Batman: The Grant Morrison Odyssey - Finale 1

Part 1: Batman & Son
Part 2: Club of Heroes/Resurrection of Ra's Al Ghul
Part 2.1: Devil-Bats & The Bridge to RIP
Part 3: RIP
Part 4: The Missing Chapter/Last Rites/Final Crisis
Part 5: Batman Reborn
Part 6:Blackest Knight/Batman vs. Robin
Part 7: Batman & Robin Must Die!!!
Part 8: Return of Bruce Wayne Part 1
Part 9: Return of Bruce Wayne Part 2

Well it has been a long road to this point, 10 blogs in all (11 counting this one when it's completed), and I hope that it's helped some people connect the dots in the Morrison Bat-World, or discover some new stuff they didn't see before, it certainly has done that for me.  Once this is done, I think it's time to take a loooong break from anything Morrison-related, and aside from one idea I have, likely a bit of a break from the Batman universe as well. BUT before that happens, it's time to take a look at the culmination of Grant's pre-New 52 Bat-epic, phase 3 of this multi-year story: BATMAN INC!!!

When we last left our freshly returned to the land of the living in present day Bruce Wayne he announced to the world that he had been financing Batman's operations for years and was looking to...well...franchise it across the world essentially in the form of Batman Inc.  Before we get into that story though we had the Morrison/David Finch "Batman: The Return" production to lay the groundwork and it started with a return trip to the moment of Batman's birth...

Yup, the bat is back as he enters into the Wayne Mansion where a bleeding-out Brucie awaits some divine inspiration after his "Year One" failure at crime fighting.  This bat, who is old & may have been one of the bats the scared Bruce as a child, perches on the bust, Bruce is inspired, rings the bell (the Bell of All-Over as we learned in the "Return Of Bruce" stories) and "...so was born this weird figure of the night!"

There's your new & improved Batman...and we are dropped into the middle of chaos with a character named Hussain Mohammed holding a boy hostage, screaming about something called Leviathan as Bats leaps into action, saving the boy, disarming a bomb, and deploying an airbag landing all while in mid-air. Yup, this is definitely Bruce Wayne back in action! He drops a cloud of smoke, disappearing, but uttering something cryptic to the boy's father (Farouk) about knowing what he knows and how it will destroy him (Farouk).

Family reunion time in The Batcave!  Oracle, Robin, Red Robin, Batgirl, and Batman (Dick Grayson) are all in attendance (Cassandra Cain seems the only one absent) as Bruce lays out his plans to the group, how he has individual assignments for them all which include Oracle working on Waynetech's Internet 3.0 and Batgirl going to England for finishing school.  The big question on Damian's mind though..."What about Batman and Robin?"...referring to himself and Dick Grayson as a team.

No answer there as we jump to Waynetech R&D two hours later where Damian, Bruce, and a very Morgan Freeman-esque Lucius Fox discuss technology issues, specifically the G.I. Robot program which I am only familiar with from "Batman Confidential" but Wiki tells me has been around since the 60's.  Lucius shows off some jet-suits which Bruce has him modify to look like Batman & Robin, leading to Bruce & Damian's first real jaunt together as the Dynamic Duo.  Destination: Yemen...

Bruce inquires as to D's thoughts on Grayson, Damian wonders if he's on trial,  Bruce avoids the question by telling him that Farouk was involved in illegal bio-experiments including "...metagene boosters, synthetic superpowers".

They stumble on a host of dead things, failures in engineered superhumans..."all the rage among the mega-wealthy. Ask your mother", Bruce says to Damian shortly before he disappears and Bruce is confronted by something named Traktir of the Super-Collective as he checks on the body of a female who is alive but has her larynx crushed.  Traktir labels the woman as Spidra, references a final conflict with The Heretic, then attacks "Vampire Man" as he repeatedly calls Bruce.  Bruce saves Spidra's life, Traktir stops his assault, references someone called "Fatherless", while Damian is off on his own & encounters...

I assume this is Fatherless but whoever he is he looks a lot like a Batman with those pointy ears and utility belts across his chest.  He escapes, Bruce chastises Damian for leaving so upon return to the cave he rips off his "R" for like the 3rd time since "Batman & Robin #1", and Bruce tells Dick that he wants him to stay on as Batman (contrary to what Dick assumed in the last Morrison B&R story), Damian to continue on as Robin alongside him, and the two of them to continue operating in Gotham City, presumably while Bruce takes on the world (Planet Gotham just like the title).

Bruce tells Alfred that he can't believe how much Damian has changed, how "she can't be happy" referencing Talia Al Ghul, and fills Alfie in on just why he's doing what he's doing: "I have to protect them from what's coming...what I saw...".  I would imagine that would be something he saw at Vanishing Point when he had access to the totality of history.  Bruce mentions visiting Tokyo & Argentina, then hits up Catwoman to help him steal something. 

The story jumps over to Leviathan HQ where someone is addressing Farouk about the earlier events as the Bat-looking thing I assume is Fatherless creeps into the room with a child at his side.  The kid, Farouk's son Omar, raises a gun at his father, rants about purifying the world in Leviathan's name, then shoots his father "...in the name of all that is pure and true, strong and young..."

"The Return" was dense, setting plays into motion for Dick & Damian, Batgirl, Oracle, and Bruce himself, but nothing was said regarding Red Robin in that brief scene, hopefully that comes soon as we begin "Batman Inc" proper.

