Return of Bruce Wayne #5 - I don't think I can say enough about how great this series has been. I know some posters on other sites really seem to be hating this story (and Morrison's whole run on the book) and I just find that unfathomable.
The level of creativity and excitement and mystery and surprises that this book/run has had is just on another level IMO. Though there have been lots of great stories and storylines in Batman's loooooooonnng history, this certainly has to rank up there as the most consistently entertaining and impressive of them all. Right from his very first issue - Morrison has been telling one long mystery-story here and that even now, 40 or 50 or whatever chapters later, I *still* don't really know what's exactly going on and have no idea how everything's all going to shake out, and am LOVING the fact that I don't know that info, is testament to just how successful Morrison has been at telling a gripping and suspenseful story here IMO. So, so good!
Batman Confidential - speaking of good... it takes a LOT to get me to pick up a random issue of a title I don't currently buy (mainly since it means the completist in me now has to go and buy all 48 of the issues before this one!) but all the good word of mouth I heard about this issue had me curious as to whether it was good as they said it was. And it was! This writer, James Patrick, is one to watch. Anyone who can tell a very simple tale about Batman doing something we've all seen him do a thousand times before - solve a murder and save a little girl in a night - and yet keep you on the edge of your seat throughout while being intellectually entertained by the minutiae of Batman's investigation, is a talent with a future. VERY solid done-in-one.
Knight and Squire - pretty good. As an English Passport-holder who lived there for nearly a decade I chuckled at the *many* English in-jokes by way of the heroes and villains' names and costumes and the slang they used (and totally laughed out loud at the Beatles joke) so that was all fun. The art was OK too (not great, not terrible) though I think the artist really let down the script in a certain important event toward the middle of the book. Took me a long time to work out what was going on there. Surprisingly, Knight and Squire themselves didn't seem to do much this issue so I hope to see more from them in the coming months.
From: Australia | Registered: Dec 2003
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All I can say about Return of Bruce Wayne #5 was so awesome that as soon as #6 comes out, I may just have to reread Grant's entire Batman run, highlighting the Club of Heroes arc, RIP, Final Crisis and Batman & Robin just to take in the awesomeness of Grant's tapestry all at once.
From: If you don't want my peaches, honey... | Registered: Sep 2003
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I just started reading B & R with issue #13 so I'm scratching my head with a couple of things in that title as well as Return of Bruce Wayne... I just reread Final Crisis and picked up Batman & Son... curious about Dr. Hurt and the "return" of Thomas Wayne... Morrison's work bears several rereads, making it seem so much heartier than some of the other books I've been sampling (and dropping), e.g., Green Arrow...
-------------------- Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water...
From: The waters off eastern Long Island | Registered: Jul 2003
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^ I think reading Morrison's latest Batman stories would be impossible to completely enjoy without having read pretty much his entire run leading up to them. As I said in one of my earlier posts - he has been writing one continuous storyline right from his very first issue, so it wasn't really The Return of Bruce Wayne #5 that came out last week - it was Morrison's Epic Batman Storyline #42 (or whatever). All of these later issues are informed by the clues and characters and events from the previous ones.
If you're going to try to get into his Batman now Shark Lad I would totally recommend seeking out back-issues or Trades in order to better grasp how excellent (and multi-layered) this story has been.
From: Australia | Registered: Dec 2003
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I'm going to stick with Batman & Robin and Red Robin once all the Return of Bruce Wayne dust settles... I'll try and pick up some of Morrison's earlier Batman trades ...
Speaking of trades, can anyone recommend any from Robin's original run?
-------------------- Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water...
From: The waters off eastern Long Island | Registered: Jul 2003
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I remember loving the first several issues of Robin's solo series when it spun out of Knightfall. It remained good for a number of years before it drifted a bit.
From: If you don't want my peaches, honey... | Registered: Sep 2003
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"The Return" was a little underwhelming, but Batman Inc. #1 was full of awesome Bat-Goodness. I don't even like Selina/Bruce that much, but Grant really wrote a sexy and fun dynamic there. The shot at manga tropes was great, even greater with the cliffhanger ending.
From: Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada | Registered: Sep 2004
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Apparently Professor Pyg, Flamingo, and the whole Black Glove/Club of Villains showed up in the latest episode of The Brave and The Bold cartoon -
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Morrison's interpretation is that he's known for years (which is based on past stories, notably Death in the Family).
From: If you don't want my peaches, honey... | Registered: Sep 2003
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I've spent the past few weeks obsessively reading and re-reading as much of Morrison's Bat-Opus as I have (with the exception of Final Crisis) and it just blows me AWAY! What an amazing piece of work. And I write this as someone whose initial reaction to most of Batman:R.I.P. as a big Scooby Doo "Whu?!" Like the B:B&TB cartoon, Morrison has managed to tell a very non-traditional Batman story (Batman takes on evil God, suffers time-travel banishment, etc.) and make it a quintessential Batman story completely true to the character, and even illuminating of the character's depths. ROBW #6 had more interesting stuff in each panel than entire series sometimes have. Like "Lost," Morrison goes back over events we THOUGHT we understood and layers more mysteries and meaning on them. Like Metron saying the 5th World was his ultimate experiment. Wow! It makes sense, but I hadn't come across it before. And it makes Batman the personification of a new era of human possibilities, having survived and overcome the punishment of the evil gods. Wow! Sorry, can't stop saying "Wow!".
