Comic News And Reviews

By: Grant Morrison (writer), Lee Garbett, Pere Perez (artists), Alejandro Sicat and Walden Wong (inks)

The Story: Bruce Wayne arrives at the end of time, where those weird-eyed, fuzzy archivists help him along on the last leg of his journey through time and into the final steps of Darkseid’s plan to use him as a weapon. Superman, Rip Hunter and Green Lantern are stranded there, only moments away from catching up with Bruce. In the present….the JLA is waiting.

What’s Good: I know there are a few readers who argue that Batman needs the setting of Gotham to be an honest depiction (I’m usually one of those readers). Some have pilloried Morrison for sending essentially a regular guy in leather and spandex through time. However, Morrison did drop some thematic markers throughout the mini-series that he picked up here to good effect (in Tim Wayne’s mouth): It isn’t really fair that a regular guy has to fight gods. This is a deep statement that can be read in any number of ways. I really like that Morrison said it. The issue of scale in superhero comics is usually ignored (“Go get ‘em Thor and…um…Hawkeye…” or “Superman, you check left! Wildcat, you cover right!”) which can really diminish a story in some ways. Morrison doesn’t solve the problem, but that nod to a basic flaw in comics made the end-of-time sequence really, really cool, as well as the psychedelic brushes with the New Gods mythos near the end. I also *loved* the nod to origin of Batman, with the hand on the bell, not knowing if he should ring or not for Alfred to come fix him up. This was very cool. It crystallized what Morrison had been doing with the bats throughout the series. There’s a lot more cool writing and story stuff, but we’re on word limits here, so I’ll stop for now.

The art was functional and occasionally evocative. I found the draftsmanship (proportions, texture, poses, clarity) a bit wanting in more than a few spots, and sometimes crude (check out the fight with the JLA). This was a bit surprising for me, considering how pleased I am with Garbett and Perez on Batgirl. Maybe it’s the difference in inkers? I’m not sure. I haven’t seen the work of Sicat and Wong before. Don’t get me wrong. The art got the job done, and made the end-of-time archivists interesting.

What’s Not So Good: Tim Wayne, the man with the plan, and the eternal optimist in terms of Bruce Wayne’s survival, was a bit strident in chalking up Bruce’s survival through time and stopping Darkseid’s plan to Bruce’s heroism. I read all six issues. Here and there, Bruce’s essentially stubborn and sleuthing personality helped him, but many of the decision points were a bit out of his hands. At many moments, Bruce was a passenger (and often a confused one), so Tim’s claims of Bruce’s awesomeness were a bit much for me. Let’s just say it’s pretty amazing that Bruce survived his trip at all.

On the writing, I’m not going to lie. A few moments confused me, especially near the end of the book. Morrison, so adept at evoking psychological mood in the Batman and Robin series, makes a good attempt here, but has to rely to a great extent on his ever-changing artists. He succeeds in some spots. He reaches for psychedelic, and while puzzling, I’m not sure it gets there, even after two reads. Partly, I think he wasn’t given artists capable of delivering the subtlety his scripts require. I would put money on the idea that Quitely or Frazer could have pictured what Morrison was imagining and it would have been good.

Conclusion: The Return of Bruce Wayne #6 satisfied me emotionally (reunion of the family, victory of the heroes), almost satisfied me intellectually (the plot makes sense, everything was tied together) and left me unsatisfied on the art. Now that King is back, I want to see what happens to the Princes who ruled while he was gone.

Grade: B

-DS Arsenault

Filed under: DC Comics Tagged: | Batman, DC Comics, Wonder Woman, Grant Morrison, Superman, Green Lantern, Comics, DC, Comic Book Reviews, Darkseid, Pere Perez, comic reviews, Lee Garbett, Cyborg, DS Arsenault, Walden Wong, Justice League of America, Tim Wayne, Red Robin, The Return of Bruce Wayne, Rip Hunter, Batman: the Return of Bruce Wayne #6, Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne #6 review, Alejandro Sicat

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As ComicsAlliance has reported, Batman Live, a big-budget live-action stage show, is coming soon to arenas all over the world, kicking off in Europe next year and making its way to America sometime in 2012. And as you might expect, I'm planning on being first in line to see this thing. After all, when I missed out on Pokemon Live ten years ago, I swore I'd never let an opportunity like this pass me by again.

