I believe due to the nature of issue #11, and the fact that I think the final issue Grant Morrison's Batman Opus deserves its own solo spotlight, it looks like this blog is going to be pulling double duty with Chris Burnham & Jorge Lucas' Batman of Japan-focused ish #11 and issue #12!
In the same fashion that issue #5 diverted us from the core story into a glimpse of the Damian Batman, this issue splits from the main narrative with an issue written, rather than art, by Chris Burnham and art from Jorge Lucas. It gives us a look at the adventures of Jiro, the Batman of Japan, in the costume that is a far cry from the one he was originally given when he signed on to The Inc:
Editorial edict? Creator preference? So there was only ONE guy in a Batman costume? For whatever reason, Jiro's official Inc. costume was changed from his bat-clone original to the one featured on the cover of this issue.
I love the very first image on this page:
It's such a sad image of Damian's pet cat Alfred sitting in front of his owner's graveyard but it is very temporary as, almost like a TV screen getting an overlapping signal, the picture goes static and we turn our attention to Japan and some cleavage-wielding biker chicks.
Immediately we see that these women are not just T&A, one of them rips a guy's tongue out of his head because of his coffee choices! They are more upset about blood & coffee getting on their uniform (a choice of word I found interesting because it implies this look is intentional) and seem just as likely to fight one another as the police. There is obviously something more to these ladies as well given that White swings around a human body with an ease that makes it seem as if you or I were hoisting a piece of paper while Green takes three bullets to the helmet while talking about being bulletproof. She could be referring to her "uniform" or to herself, not exactly certain at this point.
As the police call for a Bat-Alarm, our scene then head on over to...
Jiro Osamu (aka The Batman of Japan) and Shy Crazy Lolita Canary of the Super Young Team. The members of the SYT are another of Grant Morrison's creations circa Final Crisis who became mega-celebrities in their native country. Canary, much like the American heroine of similar name, has a sonic scream but is tiny enough to fit in the palm of someone's hand.
The initially awkward interaction of these two is cute, very first date-ish, as Jiro tries to spout off some Casablanca material that initially goes over the head of the 20 year old Lolita. References are made to Jiro's probationary period, to Lolita's 20th birthday in which Jiro was apparently the vomiting one, and that Jiro has been trying to make this date happen for a bit as evidence by his shrink ray request to Batman. There is something about that request I just find insanely humorous, the idea of a shrink ray in the midst of the Bat-World I find so insane yet the concept of monster clones and tiny little winged girls doesn't phase me in the slightest. Silly...
We quickly learn, as the aforementioned Bat-Alarm reaches its target, that this entire date scenario is taken place with the world of Internet 3.0 that was the centerpiece of Batman Inc. (Vol. 1) #8. Lolita makes a joke about how she wishes she could get 3.0 on her phone which leads Jiro to say it's possible with a "chip in your head and a port in your neck"; I read that all I think of is Johnny Mnemonic and The Matrix.
We get a quick glimpse into the Batcave of Japan and see its similarities to that of the Batcave proper (old costumes (including the Mister Unknown & original Batman of Japan outfits), a dinosaur, a coin, and computers) before jumping back to the Biker Chicks. They come off as total badasses (SARCASM) in their threatening of school girls and their hurling of childish insults. In fact, once Jiro & Canary jump into the fray, the insults continue to get even more ridiculous and childish:
I mean comparing a vagina to a Tardis is quite clever and insanely insulting at the same time. This is banter unlike any you would get from the more quippy characters (say a Peter Parker or Dick Grayson) and unlike any I have ever seen in a Batman comic: "The Pink Ranger's Silicon Sisters", and "Better Than Being Built Like A 12 Year Old Boy", or how about "...Her Whole High School Baseball Team"!!! You aren't getting banter like this in a Spider-Man comic!
Suffice it to say the fight does not go the way of Jiro & Canary, they end up encased in Jiro's riot foam after the bikers steal his version of the utility belt and turn it on him. In the process of the fight though we learn that the ladies are apparently immune to Canary's cries and that, after Jiro cuts it open, their helmets repair themselves.
Upon Jiro & Canary's return to the Batcave-Japan, the reader is introduced to just why this young man was made part of Batman Incorporated. Yes he can fight, but we get a look at his detective skills as he analyzes the facts gleamed from his battle. Canary operates in much the same fashion as a Robin might, working as a soundboard for the hero to talk his ideas out, and she also demonstrates that youthful enthusiasm that might come along with being a sidekick. Then again, so does Jiro as they banter about the varied locations they hope their foes use as their bases. There is a joy in their mission, a stark contrast to the mission currently being undertaken by Batman in the main arc.
We then learn the link between this side quest and the core story as the biker gang return to their master:
Leviathan! It has been many issues since we have seen the presence of Talia's organization outside of Gotham but here it is, a Japanese chapter, albeit a chapter that does not seem to rank highly in the larger scheme of things. One interesting item of note in the big bad's dialogue: her remark that it they have been part of the organization for years. It adds a larger scope to Leviathan's operations, emphasizing how this has been a long game for Talia, not just some fling.
Canary and Jiro track down the base of operations, utilizing their combined skills to uncover its hidden location, and when confronted once again by the bikers, Jiro utilizes technology and his brains to get the better of them. This in turn leads to the unveiling of their unique origins:
Yes, Leviathan tried to use the world of competitive sports to conquer the world...so awesome!