-------------------- ...but you don't have a moment where you're sitting there staring at a table full of twenty-five characters with little name signs that say, "Hi, my superpower is confusing you!"
From: Chicago, IL | Registered: Jul 2004
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Caught up on a whole bunch of Bat-books over the past couple of days. Some quick reviews -
* Return of Bruce Wayne #6 :
Didn't love it. I've been critical of those who've been calling Morrison's Batman-opus "confusing", because it's all seemed pretty straight-forward to me - but this one went completely over my head. I like a comic that makes me think, but not one that makes me think "I need to go to 3 different annotations websites just to work out what the hell happened here".
It just didn't seem to be as well written as the earlier issues either. The focus was too scatter-shot and it really felt like it was just a first or second draft of a script that needed to be worked on a few more times. I'm thinking deadline pressures had an impact here. The weakest art of the series to date didn't help matters. Still, it read better a second time once I knew what was going on. 3/5
* Batman & Robin #16 :
Was better. The awesome art from all 3 fantatastic artists certainly helped. The opening call-back to the great Milligan story Dark Knight, Dark City (which Morrison has referenced a number of times during this run) was great. As was the fight scene with the 99 Fiends.
The only let-down for me with this issue was that it was that overhyped waste of space the Joker who took down Dr Hurt (although I have to confess - I did laugh at the banana peel bit). Maybe I've just blocked his whole involvement from my memory, but what's his beef with Hurt anyway? Why did Morrison give the huge satisfaction of taking down the main villain of the past, what - 40 issues of stories(?) to that idiot instead of Bruce? Total let-down for me. Dr Hurt is 10 thousand million times more interesting of a character to me than the Joker is. So great to see Batman dispatch that tool in one punch and one panel later on though. 4/5
* Batman - The Return :
Not very good. First of all - the art. David Finch has become a superstar artist how exactly? It must have been something he did at Marvel because his DC stuff hasn't been that great. He can draw pretty-ish pictures of men and women in that sub-Jim Lee kind of way but as a storyteller his art is atrocious IMO. Awful, awful panel construction and he neglects to put important things that the reader actually needs to see onto the page.
It was very interesting comparing Morrison's script at the back with what we saw on the page. Check out page 22, panel 5 - the script says "Batman has medical taped the thick needle around her [Spidra's] throat." Does anyone get that from actually looking at the artwork? Or was anyone else looking at that panel and seeing Batman say "Her throat was crushed but now she can breathe, see? I saved her life." like me and thinking "Huh? I didn't see him do anything like that in this murky, muddily coloured artwork."
Not to mention his bats looked like flying wolves. Terrible artwork. And I haven't even mentioned what I think of his new design for Bruce's costume yet either. (Not much!) So definitely not buying that new book Finch's both writing and drawing now.
Morrison's story didn't seem up to snuff with his other stuff either, though the Heretic seems like he could be an interesting new villain. And I did like the final panel (even if I didn't quite understand it - was Bruce listening in on the conversation between the baddies? More Finch failure here.). 2/5
* Detective Comics #871 :
Good little mystery. I prefer Jock's covers to his interiors so starting any whole issue drawn by him is always a bit of a chore for me, but after a few pages I'm into the groove. I liked the call-back to Dick's police days and training here and the villain's motif (that they've got their hands on some of the weapons/tools of various Bat-villains) seems like a pretty cool one. The Commissioner Gordon back-up seemed a little light and vague but I'm willing to go with it. Pretty good all round. 3.5/5
* Batwoman #0 :
I really enjoyed this one. Art - fantastic! It's JH Williams III so what would you expect? His writing is what surprised me though. I am very wary of artists becoming writers but some (like the writer/artist of the next book on my list) really have the skills to do both. I'm glad to see JHW is one of them.
The story was short (half a comic!) but I really got into it and loved the way it gave us little nuggets of information about all the important events and characters in Kate Kane's world without feeling too exposition heavy or neglecting the action. And I'm super-excited that JHW is running with what Rucka started and including Bette Kane (Flamebird) in the new book! Love my B-list 70s Titans! 4/5
* Batman/Catwoman - Follow the Money #1 :
Howard Chaykin is an industry legend who has already proven many times that he can both write and draw but somehow I think I've managed to miss most of his output during his career. I'm glad to rectify that here at last because I loooooovved this one-shot. His art is WOW! This is a distinctive artist. So detailed and expressive and such beautiful, realistic men and women. Why aren't there more artists out there imitating this guy instead of all those pathetic Jim Lee clones? The colouring here is top-notch too. Absolutely perfect. Jesus Aburto, please come to the Legion and save us from these colourists who can't even get simple hair-colours right!
I loved the story as well. Nothing earth-shattering. Just a simple tale about Batman and Catwoman trying to track down the crooks who embezzled the Wayne Foundation's pension fund while the classic and (classically hilarious - loved him!) Bat-villain The Cavalier kept getting in their way. So good to see a writer remember that there are other great villains in the Bat-verse that can be used to weave wonderful stories around rather than the same 2 or 3 tired and over-used old ones. (I know you know who I'm talking about.) Would love to see the Cavalier make a come-back and get used some more in the regular titles. Fun book. 4/5
Haven't read Batman Incorporated #1 yet but that's next on my to-read list.
From: Australia | Registered: Dec 2003
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