Batman: The Grant Morrison Odyssey Round Two

So I closed off last time (Part One) with the infamous Batman #666 issue that gave us a peek into the future of Damian Wayne and Gotham City, as well as introducing several characters that would rear their heads down the line during Morrison's "Batman & Robin" tenure. That's still quite aways down the line though...the immediate future brings something terrifying in the impending return of one of Batman's greatest foes, and one of my top 5 favorites in large part due to B:TAS, Ra's Al Ghul.  But before that, we get our first taste of The Black Glove and our first modern-day look at The Club of Heroes/Batmen of All Nations. 

See, in continuation with Grant's desire to make everything that has happened in Bruce Wayne's life actually be in-continuity, he brought back a storyline from the 1950's in which heroes inspired by Batman form a group, organized by a John Mayhew, and are called the Batmen of All  Nations, later referred to as The International Club of Heroes.  It doesn't seem like they existed much beyond that in the original timeframe, and Morrison's use of them here is certainly their first apperance (aside from Knight & Squire) in the modern age. 

That bring us to "The Black Glove" Hardcover, or at least the first part of it.  See the actual Club Of Heroes arc runs through Batman #667-669 in this HC, then we jump over to the "Resurrection" HC for #670 & 671, then we bounce back to "The Black Glove" HC for #672-675.  If only I had remembered this on my read-thru than I could have read it in issue-order but the ways in which the material is collected is much more...thematically...appropriate.

So the Club of Heroes...beautifully illustrated by JH Williams III...is where we get our first real taste of the mysterious entity known as The Black Glove, but it seems plausible that this may be a larger evil...something more.  I also don't find it coincidental that The Black Glove concept was introduced so close to The Black Casebook one....

Man that is some beautiful artwork, with the black background dissolving into a swarm of bats, and this zoom-out effect from the first panel to the last, but they aren't so much panels as all one larger image. I am perpetually amazed by the work Williams does....

As for the story itself, that first page up there dumps you straight into the story of The Black Glove organization, as illustrated by a black glove and, the theme returns, the red & black color pattern of a roulette wheel.  Who is the man hanging upside down? Who is the one wielding the knife?  Well it looks like we have ourselves a classic Batman mystery to solve!

It is a testament to the graps Morrison has on the meat of his characters when we are first introduced to them.  The Knight is the first member of the Club we run into, appropos since he is the only one potentially familiar to the readers, and he immediately lays the background out as he fills Batman in on what he's missed.  The Club apparently crashed and burned at only their second meeting, a meeting Bats didn't even bother to show up to. We also get our first mention of John Mayhew, verifying that he was still the motivating factor behind The Club uniting originally.  The Musketeer, El Gaucho, Man-of-Bats, and The Legionary are the next batch we meet and they could not be more different from one another, let alone Batman.  Musketeer is a loud-mouth braggart telling the tales of his story as only Man-of-Bats seems to be paying the least bit of attention. Legionary is busy stuffing his face with food, already quite a fat man, while Gaucho kind of fades into the background, silent, staring at The Musketeer's antics.

Meanwhile Batman, Robin, and The Knight walk through a hallway that essentially tells us some very important information about Jonathan Mayhew, including a film he apparently made called "The Black Glove", whose poster features a black hand, not unlike the one that opened this saga, dripping in blood.  Multiple wives, a mega-rich daredevil, money to spend on buying his own superhero team, and Knight stating that everyone was in awe of Bats so "No wonder it lasted all of half an hour".

When we return to The Club we meet Raven Red, the son/sidekick of Man-of-Bats, and we also learn that Man-of-Bats may have some drinking issues.  There's a techy looking Batman-esque guy whose name we don't initially get, and another individual, an Australian man, named Dark Ranger, who apparently had another name previously, but the other members...or at least Tech-Bats...can't be bothered to remember his name. 

Morrison bounces back to the other group, bringing The Squire officially into the picture now as she meets Robin for the first time, while Knight makes some astute observations that "I'm sure the sly old bugger's watching us." in reference to Mayhew and that "I can feel eyes everywhere."  Little do we know at this point how prescient his comments are...

Back to the Club, where you can almost feel the meeting between the two groups creeping up on you, and we get a quick backstory on Dark Ranger, and find out that Tech-Bats is named Wingman and he claims that he "...actually came up with the Wingman crimefighting concept about a year before Batman. A whole year. Possibly more."  They argue about whether or not Gaucho heard Batman's plane land, if they are playing Rugby or not, if Gaucho is an exaggerator, and they all toot their own horns as to their success and capabilities, the whole thing screaming of insecurity.  Then the shadow of the Bat falls on the door and everything changes...

Not only does the mood of the room change, but Williams art changes...gone are the 6 panel pages that have told the story since Batman & Robin landed on Mayhew's island, replaced by a less restrictive format, and even that quickly dissolves into chaos as The Club is subjected to a video of a man claiming to be wearing the skin off the face of John Mayhew who then informs them all that The Black Glove is now pointing at them.  The man stands in front of a very distinctive painting and then we see this:

Another amazing example of how Williams uses the art to tell the story just as much as the dialogue does.  The Black Hand blows the Batplane up, a mystery man murderes Legionary a la Julius Ceaser, and then, as this first chapter ends, The Black Hand envelopes Batman... "Advantage: Evil"

I feel like I'm using more art examples than normal with "The Club of Heroes" arc, but JH Williams art tells so much of that story it is hard not to.  Even the cover of Chapter Two demands to be showcased for the simple, yet highly effective, image it presents that sums up what is inside the book you hold:

Batman trapped inside a warped mansion, a noose in the lower level window, and the black glove reaching up to take him...beauty, a friend of mine even got this done as a great tattoo that I wish I had a picture of saved on my PC to show you.  The art even changes depending on the subject matter.  When Grant's script requires a look at the 2nd meeting of The Club they didn't survive, the art harkens back to an older time...the page borders are yellowed and I swear there are lingering bits of art behind the main panels, perhaps the remanants of the original Club story from the 50's? Who knows...but it's an abrupt change from that look to the bloody corpse of Legionary as Batman examines it, with the art only showing the reds of the scene, the rest in shades of grey. 

What's really interesting about the characterization of The Club is how quickly they fall apart as soon as Batman walks out of the room.  Dark Ranger is all take charge in front of Batman, but as soon as Bats is around the corner, Wingman's insecurities take over, Raven Red gets uber-defensive of his father while simultaneously being treated like a kid by Wingman; only Ranger, and to a degree Gaucho, seem to be keeping their heads about them. 