The villains team up with the heroes, the big bad is named Lady Tiger Fist and actually has tiger heads for fists, and we are subjected to some seriously violent death scenes for Canary (stomped to a bloody pulp) and Jiro (ripped apart by a tiger head). Ingeniously though, and so subtle I didn't notice it until I reread the page several times, Canary injected Lady Tiger Fist with the Internet 3.0 and allowed her to play out these death scenes virtually: another excellent display of Jiro's brains over brawn approach to handling his foes.
The ending comes full circle as Jiro & Canary go on their BIG date, she gets to hold an apple, and we are treated to one terrifying image heading into next issue and our regularly scheduled program:
While it was an overall pleasant visit with one member of the Batman Inc. family courtesy of Chris Burnham & Jorge Lucas, and it did lightly tie into the core story, it was nowhere near the pain-filled, sorrow-extravaganza that is to come next ish:
What a cover with the Bat-Bots and the assorted members of Inc. watching Bruce taking his vengeance against Talia. You could even interpret this as he's about to break her back a la Bane if you'd like (obviously I do otherwise I wouldn't have mentioned it). It's another powerful cover in a series filled with them and it is followed up with a powerful first page that encapsulates the very ideal of Batman:
An amazing page of art from last issue's author, and in that final panel, Skull-Faced Talia hits the nail right on the head there, "Why won't he stop?" Sums up Bruce Wayne in so many ways...
This is another issue where I could really use every single beautiful page to illustrate some of the story points. From Bruce essentially speaking Bat, to the way the rain falls, to the facials on this monstrous incarnation of Batman, each image is just so powerful that words do not do them justice.
Man that electricity!
The fact the blimp is labeled Damrung which is most certainly a play on Dammerung/Gotterdammerung, which is something Morrison also used in The Invisibles...
...the child-like fashion in which Heretic behaves as Bruce taunts him, everything about this issue is masterful and playing off all the build of what has come before. Bruce has undergone change after change under the watch of Grant Morrison: father, the Thogal ritual, R.I.P, Final Crisis/Return, and now this Man-Bat Cyborg Revenge Machine. He has seen his only son murdered by his mother, seen the DNA of that son twisted into the monster who served as the murder weapon, and still her perseveres. Batman does not break...
We cut to two of his "sons" (Red Robin & Nightwing) on the hunt for the third (Jason Todd/Wingman) who was abducted by and then tracked down by Knight and Ranger. Turns out, according to Hood, that the Assassin's Girl's School that Spoiler infiltrated during the Old DCU-set Leviathan Special was all part of a Spyral operation. Also the Headmistress of that school, the one we have heard Hood make reference to before, turns out Nightwing recognizes her voice and she in turn seems to know him...
I love the take on the DOUBLE PUNCH that Nightwing and Knight bust out here using their Escrima sticks, and it also shows us all that Batman is far from alone in his quest. Not only is does he never quit, neither do the members of his extended family.
So it is then, on the doorstep of the Wayne Tower, that Bruce discovers the ugly truth of just what Heretic really is and what Talia, the mother of his son, did to create this monster...
That image is horrifying...truly and utterly disgusting really. A child soldier, the face of Damian Wayne on the body of a forced-grown man, with a bleeding hole in his head. It's quite grotesque and yet this creation is not yet the the worst thing Talia does in this issue. Heretic, for his failure, receives the following reward:
Talia's calling card, as it was in Leviathan Strikes! with the head of Jezebel Jet next to the red phone, and the utter destruction of Wayne Tower. Even with all that, the game still isn't done because Talia needs to put on her party clothes. Donning her own Bat-Mask, her own cape, she descends into the bowels of the Batcave where Batman is waiting. The endgame is here...
She calls herself Tiamat, Kali, Medusa, and The Wire Mommy. The next issue caption calls her The Devil's Daughter. Her aim, since she can't be the LOVE of his life, is to now be THE villain in Batman's life. She killed his/her son, blew up his Tower, decimated his city, and now it comes down to the two of them in the heart of the place where Batman was born...
This is it...the issue that DC comics elected to spoil in advance in the NY Post after rampant speculation that the story was building to this point. Hell even if they hadn't spoiled in in the Post, the cover alone was as spoilerific as it gets anyway. With an image like the one above emblazoned on the cover, THIS was an issue that should have been black polybagged, not Age of Ultron #10. I'll save my tangent on spoilers until after this overview though...ON TO THE STORY!!!
First up, the cover is a great homage from Chris Burnham to the Alex Ross painting for R.I.P:
Then we jump onto the very first page with this image that I just found incredibly cool:
It's the green tint, Damian's words as he sees Grayson, the visual of Dick and Commissioner Gordon battling an army of children, it just stands out to me as quite memorable. The following page's visual of Damian, in his Robin armor, blasting over the scene and knocking a kid out just adds to the punch of this scene. The choice of story title, The Boy Wonder Returns, is both sad and triumphant though. It is quite a logical choice given that Damian has been benched from being Robin since the first issue (hence the Redbird stint a couple issues back) and he's hopping back into his proper tights for this issue. Yet, because of the choice to go full-on spoiler for this one and knowing his ultimate fate, it is also a title packed with sorrow knowing it is a short term situation.
Damian rockets off towards Midtown where Wayne Tower is located and his father was left sinking to the bottom of a pool while locked inside a safe.
I can't help but use as much of Burnham's art as possible because I do love it so, particularly the last two panels and the way he depicts the raindrops hitting the pool water with the safe visible under the surface. That love for the art continues with the next page below with the fashion in which Batman is shown trapped inside the safe:
The pool water used as the background, the awkward paneling reflecting the uncomfortable position in which Bruce finds himself trapped, the raw and bloody knuckles, the close shot of his white lensed eyes and bared teeth, plus the safe sitting in the empty corner of the page...it creates a claustrophobic scene.
