Books: Batman: Batman: R.I.P.

_________________________________________________________________________________

Batman: R.I.P.
Written by Grant Morrison
Art by Tony Daniel and Sandu Florea
2010




Available now from Islington Libraries
You can reserve this item for free here:
http://www.library.islington.gov.uk/TalisPrism/


There's a reason Joel Schumacher called his film called "Batman Forever." Like everyone knows - you can ask any school kid - you can ask any grandparent: Batman will never ever die [1].

Folks always talk about Superman as representing the peak of everything that's great about humankind (I'm too lazy to check - but I'm pretty sure that somewhere on this blog I've probably said something very similar myself: you know - honour, decency, the best in people, all that stuff) while Batman is always more that scary guy who hangs out in the dark leaping out at criminal and dangling them off the edges of buildings. But come on people - think: although he's not real (which is nothing but a minor quibble) Batman is the peak of human achievement. Yeah - ok - the death of his parents is bad and the last thing anyone would ever want to happen to them - but put that aside for a second (because really all that is - is just the trigger [2]) and consider what Batman represents. This is a human being who has - through years of training and dedication - brought himself up to be the best of all the cool stuff that every kid dreams about: fighting, detecting, gadgeting, getting the girl [3], blowing things up, thinking of things and then putting "Bat" in front of them. As opposed to Superman who got all his powers by virtue of the fact that he's an alien (boo!) Batman is the ultimate example of the benefits of hard graft and determination. If you wanted to create the ultimate human being and you had the unlimited resources to do so - then the end result (apart from the Bat-fetish maybe) - would look and act an awful lot like the Caped Crusader.

And I mean put it in this (admittedly very childish) way: for anyone you can think of - put them in a fight with Batman: and Batman's going to win. Superman versus Batman? Batman. Rorschach versus Batman? Batman. Godzilla versus Batman? Please - it's gonna be Batman [4]. He's the unstoppable force and the immovable object all wrapped up in the same package: and then someone's taken that package and dressed up like a giant bat. I mean: this is a man who hangs out with super-powered demi-gods and they're all scared of him. He's on the top of every game going: if you played him at chess he'd have checkmate in one move, Monopoly? He'd have multiple hotels before you even had a chance to go one time round the board: and don't even get me started what would happen to you if you challenged him to a game of Twister. What more can I say: he's (and this is to be read in the voice of Cillian Murphy playing Scarecrow [5]): the Bat. Man.

Point being: he's the best. He thinks of everything. And he's super cool (come on: all dressed in black like that - how could he not be?).

So - where do you take it from there? Who do you pit against the man who can't be defeated by anyone?

One of the best bits of Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth (a comic Grant Morrison created with Dave McKean all the way back in 1989) was the description of the Joker as processing a kind of "super-sanity." Quote: "A brilliant new modification of human perception, more suited to urban life at the end of the twentieth century...He creates himself each day. He sees himself as the lord of misrule and the world as a theatre of the absurd.” This is something that gets developed and extended throughout his Batman run - as he throws a few more personas to the mix: The Thin White Duke of Death and all that. But then - I mean - (not that I'm any kind of medical professional) - it sounds like a form of schizophrenia.

But then - that's not really that much of a tough sell. I mean - just looking at the movie incarnations: it's not as if Jack Nicholson or Heath Ledger portrayed him as a model of mental fitness (yeah ok - that's an understatement). But then people never really have any problem with dismissing their villains as being mentally ill (in fact - if you explored this further I'm pretty sure you could discover that most of the time people think that the bad guys are the bad guys because they're mentally ill: but this is neither the time or the place: we're supposed to be talking about a Batman comic here! Come on!).

So if it works with the Joker. Well - what if you tried the same kinda thing with Bruce Wayne?

Because - for me at least - that's the big chewy idea that Batman R.I.P. gets all it's juices from: what if Batman was schizophrenic? And how exactly would you be able to tell? I mean - come on - this is a man who (and I can't say this enough times) dresses up as a giant bat for kicks and then goes out at night-time fighting crime: it's pretty obvious (obviously) that all the definitions of "normal" have been left far behind...