Thanks to DC Chief Creative Officer Geoff Johns, we already know a little about what the show's going to include -- a cast of 45 characters including villains like the Joker and Catwoman, a hundred-foot stage with different sets including Arkham Asylum, and a story centered on the origin of Dick Grayson as Robin. But with 9 months before it debuts, I imagine there's still a lot of details up in the air. That's why today, in my capacity as the Internet's Foremost Batmanologist, I'm offering up ten things Batman Live needs to have to be as awesome as it oughtta be.

Let's be honest here, folks: As much genuine, completely un-ironic excitement as I have for this show, I'm at least a decade removed from the target audience. This is going to be a show for kids, and while I'm completely okay with that, I'm hoping that the creators of the show take the opportunity to do something special to make it memorable for them.

So since we already know the plot's going to revolve around Robin, why not go the extra mile and give one of the kids in the audience the thrill of a lifetime by bringing him or her on stage to become the Caped Crusader's stalwart sidekick?

This would, of course, come with a pretty hefty set of problems -- not the least of which being the stack of lawsuits you'd be inviting by dragging a child on stage and simulating the murder of his or her parents at a circus, let alone the hassles of getting the choreography right -- but I think it'd be worth the effort. After all, bringing kids into the magical world of super-heroics and then having an evil clown pretend to beat them to death with a crowbar in front of 10,000 people at the end of Act II?
That's the sort of memory that lasts a lifetime. No matter how much therapy you get.

At this point, we've been told several times that unlike Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark -- the other headline-grabbing super-hero adaptation for the stage, which is scheduled to hit Broadway last summer this month by 2011 sometime before the eventual heat-death of the universe -- Batman Live will not be a musical.

Really though, what's a stage show without at least one catchy tune? Even if it's just dramatic cues to highlight the action, there's bound to be music in this, so why not go all out with it? With the first round of tickets going on sale tomorrow it's a little late in the game to start writing songs, but here's the beauty of it: Ywu don't have to! From the 1966 TV show theme to the recent "Mayhem of the Music Meister," there are already plenty of songs to choose from!

Personally, I was strongly considering advocating for Prince's classic "Batdance" -- if only so thwat we can get that "Vicky Vale... Vick-Vick-Vicky Vale" sample etched into a new generation of minds -- but when it all comes down to it, there's really no choice. It's got to be Batman Beyond's "A Superstitious Cowardly Lot."

Heck, you could pretty much base the entire show around that video. That thing's good enough to get you a Tony, a Grammy and a Cable Ace award, and I don't think they even exist anymore. That's how awesome it is.

One of the nice things about a touring arena show is that you can adjust each performance to suit the audience, and I've seen enough pro wrestling in my lifetime to know that the easiest way to do that is to tailor lines to fit your location. Now, you could accomplish the basics pretty easily (say, by having the Joker claim to be behind the local sports team's losing season), but why not go a step further and actually change the way the characters talk to suit the regional dialect?

Batman is, after all, the character that any of us could be -- well, any of us who were born with a photographic memory, a preternatural aptitude for athletics and a trillion-dollar trust fund, anyway -- so keep the illusion up by making it seem like Batman's from, say, Boston...

The lines could be matched up to any city on the tour, and believe me, people would love it. I mean, I live in South Carolina, and I'd pay pretty much anything you wanted to hear Batman say he was fixin' to save Gotham City right quick, right after he finished up a glass of sweet tea.

All right, look: I don't want to hear Batman shill for anything but justice any more than you do, but this is a matter of economic necessity. Tickets to this thing are already going to be expensive, and I'll take pretty much anything that'll knock a couple bucks off, even if it involves Alfred tricking a reluctant Dick Grayson into staying at Wayne Manor by offering him a delicious delivery pizza... that's actually a DiGiorno. You guys can have that one for free.

Plus, if you're taking a kid to this thing, the fact is that you're going to be buying some merch. Wouldn't you rather it had an actual storyline purpose?

"Once again I've defeated you and saved the city, Joker! And I couldn't have done it without the help of this commemorative t-shirt!"

"Curse you and curse those shirts, Batman! They're the ultimate weapon in your anti-crime arsenal!"