As for the trap itself, it is a positively "Bond villain" style situation but that is something in no way coincidental. Talia is taunting Bruce, putting him in a trap she knows he will escape eventually but doing so just to keep him occupied.
Jason Masters steps up for some fill-in work as Red Robin (Tim Drake) arrives at the Leviathan controlled Wayne Tower. It's Tim's attention to detail (noticing another woman is wearing Ellie's name tag), combined with Ellie screaming, that saves him from an assault but the save is short-lived. Turns out the entire upper balcony of the lobby is ringed with assassins of both the gun-toting as well as arrow-shooting variety and while some fancy footwork on the giant quarter takes some out of the equation, Tim still finds himself at the mercy of Leviathan's members until...
Once again Damian saves the day, gets away with the child abuse since it's kid-on-kid violence, and shows just why he quite the little badass as he takes down kids & adults alike with his fancy armored suit. Still, Dick gets the chance to throw Damian's opening line of this issue back in his face as he saves him from a volley of gunfire. This gets followed up with a page that, given the spoiler-context with which most everyone entered this issue, while the page is given an entirely different gravity than if it was being read without knowing how the story would end:
Dick Grayson, though generally known as Nightwing, was the Batman that Damian fought beside. He was the partner that allowed Damian to grow, not Bruce Wayne. In some ways, although they would probably think of themselves more like brothers, Dick Grayson was the true father to Damian Wayne. Well, both he and Alfred I suppose, since it was their joint efforts during Dick's run under the cape and cowl that allowed Damian to become something more than a child of the League of Assassins. Under the tutelage of Dick and Alfie, Damian became the hero we are seeing showcased in this specific issue. He is still a bit abrasive but the manner in which Damian talks to Dick is a far cry from what it was back in the Morrison's volume of Batman & Robin. There is respect there now, an admiration for fighting at each other's side, and dare I say it...a genuine love for his father/brother. Damian sums it up the best in the fifth panel, "So far I'd say you've been my favorite partner". Sadly, since we know how this story ends, we also know that the "so far" isn't really necessary...there isn't going to be anyone else added to that partner list.
Burnham, in his ever-growing awesomeness, even throws in a few visual callbacks to the Batman and Robin team with the next page:
Compare that first panel to Frank Quitely's work from Batman & Robin (Vol. 1) #1:
The only thing missing from the Burnham page of Batman '66 sound effects is the double punch that was used so frequently during Morrison's B&R work:
Guess I spoke to soon because enter The Heretic with Oroboros machine in hand:
Didn't quite work out and neither does Dick & Damian's attempt to battle his behemoth clone of Damian. Ellie though, she does her part and sneaks up to steal the Oroboro out from under Heretic as he's occupied with beating his brother/twin to death.
Damian, as he said to Dick before their leap into battle, continues to push that if he can see his mother than he can settle this situation. He firmly believes, even with this monster in front of him, that if he can just talk to her then the problems can be resolved. That is the BOY aspect of this Boy Wonder I suppose...a surprising fout of hope is Damian. Even as the onslaught continues, he pleads for her to stop this. It's truly heartbreaking to see this child essentially begging for his life to his own mother. After everything she put him through, after raising him in the League of Assassins, after nearly becoming a vessel for his grandfather Ra's Al Ghul, after using technology to take over his body, even after all of that, Damian somehow still believes his mother loves him. Maybe she does somewhere inside, but as she allows Heretic to assault her true son, with violence like this...
...it is hard to believe that there is one ounce of love left in her heart. Her desire for vengeance against Damian's father has utterly consumed her, more completely than even Bruce's desire that caused him to become Batman in the first and continue to push him to don the cape & cowl each night.
The detail in the above page is also brilliant. Whether it be artist's choice or script, any backbreaking image used in a Batman comic holds resonance for long-term readers (or anyone who watched Dark Knight Rises I suppose) but the beauty of that scene is that, unlike his father, it doesn't stop Damian. Why not? Likely because of that same surgically repaired spine that Talia and Deathstroke used to co-opt Damian's body back in Batman & Robin.
I also get the sense that, if not for the involvement of the gun & arrow wielding assassins, Damian would have had a fair chance of taking down his clone brother. Even as he is riddled with arrows and bullets, the only biological son of Bruce Wayne remains defiant to his killer, spitting blood in the face (his own face really since this is a clone) of Heretic, but sadly...weakly...begging for his mother to call it off.
The violence and blood of the page are almost uncomfortable, something at a level we rarely see in a Batman comic but one that has been the norm for this leg of the journey. Right from the get-go, with the fight through the slaughterhouse in the first issue, this has been a particularly violent and blood-soaked run.
This is why Talia kept Bruce occupied, this is why she figured out how long it would take him to escape the trap, so that Bruce would know he was absolutely powerless to get their in time and save their son from being murdered. I suppose the same way he was absolutely powerless to save his parents from being executed by Joe Chill (or whoever in the New 52) or to save Jason Todd from his death at The Joker's hands. I suppose the torture of the moment goes two ways as it's also so Damian dies knowing that NEITHER of his parents helped him. His father was not there to stop it and the only way his mother could have been more responsible was if she was the one holding the sword.
Visually speaking this is another impressive page from Burnham, somewhat like the shattered glass page from a couple issues back. It's extra disturbing to me that Talia is just a mouth and words in this entire sequence but those words are as painful, in their own way, as the stab wound. Damian has a physical sword through his heart while Talia is driving verbal daggers into that of his father. The fact that she still refers to this as a game is just so...horrid.