And circling back on this idea that Batman is the peak human (is that like peak oil? No - no it's not) capable and efficient and able in all the ways that us mere mortals aren't (and leaving aside all the physical stuff and concentrating on just the mental side) well - what if the conclusion of being able to spot the subtle clues and hidden riddles buried by his countless puzzle-obsessed rogues throughout the years and left him unable to differentiate between what's signal and what's noise? At one point in the book Morrison has the Joker toss in the word "Apophenia" - ok fine - I had to look it up - but this is what I got: "Apophenia /æpɵˈfiːniə/ has been defined as the experience of seeing meaningful patterns or connections in random or meaningless data. The term is a misnomer incorrectly attributed to Klaus Conrad by Peter Brugger, who defined it as the "unmotivated seeing of connections" accompanied by a "specific experience of an abnormal meaningfulness", but it has come to represent the human tendency to seek patterns in random information in general (such as with gambling), paranormal phenomena, and religion."

Yeah - ok - Batman is always on top of things because every time he goes up against his bad guys he's always able to sort out the wheat from the chaff - but how likely is that? Isn't it much more plausible that in noticing the one small clue that cracks the whole case - he also has to notice everything else? One of my friends (and for once I'm not talking about my literary flatmate) when asked what his superpower would be likes to respond that he's want to be able to see and hear everything that - currently - our brains and various senses (for reasons of convenience I guess - altho - yeah: not that I'm any kind of brain surgeon) block out [6]. But what if - in being able to perceive everything around us - we'd end up not being able to process it? What if the price of - well - being the ultimate human and attaining - well  godhood (you can think of a better word?) necessarily meant cracking up? And what if the only thing that saves us from spiralling into a vortex of never-ending connections is being average and normal and mundane?

Apart from the fact that this is a Grant Morrison comic (and really - according to the internet at least (see the links below) it's not really possible to read too much into a Grant Morrison comic) - but maybe (just maybe?) I'm reading too much into this? (Oh the irony). Still - whatever. That still puts Batman R.I.P. a cut above your typical Bat-comic and provides (for this reader anyhow) a fascinating and thrilling Bat-time: because - hey - theorizing aside: none of that stuff really matters all that much unless the comic can deliver all the basic satisfactions and although it does veer dangerously close to spinning all the way off the rails at several points - it's always on hand to deliver the action movie one-liners ("If I was scared I wouldn't be Batman." / "But far from impossible." [7]) and all the shocking "Oh My God" moments that any Bat-fan could ask for. Seriously: although it's slow-build (that really started off all the way back in Batman and Son [8]) - about half-way through the dominoes start to topple - well - I don't think I've read many other comics which are as heart-racingly exciting and loads and loads of fantastic little cool bits that will have the tips of your hair quivering with joy (ok - so Grant Morrison sucks at endings (pretty much) - but he's really good at the build-ups: no question).

Just to say - you will have to read Final Crisis in order for the last part ("What The Butler Saw") to make any sense (how I pity those who try and read it without having done their homework first...): but that just comes with the territory - right? Right.

On the back cover it says: "Batman R.I.P. is a shocking, must-read saga that will change Batman - and the Joker - forever." But - obviously everyone knows that Batman and the Joker are never going to change and that Batman will never die. But that doesn't mean it's not a total blast (Bat-blast?) to read.

...........................................................................................................................................
[1] In fact there's a bit in Mark Millar's Wanted that manages to show just how horrific the idea of Batman dying would be. (No? Just me? I mean - it's not like I think Wanted is a masterpiece or anything: but that bit is pretty cool: if only for it's sense of something very very wrong happening - like watching jam climbing up walls or something...).

[2] Although I'm having trouble thinking of anything really good that could replace it. But you know: maybe he was just late for a meeting or something because of some traffic pile-up and so resolves - from this day forward - to fight crime in all it's forms? I dunno... I'm reaching I know.