The pace of the "Inc" issues are quite rapid so I have a feeling my issue-by-issue stuff is not going to be quite as detailed, which is good considering I'm trying to cover all 8 issues plus the one shot here.  We start with Lord Death Man (a villain dating back to Batman #180) killing the Japanese hero known as Mr. Unknown (first appearance).  Some kid walks in on it, fights off Lord Death Man's henchmen (who look like Johnny from "Karate Kid" in their skeleton outfits btw), and feels the scene as someone (LDM presumably) shouts "Kill all Japanese crimefighters".

We catch up with Bats & Catwoman as they break into Dr. Sivana's lab looking for something he invented that Bruce doesn't want getting into anyone elses hands.  Someone else has gotten there first though, and the crazy lab also has invisible sentries to fight off (that crazy Morrison).  Selina finds the diamond looking whatever the hell it is that Bruce wants, and as she is about to get attacked by a giant robot rat, the scene cuts to a hotel where Selina watches herself on TV (under the name Elva Barr which is apparently from Batman #15) arrive in Japan with Bruce (there's also a little reference to The Super Young Team of "Final Crisis" fame). The two are obviously very much involved here, I suppose part of Bruce's new plan to actually let people in, and considering how deep Selina had gotten prior to his death it makes sense

She notes that it was certainly not a diamond they stole, Bruce mentions catching a glimpse of the big picture while "dead" and training a Japanese Bats, she basically says she wants to have sex, and then we're off to the our usual night time activities (capes, cowls, leather whips, and roof tops).

They hit up Mr. Unknown's residence/shop, find his dead body, Cats makes mention of a case Unknown was working involving three murdered John Doe's, they fight off some of Death Man's men who were waiting for Jiro, Unknown's protege.  Over to Jiro's house where Death Man has his girl hostage, Jiro shoots him, his girl falls into a vat of water, Cats actually dives into save her, and we get the weirdest death trap ever:

It plays off earlier comments Cats made "As long as it doesn't involve water I'm in" as well as the odd Japanese tentacle monster poster she saw; clever & cute:

Cats & Bats survive the deathtrap over the course of several awesome pages, Jiro's girl dumps him, Batman tells Selina he knows why she really came along (the Poseidonis jewels mentioned on the newscast she watched I assume), and those good old detective skills kick in as Batman takes Unknown's manner of death (nitro hydrochloric acid), uses its Latin name (aqua regia), and deduces who Death Man's next victim will be, Aquazon of The Super Young Team, and how the John Doe's Cats mentioned before also pointed to Mr. Unknown as his victim.

Bruce finds out that Jiro had been doing a great deal of the physical stuff for Unknown, who Bruce was there to recruit, as his age prevented him from all that. Jiro offers himself up to Batman Inc, Bruce shoots him down because of his use of guns to kill Lord Death man, which brings us to LDM as he's about to be dissected.

So Lord Death Man, who Bruce stated used yoga to fake his death, took bullets to the chest, fell out a window, and is still alive.  Yeah, there is definitely something more than meets the eye here and LDM blowing up the hospital totally screams of "The Dark Knight" movie. Maybe Lord Death Man had some upgrades (something Bruce mentioned) courtesy of Leviathan's artificial metahuman machinations mentioned in "The Return"?

Jiro takes on the Mr. Unknown identity, Lord Death man goes on totally random killing rampage, en route to Aquazon who is with the Poseidonis jewels.  Death Man rants about finding a way to resist death itself (something Bruce kind of knows about himself), gets beat up by the combined efforts of Jiro & Bats, but Jiro eats some bullets of his own as Cats actually locks Death Man in a safe. Another cute moment there...

Cats wonders what Bruce will do when Batman's enemies come after him, he cryptically responds with a "You'll see", and we learn that Jiro's death was faked as he is sworn into Batman Inc in a very familiar fashion:

Jiro faked his death to start over with a new identity, Lord Death Man is trapped on a space shuttle orbiting Earth, and we have our first new Batman who ends the chapter fighting a giant monkey who is apparently from "Batman: Manga" & is named Professor Gorilla.

Actually I'm wrong...I think Nightrunner from the Batman/Detective annuals is first Batman Inc member outside of the usual family...

Anyway, chapter three tosses us back to 1982 and some flashback world including an appearance by a random background character from "B&R #7", The Metaleks:

There's a war scene, a faceless voice mentioning Dedalus and a never-ending ring.  The body doesn't remain faceless for long as we hop back in time just a bit further to see a group of superhero looking chaps, including the original Knight whose appearance matches that of the hands we saw in the earlier scene thus putting an identity to the voice.

This group of heroes is there on the island, the Falklands based on the coordinates given in the ish, in order to lock up Dedalus in a tower and make sure he never leaves. Dedalus is apparently the "world's most dangerous super-spy", working for the Spyral organization, and he has turned double agent.

The group is engulfed by a black shadow that totally reminds me of The Shade and The Knight comes to holding this:

So that spider web thing completely reminds of Seven Soldiers & The Spider character in it but that just may be because I am conditioned to think all of Morrison's books tie together in some fashion. ...

We jump to present day where some guy named Cimarron (apparently from Flash Annual #13) is held at gun point by Papagayo (from Batman #56).  The first words we see are "...but there's always a sting in the tail", Cimarron mentions missing children, Papagayo mentions a "blue lady", and between the sting & blue lady comments, not to mention the fact that we are in Argentina, I think it's a safe bet that Scorpiana from "RIP" is involved here.

That Spanish in the corner there is translated as such:

"But the duende? The duende does not come at all unless it sees that death is possible. The duende must know beforehand that it will be allowed to serenade death's house and shake the branches of pain we all wear, branches that do not have and will never have, any form of comfort."