I can't stop referencing the way the art shifts depending on the subjects it's depicting.  When Batman heads off apart from the rest of The Club the art breaks from a 6-panel structure into a sort of randomness, a lack of structure, for example:

Apart from the art, what is really great about these scenes is getting the opportunity to see the detective-side of "The World's Greatest Detective" as he analyzes every detail to lead him to Mayhew's killer who they believe to still be in the house.  Batman knows there is something that the rest of The Club isn't telling  him about their last meeting, something we got just a hint of at the beginning of this chapter.  Just as we are beginning to get somewhere with this mystery, despite Legionary's death and now The Squire being forced to swallow a bomb like his father before him was by a villian named Springheeled Jack, the stakes are raised as the house comes to life...

Armored suits begin firing bullets at Bats, Robin, Squire, and the crew, seperating the younger "sidekicks" from the group, and giving Robin an opportunity to show just how adept he is on his own at the detective work while dropping the line that Batman said Squire was pretty good.  As for the elders, they began to theorize on these deaths, leaving Musketter to reference his old adversary Pierrot Lunaire, for Gaucho to stab a blue robot scorpion that is apparently the calling card of Scorpiana, and we learn of a man named El Sombrero who specializes in "fantastic, artistic death traps."

But leave it to Musketeer, the man who seemed to care less in the beginning of this tale, to put it out there that Mayhew...having failed at his club of heroes...could be making a go with a club of villains.  Oh yes, and Wingman dies...horribly, burnt alive it seems, but again in a beautiful piece of art depicting his smoldering skull inside the outline of a black hand.  And the kicker, the mystery voices statement that "We have your children. Advantage--evil." to which Batman actually smiles and retorts with "I don't think so".  It's a moment, one panel, but it is testament to the amount of faith Batman has in the abilities of both Robin & Squire.

That's the cover for the third chapter of this story and I love it because it symbolizes a unity that heretofore hasn't really existed in The Club, but it still obviously has Batman at the forefront. 

We get a flashback to that second meeting of The Club once again, filling in more of the blanks as the original Knight accuses Mayhew of killing "her", with the cut to present day having the current Knight explaining how his father never got the evidence he needed. My assumption is that the "her" in question is likely The Knight's mother.  This sequence, as Man-of-Bats attempts to remove the bomb from Knight, also serves to illustrate the inherent distrust The Club has for one another...that Morrison has managed to instill in the reader as well...as Musketeer walks in on Man-of-Bats performing surgery, suspecting that a murder is being committed, only to find the truth after being knocked on his arse.

Just another great example of JH Williams III art in a three issue arc full of them...but it's also in this panel we are given the name of another villain, King Kraken, whose weapon of choice is a high voltage electrical rifle that fried Wingman.  We meet El Sombrero for the first time as he has Robin, Squire, and Raven Red in an elaborate deathtrap and Batman pulls the curtain aside to reveal who he believes is the man behind it all, someone from The Club, Dark Ranger.  Although it's not Ranger, a moment Bats reveals in a very classic fashion.  Throw something at the man in question and see what hand he catches with....Ranger is left-handed, but this Ranger caught with his right.  It ain't The Ranger...it's Wingman!  The observational skills of Bats are on full display as he notices that Wingman's plane was dry despite the storm raging outside, and the exploding plane was a fake.  The motivation is simple for Wingman, jealousy and revenge, blame for his lack of success & the failure of The Club laid on the shoulders of Batman & The Knight.

In the midst of this fight, we also learn the identity of the "her" The Original Knight was referencing when he attacked Mayhew at that 2nd meeting; it was in fact his 5th wife, one he suspected of having an affair with a Mangrove Pierce (whose name was on that Black Glove film poster), and Pierce was falsely jailed for her death.  And in the process of this revelation, Ranger eats a bullet in the forehead, we discover that El Sombrero is in fact John Mayhew, and that "The Black Glove is closing around Batman".  Why did Mayhew do all this? Boredom essentially, and a level of disdain for Batman "killing" The Club with his disdain.  At the dawn of this arc, Batman posed a question to Robin, "What do eccentric men who have everything do when they get bored?" and Mayhew is one answer to that question.  I suppose Bruce Wayne/Batman would be another answer to the query.  In many ways, Mayhew is a skewed version of Bruce in that he is rich, he has done everything there is to do, and now looks for extreme ways to find his amusement.

I think that's my favorite spread from this entire arc as The Black Glove reaches down from above into the lives of everyone, but primarily to close around Mayhew as "In today's contest between good and evil, you gambled on evil...you lost.", followed by a massive explosion that decimates his island, which has a creepy skull on it btw (look at the second to last panel on the right), as Batman, Robin, & the surviving members of The Club make their departure from the flaming ruins of the island.

So in the big picture of Grant Morrison's arc "The Club of Heroes" has introduced us to The Black Glove, brought a group of allies into Batman's fold, introduced (at least in name) a plethora of other villians, and laid out the mystery of just what the Glove has planned for Batman.  Was this a one-time affair, or the start of something bigger as alluded to by Mayhew before his death? Before any of those questions can be answered though we enter into the only crossover of Morrison's Batman run..."The Resurrection of Ra's Al Ghul"!

Man, Simone Bianchi did some awesome cover work on Detective Comics during "The

Resurrection of Ra's Al Ghul" arc...

Now before I get started discussing "Resurrection", a little quick backstory: Ra's was killed by his daughter Nyssa, and his body cremated with Batman's overseeing the process, also let me point out that this was a major crossover between the Batman, Detective Comics, Robin, and Nightwing books and as such was written by 5 different authors and the art handled by numerous individuals, including Tony S. Daniel, who is a major part of the Bat-Verse now but at the time was serving as penciller on Morrison's book. 

This event  ran over two annuals and eight regular isssues, with a epilogue going down in 'Tec that is not included in this Hardcover collection.  In many ways this story feels liks an interuption of Morrison's larger tale, but I am covering this because he wrote two of the chapters and I feel like certain aspects of it do play into the larger story Grant was telling at the time.  The importance of Damian looms large in this chapter as we learn his entire existence is simply to serve as a vessel for the soul of Ra's Al Ghul in the instance that his body has died. 