"That's right. In fact, I'd say anyone who purchased one of these for $24.99 in the lobby (Visa and MasterCard accepted, no checks) wouldn't just be an ally in my fight against evil... but also my best friend."

Not gonna lie, folks: That's a sales pitch that would work just as well today as it would've when I was six.

According to the press release, the Batcave is going to be one of the sets featured in the live show, so odds are, they're building Batman's three most recognizable trophies already. Because really, nothing says "grim avenger of the night"...

...like an oversized penny.

Point being, if if we take Chekov's gun to its logically awesome conclusion, there's no reason at all to show us a giant robotic Tyrannosaurus without actually having it get involved in the action. Just borrow one from Walking With Dinosaurs. They won't even miss it.

And speaking of Walking With Dinosaurs, if there's one thing we've learned from that show and broadway hits like Avenue Q, it's that stage shows are the most perfect venue for puppet-based entertainment since PBS. And they're perfect for Batman.

Not only do I think it would be hilarious to see an actual live-action Batman on stage smacking the living crap out of a bunch of puppets, but they'd actually fit thematically as well. Considering the fact that Batman's villains tend to be the scariest and most psychologically challenging foes in super-hero comics, could there be any more appropriate way to represent them than with a series of creepy, dead-eyed marionettes?

No. No there could not.

Plus, the Ventriloquist and Scarface, a villain who speaks through a murderous dummy already?

That guy would be a puppet operating another, smaller puppet. Consider your mind blown.

In mass media, super-heroes tend to trade on recognizable imagery. If you watch the movies, for instance, it's a big deal when Clark Kent pulls open his shirt to reveal the Superman logo beneath, or when Spider-Man pulls on his mask. With Batman, though, things are different: If you want to get the crowd pumped, then you need the power of Bat-Chest-Hair.

Now that is some raw manliness that we can all enjoy. Quick note to the actors who plan on playing Batman: You guys need to start doing crunches, like, last year. So get to it.

One more note if you decide to go this route: Make sure that while the shirt comes off, the mask stays on at all times.

All. Times.

Further explanation should not be necessary.

Because seriously, I have been waiting to see this again since I was eight:

And if neither one of the two Batman-based adult films is going to step in and pick up the slack, somebody's got to. It falls to you, Batman Live.

Now, most of these points, I'm pretty flexible on, and I'm willing to accept that many of them may not actually make Batman Live a better show. But there's one element I have utter confidence in. If the creators of Batman Live want to succeed, then they must include this:

One of Batman's greatest strengths as a character is that he has some of the best villains in comics, and with the huge cast being promised, it looks like that's something the producers of Batman Live intend to take advantage of. But while the obvious choices like Two-Face and the crowd-pleasers like Harley Quinn are great, if you really want to do it up right, then you need one man: The KGBeast.

The KGBeast is not only the best idea anyone has ever had for a Batman villain, it's quite possibly the best idea anyone has had for anything, ever. And he deserves the kind of showcase that only a live-action arena spectacular can provide. Why? Because he is a Communist assassin luchador who cut off his own hand and replaced it with a gun that is also a knife.

And that will put people in the seats, my friends. Believe it.

View the original article here

The curious Batman Live project, a touring, non-musical big budget stage production of the Dark Knight in action, became more compelling this week with the confirmation that superstar DC Comics writer Geoff Johns will be scripting the show.

UPDATE: It was reported in the UK press that Johns, who is also the Chief Creative Officer for DC Entertainment, would be writing the script for Batman Live. We've been told that is not the case. However, Johns did tell the Newcastle Evening Chronicle that the plot of Batman Live will focus on Robin and his evolution from orphaned circus performer to the sidekick of Gotham City's legendary Dark Knight. In this way, Johns said, the show is "more about Bruce Wayne and Batman than almost any story."

"We want to bring out a whole other level to Batman by looking at Robin's journey from a circus performer to an orphan after his parents are killed, to a superhero," Johns tells the Newcastle Evening Chronicle. "Batman lost his parents, but he can cope with his pain and owns it. Then he sees this boy and it reopens all those wounds. Robin's journey very much brings up Bruce Wayne's journey. [...] I think very much that Robin brings out a whole new level to Batman. I actually think it is more about Bruce Wayne and Batman than almost any story."