If I recall correctly, that image of Damian's death drew heavy criticism for it's level of gore, violence, and I know some were disturbed by how absent Damian's face was from the scene. Well, after some searching, I tracked down the original image on Bleeding Cool:
Picture that image colored and tell me it wouldn't have been far more disturbing. The sword has penetrated THROUGH Damian and we see his face, his little terrified face, as life slowly slips away and Damian dies knowing his parents were not there for him. That is horror...
...and in the midst of the horror, as this stage of her plan finally comes to fruition, Talia shatters like the glass framing the last two pages. For one brief second she allows herself to feel something for her son's death but it is, as she states, just "..a moment of weakness..."; she really is dead inside isn't she?
And poor Ellie, the former prostitute now Wayne Tower receptionist, the girl that Batman saved from near-certain death on the streets, she sits as observer to the entire tableau. It's not the first Robin we have seen die but given the condition of Damian's body versus that of Jason Todd's...
or Stephanie Brown...
...it's a violently powerful image of death, brutal. I think it is a moment that, had I not had it spoiled, would have made me cry. It brought tears to my eyes, that's no lie, but nothing flowing down my face as was the case with Nightcrawler or Magik when they died in the X-Books. Another fashion in which the NY Post article, and the comic book media blitz that followed, may have ruined some of the experience for this humble reader.
Now in the midst of that heartbreaking image to close the issue there is also fear. Fear of what's to come as represented by the fade-to-black panels of Batman's face. Does that represent the death? Does it represent Bruce losing himself to the darkness within? We only know by picking up the next part of Batman Incorporated!
In the meantime, you can check out my Damian Wayne memorial blog entry here! Or check out my work on Sequart right here!
As for that spoilery stuff, my quick take is that, as I understand the comic book market, while ruining such a monumental plot point as Damian's death will boost your publicity in the moment, it wouldn't do ANYTHING for sales of that issue. By the time they spoiled it, orders had long been placed by the shops so they've already got the money from the first printing. I suppose then the desire is to generate revenue from the inevitable reprints? I truly don't know. Perhaps publicity is the only goal in doing such a thing, such is the world of the corporation...
Lois & Clark, Barry & Iris, and Arthur & Mera apparently...their marriages never existed; in the case of the first two couples it seems their romantic relationships never blossomed in any form!
Still love was far from the only victim of the change though...
Wally West...Stephanie Brown...and Cassandra Cain all ceased to exist (at least thus far) as did the Justice Society of American and its plethora of members. Sure certain JSA characters eventually came to exist in the world of James Robinson's Earth 2 book but their origins were vastly different as was their historical importance to the larger DCU. Jay Garrick, Alan Scott, Al Pratt: rather than standing as the fathers of a superhero movement they, along with Hawkwoman, Dr. Fate, and a new Batman represent the 2nd generation of heroes on an Earth-2 that saw Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman fall in battle with Darkseid & the hordes of Apokolips.
In the New 52, characters became younger, their timelines truncated, their histories either changed or, in the case of the Bat & GL corners of the DCU, uber-compressed into a roughly 5 year time frame. This of course is an idea fans (myself included) have had a hard time accepting given the level of chaos that has occurred in their respective worlds, particularly in the last real-time decade.
Into that New 52, along with the aforementioned Earth 2 book amongst others, Batman Inc. (Vol. 2) was introduced as part of the "2nd Wave". Heralded as the grand conclusion of Grant Morrison's Bat-Opus, of which I have written about extensively in the links below, it is a series mired in the rich history of the Old DCU (including characters who no longer existed) and every fan salivated wondering just how Morrison would fit into the new world in which he was relaunching this book.
Before I jump in to the meat, here are all of the previous chapters in this very long journey for your perusal:
With issue number one the first page doesn't pick up from where things were left off in the Batman Incorporated: Leviathan Strikes! Special rather it jumps right into the heart of the story with a page of sadness and confusion:
A rain-soaked Bruce in front of two graves (his parents' perhaps), telling Alfred that everything is over and to tell the others, presumably meaning the extended Bat-family. That final panel on the first page of Commissioner Gordon calling for the arrest is certainly shocking, especially when you turn the page to see what happens only to find the story rewinding back to "one month previously".
A page of beautiful Chris Burnham art (love the Dark Tower food bag btw) depicts Batman & Robin hurdling out of the Batmobile and into the rain (a bit of visual continuity I suppose). Side note, the issue's title is "Demon Star" which, as we know from Vol. 1, is the eye of Gorgon/a star in the constellation Perseus/also call Algol/Al Ghul/Demon's Head!
The chase is on after a ludicrous Goat-headed guy with a gun who runs into a meat packing plant. Of note during the chase though are a pair of trucks in the background with upside down stars as their logo and either "Long Star Brand" or "Lone Star Brand" as the company. Oh yes, and the Goat Headed guys motorcycle also has a giant goat head on it!
I have to admit as I read this back that this scene here:
May be THE most violent and bloody thing ever depicted in a Batman comic book. There are entrails everywhere, gutted cows, living cows getting stabbed in the head with a somewhat humorous & 1960's "POK!" sound effect. Every one of the goat-masked workers is soaked in blood, Damian slides through blood with a neatly done "SPLONK" effect as his assailant hits the floor into a pool of blood! Chunks of meat go flying as a Batman ducks a saw and it strikes one of the dangling corpses...the "camera" follows the meat straight onto a fork that enters the mouth of an apparent Leviathan member "across town" engaged in some sort of dinner party. One hell of a violent transition from Burnham!
Of note in this pow wow depicted in the bottom left of this page:
...a nurse, a mummy, someone who resembles Rosie The Riveter, an old man, a mobster looking guy, and in the following panel someone who appears to be The Invisible Man.