The opening chapter of the book, pulled from Batman Annual 26, is an intriguing look into the history of Ra's as he developed into the person fans are familiar with today.  The second chapter from Robin Annual 7 gives us a more intimate look at Damian as he fights the ghosts of his unconscious and we first get a glimpse at the green robed, bandaged wrapped individual that will frame this entire story arc.  Then we get to Grant's first chapter of the story from Batman #670 as well as Tony Daniel's first work on "Batman", and a few elements brought into this story persisted into Daniel's run as writer, in particular the introduction of I-Ching, a blind man who apparently  has the ability to see the future to a degree.

It is in Batman's initial interaction with I-Ching that I now see some indication of the path that lies ahead, primarily in the following lines from the old man, "The superior man thinks of evil that will come and guards against it." & "Your path ahead is strewn with thorns and doubts.".  The former statment seems quite indicitive of the entire way Grant has written Bats be it in JLA or here in his own book, Morrison's Batman is always prepared for eventualities that haven't even happened yet.  The second makes me think a little of Mayhew's lines about the Black Glove closing in on Batman, but more about his increasing-fixation on The Black Casebook as seen in the closing chapters of "Batman & Son". 

Morrison introduces a trio of female villains working at the behest of a returning Talia & The League of Assassins. Actually I suppose I should say re-introduces as a quick bit of research reveals to me that Dragonfly, Silken Spider, and Tiger Moth were actually introduced a million years back in Batman #181, apparently also the 1st Poison Ivy:

Another of Grant's throwbacks to the olden days of the Bat-verse.  Anywho, the two other main themes in this Grant-penned chapter that I find of revelance to the larger epic are the idea of resurrection, of "...the survival of the mind beyond the death of the body." as I-Ching states it, and the other prominent moment being the total defiance of Damian in the face of the mummy that is apparently Ra's.  It's not just defiance though, it's the belief that his father will "...break you into little piece when I tell him you're back".  There is something more to Damian, something that makes him feel his father will save him from Ra's goal of co-opting Damian's body.  Interesting considering that Damian disappeared with this mother at the close of "Bats & Son" but you get the feeling that was more Talia's call than his.  Grant's portion ends with Damian busting loose....

...and the story picks up with Damian in the Batcave where he goes at it with Tim Drake once more, flings about more insults towards Tim's parent-issues, and generally makes me understand why he was such a despised character at this point in time.  I think part of that was intentional, and part of it was writer's not really knowing HOW to write Damian.  Grant got it, obviously since he created the little guy, but I don't think anyone else did until Peter Tomasi.  Anyway, there's some decent character interaction, especially when Nightwing gets into the picture and we have three "generations" of Bruce's kids all united, and a strong attempt at creating an underlying story of family in the process.  But the story as a whole suffers from so much inconsistent artwork, not to mention characterization where Damian is concerned.  I would never see the kid crying to Alfred at this point about the mean old man stealing his body, but that's just how he's written in one chapter and then in the next he's admitting mistakes and thanking Robin.  Nope, that is definitely not the Damian that we have got to know in "Bats & Son".  As for the art, well let's just say that in one chapter, Ra's is a barely standing husk with no hair and barely recognizable as human.  Then in the next chapter he just looks like the usual depiction of Ra's with a skin condition.  His rotting body grew hair and transfigured to take on Ra's bone structure as well....blargh. Just look at that second panel....

There is some interesting stuff dropped into the story I must admit.  The internal struggle of Tm at the prospect of resurrecting his friends & family, but I feel like it is territory we've been over with Tim previously.  The introduction of the Suit of Sorrows, an armor that Talia gives to Batman, proves to have long-lasting repercussions for Michael Lane, the future-Azrael, and the legendary land of Nanda Parbat comes into play...the very place where Bruce underwent some hardcore meditation rituals in the weekly "52" maxi-series that was partially written by Morrison as well.  Even in a mega-crossover event like this, Grant is still managing to make links to his overreaching story.  Another downside as we get back to Morrison's next chapter in this saga though, is the continued inconsistency of Ra's Al Ghul's depiction.  He goes from looking like he does in the above picture to looking like this:

It's just laziness and sloppiness from book to book and is really, really noticable in this collected form. I remember being annoyed by it in the monthly format, but like this, it is just inexcusable.  This Grant-written chapter doesn't seem to offer much more to the larger tale, save keeping the Al Ghul family involved in Bats life, but we do get some more father-son drama as we discover Sensei is Ra's father, also kept alive for centuries.  At least it ends with a cool visual:

So let's wrap up the rest of this hum-drum arc as quickly as possible. Ra's goes from being in the body of a balding monk to being in a body that looks identical to his own to possessing the body of White Ghost who, it turns out, is his son, making him biologically compatible to house Ra's spirit without killing the body.  Nightwing & Robin fight...Nanda Parbat falls apart...everyone escapes in tact...the Wayne Family makes a Christmas toast to family, and this blase story comes to a merciful end.  I remember wanting to like this so bad when it was initially published but I couldn't find that, and re-reading it now, I can truly see why I was not digging it then or now for that matter.  It just feels shoe-horned into the saga that Morrison was in the middle of writing, the art was medicore across the board (save for maybe Don Kramer's Nightwing issues), and characterizations were just inconsistent for several characters.  It didn't feel as epic as the return of Ra's should have and given the fact that Damian was wholely unlikeable at this point in time, there wasn't much sympathy to be generated from the possibility of Ra's taking over his body.  Hell, I bet a lot of people would have welcomed it if it meant being rid of Damian.  Instead we got this...

That's what Ra's looked like in the end after taking over White Ghost's body....how his spirit taking over the body of another man makes the body TRANSFORM into Ra's is something best left unasked I suppose....the logic of comic books and all that.

Now there are three more issues to be covered before we get to the finale of Chapter One of Morrison's Bat-Saga: "Batman R.I.P" but I don't think I would be doing those issues justice by cramming them in here.  Plus this blog is already long enough...suffice it to say those three issues put the final pieces into play as Bruce Wayne & Batman both crash head-first into The Black Glove.  The mystery of "Space Medicine", "Joe Chill in Hell", and "The Fiend With Nine Eyes" will all be discussed in the next installment of Batman: The Grant Morrison Odyssey, and if I don't ramble too long there, I will finally get into "Batman: R.I.P"....