Produced by DC Entertainment in coordination with Warner Bros. Consumer Products and Water Lane Productions, Batman Live will present the superhero's adventures with the help of 45 performers, a 100-foot stage and a massive 130-foot-wide video system. According to the Belfast Telegraph, locations will include the Batcave and Arkham Asylum, where the show opens with a breakout. Characters will include the aforementioned Dick Grayson, the Joker, Catwoman, the Penguin, Two-Face, Harley Quinn and the Riddler.

Tickets for 2011 performances in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland go on sale this Friday, November 12. Batman Live will come to North America in 2012.

[Via Robot 6]

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Back in June, I wrote what I'm pretty sure has a good shot at being the Internet's most comprehensive review of Axel Braun's Batman XXX, and shortly after that, I was contacted by someone at the British adult film studio Bluebird Films who wanted to know if I was interested in their pornographic take on the Caped Crusader, the aptly titled BATFXXX.
I'm honestly not sure how I got to the point where it's my actual job to watch porn movies about Batman and talk about them on the Internet, but if you notice any deja vu or missing time over the next couple days, don't worry; it's just my fifteen year-old self trying to high-five me through the time barrier.

It goes without saying that BATFXXX is a pretty weird movie, but even so, it's probably a little stranger than you might expect. Unlike Batman XXX, which was a riff on the 1966 Adam West Batman TV show, BATFXXX bills itself as a parody of The Dark Knight movie, and really, that might be aiming just a little high. In reality, though, while Braun's production was pretty dedicated to accuracy -- even going so far as to cast Kimberly Kane as a character who appeared in less than three minutes in the original -- BATFXXX is all over the map. As much as it draws from The Dark Knight, it draws pretty heavily from the Batman '66 as well as the Burton and Schumacher films. Except, as the back of the DVD box proudly boasted, with six orgy scenes.

Also, it is maybe the best thing in the world that the credits to this movie include "Jeff." Just Jeff. That's fantastic.

Batman himself, alternately known as "The Bat" and "Batf---"as the case may be, is played by Nick Manning:

Interestingly enough -- at least to me -- Manning can be seen in the Special Features of Batman XXX as one of the actors who read for the part of Batman before Dale DaBone was cast in the role. And now that I think of it, out of all the DVDs I own, Batman XXX is the only one where I've ever actually watched any of the Special Features. Sorry, Quentin Tarantino, but if you wanted me to pay attention to the making of Inglourious Basterds, you should've cast Tori Black as Catwoman in it.

Anyway, Manning is -- and I say this without any overstatement whatsoever -- quite possibly the worst actor in the world. It's so bad that he's actually pretty charming, especially when he's given lines like ""Tell your boss... no more drugs! Gothard City's protected tonight, tomorrow night, and every night... as long as Batf--- draws breath!" and ""The Bat-Signal's in the sky." (Turn. Point.) "Which means the night belongs to me." (Point at self).

When he grunts out "Dropping... bat-loads!" while ejaculating, however... there ain't no kinda charm in that. And much like in Dark Knight, the movie's real star is the Joker -- or "Jo-kerr," -- as played by Paul Chaplin:

The first time I saw that he was in this, I was pretty surprised, because for a minute I thought it was the Paul Chaplin who used to be a writer and performer on Mystery Science Theater 3000, but I'm pretty sure now that it's actually a different guy.

Chaplin is, of course, doing a cover version of Dark Knight's Joker, and honestly, he's not bad. In fact, thanks to the fact that he's doing a pretty dead-on impression of Heath Ledger's Joker and never once breaks character, he actually manages to be even more creepy than the original. Seriously, imagine how creepy and disturbing the Joker is in that movie. Now put him in a child-sized clown mask and have him menace a bunch of scantily clad women on a schoolbus.

Now imagine that you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that you are definitely going to see that dude's junk.

Yeah.

This, I think, is the biggest problem with BATFXXX: that Chaplin, who also wrote and produced the film, scripted and played the Joker as pretty much the actual Joker. There's even a shot of him standing in front of a table of knives, carefully selecting the best one to use for his murdering. It's actually a pretty cool shot, but I'm not sure that's quite the eroticism that they were going for.

