Batman Incorporated #4 – Review

By: Grant Morrison (story), Chris Burnham (art), Nathan Fairbairn (colors)

The Story: It’s a battle royale between circus freaks, assassins, and costumed crusaders.

The Review: From the beginning, this title has straddled two very different kinds of stories, each of which is a reflection of the dichotomy that is Morrison’s genius, if you happen to believe he’s a genius.  The first kind of story is bombastic, unpredictable, firecracking bursts of sheer superhero excess.  The second kind of story is driven and invasive, and intensely cerebral in the way it plots its course and sticks to it, determined to see it to the end.

It stands to reason you’d notice the more frenetic aspects of this title rather than anything else.  Morrison fills the pages with action, every bit of it begging for your attention.  I know some folks have a kind of sniffy prejudice towards mainstream comics, but issues like this one show how a writer can take advantage of the zany side of superhero and elevate the ridiculous into art.  “World’s greatest assassins…meet Batman’s front line,” announces the Hood.  When the front line consists of an entire gang of Bat-men, you’re guaranteed craziness of the finest degree.

Batman Incorporated #0 – Review

By: Grant Morrison & Chris Burnham (story), Frazer Irving (art)

The Story: Batman Inc. takes a lesson from high school cliques: membership by invite only.

The Review: I’ve never had the same problem with derivative characters the way some comic book commentators do.  I believe the prejudice comes from a belief that such characters represent laziness or lack of inspiration or something.  Frankly though, I don’t see how they’re any worse than song covers or interpretations of jazz standards, both of which I love.  There’s no harm in imitation so long as it introduces new ideas to stand on its own.

While none of the inductees of Batman Inc. will instantly become your new favorite character from this issue alone, Morrison gives each a reason to be liked.  More than almost anyone else in the biz, he’s the master of economy in writing.  In a few lines, even a few words, he can convey a character’s entire personality and something of their background as well.  Reveling over a fifteen-minute murder-solving, Knight (as in “and Squire”) crows, “I’ve done harder bloody crosswords.”  That one line says most everything you need to know about Knight, doesn’t it?

Batman Incorporated #3 – Review

By: Grant Morrison (story), Chris Burnham (art), Nathan Fairbairn (colors)

The Story: It’s the douchey, pervy side to Batman you’ve never seen before.

The Review: You know one skill of Batman’s that doesn’t get utilized nearly enough?  His mastery of disguise.  You’d think writers would show this off more often, especially since if they want to shore up his cred as the world’s greatest detective.  Maybe they think the idea of Batman donning a wig and an accent is too undignified.  Maybe they think he can just as easily get the same intel just by beating it out of his enemies.

Fun as that well may be, it doesn’t come close to the entertainment you get out of Bruce, decked out in a cheap suit of noxious colors, and adopting the persona of one of those smart-aleck, sarcastic gangsters (as opposed to gangstas) that made up nearly the entire 40s pulp population.  You don’t often think of Batman as having a sense of humor other than a dry remark here and there, often at his teammates’ expense.  Here you see he’s got to have an untapped funny bone somewhere in his body, seeing how he throws corny wisecracks like baseballs.

Batman Incorporated #5 – Review

By: Grant Morrison (writer), Yanick Paquette (penciller), Michel Lacombe (inker), Nathan Fairbairn (colorist)

The Story: I’m afraid a bat’s too big to be caught in your web, Dr. Dedalus!

The Review: In talking about Batman Incorporated, plenty of people have made references to the James Bond quality of the series’ adventures.  The comparison has only become even more fitting as the storyline continues to veer Batman away from his private-eye roots and into the depths of international espionage and spy-work.  His trail of clues has expanded from the streets of Gotham to the countries of the world—the ultimate mystery for the ultimate detective.

And for the ultimate mystery-writer in comics: Morrison is all about weaving layers of secrets and lies, misdirecting you from one thing, only to have you come back to it eventually and discover it’s another thing altogether.  His meticulous plotting can be a frustrating kind of thrill: you have to work just as hard as the characters involved to piece out the answers, because Morrison is not the kind of writer who’s willing to let you into his master plan in any direct way.

In that regard, you can consider central antagonist Dr. Dedalus an analogue to Morrison himself.  It’s very easy for writers to give their villains master plans, but very difficult to execute these plans as such.  You’re set up to believe Batman’s appearance on the Falklands will nip Dedalus’ mission before it even begins, but in fact, you discover Dedalus has planned it so Batman’s appearance tips over the first in a long line of dominoes leading to civilization’s destruction.

Morrison effectively sells Dedalus as both a master spy (six codenames—really?) and a proponent of chaos quite nearly on the level of the Joker.  Like his clownish counterpart, Dedalus offers some fairly twisted logic to his actions, the best example being “…a kind heart deserves the cruelest end.”  By issue’s end, you realize that like Hitler, international terrorist group Leviathan is only an enabler for Dedalus’ own far-reaching ambitions.

Therein lies the reason for Batman Inc.: Dedalus may be one man, but he’s using an organization which spans nations.  Batman’s recruiting these heroes not just to be his contemporary in their own crime-ridden worlds, but to come as close as possible for him to act in many places at once.  But that requires his recruits to have nearly the same level of nerve and competence as he does.

Batman Incorporated #4 – Review

By: Grant Morrison (writer), Chris Burnham (artist), Nathan Fairbairn (colorist)

The Story: Batman doesn’t like a lot of people, so killing off his first love is not a great idea.

The Review: Probably the most distinguishing trademark of Morrison’s writing is the grand scope of his vision: his ideas stretch far into the future, and with his reputation, he can afford to imagine that much in advance.  For readers who stick with him to the end, the payoff of all the groundwork he’s lain down can be a very special satisfaction, but you’ll need patience to handle the frequently bewildering threads he’ll weave through every story arc.

This issue features a good sampling of typical Morrison fare: the fraught interweaving of past, present, and future events; seemingly out-of-context plotlines; charged, even melodramatic dialogue.  It’s the kind of stuff he’s known for, but very at odds with the spy-thriller feel this title had been going for.  Still, this is Morrison’s big pet project; it’s inevitable it’d have greater stakes than Batman globe-trotting for lookalikes.

Batman Incorporated #3 – Review

By: Grant Morrison (writer), Yanick Paquette (penciller), Michel LaCombe (inker), Pere Perez (supporting artist), Nathan Fairbairn (colorist)

The Story: Pack in your venom antidote and tie up your bandana, muchachos—Batman’s going south of the border!

The Review: A good idea doesn’t always pan out into a good story.  Quite often, once you start bearing down on the execution, it just ends up falling apart at the seams.  The establishment of Batman Inc. is an undeniably great premise for an issue-by-issue romp around the world of international super-heroics, but so far it has lacked an overarching goal, a point that can threaten its liveliness in the long run.

Morrison beats that problem to the punch by slowly integrating, in his trademark puzzling style, the looming threat which Batman Inc. will no doubt face down the line.  The issue opens on WWII, as Britain’s version of the All-Star Squadron confronts the mysterious Dedalus, an encounter with triumphant, though tragic, results.  Morrison restricts clues to Deadlus’ identity using controlled scene jumps, but as the name pops up later in El Gaucho’s case, there’s no doubt we’ll learn more of him and his importance in time.

One of Morrison’s great strengths is his ability to create nearly fully-realized characters from the get-go.  In just two pages, he introduces a whole team of British with their powers, origins, and interrelationship dynamics all intact.  He just has a knack for using dialogue for world building: “The sooner I can sort out my cosmic hourglass and scarper back to Alter-England, the better.”