It's in that final admittedly disgusting panel that we hit our first bit of narration in this issue and it comes from some unseen entity, not a man directly involved in this conflict, rather one who has seemingly set it all up. "He" inadvertently kills his best friend (the original Goat Head who was acting as bait) in an attempt to cash in on the half billion-dollar bounty Talia Al Ghul had placed on her son Damian Wayne, aka Robin, at the close of Vol. 1. Two things I feel need to be noted about this assassination attempt; first is Damian's immediate reaction of "It wasn't me! I didn't do it!" which is likely a result of his having to kill Daedalus to save his father and the second is the image of just how far away the assassin is when he makes the shot. It's an impressive feat for a guy who we learn is named Goatboy due to a combination of Gotham meaning "Home of Goats" and from a Bill Hicks sketch...parental advisory and all that jazz before watching this one:
I must say that I love the art during the scene of Goatboy fleeing from Batman. The way the rain is drawn, the angles, the Officer Downe and "P-KOW!" billboards, and that I can now see it is "Lone Star" on the side of the trucks. From a writing standpoint, I also appreciate how much like Batman Goatboy describes himself to be, "I know the secret spots and the hiding places nobody else sees. I know the beat of every cop, where the gangs meet...". Those are all words/thoughts I could see coming from Batman himself.
Still in the slaughterhouse, Damian saves the life of one cow while Bruce points out that the cattle branded with the upside down star are contaminated. He also questions Damian on the significance of the two-horned star but Damian is either ignoring him or not paying attention because this:
The contaminated meat plays a part in the next scene as we return to Leviathan's dinner party with a focus on one of the Brothers Grimm as he questions the skull-faced Talia and her Ninja Man-Bats. She kindly informs him that while the others ate beef, he was fed his brother. Gross...
Jump back to B&R chasing down a Lone Star truck and a discussion between the heroes not only gives us some insight into the Bruce & Damian dynamic but also put this story into a time frame of sorts with a reference to Damian killing Nobody (from the first New 52 Batman & Robin story arc). It also allows us some insight into how Damian looks at his partnership with his father versus his one with Dick Grayson, "I don't know why you bothered to come back from the dead. We were fine without you. We had everything under control."
The dynamic of the Bruce/Damian relationship is very different from that of Dick & Damian. In that it was more of a brotherly relationship with Damian starting out thinking himself superior to Grayson and ultimately ending in a earned respect after Dick proved himself. The Bruce/Damian dynamic is the exact opposite and Damian spells it out himself, "Yet here I am, jumping around dressed as a superhero to impress you." I also appreciate the commentary from Bruce on the hood...it's not the first time someone has mentioned its perils to Damian.
The two running threads converge in the midst of all of this as Talia's Ninja-Bats drop the Grimm brother from the dinner party head-first on the concrete right in front of the Dynamic Duo just as Bruce is again questioning Damian on the significance of the demon star. It's a reminder to the audience of facts that were pointed out in the first volume but we may have forgotten in the interim, "Another name for Algol in the constellation of Perseus. In Arabic, 'Al Ghul'."
Jump from Gotham to San Francisco where a hooded individual enters into an S&M looking shop, requests his "perv suit" (which we see is that of The Hood) in a notably British fashion and descends into the basement where we find Batwing and Old DCU Outsiders members Halo, Looker, and Freight Train (the Dead Heroes Club as BW says)! This is our first look at how both Batman Inc does and does NOT fit into the world of the New 52. When last we saw these characters in Vol. 1 Batwing was killed by a horde of Man-Bats while The Outsiders were blown up in space.
Now what makes this difficult is that (a) Batwing, obviously not dead, has been running around in his own series during the entire New 52 and (b) The Outsiders team that got blown up consisted of Halo, Looker, Metamorpho, Freight Train and Katana. Now the problems: at the time of publication, Katana did not exist in the New 52 and Metamorpho, while mentioned here, has never been shown in the New 52 that I'm aware of yet. Let me Google that see:
Bless the internet's little heart! That's from the New 52 Justice League International #1 apparently so he has been shown one time since the relaunch.
Anyway, in the case of Inc V2, he isn't called Metamorpho rather Element Man and Freight Train says he was part of the Justice League which contradicts everything Geoff Johns has written about Martian Manhunter being the only other member besides Supes, Bats, WW, Flash, GL, Aquaman, and Cyborg. As for the other, in the Post-New 52 relaunch Looker popped up in a National Comics book with a completely different look and story but I believe that is considered an alternative continuity.
Couple quick mentions here for this "Batcave West": the giant penny reading "In Stagg We Trust" is presumably a reference to Simon Stagg who has yet to exist in the New 52. Not sure about the costumes in the trophy cases but right behind Freight Train is a afro/mask combo that screams Black Lightning.
As for the actual story, Hood (who makes mention of Matron & The Agency) and El Gaucho renew their little rivalry from V1 and we get the arrival of the new Wingman. It's a name that I now find quite amusing but I will wait to elaborate on that until I get to the reveal of his identity.
That is one amazing page of art right there!
We get the arrival of The Mutants of Dark Knight Returns fame as well as see a connection between that Dark Tower bag I mentioned earlier that seemed to be just a throwaway gag and the Lone Star truck. Lone Star distributes the contaminated meat while Dark Tower is the fast food joint giving it to the people. Goatboy makes his return, scoping out Damian for the kill but Batman shows up and...
