay too many in-jokes and self-references flying around for me to really understand what’s going on. I mean, that’s normal in comic books, but damn.

What Morrison seems to be attempting is insanely ambitious, which is setting up themes in one title and then paying them off YEARS LATER in another one. All-Star Superman was great on its own, but it was also back matter to his One Million Cross-Over in that it gave the origin of Superman-Prime. This JLA: Classified arc sets up both Seven Soldiers and his Batman and Robin title. I mean, the reference to Cyril replacing the first Knight and the broken gyroscope hardly seem accidental in retrospect.

What a great story. Great writer. Great artist. Great characters. Great.

“You apes were led astray by a cunning manipulator. A bunch of dumb slogans, a few bananas and you belong to anybody it seems. You ought to be ashamed of yourself…You were a disaster waiting to happen Warmaker. “Superheroes” who don’t mind killing to achieve their ends can be dangerous in the wrong hands. If it hadn’t been for the bravery of The Squire, who knows what might have happened? Don’t you realize death is no object to most of the enemies we deal with? Quite Frankly, as an alternative to SOME of the super-punishments we’ve had to devise over the years–execution’s a walk in the park. These “NO-Nonsense solutions of yours just don’t hold water in a complex world of jet-powered apes and time travel.”

Let it never be said that I know what I’m talking about.

It was McGuiness who drew the pages in this moment

Also, you can pretty easily extrapolate an explanation for not using the science fiction closet in Gotham from the “don’t tell the GCPD” bit. Batman’s limited in his approach to Gotham by what he can get away with and still have a working relationship with the badges, and bringing out the science fiction stuff has a risk of freaking out pretty much everybody. It’s useful to seem like an actual human being to your allies, lest they get all kinds of wrong ideas. At the same time, Batman would naturally want to have as many cards up his sleeves and tricks in his bag as possible, which calls for a stingier use of the gadgets.

Point is: I probably think too much about Batman. (Actually I was pretty quick coming up with this explanation, but it took me a while to figure out the right word choice so I guess I probably take too much time to write about Batman.)

No, they get rid of Pluto in the International Astronomical Union 2006 summit.

Next time we see them, they’ve been customized to represent different JLA members.

While it makes sense that Batman would want better toys for when he hangs with the League(superpower-envy) it doesn’t make sense that he wouldn’t use those toys back in Gotham, too. Even if he enjoys using his fists to much to rely on the sci-fi stuff you’d think he’d at least make them available to the side-kicks. You know, to avoid another Jason incident.

Well, I laughed when I read it the first time, anyway. Then again, I’m easily entertained, just ask anybody.

I’ve also just figured out why I just didn’t get a lot of Morrison’s writing more recently. I haven’t read all his stuff. There are waaaaaay too many in-jokes and self-references flying around for me to really understand what’s going on. I mean, that’s normal in comic books, but damn.

Except the Goldfishman joke isn’t, y’know, funny. I thought the other gags worked well as long as the reader isn’t caught up in noirish Gotham-only Bats.