Unless you're into knives, of course, in which case, have I got the flick for you. But the point stands: Everyone else is sort of a goofy, horny version of their major film counterparts, but the Jo-Kerr? He straight up strangles a gangster to death in one scene and makes his henchmen have a karate knife-fight in order to see who gets to join the gang.

Of course, this also means that this movie has a karate knife-fight, which is awesome. So, you know. Win some, lose some.

As for the plot, it's actually a little difficult to follow, which might have something to do with the fact that this movie's spread out over two discs and lasts for a good four hours, of which around 20 minutes are plot-related. I did my best to keep up, though.

As the movie opens, Gothard City -- which is a pretty nice bit of punnery, except that they pronounce it "Goth-ard" instead of "Got-hard" -- is in the grip of a crime wave. This, I suspect, has something to do with the fact that this is the police force:

Of course, considering that this is the organized crime element...
...it's probably a wash.

Into this chaos steps the Joker, who kidnaps a bunch of girls for reasons I'm not quite clear on, but hey, he's the Joker and that's kind of his thing, so it's all good. Incidentally, he kidnaps them by hijacking a schoolbus that they're all riding on in what I think is meant to be a reference to the opening scene of Dark Knight, except that the only thing the two scenes have in common is that there is in fact a school bus involved.

More importantly, the Joker has invented an aerosol chemical that makes people super-horny, which he plans to unleash on the citizens of Gothard, which doesn't really sound all that bad, considering.

Opposing him is, of course, the Bat. Who is completely bulletproof.

The Bat gets involved by beating the stuffing out of a bunch of drug dealers and rescuing what I can assure you are two extremely grateful stewardesses from a box. Why they're in a box is another one of the script's mysteries. I'm actually hoping, and this 100% true, that every one of Bluebird's films features them as recurring characters, the two hapless flight attendants who are always getting crated up and shipped off to new adventures.

The Criminal Element considers this is the last straw in their war against the Bat, so they turn to the Joker, who has recently perfected his sex chemicals by testing them on Spider-Girl, in the first Marvel/DC crossover in six years:

The Joker offers to take out the Bat by making him super-horny (?) in return for half of their profits, and when they balk at paying such an exorbitant sum, he makes them super-horny instead, and, well, that seems to work out pretty well for everyone.

Also involved at this point is Cat-- er, Katwoman (Madelyn Marie), who gets the full-on special effects treatment:

Admit it: That looks at least as good as Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus.

Katwoman also has a lair right out of the '66 show, complete with both giant scratching posts and humongous balls of yarn:

Around this time, we're also introduced to The Bats sidekick, Robina (Krissy Lynn):
With her constant "Holy this-and-thats," it's pretty clear that she's inspired by the '66 version of Robin, making this the first time that Heath Ledger's Joker and Burt Ward's Robin -- or a busty facsimile thereof, at least -- have coexisted in anything close to an actual narrative structure.

Also, Two-Face shows up for a minute to have a three-way with girls based on the "Sugar and Spice" characters from Batman Forever. This might've seemed like a good idea at the time, what with the fact that the Batman franchise was handing you all the setup you needed, complete with costumes, but I think we can all agree that the last thing anyone needs to be reminded of is Tommy Lee Jones in a tiger-striped purple suit grinding up on Debi Mazar. For real.

By the time Disc 2 rolls around, things have gotten even more complex as the cast is joined by Poison Ivy (Tory Lane), who gets the best entrance of any character in the entire film:

This, I think, is where the narrative goes completely off the rails. Despite her great entrance and the fact that she refers to her henchwenches as "Venus flytraps" (which is pretty hilarious), we're never actually told what Ivy's doing in this movie or what she wants.

Well, that's a lie. We're both told and shown exactly what she wants pretty constantly over the next 40 minutes or so. What I mean is that it's never made clear what she wants in the context of the story. But that might be asking a little much, and really, once you have a super-villain lair with a sweet-ass slide in it, what else can you want?

After that, we get another new player, Batchick (Isis Love):

Now, I ain't Syd Field or nothin', but I have to say that introducing a major new character three hours into a four-hour movie is just not the best way to go about building your narrative. Just sayin'.

Anyway, she appears in a laboratory where scientists have developed a cure for the Joker's sexy chemicals that make people super-horny, which, unless I missed something, has the side effect of also making people super-horny. This would seem like a pretty big flaw in the plan.