Batman: The Grant Morrison Odyssey Part The First

For months, longer actually, essentially as long as I have been writing this blog I have wanted to sit down and re-read Grant Morrison's Batman epic...narrative...saga, whatever your noun of choice may be, and take a look at how it all links together one Hardcover chapter at a time.  First I figured I would just take it from the starting point contained within the above book and run it through to "Batman: RIP".  Then that changed to waiting until Grant's run on "Batman & Robin" was completed, which thus gave way to waiting for "Batman Inc." to wrap up its tale. 

Now given that I will likely be waiting until the end of time for this "Leviathan" story to actually come to a close, assumptions based solely on the asinine delays in getting the last two issues of "Batman Inc." released, combined with the simple fact that the old DC is "dead" in large part, and that the initial phase of "Leviathan" wrapped with the recently released "Leviathan Strikes" book, I have decided that this is my cue.  It is finally time to sit-down and peruse these tomes once again and follow the white rabbit from issue to issue to see how Bruce & his Bat-family go to where they were when Grant's story closed in "Strikes".  I did this as a play-by-play via twitter while I was reading, which kind of gave me some bullet points, this is the long form version.

So to quote what was apparently the most annoying movie quote text alert sound in history (based on the audience approval of friends & family), "Here we go..."

One Batman shooting Joker in the face while another swoops in from overhead just moments after Jim Gordon has been tossed off a rooftop, his face contorted in the stylized smile of The Joker, while "a bunch of  vulnerable, disabled kids" look while the Bat-signal sits there cracked, and the clown prince of crime has apparently killed Batman with an all-too familiar weapon of choice: a crowbar. All that goes down in the span of only 5 pages...welcome to the world of Batman as seen through the eyes of Grant Morrison and brought to life by Andy Kubert, Jesse Delperdang, and more.  This world, as the story unfolds over the course of several years, turns out to be an intertwining, crazy ride where even the most minute of details could have later meaning or significance.  For example:

It seems so trivial, that the spray paint covering the walls, and it would likely be so in the hands of most other writers.  Spray paint in comics has a tendency towards inside jokes, shout outs to other creators, or tags for in-story gangs, but in this case with "Zur en arrh" it is none of the above. It is seemingly gibberish, but when you look closely at just the page above, as well as the proceeding one, you will notice that it is gibberish that is everywhere.  Be it a wall or the dumpster in which Bats throws The Joker's body, look and you will see "Zur en arrh" in 3 out of the 6 panels that make up these 2 pages. Is there meaning it?  Time will tell...

I'm not looking to do a page-by-page here but there are moments on most of them that are worth mentioning, whether be overarching importance, or simply something...simple...that I appreciate.  The hospital scene between Bats & Gordon that follows the Joker encounter is interesting to me for two main reasons, the first being Jim asking "What do you do now, Batman?" in reference to his locking up essentially every major criminal in Gotham save Two-Face, and the second being that as Gordon references Harvey Dent, his face (well recovering from the Joker toxin) actually LOOKS like Two-Face!

Alfred encouraging Bruce to go out and BE Bruce Wayne is great because it had been awhile prior to this, maybe since the "Murderer/Fugitive" debacle (fuzzy memory), that this issue had been addressed. It's a constant pull; this dual identity, which is the reality and which the fiction, so I always appreciate when it gets injected into the storyline.  Also, it is a rarity in ANY comics that the actual sound of a character's voice is every mentioned (if they're gruff, whiny, baritone, etc) so as a result I actually appreciate Alfred referencing the growl of Batman's voice...and how it has essentially become Bruce's voice as well.  There's also moments such as the once below that seem rather innocent, pointless even, but if I learned anything from film classes, and from reading Morrison as much as I do, it is that very little of what sees print is meaningless or accidental.

The work Alfred puts into actually teaching Bruce how to be Bruce Wayne again is endearing, showcasing the familial relationship between the two that, although we know it exists, it is something that should be refreshed every so often, and it helps to demonstrate that Mr. Pennyworth is much more than just a butler. 

Always been a fan of Man-Bat due to the animated series so great to see the Langstrom's brought into play, especially seeing Kirk as the genius scientist he actually is instead of just as the mindless beast. The art show charity function is amazingly drawn, colored, and lettered with great little touches such as a painting of a crying woman saying "I'm in love." hanging over Bruce's head while he hits on three women simultaneously.  And then the big close of chapter one, the first step of the big reveal, a young child in shadow pointing at a monitor with the face of Bruce Wayne on it and saying the words, "That's my father." with Talia Al Ghul's hand on his shoulders, and a legion of Ninja Man-Bats hanging over their heads! WTF?!?!?

And that's how we kick off part two of this arc, introducing a woman who would have a grand effect on the lives of Bruce Wayne & Batman: Jezebel Jet.  Jet's appearance is so brief that you wouldn't expect it to carry much weight, but there is something in the way she departs, telling Bruce "Don't worry. I know where you live." that carries sinister barring in retrospect. Now back to the balloons! 

That word balloon floating over her head reading "WOW!" is exactly what I was talking about with the way the art of the exhibit is intertwined into the action playing out before us.  It's a grand way to make your "background" something more, something alive if you will, and it plays throughout the entire fight with the Ninja Man-Bats. A painting reading "Yikes!" as they crash through the ceiling, another screaming "Ouch!" as Bats punches a Ninja-Bat in the face, a giant "BLAM!" on another as Batman fires a grappling line, and an Andy Warhol style Wonder Woman painting watching the fight unravel...I'm just amazed at the use of background to tell a story in this chapter.  The numbers overcome Bats, he wakes up a hostage for Talia & her Ninja-Bat army, and we get a little insight into what this all about...a little tryst she & Bats had in the desert back in the (until this very moment) non-canon "Son of the Demon" story:

Bringing the non-canon into active continuity....interesting, and it also brings us to our first look at a character who may have ranked amongst the most hated in all of comics for his first few years: the appropriately named Damian Wayne:

The next chapter revolves around Damian's introduction to Alfred, Tim Drake, and the Wayne Manor and to say it does not go well would be an understatement.  This chapter also makes it very easy to understand why Damian was so easy to hate in his early days...he's a little prick, a child raised with no restraint, taught to murder, and told he would one day rule the world.  Of course he's a total bastard!
What's really intriguing for me about this issue is that, aside from maybe 5 pages, the whole of the story takes place in the mansion, the exception being a brief couple page scene where Bats leaves Damian locked in his room to go stop some criminals only to find one of them beheaded.  Prior to that little fight though I appreciate the Bruce-Damian-Tim interactions; how Bruce seems to be handling Damian they way he likely remembers his father coping with him if/when Bruce acted out. It doesn't work, what does seem to work is Bruce talking at him like a drill seargent/sensei handing an unruly solider/student.  Damian is also plays Tim Drake perfectly, where Tim approaches him like a normal child, severely underestimating the kid, while Damian comes at Tim with aggression and intolerance, provoking a fight by unveiling a severed head in a bag, calling Tim a surrogate son, and mocking him for being adopted.  Oh yeah, and then Damian steals a Robin wardrobe and meets Dad on the rooftops, closing this chapter with the following image:

The image of a beaten Tim isn't what's important to me here, it's the case sitting to the left of his unconscious body.  I may be wrong, and I may be reading into things, but that certainly looks like a certain Bat-inspired Thomas Wayne costume that rears its head later in Morrison's tales.

