Bat-Myth 101

Still under siege from my real job, but I thought I'd slip in a quick Batman review. Because, hey. It's probably the best comic on the shelves today. How can I NOT talk about it?


Batman #702
by Grant Morrison and Tony Daniel

In the second and concluding part of “RIP: The Missing Chapter,” we get Batman’s own impressions of the events of Final Crisis. Which makes this a sort of “Final Crisis for Dummies,” something that, considering some of the reactions I read to that book, would probably ease the bitter souls of the angry fan-men who didn’t understand it. Except, of course, that they’d then take offense at being called dummies, and get pissed off all over again. So god forbid.

That being the case, this would seem to be a story without an audience. It’s mostly re-cap, after all. Re-cap with artwork that’s mostly not as good as the artwork in the story being re-capped. But I really shouldn’t crap on Tony Daniels’ efforts here; his work has improved a lot, and this is nice-looking stuff in places. If he ever gets better at poses, he’ll be one hell of a mainstream funnybook artist. And that’s not something I ever thought I’d say back when he was Morrison’s primary Batman artist.

But what was I saying? Oh, yes! Story without an audience. Except it’s not. Morrison works a little bit of magic here, using some finely-tuned prose to give us new insights into events we read about almost two years ago. Mostly, the issue is concerned with how Batman deals with facing aliens and gods. They’re hard to prepare for, he says, and he doesn’t like fighting things he can’t prepare for. But he improvises beautifully. Because of course he does. He’s Batman.

There’s also a huge revelation about Dr. Hurt lurking at the end of the issue that ties RIP and Final Crisis together: Dr. Hurt is an echo of Darkseid in the same way that Darkseid was an echo of Mandrakk. They’re three different faces for the same thing, pure evil rippling back and forth across the surface of reality. That’s my reading, at least; I’ve seen others that are pretty convincing. But I like my version best. It allows Hurt to be The Devil (as was revealed at the end of RIP), but ties him to the larger mythic world Morrison‘s writing about. And still makes the story an intensely personal one about Bruce Wayne’s quest for inner truth.

Which probably sounds insane to anyone who hasn’t been reading this stuff, if it makes any sense at all. That’s the problem with writing about Morrison’s Batman work at this late date: it’s maddeningly complex, and the themes and plotlines dovetail into each other at every possible opportunity. My understanding of it is as much instinctual as intellectual at this point, and trying to explain the various layers of meaning is impossible without unpacking the entire four-year run of comics for you. Which is a project I’m working on, but which goes a bit beyond the scope of this review. For now, suffice it to say that I was blown away by this issue. Batman goes cosmic, but remains Batman.

Grade: A

Gearheads and Pygmies and Shogunauts ... Oh My!

So one comic this week stood out above all the others, in much the same way that a giant stands out amongst pygmies. This is not to slight the pygmies, understand. Pygmies are cool. But nothing’s as cool as…

Strange Science Fantasy #1 & 2 (of 6)
by Scott Morse

I’m not sure how I missed this book when it launched, and I’m quite frankly a bit ashamed of myself for it. I go on, at length, all the damn time, about how much I love the weird and the cool and the bizarre. And then, when it’s presented to me, seated quiveringly on the funnybook shelf, awaiting the touch of my eyes like the nether bits of a virgin lover… I pass it by for the beguiling, but far less strange, charms of the familiar. Fah, I say! Fah!

(Fah.)

Batman Doesn't Have to Put Up With This Kind of Crap!

One of my favorite things about old DC comics are the insane covers. They'd throw any whacky, impossible, wrong, bat-shit idea they could think of on there to get you to buy a copy. The Superman comics were maybe the best for this, and somebody's put together a collection of  75 Action Comics Covers That Are Worth Their Weight in Gold for our enjoyment. They're all pretty awesome, but here's my favorite:

Quickies!

It’s last week’s funnybooks today! (Plus a few extras.) And all reviewed in 30 words or less!

Neonomicon #1 (of 4)
by Alan Moore and Jacen Burrows

This book felt like Alan Moore sloppily tossing Lovecraft references at a script. Then the phrase “literary in-joke” was used, and I realized there might be something more to it…

Grade: B+


Casanova #2
by Matt Fraction and Gabriel Ba

Collecting issues two and three of the original. Not as plot-dense as last time, but with many nice little touches I’d forgotten. The color work seems more assured, as well.

Grade: A

Brokebat Mountain

So my long-time, pre-Dork-40, readers already know this, but for the rest of you... My day job gets pretty crazy three or four times a year, and my funnybook writing slows to a crawl. Late summer/early fall is one of those times, and it's now upon me with a vengeance. So while I won't be abandoning the blog completely over the next month, the entries will probably be a lot shorter. Which brings me to today's post about Cowboy Batman...