[3] I mean - the whole Bat-romancing thing isn't something that gets all that much coverage in the comics - but in the films at least Bruce Wayne has managed to woo Kim Basinger, Michelle Pfeiffer ("Meow!"), Nicole Kidman, Uma Thurman, Elle Macpherson, Anne Hathaway, Katie Holmes and Maggie Gyllenhaal (ok - so maybe the last two don't count seeing how they were both playing the same (boring) character - but what the hey right?): so - you know - dude has skills. (I guess in the comics the batfans mostly don't want their action and adventure being ruined by anything as messy as sexual relationships - so what the hey).

[4] The only possible exception to this - as pointed out by Tim O'Neil over at The Hurting - is Batman vs. Doctor Who: "There is simply no plan in the history of the universe that the Doctor couldn't figure out some way to foil, even if Batman had his whole lifetime to prepare. The Master has had many lifetimes." But then - it is the Doctor: so what you gonna do?

[5] You know: like in Batman Begins.

[6] It would be great if I could explain this in better detail - but I'm going to take the easy route and just direct you to this ("In the grand scheme of things, we're all pretty much blind and deaf.").

[7] Ok - so that first one makes sense wherever - but the second one is all about the context. Still - there's a good reason why it's been featured (at number 7 no less) in this Comics Alliance article of The 18 Best Batman Panels Ever. (The reason is: because it's really good).

[8] And yeah - just to underline the point once more (I think I've said this in every entry of Grant Morrison's Bat-saga): this isn't really a book that you can just pick up cold - read to the end - and then that's it. This is just a small part in an epic, sprawling monstrosity reaching out in several directions at once (check out the "Preceded by" and "Followed by" links below). I mean - I've done the best I can - but for a much more complete understanding of who, what and how to read where you'd might like to try have a look at this "story-map" (thank you Dr. Maxwell) to give you a sense of the terrain (yeah: no one has ever accused Grant Morrison of making things simple). Although (please note) it will only take you to Batman and Robin #16: after that you're on your own...

...........................................................................................................................................

Links: Tor Review, Comic Book Resources Review, Comic Book Resources Debate, Death To The Universe Batman and Son Analysis, Teatime Brutality Article: RIP to Battle for the Cowl - A Reader's Guide, Comic Mix Article: The Stories That Informed ‘Batman R.I.P.’, GraphiContent Article: Building a Better Batman: Grant Morrison's First Year on Batman / GraphiContent Article: Building a Better Batreader: Grant Morrison's Second Year on Batman, Sean T Collins Review of Batman #681 / Sean T Collins Review of Batman R.I.P..

Preceded by: Batman: Batman and Son, Batman: The Black Glove.

Followed by: Batman: Batman and Robin, Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne, Batman: Time and the Batman, Batman: Batman Incorporated.

Further reading: Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne, Batman: The Black Casebook, Batman: Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth, Batman: Batman and Robin, Final Crisis, Batman: Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, DC Universe: The Stories of Alan Moore, Batwoman: Elegy, Superman: All Star Superman.

Profiles: Grant Morrison.

All comments welcome.

Books: Batman: The Black Glove

________________________________________________________________________________

Batman: The Black Glove
Written by Grant Morrison
Art by J. H. Williams III and Tony Daniel
2012




Available now from Islington Libraries
You can reserve this item for free here:
http://www.library.islington.gov.uk/TalisPrism/


You see - the thing with libraries is - they're not always so great at having the copies of the books that you'd expect. Case in point: Batman: The Black Glove.

The second part in Grant Morrison's sprawling Batman epic the Black Glove is the point where - yes! - finally some decent artists start to step on board (namely Mr J. H. Williams III) and things stop feeling like a trawl and start to become - well - a bit more of a pleasure. There's a classic whodunnit murder mystery (stab! stab! stab!), lots of people dressed up in colourful costumes squabbling amongst themselves (fight! fight! fight!) and things exploding (BOOM!): but in a way that feels less like a kid scribbling down his homework the night before it's due and more like everything's in control: which I guess is ironic seeing how it's the beginning of where the Batman starts to lose his grip...

