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-Aside: I haven’t picked this or the Time Masters’ up, but the more I hear about, the more interested I am in the time-quartet’s story.

Time Masters isn’t out yet, right?

Also, it was tough to tell “Mordecai” and “Malleus” apart at times (Malleus has a more sunken, aged face), but that might have been intentional.

I like the mystery of the demon/dragon/whatever – is it coincidence that Bruce was drawn here at this exact time? Or is it part of the Omega Sanction?

I think the “dragon” is the same thing as the “hyperfauna” we see in the far future sequence – but whatever that means, I guess we’re gonna find out later on.

The dragon means “Devil”. Morrison has referenced it as far back as Arkham Asylum.

My friend and I were trying to remember a character that had popped up in a Batman story at some point. She was a witch (or at least believed she was) that had been burned at the stake during the time period of issue RoBW #2. Does anyone know if Annie is in fact Morrison being clever again with inserting a historical character or who the villain I just mentioned is? (Tried Wikipedia, no luck.)

I think the “dragon” is the same thing as the “hyperfauna” we see in the far future sequence – but whatever that means, I guess we’re gonna find out later on.

Morrison is suggesting that the DC universe has 6 dimensions (3 time, 3 space), and the dragon is only a 4 dimensional slice of a 6 dimensional creature.

If you’ve ever read Flatland, it works off of the same idea, but with a 3 dimensional creature talking with a resident of a 2 dimensional plane. In that, the 2 dimensional being sees the intersection of you with a plane, which varies depending on the plane.

(I would argue that Morrison shouldn’t be using Hypertime for this concept, but for a different one. He’s arguably mixing up two different conceptions of the multiverse; Morrison is presenting the string theory/M-theory one, and Hypertime really should be used to describe many worlds type issues .)[/science nerdery]

Yeah, I assumed the “hyperfauna” is a creature that lives in the “cube time” Rip Hunter mentioned in the previous panel, though the connection isn’t totally obvious.

Based on what the archivist says, looks like Morrison is bringing the Marvel kind of parallel timelines theory back into the DC universe. This isn’t Hypertime or even 52, it’s the good ol’ Infinite Earths! (I guess the 52 scheme broke at the end of Final Crisis, and this is what came of it.)

it’s the good ol’ Infinite Earths!

There are different ways you can do Infinite Earths. “Many Worlds” is literally “every single timeline that could happen did happen in some segment of the multiverse”. That would be a lot more dimensions then mere cube time. That variant would also mean that the DCU contains every possibility, include all the Marvel Universes, Twilight, the real world, and the universe where the only real difference is that I woke up at 5:53 am rather than 5:52 am today.

What I think Morrison is doing is the following: the DCU is a 6 dimension object, containing 6 dimensional ideas like ur-Superman, ur-Batman, etc. Each comic does a 4 dimensional slice of this 6 dimensional thing, so we get a different interpretation of the ideas from that slice, and each story is an image of the true 6 dimensional thing. (There’s also some discreteness between slices; minor tweaks between universes are basically the same slice.) That fits more into the string theory/M-theory type of idea.

Given how Waid envisioned Hypertime, I think it fits in better with the first interpretation. The second interpretation leads to better stories, however.

Have to disagree about the great art. I thought it took me out of the story, especially during the Vanishing Point sequence. I find some artists have a poor time conveying a Morrison narrative and this was definitely one of those times. I’ll also agree with the criticism that the “witchfinders” were indistinguishable at times, and that is compounded by what I think is a misplaced speech bubble in one scene.

hyperfauna are just a modern sci-fi super-take on yer standard 5d time squids. this isn’t exactly new territory for morrison. i imagine the beastie simply hopped onboard bruce’s coat-tails when he was bouncing around the time plane and rode them all the way to the batcave.

if you want to know what it ‘means’ there’s the entire work of hp lovecraft out there for you to read.

Humm, I must admit this sounds better than I expected. Except the part where Darkseid rigged it so Batman’s return would destroy everything. It’s not that I think Darkseid would not do that, but more that it feels like it was inserted to give the series SOME measure of meaning beyond the obvious “yes we will get Bruce back in the end.”

I’m still confused by issues regarding time travel, tho. How can you “preserve” something in a Black Hole, much less to survive the universe’s destruction? And how can time pass (for Bats and the heroes) when they ARE traveling in time? Shouldn’t they technically have ALL the time they want to stop the threat? I really hate it when all this technobabble is thrown around casually without explanation, as if *we* are supposed to look it up. Though that’s common for Morrison, I know.

Fanboyish, but I love the Lovecraftian gibberish: “RRN’H'LYHEH”

This issue was much better than the first one, imo.

GGGGGGUUUUUUTTTTTTSSSSSSVVVVVVVVIIIIIIILLLLLLLLLEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyone?

Has # 4-6 come out yet?

Gotta love some Irving art.

[...] guys over at Comics Should Be Good (Brian Curran: “Irving’s artwork is stunning on the comic.”; Greg Burgas: “Irving’s [...]

I hope Bruce really is the black pirate (of Watchmen). That would be sweet.