Well we don't know the "and" just yet because it cuts to the Leviathan scene from earlier, presumably in the Monarch Theater set-up from V1 now that I think about it, where the Skeletor version of Talia is confronting Goatboy and someone else. Fatherless is back snapping necks while famous pre-New 52 assassins Merlyn and Bronze Tiger (their first New 52 nods) as well as The League of Assassins all get name-dropped.
Goatboy, with Fatherless looming over his shoulder, tells Skele-Talia his tale of shooting Batman in the face and stunning him long enough to accomplish the assassination thanks to Damian's hood being down:
...the hood that now conceals his dead face. End issue one with a shot somewhat familiar to long-time readers:
Issue two certainly makes an immediate impression with its cover art:
Another issue where the first page has little to do with what came before as we are thrown into some sort of hippie-looking benefit concert with the first words being "...So Neptune is in Capricorn", a very odd way to start a Batman story if you ask me. So a-Googling I went to find out a little more about what that means and this is the page I ended up at here. The fact that this page delves into the history of Ra's Al Ghul (his first new 52 appearance as well) made the explanation quite amusing to me, especially the last paragraph:
"Their only problem is getting reality to work as they think it should.
They may envision a system that runs smoothly, is responsive to the
needs of all those involved, and that promotes on merit. It can be
frustrating for them to deal with the harsh reality instead."
Seems to sum up Ra's pretty well. He meets a woman named Melisande, gets her pregnant and thus in turning the page we see that this is actually the story of Talia Al Ghul. This page totally cracks me up and I think you can see why from its companion image:
Back to Melisande for a second. She did exist prior to this, kind of, in both Birth of the Demon & Son of the Demon of which the latter was considered non-canon until Grant Morrison brought Damian Wayne into the picture at the start of all of this. The first book, written by Dennis O'Neil, gives Talia's mother no name only states that she met Talia's celibate father (eventually rendered improbable by the existence of other Al Ghul children like Lyssa) at Woodstock, she was of mixed Chinese & Arab descent, and died of a drug overdose. The second book, written by Mike W. Barr, gives her a name in Melisande and tells a different tale of her death coming by being shoved into a Lazarus Pit.
Talia confronts Ra's face-to-face in current times, talks about how Otto Netz concocted the imagery around which Leviathan is based ("...a mix of warlike colors and terrifying female archetypes"). In a fashion that reminds me of the tale Batman & Robin #0 tells of Damian's origins we see how Talia was brought up fighting ninjas, watching her father bathed in Lazarus pits, learning poisons, buying ponies and airships and all the while, like any parent thinking they can buy their child, Ra's never stopped to, paraphrasing here, wonder what Talia ACTUALLY wanted or needed ("I needed a mother").
It's in the above first meeting with a woman who claims to be Melisande that Talia (and to a degree the reader) begins to learn about the meanings behind her last name. The fortune teller explains Perseus and the unlucky star Algol located in the eye of the Gorgon, she also claims to be Talia's mother who Talia believed died in child birth (making that origin story #3 for Melisande). An Ubu carts her off to an unknown fate while the origin continues depicting Talia ballet dancing and then it's off to a secret underground lair that I am fairly certain Talia made reference to early in Morrison's run as her birthday present. Ra's claims it once belonged to the infamous Devil Doctor of Limehouse which (thank you Wiki) is apparently a reference to a character from Alan Moore's League of Extraordinary Gentleman series who in turn is based on Fu Manchu. Morrison and Moore...
The Sensei (Ra's father in the Old DCU) is referenced as Talia, Ra's, and Ubu are assaulted in the base and I believe this is also the first mention of him in the New 52. Talia also shows her first real signs of rebelling against Ra's in these sequences as she questions the whereabouts of her mother to which Ra's retorts "...Your mother is dead, Talia. You've always known that."
The story catches up with published history as we get the story from Detective Comics #411 of Talia's abduction by Dr. Darrk, a former member of the League of Assassins. This take on the story puts Talia in control of the situation as she basically tells Darrk that she allowed the abduction to take place which leaves him befuddled. In typical villain fashion, he threatens mass rape on Talia but only after he tires of raping her first: "...many men will pay for the pleasure of your company when I tire of you" to which Talia casually replies "You would never tire of me, Doctor Darrk" which is a rather confident and certainly shocking retort to the threats Darrk is making.
Cue the "rescue":
Several images pulled from the various books that established Bruce & Talia's relationship and in the following page Talia actually confronts her father for the first time, at least chronologically, about the consciousness transfer rites that framed the entire Resurrections of Ra's Al Ghul story and are the essential reason Ra's "allowed" Damian to exist in the first place.
I really like that first panel as Burnham plays off his earlier images of Talia's chemical experimentation. In that earlier page the fumes formed a skull, this one a heart, it's a nice touch that really demonstrates the different aspects of Talia's personality. For Bruce it's love, everyone else can die!
Okay maybe it's not exactly love seeing as how the night Bruce & Talia consummated their relationship it appears Talia put that heart-cloud elixir into Bruce's drink prior to their sexual congress.
That "new Alexander" notion pops up again, it's a way Talia has referred to Damian several times during the course of Morrison's Bat-opus and really depicts her intentions for her child. You can click on the Wiki link for the full details but suffice it to say that Alexander the Great is considered hall of fame level in the history books specifically in the Military Leaders category.
Now I feel I should note that that page is not exactly how the original stories were presented. The Ra's panels were from Batman #244 and the rest of the page is a take on the events of Son of the Demon. This is what that sexual encounter looked like originally:
As you can see the spiked drink, the "Alexander" comment, none of that is present in the original presentation BUT it can be there in-between moments. Talia could very easily be spiking the drink behind the curtain, that Alexander talk could fit in after that last image since the next page in Son picks up afterwards. Just a nice way that Morrison/Burnham take the story & visuals of what was originally there but play with it to create their own take on events.