The last chapter of "Batman & Son" is the big, bad fight against Talia & her legion of Man-Bats but reading it closer, I realized there's a lot more going on than that.  This is the chapter that actually sets the stage for Leviathan several years later and it is so inoccuous that the only way to notice is to have read that "Batman Inc" story and then go back to this one.  This chapter also offers great insight into the relationship between Talia and her son, as well as Bruce & Damian.  There are moments of child-like behavior in Damian during the all-too brief period before the arrive at Gibraltar, like the way Kubert draws Damian's face as he tell's Bruce where his mom is hiding out at.  It screams of a desperate desire for his father to approve, particularly when combined with the "See? I can be useful!" proclamation Damian makes as he tells his father.  The smile as he takes off in a rocket with his father, the brief banter during their flight from the Manor to Gibraltar, even his "Do I have to choose? I would much rather we were all togther." line in the closing pages offers some insight into where Damian's head is truly at, and shows some layers beyond the spoiled brat of a child.  There is obviously more to the Damian story than this, and reading closely I can see the foundation of Leviathan being laid out by Talia in the two panels on page 101 where Talia states "Then it's war. And you're responsible...For people like us, the world is the gameboard, and nations are pawns."

Then they all go boom...and it's time for the strangest single issue of a Batman book I have ever read: "The Clown At Midnight"

This is not a comic book, not in any traditional sense of the style, rather it is a prose-piece with some art that is so intricate and gorgeously rendered that it blew my mind.  I think I read this book three time on the day it was first released, in part to truly grasp just what the hell was going on, and in part to take in all the little details worked into the pages.  There are not traditional comic book panels, no flow of words and art necessarily, but some powerful images nonetheless.  One thing I had never noticed before until my re-read of the HC collection is how the actual background contain images all their own, images that simply look like fog but are in truth the faces of mad clowns looming over as the Batmobile enters Arkam Asylum grounds,  as well as in the "Her Special Day" and "Nirvikalpa Samadhi" chapters, and there is text in the background of the "Joker Unbound" chapter, right below the image of The Joker spitting venom into the guard's face, but it's text that I cannot make out for the life of me.  The detail in the images, both prominent and those hidden, is excellent but detail isn't reserved for simply the art. 

The prose scripted by Morrison borders on Hawthorne levels of description in some instances but it gives a life to Gotham City in "The Knight and the City" chapter and gives depth to Solomon & Sheba in their respective chapters that they obviously never had when first introduce (and summarily forgotten about) in "The Killing Joke". In fact, that is a facet of Morrison's work in the Bat-books thus far that is often overlooked.  He manages to give personality, life, to characters that otherwise have none.  The bats in the Batcave in "Batman & Son" are given some identity in their food preferences, the usually faceless & nameless cronies of The Joker are given a sense of self in the "Putting Bozzo to bed" chapter of this story, as are the security guards of Arkham Asylum in those sections.  Even The Joker is given an identity via Morrison, a "superpersona" that explains the constant variations on his character over the years, again showcasing Grant's desire to make everything that has ever happened in the world of Batman be logical and to have some meaning. 

My favorite two scenes in this story are the initial Harley scene in "The Checkerboard Doll" chapter in which the following dialogue takes place:
 "You tried to kill him! You shot him," she works out.
"I didn't shoot him," the Batman is telling her."That was someone else."
"Batman shot him!" her voice is becoming shrill, agitated, and distracted. "And you're Batman, aren't you? Dressed up like that?" Her gaze zigzags around the room as her muscles shift under her costume, making the checkerboard ripple.
"I don't use a gun, Harley." Batman says. She seems to return from a dream and focuses on him with a bellowing snarl. "YOU USED A GUN ON HIM!"
"That wasn't me," he says again, hut he's wasting his time and Sheba's time.
"So now you're NOT Batman?" She can hardly believe his audacity.
"Of course I am."
"ARE YOU TRYING TO SAY I'M MAD?"

Identity, Batman versus Bruce Wayne, there's only one Batman....all of these things come into play during that brief dialogue. My other favorite moment is the description of The Joker's "change" that is laid out in the "Joker Unbound" chapter.  His body physically changing, his voice cracking, his brain racing as his newest persona takes hold and we finally get the unveiling of this:

The Thin White Duke of Death, The Clown At Midnight, just two of the names that have been bandied about to label this itteration of The Joker and both are apt.  In addition to this unveiling, the pieces of the puzzle truly come together when Harley Quinn gets to Arkham.  This whole story has been about The Joker eliminating any connections to his previous personas, hence killing off the clowns at the funeral and going after Sheba as well, and now it is Harley's turn to die at the stroke of midnight right in front of the Bat, and she was going to let him...

This whole sequence almost makes you feel bad for Harley, although she is the one to put the bullet in The Joker's shoulder that stops him from leaving Arkham before midnight as she utters the words, "Don'tcha love me no more?" and wipes a tear from her eye.

In addition to being a very ambitious and daring story for a mainstream comic, this story also introduced several plot points, themes, & motifs that would prove to play out over the long haul of Morrison's Bat-Story including the red & black motif, the new Joker juice variation, Joker's desire for Batman to finally get the joke, and this quote, "Life and death. The joke and the punchline." which I am pretty makes a reapperance in the DCU #0 issue, but I'll have to wait until I hit "Batman RIP" again to be certain.

And that brings us to the final three issues of this volume, two that are tied together, and one that is distinctly seperate from everything that comes before yet, yet intimately tied to everything that the future will bring.  We start with Grant taking a dip into the ocean of history once more in "Three Ghosts of Batman", but before we delve into that, it is the return of Jezebel Jet as Bruce parachutes onto a mountain top to meet her skiing, "accidentally" causes a helicopter to crash, and then hits the town for dinner with his newest prospect. 