Islington used to have a normal copy of The Black Glove but (and this is something that always makes me sad) - library books don't always stay in libraries forever and sometimes people can borrow books from libraries and never return them and then - well - then there's a gap in the collection. Seeing how there's probably about (I dunno) a million books in stock across all the ten libraries in the borough that means that sometimes that gap stays there forever or (if we're lucky) the management will notice and order a replacement copy or someone will request the book [1]. Which is how we've ended up with Batman: The Black Glove - the Deluxe Edition!

The Deluxe Edition? I just thought that this meant that maybe there was going to be somekind of extravagantly written introduction from Grant Morrison or something: or maybe some wise words from J.H. Williams about just how he manages to make his artwork look so lovely and tasty. But actually: the main thing about this edition of the book is that it's actually The Black Glove and Batman and Son (which is the first part of Grant Morrison's Batman epic) collected in the same book (I don't know why they didn't just say this in the title? It's like if you had Alien and Aliens on the same DVD but just called the DVD "Aliens"). I mean - the good thing about this is that you can get a big fat hit of Grant Morrison Batman in one package without having to worry about getting both books at the same time (and Batman and Son is kinda disappointing if you just read it by itself anyway - so I'd say it's much better to read it in this format where you're pulled straight along into The Black Glove without even realising when the join is [2]) but the bad thing is that - well - it kinda messes up the tidy compartmentalisation of this blog and so instead of just starting by writing about what The Black Glove is about - I feel like I need to write down this big disclaimer so that any unexpecting library user who happens to come across The Black Glove knows what they hold in their hands (and who knows: maybe in the future - Islington will get a copy of non-Deluxe copy of The Black Glove that will this make all of this here superfluous? We can but live in hope).

But the book - let's ignore all that stuff and just talk about the book: - well the Black Glove is very much a game book of two halves: the first half (that's the bit with J. H. Williams III doing pretty much everything - including the covers) you could almost package as it's own thing: it's Batman and Robin doing their own thing  and hanging around with the International Club of Heroes and getting up to the usual superhero mischief [3]: and although it does get violent and nasty at points - the whole thing is constructed with such a light touch that you could easily image Adam West's face hidden behind the cowl (like maybe it could be a sequel to the 1966 Batman film or something? [4]). The second half is more business as usual and carries on with the "Who is the Third Man?" stuff that started on the pages of Batman and Son: this stuff isn't so appealing seeing how it no longer has J. H. Williams III behind the wheel and so it's a little like coming off the motorway and adjusting to going under 30mph again - but the trade-off comes from the fact that more of the puzzle pieces start to fall into place and the grand shape of Grant Morrison's plan starts to become - well - slightly more evident.

The only problem that I found with this second half is that - altho it's builds up to a pretty cool philosophical climax that runs the argument for the existence of God (only in reserve) - the continuity Easter eggs switch from being amusing to becoming actively annoying...

I mean: if you were going to name one of the main features of Morrison's run it would be all the hundreds of references he makes to all the other Batman books out there [5]. At first - it's kinda fun seeing how many you can spot (and I was no expert by any means - but I think that I may have spotted a few here and there [6]) but as the story goes in - it kinda becomes more problematic (at least for this reader - who's somewhere in the no man's land between the type of person that has the time, patience and inclination to read everything that everyone's has written about it so far - and the complete novice that just picks up the book because they thought that the cover looked kinda pretty (and they liked that Batman film that one time) - I mean - I have a rough idea of how it all fits together but I know that I'm probably missing some of the smaller print or whatever...). See - obviously - we all know (well - we all should know) that Grant Morrison isn't one for making your reading experience simple. In fact - if there's a way for him to twist your expectations in some unique and crazy way - well: he's probably going to take it: the least of which is that he's not much for putting his stories in chronological order - so when you're reading a book he's written (and especially this whole Batsaga (of which The Black Glove is only the second book)) you know that you're not getting all the necessary narrative information up front: and - ok - I'm cool with that and it's fine if you want to leave some important stuff until we get further in - well - I'm an adult and I can deal with that - that's cool.