Papagayo runs for it, knocking over crates of blue scorpions in the process and verifying Scorpiana's involvement in this.  Bruce and crew hijack Papa's hot air balloon where he gloats about how the heroes will never guess who set this all up.  Then he gets bit by a blue scorpion and falls to his death while his pet parrot repeats "Oroboro! Boss! Oroboro!".  Oroboro is essentially the image of the snake eating its own tail, creating a circle, or perhaps a "never-ending ring" as mentioned by Knight earlier on.  Read more here...

More Spanish, filling us in on Gaucho's back story, here's a translation:

"In Buenos Aires, in the spring, the place where you have to be is the private race track in the splendid villas of Don Santiago Vargas.

Provider of miraculous racehorses to princes, sheikhs and potentates, the most eligible bachelor in Buenos Aires plays host to a who's who of beautiful supermillionaires!

Don Santiago Vargas! Extravagant! Irresponsible! Enigmatic!"

So essentially he is Bruce Wayne of Argentina and he is surrounded by beautiful women, one whom Bruce dances the Tango of Death with and they go on some more about duende.

BTW, Gaucho thinks Batman is just pretending to be Bruce Wayne in all this, proving how good Bats is at getting people to think Bruce is just a fop.

Bruce notes how he smelt poison on the women, Gaucho affirms that she is Scorpiana and that was her 15th attempt to kill him.  He also turns down the Batman Inc offer, likening it to the Club of Heroes debacle.  Bruce reveals the ring he lifted off Scorpiana while she was his dance partner and it is a ring in the shape of an oroboro.  Discussion turns to the three missing blind kids and if oroboro rings any bells. Gaucho mentions a writer who wrote a book by that name, "...a book of short stories about a sinister manipulative figure known as Doctor Dedalus".  The author was apparently killed by three blind assassins but in truth the author was never real, his life a fiction, a big old mystery for Bats to solve.  What's neat here is how Morrison ties in some real-life stuff into his tale in the form of The Florida Group that Gaucho mentions.

Gaucho & Bats hit El Casa D'Oro (the house of gold, also note how "oro" is in the word as it is in oroboro) where the fake author's death too place and find themselves in a deathtrap, with a voice that Gaucho finds all too familiar talking to them.  This being a death trap, and with Gaucho finding the card, who else could it be but the NOT dead El Sombrero, last seen being hung by The Joker in "RIP"!

And besides...the cover itself was kind of a tell for this little reveal anyway if you're familiar enough with the symbol dead center....

So that old man on the island is back again in the next chapter, ranting about his web, his prey, how he controls the weather, and most importantly, about "...his perfect plan and the ring around the world. And about Oroboro."

Abruptly we jump to Kate Kane, the modern day Batwoman, as she chases after Johnny Valentine (Pyg's last name was Valentin, connection?), following a lead which just so happens to be a necklace in the design of the Ouroboros serpent, a necklace that Johnny dropped when  he killed 3 Marines. 3 marines, 3 blind kids, 3 blind assassins....lots of 3's in the last couple issues...

The chase takes place in Kane's Kolossal Karnival which just so happens to have been owned by Kathy Kane, the original Batwoman, and cutely enough, I suppose it brings the Batwoman story full circle...like an ouroboros.

The story jumps again, this time to the past, as Kathy Kane is hearing out the offer of an Agent-33 to join some intelligence agency, ANOTHER intelligence agency, which means she was involved with one previously. 33 mentions an "Agent-Zero" who has assembled this team, and passes off a business card for this group, called Spyral, with a very familiar symbol: the eye in the center of a web, the same card The Knight was holding in the Falklands raid at the start of the last chapter.  Oh and that old guy was talking about webs and what not in the open of this too. Another oh, this Agent is named 33...an additional reference to the number 3, only this time in double.

Kathy shows off her "plan to flirt with death until his bony little heart breaks in two" by her little stunt ride while the captions (which may be notes) tell us she was born Kathy Webb, inherited the circus from her dead husband Nathan Kane who bought it with the money he inherited from his parents, Roderick & Elizabeth Kane, who we saw in "Return of Bruce Wayne #5" expressing their suspicions that Thomas Wayne had their daughter Martha killed. So Kathy Kane, as a result of marriage, is essentially Bruce's aunt.  It all connects...but still kind of creepy given how this story goes.  There's also a list of various film & writing projects Kathy conquered included here and thanks to David Uzumeri at Comics Alliance I have some idea of their references. Check it out here.

So it seems that, on assignment to someone, Kathy worked her way into the Bat-Family as Batwoman, getting the idea from watching TV footage of Batman & Robin chasing Lew Moxon's people.  Long story short...Moxon is the guy who threatened Thomas Wayne at the Halloween party where he wore the original Bat-Man costume that inspired Bruce's design, the one Dr. Hurt wore.  I think in some version of Bruce Wayne's history he hired Joe Chill to kill Thomas & Martha but in Morrison's version I believe it was Thomas "Dr. Hurt" Wayne who did the hiring...and all these are new additions to Kathy Kane's backstory btw as the original version of this character was indeed a circus performer, no intelligence background, who became Batwoman due to some infatuation with the man.

Back to where we left off last chapter with Bats & El Gaucho in Sombrero's death trap where the two men put on this Shock-Knucks that remind me of those Dick wore when he fought the reanimated Bat-Clone in "Blackest Knight".  Scorpiana drops some knowledge that Gaucho, then known as Agent-33, is responsible for the death of Kathy Kane.  Bats references her death at the hands of Sensei's men (Detective #485). Gaucho tells Bats he too loved Kathy, Bats hits him harder, and we go back to Kate Kane at the circus...

