Ye gods. Ok folks. I love the fucking god-damn Batman. There's no other way to put it. I grew up right when Burton hit it big and the stellar animated series came out. Hell I even watched the old Adam West show before TAS existed. I loved it. Me and the Dark Knight have always had a great relationship. Rarely have I been disappointed in my consumption of all things bat-related (to borrow an old bit? BAT NIPPLES? BAT.....NIPPLES!). If I posted commenting on all things Batman, we'd be here until 2014.
So, as I mentioned in my Adventure Time post, I used to frequent an image board for comics and cartoons. They helped me discover the world of digital comics and how much easier (and cheaper) they were. I started pulling stuff from my past that I remembered loving. ,Spider-Man, X-Men, the stuff I remember being so excited on the occasions I held an actual comic book in my hand during my childhood (Maybe 4-6 times a year tops). I had a few ultra gritty 80's batman comics in my tattered collection but I decided to see what I had missed over the years. With the Arkham and Lego games being fantastic fun and the success of the Nolan Bat-verse, I was hoping the comics would not fail me. I feel guilty posting some random picture of a kid but http://lmgtfy.com/?q=excited+batman# then look at the first image of the kid in the Batman suit. Thats how I felt.
I found an image breaking down the great Bat-stories. The mythos in the DC universe is a little muddy due to the telling of Batman's first year coming out a good 60 years after the first Batman comic. Or Batman's final ride coming out in the 80's. Where the hell should you start? I found a handy dandy image for this very purpose! I am now sharing it with you!
If you want a crash course in everything that matters with Batman, start that list. Now. Stop reading my blog. Go.
Just kidding. Most of the big "events" in comics I read had been Marvel and they never handled them well. Heroes that had nothing to do with whatever crisis was happening were wedged in just so they could have a tie-in issue. These Batman events? That wasn't the case. The characters all served a purpose when involved. Often major characters aren't seen at all. Sometimes, the story arc spanned real time (The Long Halloween) or several years. You don't just read the event, you follow behind Batman on his slow quest to rid Gotham of the scum of the Earth. Some there's not really even an enemy to defeat. This list is every brilliant Batman Story written in the past 30 years. Quickly, the highlights of this list for me were Long Halloween, Killing Joke, Knightfall, Cataclysm, No Man's Land (Best, event, ever), Hush, and War Games. But we're not here to talk about that. We're here to talk about the last bit there. "Everything from Infinite Crisis on." There's a well known Scottish writer with a decent rep in the business. Here he is.
Grant Morrison. Like the Arkham games? Thank this guy, he wrote the comic the original was based on.
Most authors who get ahold of an iconic character like Batman will try to leave a mark. A big earth-shattering change in our hero. Well Morrison went one step further. He took the entirety of the Bat-verse and fucked it.
Ok I didn't mean like that.
Morrison's grand idea was to take the bat-shit (pun intended) insane stories from the 30's, 40's, and 50's and incorporate them into the modern, gritty Batman. And holy shit was it ever confusing.
This is the image I had to use to guide me reading this insanity. I needed a fucking chart for comic books.
My God. Without putting in spoilers or anything, the journey is absolutely insane. It's taken me almost 2 years to get through all of it and I've finally pretty much finished it up this week.
As a guy who loves Batman and the multi-year epics only his universe can pull off, I say with complete disappointment: it doesn't work.
Are there things to like about the arc? Sure. There's some awesome stuff with Dick Grayson and Bruce's lovechild Damian. The entire persona and Gotham's response to Batman changes while Dick is under the cowl. Even the side-story "Battle for The Cowl" (Morrison didn't write it) I thought was great. The wrap up of Batman Incorporated with the idea of a company that protects the globe from villainy funded by Bruce Wayne. But Morrison's Bat-Opus has a fundamental flaw.
Go ahead. Find a Batman fan. It won't take long. Ask them why Batman is their favorite character. 99.9% of them will say "because he's a regular guy." He's not a super-powered alien. He doesn't have the ultimate weapon attached to his ring finger. He isn't a mutation or an anomaly from an accident. He's a rich guy who had a tragic event in his childhood that made him vow to never allow that to happen to anyone, ever. The fatal blow for Morrison's Bat-epic is it takes away Bruce Wayne's best traits, his mortality and humanity. There's a running gag on the internet about how Batman defeats every opponent through the magic of prep-time. Morrison takes that to the highest level it can go, transforming him into a practically timeless, God-like figure rather than the shattered little boy trying to get over his parents death.
So Is the Bat-epic worth reading? Sure. It's a new take on the effect of Batman and his city and incorporates some elements from so long ago you'd have to double my age to hit the years it was published which shows an insane amount of dedication. But is it something I'm going to bring up and tell everyone "YOU HAVE TO READ THAT!" when I hear they're a batman fan? Not at all. Needlessly complicated can easily be confused for good in our culture and I think that's the best way to put this. While the arc has some good elements and interesting ideas, its too convoluted and strips away the basic tenet of Batman that makes him an iconic character.
So I ask.
Why is this arc still running after 7+ years?
I'm Batman
-Oz
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