But what makes things more difficult is when you start mixing those things up with references to other stories    (or to be specific - past Batman continuity stuff) because then what happens is that one (which is yeah basically me) starts getting pretty confused as to whether people are talking about things which will be explained later on or things which you should know about already (yeah?). So - Simon Hurt, the police Batman experiments, the Batman isolation chamber experiments, the stuff in Nanda Parbat, Commissioner Gordon as a patrol man etc etc - are those things that you're supposed to know about or what? I mean - you can piece together enough so that you have a bare understanding of what's going on - but the experience feels sorta shallow: like you're eating a meal but you're all experiencing half the flavours... (indeed: as strange as this may sound - it kinda reminded me of the feeling of reading Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen book: and that unpleasant sensation that there's stuff that's flying over the top of your head - and if you want to grasp it: you need to check wikipedia or whatever... And it's no fun reading a comic with one hand while you're searching the net with the other - and even less fun when the stuff you're looking up in the hope of trying to work out is going on - ends up spoiling the story that you haven't even got to yet... It's kinda like Lost - where the ideal audience is the people who are watching it when it comes out so that they're able to read everything on the net and swap their favourite theories or whatever: while anyone who comes to the show late (or now that's over) completed - basically can't double-check anything online just in case it ends up spoilering them).

But apart from that: yeah - well - it's Batman. Being his usual badass self. And setting things up for Batman: R.I.P. - which (if I were you) I would have standing by for when you finish The Black Glove (there's not a cliffhanger so much - more a: well ok then - what's next?).

................................................................................................................................................

[1] And if there's a book that you would like to order for us then simply fill out this library reservation form (just check on amazon first to see if it's still in print).

[2] If you want to know tho: "Batman in Bethlehem" is the last story in Batman and Son and "The Island of Mister Mayhew" is the first story in The Black Glove. Or (to put it another way - and piling on as much hyperbole as possible) the point where the art goes from the crude to the sublime.

[3] Oh - and I know that I'm probably the only one who even cares about this - but it turns out that Damien Wayne's signature "Tt" - was actually first used here by Wingman. (Exciting!)

[4] Which - yeah - I guess is an impression that's strengthened (or comes about? I dunno) by the fact that International Club of Heroes were first featured in Batman all the way back in 1955 (of course - back then they were known as the Batmen of All Nations - which I guess doesn't have quite the same ring to it...)

[5] So much so in fact that there's a whole blog that's completely devoted to spotting all the allusions it makes to other works: Grant Morrison's Batman: Annotations And Remarks (subtitled: "I Came All The Way From Space B At The Fivefold Expansion Of Zrfff To Prepare These Annotations And Remarks.")

[6] There's a line in Batman and Son where Batman says: ""I've beaten up Superman" that made me wonder if that was a tip of the hat to Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns (which - is still set in the future - right?). I couldn't find any mention of it on the Grant Morrison's Batman: Annotations And Remarks page - which should make you realise just how massively dense and thick with references these Batbooks are.

................................................................................................................................................
Links: Sean T Collins Review of Batman #664-669, 672-675.

Preceded by: Batman: Batman and Son.

Followed by: Batman: R.I.P., Final Crisis, Batman: Batman and Robin, Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne, Batman: Time and the Batman, Batman: Batman Incorporated.

Further reading: Batman: The Black Casebook, Batman: Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth, Final Crisis, Batman: Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, DC Universe: The Stories of Alan Moore, Batwoman: Elegy, Superman: All Star Superman.

Profiles: Grant Morrison, J. H. Williams III.

All comments welcome.