We hit the streets of Gotham once more with a gaggle of call girls and their pimp trying to deal with the police as someone is killing the girls, someone who turns out to be a cop, but a "Monster on smack" as one of the girls calls him.  Also, as Bats comes crashing back down into his real world of the Gotham City alleyway, you will once more notice a plethora of "Zur en arrh" tags on every wall surrounding him.

The monster cop Bats confronts looks like like Bane in a Bat-uniform, but somehow juiced up even worse, and it harkens back to the man dressed as Batman that began this whole HC, the one that shot Joker, who also happened to be a cop and as Bats puts it "a series of locks open up in my head".  Unfortunately...and unusually...he proves quite distracted, lost in thought about this Black Casebook, leaving Bats open for this:

Battered, beaten, and bloodied, one of the hookers helps Bats to a safehouse where he passes out and dreams of Damian telling him "The third ghost is the worst of them all" only to awaken to find Alfred & Tim caring for him.  What I appreciated most in this scene was Morrison's acknowledgment of fear in Bruce as he flashes back to Bane breaking his back, enhanced by Alfred informing him that the spinal brace in the costume was shattered.  It is rare that Bruce shows fear and it happens once more in these scene as Tim goes off to battle the "ghost" himself, perhaps harkening back to his other primary fear: having another Robin die.

The next scene between Alfred & Bruce finally tells us what The Black Casebook is all about, and also give Morrison a chance to take all the crazy antics that happened to Batman during his life-span and wrap them up in a bow.  All the sci-fi, supernatural, inexpliciable cases chalked up to Joker Toxin & Fear Gas exposure in massive cumulative doses...which leads Bruce into explaining the three versions of himself including one with a gun, a bestial strength enhanced version, and one who sold his soul to the devil & destroyed Gotham.    Obviously we are dealing with the second one...

Combined Bats & Robin beat him, leading to a conversation between Gordon & Bats I find interesting simply for the closing dialogue when Gordon asks, "Why did you have to choose an enemy that's as old as time and bigger than all of us, Batman?" to which he responds, "Same reason as you did, Jim. I figured I could take him. This isn't over."  Doesn't seem like much on its own but in light of the overreaching story arc of good vs. evil, it reads wholely differently than it did years ago.

Also, I find something in the scene of an obviously battered Damian having his organs harvested and replaced.  Whether it is an allusion to a future scene in "Batman & Robin" may entirely be in my own  head, but else is literature if not open to interpretation?

Oh yeah, and Brucie Boy finally opens his heart up to another woman, one not in a cat costume, whilst someone in black gloves holding a pair of binoculars watches them.  End scene, leading to the final part of this collection, issue 666, the future tale known as "Bethlehem":

This is a story set in some future time where Damian is all growed up and has taken on the Mantle of the Bat.  Aside from a quick backstory double-pager, the reader gets tossed right into the thick of it as Damian battles Dollotrons, crucifies Professor Pyg, and then goes home to see his kitty cat Alfred.  Obviously we didn't know this at the time...but this would mark the first apperance of characters that will be a major part of "Batman & Robin" in the years to come.  Damian talks about the last of the three Batman who thinks he's the Anti-Christ, makes reference to his own bargain on the night Batman died, name drops several other villains, and pops pills.  Barbara Gordon, now the Commish, alludes to Damian being responsible for the death of a friend, and then we get introduced to this 3rd Batman who wears a costume that is now all too familiar:

At this point it's a fresh look, but in the months to come it is a visual we will see again, and since it doesn't really crop up again in Grant's run, I want to address the significance of what Damian said about this 3rd Batman.  Damian stated that this Devil-Bats believe he is the Anti-Christ coming to judge Gotham; well as we know now, this costume was worn by Michael Lane until the close of the "Batman: RIP" arc, at which point he aimed to repent, became the new Azrael, and donned the Suit of Sorrows (to be addressed in "Resurrection of Ra's Al Ghul") along with a pair of swords.  Well to make a badly drawn, unimpressive story shorter, Lane went nuts again after finding out he was somehow releated to Jesus Christ and tried to destroy Gotham. Hopefully that is an accurate description, my memory of the book isn't the clearest because it was drivel, and it also appears no one on the internet bothered to chronicle Lane's fate much past him first becoming Azrael either.

I bring that all up wondering if this future Devil-Batman is still Michael Lane, or if what goes down in "Batman & Robin" effectively changes this from ever happening?  What happened in "B&R" you ask? Well you will have to wait until I get there! Manical laugh...manical laugh...manical laugh...

Back to the story itself and in the wrap-up we get a cameo from Flamingo (another "B&R" villain making his true first appearance), a reference to Dick Grayson's time as Batman, and Damian basically telling Devil-Bats that he's a cheater because he's not as good as Dick or Bruce at the role.  Oh yeah, and another reference to some deal Damian made with the Devil, or the son of Satan, when he was 14 to guarantee Gotham's survival.  Curious...and with a snapping of Devil-Bats neck, and nice closing line:

...we get the close of the "Batman & Son" HC collection, and what a ride it has been!  The mystery of "Zur en arrh", the secret behind the 3 Ghosts of Batman, the "new" Joker, Jezebel Jet, Damian's future, and the big question of just when that new Batmobile is going to be ready?!?!  There was a lot of groundwork laid out in this first chapter for the years of material to come. 

Whether it was all planned out in advance, came together as it was being written, or whether Grant retroactively used his past stories to establish a foundation for present work, it all comes together quite nicely.  It amazes me that a simple pair of panels from a story done in 2006 work as foreshadowing for a story hitting print at the end of 2011. 

I am sure there are things in this volume that may not perfectly work in the larger scheme of things, as I am sure that will be the case going forward, but that's what intrigues me in doing this.  Finding the connections, the hidden material I never noticed before, or even making my own bonds from story to story that were never intended but work in my reading of the material. 

Next time out: "The Resurrection of Ra's Al Ghul" & "The Black Glove" collections....

What I've Been Reading...

 Yeah, that's the place I go buy my books in Bensalem, PA...go give them business cause I said so.