Back to the action:
That baby-in-a-bottle image is one that we witnessed previously in the old DCU, specifically in Morrison's Batman & Robin when Talia showed Damian his "brother":
As a matter of fact, the bottle & "Damian vs. Ninjas" images being paired specifically comes from the infamous Batman #666 issue that depicted Damian as the future-Batman:
Nice touch from Burnham or Grant or whoever made that creative choice.
I find particular interest in the final two panels in that Inc page up there because of how they play into the larger New 52 world. The first of the pair features Talia giving her sales pitch to the villains of the DCU and the cast, while shadowy, very strongly appears to be Lex Luthor facing us, Black Adam way back in the shadow, Deathstroke and perhaps Dr. Psycho with their backs to us, and an unfamiliar head on the video monitor. Even in the New 52 I suppose it is entirely plausible Deathstroke and Luthor could be involved in this pow-wow but Black Adam hadn't been born into the New 52 yet (see the Shazam back-ups in Justice League for that story) and, if that is Dr. Psycho, what Wiki tells me about his New 52 story wouldn't lead me to believe he would be put in any position to be involved in this meeting. The foibles of Grant Morrison & The New 52...or maybe it was artist's choice who to include in this cast, I would have to see a script to know for sure.
As for that second panel, that one cements Talia's influence on the R.I.P arc as she inserts General Malenkov (I just found out there is a real life person of that name) into The Black Glove...only for The Joker to eventually kill him. She also notes in that panel that she is going to introduce the detective to his son which puts this event into a chronological context with the Batman & Son arc that started Morrison's run.
We then get a look back to the moment that really started all of this, that final straw that turned Talia into The Gorgon, the close of Batman & Son that I mentioned in my very first Morrison-blog. The original from Batman #658
And the Batman Inc #2 version:
I think the donning of that mask marks the complete turn of Talia to villainy. There has always been something sad about her, something that made her life feel like a product of manipulation by her father and, to a much lesser degree, perhaps Batman as well. In a deranged way, I think putting that mask on is representative of her finally shedding all of that baggage, taking control, and maybe throwing in some of the pomp & pageantry inherent in the capes & cowls crowd.
That final panel has a call-back to a moment from the Batman: The Return book that preceded Batman Inc. Vol. 1 when Talia mentions her "monster grown in the belly of a whale":
A rather gruesome visual from David Finch that decimated whale corpse; of course we know she is referring to Fatherless who then makes a sudden appearance from out of nowhere (very Batman like) to smash skulls and demonstrate to Ra's that he should now fear his daughter: "Look into the eye of The Gorgon"...
One more issue to cover for this volume of the blog and it features the return of one Batman's most frequently used aliases: Matches Malone! It's been a long time since Matches has shown his face in Gotham and well there are a few stories in which his name pops up in a Google search, it seems Gotham Underground in 2007 was his last appearance of note. I fell it is of some importance to mention that original first appearance of the true Matches Malone (not the alias) was way back in Batman #242 AND was as part of a Ra's Al Ghul centered story. Is it a coincidence that Grant decided to bring him back into the picture as part of a Talia Al Ghul story arc? Probably not...
The story jumps right into the details of Leviathan's insidious plot to infiltrate Gotham as we see a random woman disappeared in the middle of the train station. We then see a similar looking female enter into a classroom, hang up a banner bearing Leviathan's sigil, and hold her class at gunpoint while stating "Leviathan brings a better way". The text box tells us what Burnham's art show us: this is a neglected school in a neglected neighborhood and perfect candidates for Leviathan to recruit/convert. It's a tactic that our own US military has been accused of using and while I'm not going to argue one way or the other about the validity of those accusations, it is an intriguing take for Morrison to use for Leviathan's tactics. Also, this is a tactic we saw in V1 only at the time it was in Batwing's neck of the woods in Africa...Leviathan's influence is spreading worldwide!
Before I continue with the story, I want to sidebar to the image Leviathan has co-opted as their own, the Kali Yantra:
You can read a detailed explanation of the Kali Yantra here but in short it is a symbol of the Hindu Goddess Kali (mentioned several times by Talia), and it is intended as a symbol of change and transformation. It is a positive symbol of a strong female character that Talia & Leviathan have bastardized into their own.
Back to the story and we see just how far the reach of Leviathan has extended when we see what happens to parents complaining about the Leviathan book in schools. First it's a brand new principal at the school making a phone call followed by a police man, the new guy on the force freshly transferred from Keystone City (HI FLASH!) shredding evidence and then planting what certainly sounds like child pornography onto the parents computers. Then a social worker pulls the kids away from the parents while a newly appointed judge sentences the parent to prison.
That page above really lets us see how deep the teeth of the beast have been sunk into Gotham City as the Khali image points out the recruits: a judge, a cop, a random guy walking on the street, the sidewalk hustler, and the hot dog vendor who is probably selling the contaminated meat from issue #1. Leviathan is everywhere...
Based on the lyrics, and the name "Warm Heart, Cold Town" that is given a few pages later, the song isn't one I can find in reality so probably something Grant created for the story. The lyrics are interesting, particularly the last ones on the above page ("...You'll be turned upside down, on your own! Hanging around!") because the name of the story is "The Hanged Man" which in tarot looks like this:
The "Bullet ridden cadaver" comment from Small Fry harkens back to a BKV story where Scarface killed Matches which could possibly mean Morrison is retconning any other appearances by Matches OR simply that gangland rumor hasn't been updated.
