posted
I'm also enjoying the hell out of the Return of Bruce Wayne. I read #3 tonight, the pirate issue and it was one of the best stories I've read all year! Grant is able to combine a larger, incredibly grand scale story of Batman through time with a small scale awesome pirate adventure with Blackbeard.
The best part, and most fun, is watching how Bruce's life through time has affected the entire history of Gotham and helped shape the Bat as a huge symbol for both the Wayne family and Gotham as a city. The idea of the ancient cave people from Anthro's time mixing with the Native people and living in the caves (the "Bat-people") and worshiping Bruce's costume is extraordinary; the fact that it's the Bat-cave is just beyond cool. The Puritan story brought the Wayne family into the mix in an incredibly cool way. When all is said and done, I'll probably be rereading for clues here and in Grant's other stories, as well as checking online for theories and things I might have missed, just like I did with RIP.
Grant has created this mythos of Gotham where the specter of Batman has hung over the city and the Wayne family since the dawn of time, and reading Bruce's journey through time is like having a layer pulled back every issue to see how it got that way.
From: If you don't want my peaches, honey... | Registered: Sep 2003
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posted
I caught up on Morrison's other Batman stories in B&R and Batman, the latter of which has an awesome 'hidden chapter' of RIP connecting RIP to Final Crisis. I'm totally digging Morrison's Batman stories again now that he's getting back to the RIP / Dr. Hurt / Black Glove mystery.
Loved seeing Bruce & Alfred working together and being so frank with one another about how close things came in RIP.
Love going over every minor detail and throway piece of dialogue for the exact nature of the Black Glove.
I'm hoping we get some real resolution of this larger storyline within the next few months as I'm getting totally engrossed in it again.
From: If you don't want my peaches, honey... | Registered: Sep 2003
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posted
I'm loving Batman and Robin. especially Damien (blanking on the name?)
and frazier irving gets a big happy welcome from me as the artist.
and i don't even like Batman, i got like two issues from the 80s when i was a kid and that's it!
I started reading this cause of Quitely's art.
the latest issue was good Click Here For A Spoilerjoker: 'you sound just like him' and then our new lil badass robin cracks him over the head with a crowbar ...and the joker is crying for help, bwahahaha
Love the new Robin. and Dick as Batman.
From: Ninja Land | Registered: Nov 2004
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I'm a bit behind in my Batman reading but just had to echo CK's praise of The Return of Bruce Wayne #3. What an awesome issue!
And I *loved* seeing the Black Pirate in there too. I always loved that Jerry Ordway image of him in the old Who's Who book.
Other than the ho-hum Oberon Sexton = Joker revelation, Grant Morrison has not put a foot wrong in his crafting of this epic, long-form story so far, and I am constantly blown away that Batman, a character that I formerly had very little time for (especially under Grant Morrison in JLA), is now one of my favourite books on the stands - and is a strong contender for my favourite book of the last few years.
Those who just jumped on board with Batman & Robin (i.e. you, Power Boy ) should really do themselves a favour and go out and buy all the trades of Morrison's work on this story until now - especially the mind-blowingly awesome Club of Heroes, Black Glove and R.I.P arcs. This whole thing has been one continuous storyline since his very first issue and I cannot wait to one day do a re-read of the whole thing and look for all the little clues and hints about what was coming up along the way.
Like CK, I also especially love the feeling of... I was going to call it "world-building" and compare it with Geoff Johns' work on the Green Lantern franchise (and all the new characters and concepts and corps he's added to that title over the last few years)... but that's probably not the best analogy since there haven't been that many more new chracters or concepts added here by Morrison.
A better term might be "myth-building" since it's more the character of Batman himself (and what he represents and stands for and comes from) that is being crafted and developed here. And that is no mean feat for a character as storied and showcased as this one is.
This is stellar stuff. Truly.
From: Australia | Registered: Dec 2003
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I really liked Kevin Smith's Green Arrow run but don't think I've bothered with anything else he's done and am certainly glad I avoided this one now. Looks like his comic book writing has become as bad as his movie writing/making.
They can't all be Grant Morrison I guess.
From: Australia | Registered: Dec 2003
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OK, so the November solicits are out and there are a massive 19 Bat-family titles on sale that month!
I may be loving all things Bruce Wayne right now but methinks DC might be pushing the limits as to how many Bat-books the market can support. I predict a big implosion about a year to two down the track.
One that will probably be one of the first to go is Streets of Gotham, which brings me to the point of this post - is anyone here reading it?
I recently read all of Dini's run on Detective (of which SoG is a kind of sequel I think) and I really enjoyed it. A lot of clever and fun done-in-one tales that used a good selection of the usual suspect villains along with a bunch of little-seen old ones (the Terrible Trio, Tweedledum & Tweedledee) and a few interesting new ones too.
And the art in the last half by Nguyen was amazing too.
So I was wondering if SoG is as good as Detective was and whether I should hunt down some back-issues of it. Anyone here reading it?
From: Australia | Registered: Dec 2003
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I picked up the first 3 or 4 issues of SoG, then dropped it. It wasn't anything horrid but just didn't grab my interest. Wasn't crazy about the focus on a new Black Mask, and the usage of Mr. Zsasz and Firefly wasn't exactly doing it for me.
I never picked up Dini's 'Tec issues, but it seems that he dropped the done-in-one style that had made that run successful. I'd heard good buzz about that, but saw no evidence in SoG.
I was also looking forward to the Kate Spencer Manhunter backup. That let me down, too. Uprooting the character to Gotham felt forced and robbed Kate of a lot of what made her book work.
For the record, I wasn't impressed by Gotham City Sirens either when I tried it out for the same number of issues.
For my money, the consistently best Bat-book (other than the great Batwoman run) has been Batgirl. It's nothing groundbreaking, but they simply know how to produce an entertaining comic book with interesting characters. That's harder to find these days than you'd think!
-------------------- "Suck it, depressos!"--M. Lash
From: The Underbelly of Society | Registered: Jul 2003
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quote:Originally posted by Blacula: So I was wondering if SoG is as good as Detective was and whether I should hunt down some back-issues of it. Anyone here reading it?
I am. It's been OK. Not fantastic, but good enough to keep. I will probably hang onto it for the near future because of the upcoming Ragman backup.
I'm going to reassess all the Bat-titles once Bruce returns. The only ones I know I'll get now are Batman & Robin (Tomasi returns to Dick Grayson) and Batman, Inc. (because it's Morrison). Everything else gets looked over once they hit the stands.
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![[Smile]](smile.gif)
) should really do themselves a favour and go out and buy all the trades of Morrison's work on this story until now - especially the mind-blowingly awesome Club of Heroes, Black Glove and R.I.P arcs. This whole thing has been one continuous storyline since his very first issue and I cannot wait to one day do a re-read of the whole thing and look for all the little clues and hints about what was coming up along the way.![[LOL]](graemlins/lol.gif)
I really liked Kevin Smith's Green Arrow run but don't think I've bothered with anything else he's done and am certainly glad I avoided this one now. Looks like his comic book writing has become as bad as his movie writing/making.![[Eek!]](eek.gif)