Apparently Valentine's killings were done so that the bullet wounds spelt ORB in braille...three letters. Johnny calls someone for back-up, they tell him to head to the Ghost Train which was also used during Dick & Damian's fight at Pyg's circus.  Inside Batwoman finds someone looking a lot like the Kathy Kane version...

Back to Kathy's story as we learn just how she got to the point of being able to parade around Gotham in a Batsuit as well as get to see the first encounter of Batwoman, Batman, and Robin.  I really dig the way this is written btw, feels...old...no...classic may be a better description. They're light but at the same time not...

So Dick is upset about Batwoman's presence at the moment of meeting, Bruce & Kathy meet at a party and it is interesting to note that she says they've never met before...which likely means that Bruce had no contact with his uncle since Kathy stated earlier they were together for 7 years.

Bats & BW fight crime together, they kiss, Dick flips out to Alfred about the whole situation, mentioning a bogus Batgirl who I presume is Betty Kane (her niece but I couldn't find any reference to who her parents may be in relation to Martha Wayne). It's also quite funny to hear Dick ranting about how "Even the dog's wearing a mask. It makes it all dumb instead of special" which is certainly how I feel reading about some of the crap from the Golden/Silver Age.  Dick also catches Bats & BW making out in the Bat-mobile, and the caption mentions a year passing...making Kathy Kane now 33 years old (MORE 3's!!!)...

Sidenote, some of these pages are modified versions of ones from the original Batwoman stories, some scenes took place inside The Lump from the "Last Rites" stories, it's all kind of tied together which I dig. 

See what happens when the Bat-people get stoned on hallucinogens...the original of this story is also in "The Black Casebook" trade DC put out collecting several of Morrison's reference points for his Bat-run. Also, if you blow that up, you may note that the guy to the right of the alien creature has that Ouroboros on his shirt...

Another scene has Kathy meeting the old man from the beginning, Agent-Zero, the Doctor Dedalus we have heard mentioned before, also known as Otto Netz "The Spinner of Snares", another spidery reference as that giant eye/web logo is on the wall over his head.  Oh and btw, he's also Kathy Kane's father (cue ominous music)...and he points out that Bats knows her secret but she doesn't know his.

Back to the rooftops where BW teaches Bats the Tango Del Muerte, the same dance he did with Scorpiana in present day, and she uses it as an opportunity to break up with Bats (who she calls Bruce so apparently she knew all along) before he finds out about daddy.

Back to modern Batwoman as she fights the impostor Batwoman-Classic while her father searches for ORB references and stumbles across Oroboro, references to "advanced meta-materials" and Nazi Scientists, as well as a British spy called The Hood (remember "Knighquest: The Search" anybody?).  Kate Kane beats fake BW, drops that it was Argentinians (ya know the country where Bats is now, the country the UK was fighting in the Falklands in the 80's) who ordered the hit on the Marines. Kate's dad finds Oroboro as a military codename for some kind of ultimate weapon, that there's something going on in the South Atlantic (The Falklands), and his daughter reopens the Kathy Kane murder case...

Back in Argentina Gaucho & Bats continue to fight it out while Sombrero & Scorpiana watch, discussing how "...the ordeal has only begun" and how an international incident is brewing that "...will plunge at least THREE countries...into war".  More three's, everywhere it's three's, like Zur En Arrh's in "Batman & Son".  Meanwhile Bats proves how badass he is as he was essentially using the fight as a cover (suuuuure) to infiltrate & disable Sombrero's security network "...with a device that's barely as sophisticated as a cell phone". What a braggart...

A quick cut to the Falklands where Dr. Dedalus sits with dudes in raincoats & umbrellas watching over him as the caption/notes overhead talk about his "tattered cloak of smoke" and his "epic of death and betrayal, mutilation, genocide, and cruelty".  And apparently snow is a sign that "they" will be there soon to set him free...

Scorpiana bails on Sombrero, leaving him to Bats & Gaucho, he mentions a "Maestro" who I presume is Dedalus, and notes how in 24 hours the world will be at war. The caption reads "Most days is does not snow on cue" as the monitors turn to static (what we often refer to as snow) and when they come back...

What you can't see in this cut of the image is how the kids in the background, now freed from their death trap, are smiling and laughing.  I guess that's because they're blind and can't see the scary ass Batman about to rain hell on Sombrero...

And this is the part where I realize that it's damn near impossible to succinctly write about 11 issues in one blog, much less 11 Grant Morrison written issues, especially when they are as dense as #4 was here. 

So it is at this point I think it appropriate to take a brief pause, allow readers to catch a breath, and return with the final finale looking at the last 6 parts of Batman Inc early next week.  It's been a fun venture and it is almost over.  When we return, more with El Gaucho, The Hood, the whole of Batman Inc in action, and the mystery of Oroboro solved.  Until then read over the over parts of this journey, drop by my Amazon Store linked on the left and pick up some of the books I've talked about, or be a kind soul & grab me something on my wish list.  If you love me you'll do it...

Batman: The Grant Morrison Odyssey - The 7th Circle

Part 1: Batman & Son
Part 2: Club of Heroes/Resurrection of Ra's Al Ghul
Part 2.1: Devil-Bats & The Bridge to RIP
Part 3: RIP
Part 4: The Missing Chapter/Last Rites/Final Crisis
Part 5: Batman Reborn
Part 6:Blackest Knight/Batman vs. Robin


So when we last left our intrepid heroes the enigmatic Oberon Sexton, who had been assisting Dick & Damian in their fight against The 99 Fiends, revealed himself to be none other than The Joker, but before we get to that cliffhanger we are treated to some Frazer Irving art depicting an....alternate...version of what happened with Bruce Wayne's parents were murdered.