Whiskey Road, Small Fry, I don't remember them off the top of my head but a search through the Essential Batman Encyclopedia makes mention of Matches infiltrating the Whiskey Road Gang after Bruce recovered from the injuries sustained in Knightfall at Bane's hands.
Matches talking about getting disappeared is ironic because of what Leviathan is doing in Gotham City and the idea that Matches suffers from Porphyria is quite humorous given that you can almost describe it as being allergic to sunlight. He's Batman...he's allergic to the sun...he's a cave dweller who only comes out at night!
Matches wants Leviathan info, Fry make reference to paying respects to the late Brothers Grimm who we know were killed by Talia & Leviathan, he saves the singer from some thugs while flanked by an undercover crew of El Gaucho, The Hood, and Batwing. The singer introduces herself as Lumina Lux (Latin for Lights Light) and, of course, Matches goes for it until "Batman" interrupts the proceedings in a scene we have seen play out in various fashion over the years. Sometimes it's been Alfred in the bat-suit, it's also been Tim Drake, but this time it's Dick Grayson stepping back into the cape & cowl for a minute.
Batcave time as Bruce, Dick, and Damian discuss the situation including some of that back-and-forth between D&D that I miss from their Batman and Robin partnership. The highlight is probably the line "How does it feel to be the new dead Robin, Damian?"...
The web of Leviathan, a symbol we saw used quite prevalently in the Otto Netz story, only this time we have faces on the board. Let's see if I can hit all the marks: Leviathan/Talia is at the center and one thread spills out to Fatherless while another to Ra's Al Ghul, a third to Lord Death Man, a fourth to Jezebel Jet's severed head, a 5th to that training school for killer girls we saw in the Leviathan Strikes Stephanie Brown story, and another to the Spyral web from that same story. The web than goes nuts from there and basically includes every major & minor player from the whole of Morrison's run. We see Netz, Gaucho, Kathy Kane Batwoman, both Pyg's, Dr. Hurt, Black Glove, Wingman, Jason Todd, the 99 Fiends...you get the idea. It's all connected and, as Damian says, it's really not Leviathan at the center, "It's us. We're at the center of all this."
There's something adorable about the following page's image of Alfred carrying for Bat-Cow but there is nothing adorable about the message he brings: the cows are indeed infected with a derivation of Prof. Pyg's mind control drug we saw in Batman & Robin. Bruce's concern is evident in how Burnham draws him as is Damian's annoyance at being grounded for his own safety. I also find it touching how Damian firmly believes that without him Batman is the one in danger not vice versa.
Matches meets with Goatboy in bar called Three Eyed Jacks (nothing to make me think the name has significance, just found a One Eyed Jacks brothel in Twin Peaks) and this sequence does more for me to establish that Goatboy is more than he seems. Visually he looks like a down on his luck loser but we know from issue #1 that he is an amazing shot with a Batman-level sense of the city. This interaction lets us see his awareness of all the elements playing into Talia's schemes; the Lilith, Kali, and Leviathan imagery...the mythology she is playing with, the "...creepy stuff you look up on the Internet" as Goatboy says (which is exactly what most people reading these books and definitely anyone writing about them is doing). The fact that he has also "...heard the rumor they used Batman's DNA to build a Frankenstein monster" also makes me believe Goatboy is more in the loop than he would have Matches believe...he may even be feeding this information to Matches at Talia's behest.
The entire Lumina sequence brings to mind the dynamic of Jezebel & Bruce's relationship in that he was being played from the beginning but I think it's safe to say Bruce was well aware of that fact especially when he went to a door with a goat head knocker on it. Bruce comes off like a sucker for a pretty face hiding dangerous secrets quite a bit but most of the time I figure he knows what he's getting into and just plays along to see where it's going.
So Damian takes on the Redbird identity to circumvent the "Robin is grounded" rule and, although he knocks Alfred out, I think that 4th panel actually says a lot about how D has changed. The one who first appeared in Batman & Son wouldn't have taken a second to acknowledge Alfred, he likely would have knocked him out with a club to the head rather than the kinder gentler gassing method.
The following page is a terrifying cascade of images and giant Punch & Judy-style heads, heck Morrison even uses the name Jack Ketch for the hangman here. Goatboy is involved here, Small Fry is one of his three sacrifices, Matches is intended to be the third, and the second...while only shown in shadow, appears to be a small child which leads me to believe it is the son Goatboy has mentioned several times over. We bid farewell to Matches, for this issue at least, with him striking a match for some unknown reason.
This entire sequence does make me question if it was Talia orchestrating the situation here (she would presumably be aware of Bruce's usage of the Matches identity) OR if it is all a play by Goatboy, based on Matches' inquiries into Leviathan, used to secure his spot in the League of Assassins?
The closing sequence is a great depiction by Burnham of just why Damian is such a dangerous kid. He takes down three thugs guarding the house who never even realize where he is coming from and does so in complete silence. My favorite of these pages are the vertical panels and how they convey the action...just beautiful...second favorite is the CLANG!CLANG!CLANG! emanating from the alarm in that circular fashion. I'm a sucker for awesome usage of sound effects...
That will wrap it up for this installment with Damian fighting dogs, Matches striking matches, and Alfred unconscious in the Batcave. The threat of Leviathan looms strong over Gotham but contrary to the next issue blurb, the next issue will not "enter the kill box" but rather it will be a flashback to the beginnings of Batman Inc with DC's Zero Month. See issue #3 got delayed because of its content and shipping proximity to the Dark Knight Rises theater shooting which then pushed everything else back so instead of it being #3, #4, and then #0 it ended up being #3, #0, and then #4.
