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Subtitled: Why Grant Morrison Is A Mad Scientist Disguised As A Comic Book Writer.

I have a tendency to talk about Batman a lot. It wasn’t something I intended whenever I remade this website into what it is, but I read a lot of Batman comics, so it stands to reason that Batman would be, by extension, a character I write about rather frequently. I’m also a fan of Grant Morrison, which has really only recently been cemented with things like “Final Crisis” and “Batman: R.I.P.”– as enraging to some fans as they may be.

But, then again, there are some fans who will be enraged by anything that isn’t exactly the vision they have in their minds of what the comics/movies/television show should be. I’ve been known to fall victim to that more than once, so I can’t complain too vocally about it without falling into hypocrisy. Also, that’s not what this post is about.

This is about Grant Morrison’s Batman masterpiece, his Bat-masterpiece, “Batman R.I.P.” and the event that has followed it, “Battle for the Cowl”. One of the things I’ve definitely learned, in just trying to properly get information on this event, is that you need to be at least tangentially aware of a number of things that existed within the context of the Silver Age. However, having full knowledge of them isn’t entirely necessary.

The Batman of Zur En Arrh

One of the key points of the entire thing is The Batman of Zur En Arrh, which sounds a lot more interesting than it really is. The “actual” Zur En Arrh is an old comic that took place ages ago where Batman is transported to the planet of that name, and there is a brightly-colored Batman who hangs around and so on. It’s oddly coincidental that there happens to be another Batman on another planet– but Morrison, in the whole Black Glove thing that has been going on for what amounts to a few trade paperbacks, has also resurrected a number of the old Batman-esque heroes that also existed during the time of these things.

Morrison, being Morrison, has taken this interesting idea and manipulated this simple story from the Silver Age into a rather interesting concept. Bruce Wayne has just been attacked by The Black Glove, who have it out for him because that’s what you do, and damaged his brain. Bruce, however, anticipated this sort of thing– that is to say, an attack that might render mentally incapacitated– and underwent various training to give him a backup personality on the chance that such an event like this would take place.

That backup personality is what we see in the Silver Age– The Batman of Zur En Arrh. He never went to a different planet, not really. Stories from the Silver Age had a lot of space travel, and people like Batman have had history altered and this is definitely one of those instances in which history was altered for the better. Batman’s new personality is harsher, and slightly crazy. But that’s amusing in itself.

The Black Glove, The Joker, and The End of Batman

The Joker is also full-on into the new personality that was established within Batman #663, which I’m becoming increasingly torn on if I like it or not (the issue, that is). It’s an interesting book, but I’ll go into that more, later.

While The Batman of Zur En Arrh (because he isn’t Bruce anymore) wanders the streets beating the shit out of people to get information on The Black Glove, the people of The Hand have stormed The Batcave (as they did to actually get Batman) and are holding Alfred hostage as well as people generally overly dramatic weirdos who seem to have nothing better to do than go after Batman.

Also Dr. Hurt claims to be Thomas Wayne, which is kind of odd.

In the end, the people of The Black Glove manage to take control of Arkham Asylum, and use the Asylum to subsequently hold a bet to see if the Joker will kill Batman– as Joker decided to join in on the fun and see just what was going on. Joker and Batman have a conversation that amounts to a lot of meta-talk (“We had a thing going.”) that ends whenever Joker starts to point out that there’s really nothing Batman can do to understand just what goes on in Joker’s mind, no matter how much he wants to.

During this battle, Batman notices that Jezebel Jet, Bruce’s love interest for this story arc, so to speak, is captured by The Black Glove and placed in a room where some stuff will happen that is going to be very bad. After he breaks out Jezebel, The Joker screams “Now do you get it?” as we all come to the realization that Jezebel has been in on it with the Black Hand from the beginning.