Nice way to play with a classic Bat-image by having it be Bruce & Martha Wayne who end up dead rather than Thomas & Martha. Grant, and his various artists, do like to play on some of the classic themes of Bat-canon as I will touch upon more later.

So we also departed the previous arc with the knowledge that Dr. Hurt/Thomas Wayne/El Penitente was on his way back to Gotham and we catch back up with that story, as well as see some twisted backstory (paying Joe Chll to kill the Wayne's(?), him saying "now you'll never tell" over Martha's corpse, & in Black Glove gear pouring champagne over a demonic cat-masked woman (Catwoman allegory?) in the midst of a S&M orgy that is done in red & black colors for example), and see him returning to Gotham, claiming to be the long thought dead Thomas Wayne to the media.

Another cut to Hurt (easiest just to call him that) strolling into the scene in full Black Glove regalia, talking about how Wayne Manor & Gotham City are his, alludes to the Black Sun shining, claims to Dick that he will "break and corrupt this boy you so valiantly redeemed", referring to Damian, which makes me think of the whole "deal with the devil" Damian referred to in #666, and then...

Right underneath the painting of Thomas & Martha Wayne no less, the one that concealed the secret passageway from the previous arc. So of course we now jump 3 days back into the past where we left off with Joker's unveiling and his...confession I suppose...about what got him to this point.

Intriguing to me that Joker himself claims some kind of sanity with HIS Batman now gone, and is looking to actually help Dick & Damian, the disguise of Sexton being necessary to earn their trust. Dick lays out how he figured it out, putting together the various symbolisms of the dominoes (also known as "bones" and their container the "boneyard"), the fact that Sexton was nicknamed The Gravedigger & was drawing attention to the crimes he committed himself, the branching trails of his clues that were resemblant of The Mexican Train in dominoes, the Domino Mask symbolic of Robin (as much Joker's obsession as Batman really), they were all clues that led Grayson to the appropriate conclusion.

It's quite amusing for Dick to talk so openly to Joker about his past as Robin ("I had you figured out when I was twelve"), and I figure that actually makes sense. These are two men who have been such an intergral part of each other's lives for a long time, they know each other's secrets, and it creates this twisted bond that is something more than enemies but obviously nowhere near friendship. Oh yeah, and over in England, The Knight finds the dead body over the real Sexton, buried alive with his dead wife. Surprisingly it was Sexton who killed his wife and this was The Joker exacting his form of justice, "That was karma. One last gag..."

Gordon is nauseated that he shook hands with the Joker (as Sexton) and understandably so given how much damage he has done to Jim's life (paralyzing his daughter, murdering his wife, torturing him), and Damian is supremely suspect that "He's laughing at us! The whole thing's an act!" as Joker claims he only came back to warn them, to help. The thought of The Joker helping...hilarious...

Gordon is sick, sneezing, makes note that "The...other Batman called me 'Jim'...", again showing himself more astute about the identity of Bats than he ever lets on, and Dick still calling him Commissioner Gordon only highlights the difference in relationships and how Bruce & Dick each look at Jim. For Bruce, he is an equal, an ally on the same level while for Dick he is still someone he looks up to, someone on a slightly higher level who he highly respects. Or maybe it's just that whole being afraid of your girlfriend's dad syndrome...

Dick takes Gordon to the Bat Cave via Subway TRAIN, mentions that a solar eclipse (Hurt's black sun rise?) is impending in 3 days (you know when Hurt puts a bullet in Dick's head), and Gordon actually tells Dick that the cops prefer him to the other Batman. Not surprising given that Dick is infinitely more of a people person than Bruce, is essentially cool with everyone in the entire DCU, and doesn't feel the need to alienate even his friend's if he feels it will get a case closed quicker. Funny how he says to Gordon that "I like to think I'm just keeping the costume warm" when this whole arc of Dick as Batman has largely pointed out that perhaps Dick is the Batman that Gotham needs...

Gordon & Dick discuss the Joker, Mexican Train, Pyg, 99 Fiends, El Penitente connections in a rather relaxed fashion that would NEVER have happened between Jim & Bruce. It all loops back to the first arc with Professor Pyg though & his whole viral narcotics scheme, to which Dick pontificates if the antidote they found in Pyg's lab was just a "trojan horse", concealing the true virus...meaning a whole lot of Gotham has been infected and are totally unaware. Gordon, as this chatter continues, realizes that he just may be afflicted...

Oh yeah, and Damian is now alone with The Joker. Remember how I said Morrison liked to invert classic Bat-stuff, while here's another example:

Yup, Robin's got the crowbar now.

Turning the tables on "Death in the Family", Damian lays a beating on Joker with the crowbar, just after the clown mutters "You sound just like...like him..." (him=Bruce-Bats) to himself, and while this beating commences, things start to fall apart, symbolized by the dominoes from the beginning of the story tumbling. The flying Batmobile is blown up with Dick & Gordon in it, a legion of Dollotrons descend on the wreckage, the 99 Fiends descend on what I presume is Blackgate to unleash:

Probably the first, and only, time the twisted Professor calls anything perfect. I wonder if there's any significance to the fact that Hurt is a "Doctor" and Pyg is a "Professor"...