It all comes together at the climax (har har) of the movie, in which pretty much everybody gets together and gets dosed with sex gas, with about the result that you'd expect. Fortunately, just as the Joker's about to unleash it onto the city, the Bat powers through and conks him on the head with what I can only call a f---arang:

And then the Joker plunges to his death.

Yeah, that's right: This is a porn movie that ends with a super-villain plunging to his death. That's the finale.

In the end, BATFXXX lacks a lot of the fun of Batman XXX, but considering that the latter film had Evan Stone in full-on frolic as the Riddler, there was pretty much no way they were going to top that anyway. With BATFXXX, though, there's just enough of a plot that it manages to trip itself up by going in too many directions at once. I'm not saying it needed to match its source material's complexities, but maybe -- maybe -- having an orgy scene bookended with the Joker strangling a guy was not the sexiest idea they could've put on film.

Even so, I do kinda like this one, if only for what it says about Batman. Because Chaplin understands that you can't stop Batman, even if you make him super-horny.

Because Batman is already super-horny.

For justice.

View the original article here

Nov 3rd 2010 By: David Uzumeri

This week, Grant Morrison's run on Batman and Robin concludes with the final chapter, "Black Mass." Since Return of Bruce Wayne #6 isn't coming out until next week, the exact details of the end of Bruce's journey through time and the true nature of Barbatos will have to go unanswered for now. In this issue, we get the definitive origin of Doctor Hurt, the ultimate finale to the Black Glove storyline, the true meaning of "Batman R.I.P." and a teaser for the next era in the story of the Dark Knight, all wrapped up in gorgeous art by Cameron Stewart, Chris Burnham and Frazer Irving. Fill-in artists aren't so bad when they're this damn good.

The following includes a major spoiler ao

Page 1: I'll try not to totally step on Sims's excellent notes comparing this scene with Peter Milligan's now-seminal "Dark Knight/Dark City,"but the dialogue is taken verbatim from there. The setting: Jacob Stockman's farm and their devil-worship basement.

Pages 2-3: The Powdered Wig Brigade is mostly just a bunch of old idiots - the only ones worth remembering are Jacob Stockman, who wrote down the original rite, Thomas Jefferson and Thomas Wayne/Simon Hurt. The human sacrifice there is Dominique, later buried in the Wayne family crypt next to Thomas and Martha by Bruce all the way back in Batman #454.

Page 4: The first three panels are again just from "DK/DC," but the fourth is where we start hitting new content. Barbatos claims in #454 that Dominique stayed behind in the cellar and starved to death; here, we see that Thomas Wayne stayed behind, too, to try to strike a deal with Barbatos.

Page 6: Here, Simon Hurt has his brush with divinity, and it is an explicit inverse of the first scene of Final Crisis #1 - "Man. I am Metron. Have no fear. This is knowledge." versus "Omega Adapter. Dark Side. Knowledge." Hurt seems to cargo cult it up; he hears "Omega Adeptus", the most adept magician, and thinks Barbatos is calling him a kickass wizard. This is when he takes the name Simon, after Simon Magus, an apocryphal figure in Christian gnosticism after whom the sin of simony is named because he tried to pay for laying-on of hands from the Apostles. He also tried to bury himself for three days and come back a la Christ, but apparently just died - something that'll come back later too.

Hurt referred to the "starry venom" back in ROBW #4 - I imagine it's called "starry" since it comes from the stars. In case it isn't obvious by now, this page pretty much shows that Barbatos, rather than being Bruce, was all along the Hyper-Adapter released by Darkseid's Ancestor Box back in Batman #702. It's the spirit that's haunting him and hounding him through time. It's appropriate as well that Batman is himself a sort of hyper-adapter, since his survival skill allows him to perfectly adapt to any situation. The Bat means adaptation.

Page 7: Apparently, the "starry venom" is also fresh bat blood. This provides more fuel for the adapter=bat motif, since Hurt calls Dominique "adapter incarnate" - and she's the Human Bat. This page implies that the sacrifice to Barbatos WAS in fact completed, since Hurt says he's going to "bathe in [her] blood." Since it was implied he was also Jack the Ripper, it's probably fair to say that Hurt's kept himself alive all these years via human sacrifice to Barbatos and, unknowingly, Darkseid.