Anyway,  after writing a handful of blogs pontificating on whatever randomness crossed my mind I figured I'd write something of a different tone; not quite a review, just a little look at the various books I have read in the last few months.  It has been an assorted lot of things so let's just delve right into it, and I'll do my best not to spoil too much on the way:

So "Zenith" was a UK-based title written by Grant Morrison (I know what a shock) that originally was published in the 2000AD serial over the course of 1987-1992.  When collected it ends up in a 5 volume series that is insanely difficult to track down at a reasonable price.  Seriously, go check out Ebay right now and IF they are even listed (which some are as I write this on 11/18), they are going for $63.00 at starting bid.  I somehow lucked out and managed to pick Book Two off the UK Ebay store for a relatively cheap price...somewhere in the $20 USD price range.

I believe this would be the oldest Morrison story I have ever read, essentially a tale of a highly reluctant superhero/rock star (Zenith) who is the child of other government-created heroes.  Zenith is a rather obnoxious character, little redeeming value, truly only interested in how he can use his powers to further push his musical career to superstar status.  There isn't much likeable about Zenith in Book Two, and knowing what I do about the future progression of this series that doesn't seem to be anything that changes, but what makes it interesting for me as a fan of Grant's is to read a story that is akin to a mission statement.  There are certain themes that permeate his work, certain character types that appear in nearly every work Grant has penned, and this (since it is the oldest of his works I've read) is a birthplace for those.

Zenith seems like an archetype for King Mob ("The Invisibles") or what Ned Slade ("The Filth", more on that next) may have been before the Greg Feely persona was adopted. Hell, he seems like what Grant Morrison may have wished he was at this point given that he has always dabbled in music to varying degrees. In addition to that character, the villains of this tale (The Lloigor or "Many Angled Ones") could just as well be The Outer Church (again "The Invisibles").

Given that I only have the one small part of this story as a reference point, although I have read a detailed write-up of the series in Timothy Callahan's "Grant Morrison The Early Years", I can only assume that the whole of the series serves as template for some of Grant's later work.  I hope I can track down the other four books soon, at a price point that isn't completely insane, or that they finally get collected into one edition and solicited in the United States.  If you're interested in reading more about "Zenith", check out the wiki page here.

Another of the books I recently read was another Grant Morrison creation in "The Filth".  Originally released in 2002, I read 11 of the 13 issues as they were released but somehow managed to miss a few in the middle.  I'd been sitting on the trade since my Wizard World Philly Morrison TPB binge-buy, but finally had the time to read this story as a whole a few weeks ago.  It was certainly worth the wait...

This story feels a culmination of sorts, as if this is the world that could have resulted if The Invisibles had failed, if The Outer Church had accomplished their goals of neutering everyone and taking away individuality.  This is a world of ultimate control and maintaining the status quo. After all the primary goal of The Hand, of which lead character Greg Feely/Ned Slade is an agent, is to keep "Status Q".  This mini, through a series of "adventures" that could very well  have been written by Garth Ennis given their hyper-violent & hyper-sexualized content, throws a barrage of questions at the reader about identity, sexuality, that damnable fourth wall, control, societal norms, and black devil sperm.  It is a mind-fuck in all the right ways and it certainly had me doing some internal investigation as I read.

Want one example of the deconstructive nature of this piece? The Hand is in fact a giant hand, holding a pencil, and there are instances that involve people breaching the fourth wall of a comic (within the comic) and becoming real people in "Filth" world.  If you're a fan of Morrison who has yet to read this, or if you are a fun of any comic book that is, in some ways, a commentary on the medium itself, then "The Filth" is definitely a book for you. Plus Chris Weston's art is awesome, and the design work on the trade covers may be my favorite ever.

If you want to read more about "The Filth" check out the wiki here, and if you've got interesting purchasing it, then go here.  I don't see a dime from Amazon for the reference so don't think this is just an attempt to make money with that link =)

I am unabashedly a fan of Scott Snyder's since the first issue of "Detective Comics" that he penned. I thought he brought a wonderful feel of detective noir, mystery, and horror elements to Dick Grayson's Batman and explored aspects of the then-former Nightwing that were not being explored in the other Bat-Family books.  He gave Dick a personality very distinct from that of Bruce Wayne, rather than the interchangeable one heaped upon him by Tony Daniel in the pages of "Batman" or Paul Dini in "Streets of Gotham" (Side note: Daniel has done a great job on Bruce since the start of the New 52).

Ever since I started reading Snyder's take on Batman, I have wanted to read something more from the first creator I have totally taken to, probably since discovering Grant Morrison, and was intrigued when I was told that not only did he write "American Vampire", but that it was also a great comic.  So when I received the first HC as a birthday gift this year needless to say I was excited.  

A bit of back story on the premise, "American Vampire" is the story of Skinner Sweet, a murderous criminal who just happens to represent the first of an entirely new breed of vampire, born out of the Old West in the late 1800's, hence the title of American Vampire. I won't spoil too much of what that entails, suffice it to say that Sweet stands as proof of evolution existing even amongst the undead as he, and his progeny that we meet...a silent film actress in the 1920's named Pearl Jones...display some decidedly different abilities than those that have come before.  

Snyder and his co-author, the legendary Stephen King, do a masterful job of wrapping two stories around each other as Snyder's tale explores the life of Pearl Jones in the 20's while King takes us back to the Old West to see how Skinner Sweet first became the creature we meet in Pearl's arc.  Despite Sweet's god awful disposition, it is fascinating to go through the exploration process with him & King as he begins to discover the differences between he & his creator, and given the maker's terrible nature, you can't help but root for Sweet a little as he seeks his vengeance.  

Pearl serves as the antithesis of Sweet in so many ways, the character that you want to scream at during a horror movie "Don't go in that room!" because you can see the road ahead that her naivete, as well as her ignorance of such horrible matters, doesn't allow her to see.  You feel for her when her heart is ripped out both literally and metaphorically, and want to cheer along as she becomes much like Sweet in her search for vengeance.  

So enthralled was I by the story presented in Volume 1 that I read it twice during my flight from MI back to PA and each time picked up on just a few more smaller details that opened up the story that much more.  Volume 2 will be a purchase very soon, and would have been already had I not already slotted a giant task in my reading schedule, the task that I am currently engrossed in every evening and will write about later.  But I will be making that Vol. 2 purchase very shortly, as will I also be looking into the other volumes of "American Vampire" and anxiously awaiting the first collection of "Severed", another of Snyder's books that I have yet to pick up.  

If you are interested in reading more on "American Vampire" then the wiki article is here, and if you want to pick up Volume One,  hit up Amazon here.  And if you're a fan of Snyder's work, I would also suggest picking up his contributions to the New DC 52, "Batman" and "Swamp Thing" because both are excellent reads. You would think I planned this Dr. Holland segue....