Alfred resets the clock that, sometimes, seems to be set to the exact moment the Wayne's died (not sure if that's still the case). Damian is still laying a beating on The Joker, looking to assault the truth out of him, and shockingly it works as Joker confesses to using all of them to get at Dr. Hurt & The Black Glove. Problem is that no one, Damian included, believes a word that Joker says, expecting every things to be a swerve, misdirection, or lie. Kind of plays into Dick's comment to Gordon in the previous issue that Joker's biggest joke would be to get them to take him seriously...

A simple scratch from Joker's envenomed fingernails doses Damian with Joker toxin, turning him into, as Joker says, "A smiling Robin! A laughing young daredevil! That's the way I like it!". In fact Joker is so amused by how well he played Damian he thinks he might be the funniest Robin yet!

I totally dig that rictus scene with Damian in an impossible looking bridge induced by his muscles all tensing up under the influence of Joker juice, but then it's topped by this completely disturbed scene...

Seriously, between this and the infamouse dance sequence, Pyg may take the cake for most disturbing character of the last decade....

So Hurt now has the Bat-Coffin in his hands, outlines to Senator Vine (who I thought he may have killed previously) exactly what Pyg's story is (former circus performer who ate light bulbs & nailed his private parts to wood apparently), and shoots a hole in a pumpkin. Okay...

The Dollotrons surrounded Gordon & the unconscious Dick Grayson as the Batmobile prepares to explode and the abort codes aren't taking. So we started this all with the creation of a new flying Batmobile so of course it must be destroyed before we're through...and as it goes kaboom we are informed that this is "day 2", meaning one more day until the eclipse & Dick's head getting shot off.

Pyg apparently injects himself with Botox as Hurt amps him up for his "performance" before the media, the mayor (who I still think is somehow in cahoots with Black Glove and Gordon did mention him being under investigation last issue), and "the cream of Gotham's underworld royalty". Pyg's response: "Je Suis Showbiz!" or "I am showbiz!" Oh yeah and then he does this...

I repeat, most disturbed character of the decade...

Pyg's viral addication is beginning to take hold on Gotham while Dick is out of it for a few hours after the explosion. He wakes up under Alfred's care, with a call from The Joker, who now has Damian in his possession, and who also provides information that something is going down with Gordon in, of all places, Crime Alley. Ya know...the place where the Wayne's died...

It looks as if Pyg & Hurt are roasting Gordon like a pig on a spit while Gotham, and more specifically Senator Vine, watch on. Now remember, since Joker has killed the rest, Vine is the last surviving member of the Black Glove save Hurt himself, so when Vine pulls a golden domino out of a popcorn box...

...guess who seems to be one step ahead of everyone else...and it certainly ain't Batman this time!

Grayson descends into the chaos, fending off Dollotrons as Gotham begins to tear itself apart under the influence of Pyg's drugs, and attempting to free Gordon. The commish, tempted by Hurt with the offer of more drugs, hits Batman in the head with a fire extinguisher, leaving him at Hurt's mercies... "Your knights have fallen and the board is mine", he screams at the fallen Bat. As for The Joker, he's sitting in The Batcave (indicated by the oversized Joker card in the background) with a nuke at his side & Damian tied up, face painted over with a clown smile.

Well that is a cover that certainly makes you wonder what's in store, especially considering all the suspicions of Hurt being The Devil & Damian's claim in ish #666 to have made a deal with the devil on the night Batman died. Wait, the night Batman died? Well we do know Dick gets shot in the head at some point....

Away from the cover and onto the interiors. The Joker, in full Oberon Sexton gear (fully pointing out that this is just another incarnation of his super-MPD), is dancing with a corpse in a wedding dress, talking to a coffin in which he has placed Damian (the 2nd person he's buried alive so far), and talking about how Dick's head is on the "devil's chopping block" (Devil=Hurt). What is Robin going to do to save his "brother" from the most evil man on Earth as Joker calls him?

Isn't he cute in the make-up & nose?

So finally the story itself catches up to where we started a few issues back as Hurt "returns" as Thomas Wayne, strolling into Wayne Manor where Alfred meeets him and the giant block letters let us know that this is DAY 3; the day of the eclipse, the day Dick eats a bullet. And, as I just learned, the last panel on this particular page (#6 of issue 15) is from the painting "The Triumph of Death"...

News reports scream of riots & quaranite in Gotham City as Pyg's virus takes hold, "Thomas Wayne" begins his move for control by going on the news claiming to know how to save Gotham, and Joker leads Damian (still tied up) through the Garden of Death at Wayne Manor.

Some more Joker wordplay that has multiple layers of meaning kicks into effect here as Damian says pawn, he turns it into prawn, he talks about "Big Mike. God's Top Gun. His Head Banana" while eating a banana. A little bit of homework tells me that "Big Mike" is a type of banana, "God's Top Gun" is a reference to Archangel Michael who led the armies of Heaven against Satan in Revelations, and the Joker continues that biblical theme by likening the banana to The Fall.

I tend to think of Morrison's comics in the same vein as good movie; nothing that makes it in a panel/scene is accidental or without purpose. Keep an eye on that banana peel is all I'm saying...

Gordon is dressed up like a Dollotron while Pyg slams what I assume is a bottle of liquor while rambling about some various imaginary doctors. Damian appears on the scene as Gordon begins to fight off the addiction, kicking Pyg, and causing an accident that throws him from the van.

Pyg, still conscious, rambles on, saying "Bless the snaile. The double is two, the deuce is snail horns, the snail is the devil". Given the Devil reference I assume he means Dr. Hurt, also using the Thomas Wayne name (two names?) but I don't really grasp the snail reference unless he's talking about Hurt being slow???