Pages 8-9: Well, there go all my theories that it was Alfred or the Joker. It was Bruce, he came in through the fireplace, and we'll find out more in ROBW #6 next week.

Page 12: Damian straight-up saving Dick is a pretty big moment here. He also taps into his skills with a bow and arrow, which we hadn't seen since "R.I.P." Even though the "Must Die!" arc is ostensibly over, it seems that we're still in R.I.P. farce mode, as we'll continue to see.

Page 13: Dick's statement implies that they were, in fact, just waiting for Bruce to show up and knew where he'd been.

Page 14: Confirmation on all the stuff we'd mostly already figured out - Hurt is Thomas Wayne, the accident fund was siphoning cash to Hurt, etc. One of the hilarious parts of this is the comparison to Jezebel Jet's line in #681, where she brags about how much money the Black Glove has in comparison to the Wayne fortune, since the Black Glove's entire operating budget has been siphoned off of the Wayne fortune for years.

Page 15: Honestly, I thought that Joker left the nuke in the Batcave, not the Bat-Bunker - at least that's how it seemed on the last page of #14.

Page 17: Hurt's back to his gambling schtick. I do love the way Morrison makes this all seem so... final, though.

Page 18: I have to admit, I'm kind of surprised Hurt punked Bruce with a walkie-talkie like that. Alfred's really got it in for the guy, probably since he remembers when he was being treated in the Hidden Room.

Page 19: Here we get Hurt doing his version of Joker's monologue from the end of #680, asking Bruce how it feels to be the Clown at Midnight, while here Hurt tries to make Bruce feel like the Devil in Hell. Similarly, Hurt echoes Joker's comments from #681 about how he tries to put Batman in a box and Batman keeps breaking out of that box. I can't seem to find any definitive source of "rot in purgatory" as the meaning of R.I.P., but if Hurt says it, it's probably safe to say that's what the arc title meant all along.

Page 20: "Napoleon of the Barnyard" has to be a double entendre to both Napoleon of France and Napoleon the pig from George Orwell's Animal Farm.

Page 21: My best guess here is Pyg is apologizing to his Mommy Made of Nails for being such a creepy bastard, and trying to blame all the bad things he's done on "what they did to [him] in hospital." I dunno which hospital this is; it might just be wherever Hurt transformed him from Jim Rose into the creepiest new Batman villain in forever.

Page 22: "I'm not wearing protection, my darlings!" absolutely slays me.

Page 23: I almost thought that first panel was Quitely the first time I saw it, especially the way Gordon looks in the Dollotron gown.

Page 24: This echoes the final scenes of "R.I.P.", where Hurt was standing on a rooftop lecturing Bruce about how he was Thomas Wayne, a claim that's a complete joke by this point. Hurt's lost all of his credibility, all of his mystique, and, consequently, all of his real power at this point.

Page 25: Homage to the underwater helicopter escape scenes in the "R.I.P." Missing Chapter. I do love how Hurt totally loses it when he sees the domino, though.

Page 26: Morrison's Banana Peel is the new Chekhov's Gun - spread the word. I know a lot of people saw this coming after #15, but that doesn't make Hurt straight-up falling on his ass like a three-year-old while running down stairs any less satisfying. The fact that Hurt gets taken out by a pratfall on his escape echoes Joker's final moments in #681, when his getaway ambulance from Arkham gets rammed off a bridge by Damian in a speeding Batmobile. I get the point of the Raven quote now - it was peering deep into the darkness that got Bruce to do the isolation experiment which got Hurt into his life which led to this entire disaster.

Page 27: Again linking back to Simon Magus - Hurt here is buried alive, just like Damian was last issue and Bruce was back in #681. Unlike the two of them, he's unlikely to come back up, especially since he apparently just got dosed with Joker venom. Devil is double is deuce, and Joker trumps deuce.