Books: Batman: Time and the Batman

________________________________________________________________________________

Batman: Time and the Batman
Written by Grant Morrison
Art by Andy Kubert, Tony Daniel and Frank Quitely et al 
2011




Available now from Islington Libraries
You can reserve this item for free here:
http://www.library.islington.gov.uk/TalisPrism/


The first line of dialogue is "2 Right 3 Left 1 Right": because - yes - it's Grant Morrison and if he isn't making you feel like maybe you're gone slightly crazy and are losing your solid foothold in reality and messing with all your quaint little notions about how a story is supposed to play out [1] then I guess he doesn't feel like he's doing his job properly.

From the outside - yeah: it looks like it's just one complete thing but don't be fooled: there's actually three different sections all with their own special flavour. The first third is Time and the Batman (originally published as Batman 700: so you know - it was a pretty big deal and all that - and is why it feels less like a stand-alone story and more like a greatest hits tribute medley packing in as many highlights from Bat-history as it possibly can - leaping around like a manic wandering minstrel playing hopscotch): there's a whole bunch of time travel stuff and fun ideas that most other people would spread out over whole book (eg 2-face-2) plus it takes the Grant Morrison gimmick [2] of having different artists illustrate the same story and - for once - doesn't make it feel too contrived (hooray!).

The middle section is R.I.P.: The Missing Chapter which bridges a whole bunch of gaps between Batman: R.I.P., Final Crisis and The Return of Bruce Wayne which means that (if you haven't read those books) - well - you're going to feel like you're being pulled through a hedge backwards whilst being dropped from an airplane [3] whilst for those of those who've been foolhardy enough to read everything up until this point (no - I don't know why either) - we get to experience the uniqueness of reading a Grant Morrison comic and (slowly) having things become well - (slightly) clearer answering all the pressing questions like: what exactly happened with that helicopter crash (So - wait - what? He died twice?): even if I could swear I could faintly hear Morrison quietly sighing in the background ("Do I really have to explain everything that happened? Ok - fine: let me connect up all the dots for you.").

And the final bit is: The Great Escape - which: well - is nowhere near as much fun as the first two seeing how it's basically a pretty straight forward Batman story that moves in all the ways you'd expect: almost as if it's the final part in some reverse-psychology gambit [4] with all the Batfans who were complaining that the non-stop onslaught of concepts and ideas of Morrison's livewire Batman run up until this point were all too much for them to take and so he's all like: fine if that's the way you want it - then I'll give you exactly what you want and then you'll realise how milquetoast it all is [5].

......................................................................................................................................................
[1] So - you know: if you think that you should be able to understand what exactly is going on at a given time and leave with a definite sense of closure then - well: you've come to the wrong place and maybe you should put the comic down and try your luck elsewhere?

[2] Although "gimmick" is a pretty harsh word to use I realise...

[3] In fact - if you're one of those who haven't read any of the other Grant Morrison Batcomics - I would totally love for you to read this and tell me exactly how much sense you could glean from what was going on (my best guess would be - not much - but then again maybe I'm wrong?).

[4] See also: Adam and Joe on Colin Farrell. "Don't do the washing up" etc.

[5] Except - oops - I just checked the contents page and realised that it was actually written by someone else (Fabian Nicieza) - so: well: oh dear. (Still - I think that's an easy mistake to make seeing how the front cover has "GRANT MORRISON" written across it in big white letters).

......................................................................................................................................................
Links: Comics Alliance Roundtable Review: Batman #700, Mindless Ones Article: Criminology, Mindless Ones Article: Batman 700: Zom’s Thoughts / Mindless Ones Article: Batman Says “Yes” To POPCRIME.

Preceded by: Batman: Batman and Son, Batman: The Black Glove, Batman: R.I.P., Final Crisis, Batman: Batman and Robin, Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne.

Followed by: Batman: Batman Incorporated.

Further reading: Seaguy, Vimanarama, The Bulletproof Coffin.

Profiles: Grant Morrison, Frank Quitely.

All comments welcome.