Damian attempts to take on the 99 Fiends on his own, only managing to get himself captured just in time for Dick to get shot in the head! So that's why he was shooting pumpkins, to figure out just where to shoot Grayson so as not to kill him immediately...it was target pratice!

Hurt smashes the horse on the mantle, the one that served as a sign through the years from Bruce to Dick & Damian that led them to the secret passageway, and offers Damian a deal. He will save Dick in exchange for Damian's soul...and here we have the deal that ish #666 referred to but with some differences. One, Damian said he was 14 when the deal was made and he's still 10 when this is going down. Two, in #666 Devil-Bats is still around, but at this time the man who had that identity, Michael Lane, was Azrael. Three, Damian in #666 said he made the deal to save Gotham's soul, not to save Batman's life.

That being said, #666 only serves as a possible future for Damian, one that could have happened if events had occurred a certain way. I believe that those events are occuring in a wholly different fashion now, potentially changing the mechanics of how/why Damian takes on the cape & cowl in the future, and that is something I will have to address once more when I look at #700 shortly...

Anywho, Damian tells Hurt that "You're a man who lived too long. We know who you are. You shouldn't have come back here". So the dynamic duo have figured it out definitively but the comic book hasn't caught up to them yet I'd say...but that's what Bond-villain monologues are for and of course Hurt provides us with one as his henchmen remove Thomas & Martha Wayne's picture from the wall.

Hurt again mentions the "hole" in reference to Damian's soul, explains how the Wayne's took him in & showed him kindness, and in exchange he took Thomas' face, smeared their names, destroyed their painting, and now looks to desecrate the name of Batman as well by becoming one himself, an evil one, with Damian as his Robin.

Once again the name "Barbatos" comes up, tying this to the ceremony from "Dark Knight, Dark City", as does the black sun/eclipse, while Hurt attempts to summon the demon to open the Bat-Casket. The upper right panel is similar to that of the cover posted earlier...which is also similar to the bottom-center panel of this page from Detective Comics #38 that introduced Robin:

Again with that inversion of classic Bat-Images...

There's a whistle which is the lost-langage of the Miagani Tribe (the ones that worshipped Barbatos), the Bat-Coffin opens for the first time in 100 years (according to Hurt), and inside, along with a batarang/signal is a note & all it says... "GOTCHA!", the same words Bruce said right before he was Omega Sanctioned into time by Darkseid. Hurt is shocked, and as for Dick & Damian...

DOUBLE PUNCH!!!!

Hurt is freaking out, the 99 Fiends break into the scene, Dick and Damian smile as the former Robin says "I don't make plans, but I know someone who does. Devil...meet Bat-God"

Guess who's baaaaaaaack.....

So how the hell did Bruce get from being blasted by Darkseid's Omega Beams to standing inside Wayne Manor ready to kick Dr. Hurt's ass? Well that my friend's is a story for the NEXT blog as I look at "Batman: Return of Bruce Wayne" and Batman & Robin #16!!!

But before we wrap up here, largely because I intially couldn't seem to fit it anywhere else, I need to look at the story in Batman #700 Morrison wrote that was included in the "Time and the Batman" HC along with "The Missing Chapter" and a Fabian Nicieza Bat-story.

Man I dig that cover...

So this was a rather interesting look at three different eras of Batmen (well rather like 6 but more on that in few) as Morrison does a multi-angled tale with Bruce, Dick, and Damian all wearing the cape & cowl at various points.  All three tales center around a Professor Nichols and his Maybe Machine which apparently induces something he calls "time hypnosis" which lets the user see "...visions of how things might have been". Nichols is a perfect example of Morrison's love for using characters & stories from the 40's & 50's and molding them into a modern context, placing them in true continuity.

The first story with Bruce & Dick (as Robin) is set in the past, and as you can see from the image above, in a look straight out of the 60's, the "New Look" era as it's called, complete with the faux-Mad Hatter (NOT Jervis Tetch, rather a guy who impersonated him for several years in the books).  This guy was sane, just really like hats, and certainly not the potential pedophile that Tetch sometimes is portrayed as.

The thing I find the most interesting about a look at this era of Bat-history is, not surprisingly, The Joker.  It's been noted several times over on numerous websites how The Joker changed during the reign of the Comics Code from a psycho murderer to a more "fun" villain and I suppose this is Morrison actually writing that personality change into continuity over the course of the first 3rd of this story.

He does jump from a giggly mess to a sweaty, shaky mess to a sadistic guy channeling Heath Ledger as he threatens to "...put a big cheeky smile on that baby face...", talking about Robin.  It's also cool how Morrison actually puts a time-stamp on this story as Joker looks through his Jokebook (allusion to Batman's Casebook?) and mentions how he might look into "Joker fish".  FYI: check out "Detective Comics #475 for that one.

So he smokes Fear Gas from a pipe, gives Robin a hit of it, but in the process Batman uses the distraction to free himself and lay a whooping on the villains.  Not sure why Bruce gets so pissed when Riddler calls him Caped Crusader but he certainly won't do that again...

Gordon bursts in with the cops following a tip-off from Professor Nichols himself (very curious since he stated earlier he was only expecting Bats & wouldn't have made a chance to make this call being surrounded by villains and all), and Robin wonders at the paradoxes of time travel that come along with every story of the sort.  What would happen if The Joker had accomplished his goal of stopping Batman from ever coming into existence?