Work of art...seminal....must-read....those are just a couple buzz phrases that I had seen attached to Alan Moore's run on "Swamp Thing", a run that I have been intrigued to read for quite some time, and was finally able to partake in, at least the first two books, in the last couple months.  This one is something I wish I would have read a long time ago...and it dumbfounds me to think that this type of book was being written in 1984.  

It just so genre-shattering, despite that fact that I have likely read a thousand comics written post-SW that have tried to ape what Moore did here, this is material that still reads as fresh and innovative creeping on 30 years later.  I don't know what Swampy was like prior to Moore, and I don't know much of what followed Moore prior to my reading of "Brightest Day" (although I do recall some Doug Moench/Kelly Jones "Batman" comics with Swamp Thing), but I feel like I am in the midst of reading the definitive take on the character.  This is a book way ahead of its time in every sense of the word, the style in which Moore wrote and the risks he takes with it, the risks taken in the art and the boundaries Stephen Bisette pushed with 80's comic books, this is Vertigo before Vertigo was an official imprint. This is what made it possible for books like Neil Gaiman's "Sandman", Jamie Delano's "Constantine", or Morrison's "Doom Patrol" & "Animal Man" to ever get published in the first place.  There are only a handful of books I feel are must-read's for every comic book fan and most know what those are: "Watchmen", "Dark Knight Returns", & "Crisis on Infinite Earths" are the universal truths, and I would certainly add in "Infinity Gauntlet" for the Marvel Universe, and now...well now I think Alan Moore's "Swamp Thing" would also join that list.

If you want more info on Swamp Thing, and specifically the Alan Moore run, then check out the wiki here, and if you want to pick it up, go to the Amazon store here.

I've have 4 volumes left of Moore's "Swamp Thing" opus to read, 3 of which are currently available with the 6th, and final, HC coming out soon (it may have actually been this week).  Unfortunately I am waiting on a certain someone...coughDUKEcough...to hook me up with his copies to read the rest but it's okay because I have another 6 volume mega-opus to read in the form of...

...James Robinson's "Starman", as I am reading it, is 6 Volumes worth of Omnibuses (I think Omnibi sounds better but spell check doesn't think it's a word) that encompass the entirety of Robinson's Jack Knight epic.  The core series, annuals, Showcase issues, each volume contains the complete story of Jack Knight, Ted Knight, The Shade, and all the assorted characters that make up Robinson's Opal City.  

To further abuse the phrase, to say I was apprehensive about starting this journey would be an understatement. Yes Robinson wrote a Batman story in "Face The Face" that enjoyed and this was an 80+ issue run by a single writer that I had heard nothing but rave reviews about over the years, but this was also the same author who wrote "Cry for Justice" which was one of the worst stories I read in 2010, as well as a JLA run that I gave up on due to boredom and disinterest. 

Still, I had to make myself not look at it through that lens based on what I suppose I could call the "Jeph Loeb Test".  Loeb wrote one of the most god-awful pieces of comic book trash I have ever read in "Ultimates 3" but he's the same guy who wrote "Long Halloween", "Daredevil: Yellow", "Hush", and "Captain America: White"....

....just seeing if your paying attention, that last one never got off the ground after the #0 issue.

Anywho, "Starman" spins out of DC's crisis that wasn't a Crisis, "Zero Hour", after Ted Knight was aged by Extant to roughly his natural age, along with a chunk of other JSA members.  His son David took up the mantle following the event, but this comic is not his story, it's the story of the other Knight son, Jack.  Ain't much of a spoiler at this point to say that David dies pretty much at jump street, forcing Jack to pick up the Cosmic Rod and defend Opal City against the evils that assail it.

Today I started the 3rd Omnibus and I can safely say that I am grateful that this was lent to me.  Thanks Pat!  Robinson is painting a masterpiece with his words, creating an epic all his own out of blank tableau that is Jack Knight.  I don't know the background of the Starman character whatsoever, nor what sort of life had been given to Opal City in the past, but Robinson puts this town on par with Gotham City & Metropolis, the two most distinct fictional cities, in terms of the identity he breathes into the concrete & steel.  Every corner has a story, every alley & shop a history, and the reader is slowly let into these secrets by Jack Knight who seems to know every nook & cranny of Opal City.  When Jack stumbles across something new to him, something unfamiliar, the reader feels almost as unnerved as he does.  How can Jack not know this city?

That life that is put into Opal City with the verbiage is enhanced that much more by Tony Harris' art which is...wonderful, just beautiful but not by standard definition I think.  It's raw and real, light and dark, gritty and pretty all at the same time.  And when Robinson also has the likes of Gene Ha, JH Williams III, Steve Yeowell, and Bret Blevins bringing his words to life, it makes for a throughly engrossing experience.

The blue Starman Mikaal, Solomon Grundy, the original Sandman, obviously the original Starman, have all made appearances so far (this take on Grundy has been awesome I must say), and from the looks of future covers, Batman, Captain Marvel, & the Legion of Super Heroes all appear along the line as well.  Chuck Kim wrote in the foreward to Vol. 3 that Jack Knight could not exist in any world but the one crafted by Robinson, that the outside characters James brings in actually become a part of Jack's world rather than forcing theirs into Opal City, and from what I have seen thus far that is true.  This is a labor of love, the creation of a universe all its own, and anything that enters it truly must confrom to the rules of the Robinson-verse.

One thing I have loved about this book so far, and this is only due to the fact that I'm reading it as an Omnibus, is that every usage of these characters from "Starman" to "Shade" to the old DC "Showcase" books has been penned by Robinson AND I am getting to read them all in the order intended by Robinson.  It's organized in a format where you getting a present day story for an arc, then maybe a flashback "Times Past" that brings to light the history that formed the city of Opal, or a "Talking With David" story that elaborates on the relationship of the brothers Knight while allowing Jack some soul-searching moments & some teases at what's to come.  I cannot wait to see what Vols 3 - 6 bring to the Knight family...

This is another highly recommended run for anyone who hasn't read it yet, and if you have sour thoughts on James Robinson as I did prior to those, trust me when I say to put those aside and give "Starman" a shot, it's damn worth it.  If you want some more info on "Starman" check it out on the wiki here, and you can pick it up on Amazon here.

Oh, and if you're a fan of "Sons of Anarchy", look at these two pictures and tell me you don't see it...