They decide to bury Batman alive, in a straight jacket. Which is fine, except this is Morrison and Morrison’s Batman, as we’ve established, is nothing short of God On A Stick Made of Awesome. The Black Glove, also, has decided to hold a celebration of their victory, while The Joker hangs around, and decides to see just how wrong they’re all going to be. He even says “I’ll bet you double or nothing that Batman will come out of that grave perfectly fine, and hunt all of you down.”

And he does, too.

Batman is back, so to speak, and he goes after the Black Glove members that The Joker didn’t kill before he escaped. Dr. Hurt and other escape on a helicopter, but Batman leaps onto it, and they all crash over a body of water.

Batman R.I.P. ends with Nightwing standing on a roof, holding Batman’s cowl.

The End of Batman?

While “Batman R.I.P.” can certainly be considered the end of Batman, Batman didn’t actually DIE until Final Crisis– another of Grant Morrison’s interesting little creatures.

I won’t even begin to go into Final Crisis as a whole, because I’m still not sure I understand just what’s going on in it. It’s a bit confusing, but it’s one of those “I don’t know what it is, but I know I like it” situations that seems to go on during these big events that have more symbolism than I know how to properly comprehend.

Suffice to say that Batman gets captured by The New Gods and set up in Granny’s little funhouse. This actually leads into the other Batman mini-arc, a follow-up of R.I.P. called “Last Rites”. Not to be confused with the other “Last Rites” written by Dennis O’Neil that I’ll talk about in a bit.

This “Last Rites” takes place during Batman’s time captured by Granny. The New Gods are attempting to use Batman’s mental abilities and so forth to create duplicates of him– for lack of a better word– and we’re brought through a series of not-entirely-accurate memories of Batman. Some of these include, but are not limited to, Alfred’s thoughts of different identities for Bruce as well as being incredibly aware of how… childish the Joker became over a period of years.

At one point, things shift, and in his mind, Bruce begins to live a different life within the memories. In these memories, his parents never died, and, by extension, Batman never happened. Dick Grayson never became Robin, and was killed by The Joker. The Joker himself was executed.

History, because there was no Batman, is different. But, these things are not entirely unexpected. Batman is a force, in everything written in the Modern Age, and it’s always been suggested that he, though indirectly, is the cause of so much trouble within Gotham. After all, it’s suggested rather frequently that he is the root cause of The Joker– most origin stories and all. The movie “The Dark Knight” is an interesting take on that concept– that, because of Batman’s meticulous destruction of organized crime, we are left with these psychotic costumed villains and murderers. But that’s a different thing altogether.

Again, Batman is a kind of force within the city of Gotham, having brought non-lethal justice and so forth. But without him, things become skewed, and different. There is no Robin, no Joker. But Batman is aware that things are not quite right within this new world, even going so far as to tell Alfred, “I keep thinking I could have saved the boy somehow. I don’t know why. I can’t seem to get it out of my head.”

However, Batman become distinctly aware of what’s taking place to him, and manages to use his own mind– his memories, his emotions– against the various people keeping him captured. It’s an interesting thing to watch unfold. Batman manipulates the worst events of his life– including the death of Jason Todd, into such a moment that the things they’ve connected him to claw out their own eyes because of the pain he goes through.

The entity within his mind that is using the memories for the lump attached to him continues to explode out the worst of his memories, as Bruce continues to take them and use them as a weapon to free himself.

And, in the end, he does free himself. Because he’s Grant Morrison’s Batman, and he is basically the most ridiculously overpowered guy in the history of forever. But it’s pretty damn cool to read.

Morrison’s Batman, expressed through the first part of “Last Rites”, and R.I.P. is more evidence of Batman as a symbol than Batman as a real person. He’s larger than life, he’s not Bruce Wayne. He is The Bat-Man and he is the vengeance of Gotham and everything else. He is strength, he is power, he is the pinnacle of human achievement– to coin a phrase from “Kingdom Come”.

The next part of this will cover Final Crisis #6, and 7, and the world without Batman.