For that matter, now that I think about it, that pretty much implies Joker suspects Bats identity & what birthed him...which is basically what we know from "RIP" amongst other stories, it's just that by then he doesn't care, believing Batman to be the true face and anything else a mask.

Off to the present day with Dick now in the Batman role & Damian-Robin as they return to the same scene as the previous chapter, Prof. Nichols basement lab, only now he's an old dead man.  In fact he's about 20 years older than he should be according to Grayson, but let me take one step back real quick like before we move on to point out the little differences...

Seriously could you ever see Bruce doing that?  I mean it is very likely he would remember all that information, but extremely unlikely he would actually talk to the officer in the same fashion as Dick.  Probably one of the reasons Gordon said his cops preferred him to the other Batman...and I've got a sneaking suspicion about Officer Bailey's kid but that comes back later in this story.

Damian off-handedly mentions "no case unsolved tonight", Dick mentions how he was hoping to contact Nichols to help find Bruce (essentially giving me a chronological reference for when this story takes place, between B&R #9 & #10 I'd say, and then we head to Park Row.

As is well known this is the place where Bruce's parents were killed, and now Dick is bringing Damian here to commemorate the anniversary in Bruce's stead.  Dick lays down a black wreath, claiming that's what Bruce does every year, but I could swear that he's been depicted putting down two red roses most times.  This anniversary is also the reason for the "no case unsolved tonight" comment earlier...

Some bad stuff starts to go down which gives us a wonderful little throwback to the first issue of "Batman & Robin" (oh yeah, Frank Quitely is drawing this section which I forgot to mention, Tony Daniel did the first):

I love his fight sequences like this...

Dmian & Dick run into Lone-Eye Lincoln, the guy who Bruce almost bought drugs from back in "RIP", and he agrees to keep his business quiet for the night in exchange for Dick fending off...The Mutants...a reference to the gang that runs shit in Frank Miller's "The Dark Knight" in case you don't know.  BTW, it also seems there's a one-off panel during the Pyg-induced drug riot in "Batman & Robin" that shows Lincoln helping people in trouble.  I guess his genorousity stems from this moment...

Dick & Damian do some hero-work around Gotham, break-up a villainous auction being led by the faux-Hatter (now Hatman), where he's trying to sell The Joker's Jokebook (after already selling Red Hood's guns & Kite-Man's kite collection).   They break that up, Damian of course brags about all the reasons he should be Batman instead of Dick, which leads Grayson to point out the story behind the "Locked Room Killer" as they are referrring to Prof. Nichols death. 

For some reason Damian's comment about Dick's "...insane leaps of logic..." and Grayson's "It'll all make sense one day" somehow seem like Morrison doing meta-commentary on his own writing...or maybe I'm just looking for things that aren't there. Apophenia I believe it's called, something The Joker mentioned to Bats in "RIP"...

Off to the future of Batman #666, once again drawn by Andy Kubert, where Damian serves as Batman, currently in pursuit of a Max Roboto (guy named Max with cyborg body parts to compensate for, say perhaps his natural body not working, could this be son of the police officer Dick talked to?). Just to show you how much more of a heartless prick Damian is than his predecessors, he leaves Max to be eaten by rats after getting the necessary info out of him.

So it's a dude named January Damian is in pursuit of and he has seeded the skies with Joker Venom, creating rain that infects Gotham's population with a non-lethal variant of the juice.  Again we see Commisioner Barbara Gordon allowing her to reinforce the idea that she hates Damian just before Damian uses his father's satellite program Brother I (the one that helped create "Infinite Crisis") to take out (read "kill") some Jokerized/Venomized monsters in cop uniforms.

Damian gets to his destination, January, and finds this:

A man who looks like an even more insane version of Two-Face sits with Professor Nichols (the 80 year old, laser hole in the chest version) at his side & a Jokerized baby on his knee.  This bizarro Two Face reads like a conglomerate of multiple Bat-Villains with the use of Joker Juice, Monster Serum, the coin, & calendar dates, except he's not good at it.  He thought he kidnapped a twin but Damian informs him he screwed the pooch on that one.

Damian takes him out, is approached by the Carter Nichols from the Bruce-Bats story who tells him he needs to go back in time to tip-off the police, as well as drop off his old man body in the Grayson-Bats story.  Damian seems to have some memory of what's going on here, based on his comment of "That door was...locked..." and "I can't let you...kill yourself.", sound more like his kid-self than his uber-bad ass persona.  He also drops some names when he contacts Commish Gordon, informing her to tell Warren & Mary McGinnis their baby's safe, then reading the note from Nichols that repeats something Riddler said earlier, "What can we beat but never defeat?"

In case you are unaware, that baby is none other than Terry McGinnis, the Batman of Batman Beyond, which turns Morrison's story in this issue into a new creature if you ask me. Follow me for a moment: IF "Batman Beyond" continuity is intact as it happened in the TV show & movie, then both Terry McGinnis and Tim Drake were infected with Joker venom (see "Return of The Joker" for more info on Drake), which is quite interesting to me.  Still, in true Beyond continuity it is Bruce who mentors Terry, but it would seem more likely given this panel:

I imagine it's now Damian serving as the mentor in Morrison's official Bat-Continuity, although still Bruce Wayne in DC Animated world.  We are then presented with multiple looks at Batman thru the ages...

Brane (from the year 3000 & Batman #26), maybe another Brane (from the year 3050 & Batman #67), and the DC One Million Batman (created by Morrison for the DC One Million mini-series)....what is it that we can defeat but never beat? 

Two things: Time and The Batman...

Next blog: A whole lot of time and Batman!