Page 31: Last few pages are mostly straightforward wrap-up, although Batman did pick the perfect time to deck the Joker. These final two pages serve as the setup for the next leg in Morrison's Bat-journey. First, I'm sure I'm not the only person who expected Bruce to go "My name is Bruce Wayne and I have been Batman since I was twenty-five years old" Civil War style.The third kid in the final panel is Tim, I imagine, who's been curiously absent from this entire arc.
Links to my other annotations:
- Return of Bruce Wayne #1, #2, #3, #4, #5; Batman #700, #701, #702; Batman and Robin #14, #15
- original Batman run and previous issues of Batman and Robin

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By: Grant Morrison (writer), Cameron Stewart, Chris Burnham, Frazer Irving (artists), Alex Sinclair and Frazer Irving (colorists), Mike Marts (editor)

The Story: We see Thomas Wayne in 1765 summoning the demon Barbatos. We then shift forward to now, where Dr. Hurt is facing Batman, Robin, and DC’s spoiler for the whole Return of Batman miniseries. Problem is, Hurt’s got a lot of help, Dick has been shot in the head and the Joker is the wild card (so to speak).

Publishing Issues: I gotta get this out of the way before I do the rest of the review. On my way to my LCS, I was thinking of what a great thing it was that DC had taken its time to fully explore the implications of the death of Bruce Wayne and how I liked how they were taking their time to bring him back right. I thought the same thing contentedly as I read this issue, until I got to page 15, where suddenly I see two Batmans, one of whom is Bruce Wayne. I rubbed my eyes, flipped back a couple of pages, and find that the build up and explanation offered is….”You came through the fireplace.” WTF? OK, I don’t read most of the message boards for a reason. I want to be able to read each comic on its own terms, creator to reader, no intermediary. I think that’s honest. It took me a while to connect some of the whisperings I’d heard about publication schedules and finally realized that this issue occurs *at least* later than The Return of Bruce Wayne #6, if not later. So, I’m not going to get into my frustration, but needless to say, I felt a bit like someone had told me who the killer was before I’d finished my popcorn in the movie. Totally, totally not cool on DC’s part. I don’t care what their editorial/creative problems are. If some fraction of DC’s comics routinely get delayed for one reason or another, DC should build that into their business plan, especially on something as coordinated as an event. Now I don’t even want to read ROBW #6. Nice work, DC.

What’s Good: First part of the book (Thomas Wayne in 1765), was very moody and cool, classic Morrison. And visually impressive, even if that artist’s style isn’t 100% to my taste. The fight between Batman, Batman, Robin and the 99 Fiends was dynamic, but I never felt like anyone but the fiends were in real danger. It felt a bit like filler. Despite this, Damian certainly stole the show. Check out the visuals and the outcome of his fight with the guy with the flame thrower! The Hurt/Batman conflict in the Bat Cave continued the fun, and Pyg was twisted and depraved in central Gotham. The ending with the Joker was unexpected, tone-perfect and satisfying.

What’s Not So Good: The eclipse of Dick Grayson. Dick and Bucky (for the same reasons) have become two of my favorite characters in comics. But as soon as Bruce appeared on the stage, Dick was transformed from the menacing Dark Knight into the deferential teenager, like the growth and maturing he’d done (not only as Night Wing, but as Batman) hadn’t occurred. Emotionally disappointing for me, because I like Dick better as a character than Bruce. Other issues I had included the relay race visual feel on offer with three artists on a book. The denouement (the creation of Batman Incorporated) didn’t sit right with me either. It felt tacked on and sudden. It wasn’t the appropriate denouement to have (in fact, a true denouement didn’t really occur, other than for Dick to comment that his head was sore). After 2-4 years (depending on how you count) of uncertainty, I needed a bit more of an emotional slide to bring me down. And, my last complaint, of course…the publishing schedule that ruined The Return of Bruce Wayne.

Conclusion: If you can get over DC’s editorial/publishing snafu, this issue will do a lot to bring some closure, but some of its transitions are a bit jagged. It’s a clay-footed beauty of an issue.

Grade: B

-DS Arsenault

Filed under: DC Comics Tagged: | Batman, DC Comics, Grant Morrison, Bruce Wayne, Alex Sinclair, Comics, DC, Reviews, Joker, comic books, Comic Book Reviews, Black Glove, Weekly Comic Book Review, comic reviews, Chris Burnham, Batman and Robin, Dick Grayson, DS Arsenault, Damian Wayne, Professor Pyg, Mike Marts, Cameron Stewart, Return of Bruce Wayne, Frazer Irving, Thomas Wayne, Dr. Hurt, Batman and Robin #16, Batman and Robin #16 review

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