MONDOmagazine

Isaac’s Book of the Month

Batman #681
Written by Grant Morrison
Art by Tony Daniel
DC Comics, 2008

The conclusion of Batman R.I.P. has come and gone. So, was it the great Batman tale we’d been led to believe it would be? Yes and no.

We were all expecting to be surprised with some incredible twist that would have permanently altered our view of the Dark Knight and his origins, while simultaneously introducing us to a memorable new villain. This is what we were expecting, and what we wanted, and in those respects the story didn’t deliver. However, despite these pitfalls, this was an amazing delivery of the Batman story we really needed.

Throughout the whole of Batman R.I.P., we were made to underestimate Batman, while a seemingly all-powerful and shadowy opponent pulled the strings, in effect leaving us with the same mindset as those villains tormenting our hero. We had become Batman’s rogue’s gallery, snickering at the 60s camp of throwing together random facts into the Bat-computer, the death traps, and, the worst of all, the power of a utility belt.

The darkest of reflections of the classic Batman-style is the story here, beginning with Batman trapped in a coffin, locked and buried alive, wearing a straight jacket. Meanwhile the members of the villainous cabal known as the Black Glove turn their backs, waiting for the imminent asphyxiation to forever end the caped crusader.

At the same time, above ground the Joker explains why this society will ultimately lose to Batman. The page is divided into nine clearly defined, red-bordered boxes, and the Joker is drawn overlapping the top two rightmost panels, saying how no matter how hard he tries to “think outside his toy box he builds a new box around me.” The illustration is literally Joker trying to escape Batman’s box, or a Batman comic panel, but the two panels he’s now in simply form a bigger box. He’s still trapped. Even if the Joker were to fill up the whole comic page, he’d still be trapped in Batman’s box. From this perspective, as long as it’s a Batman comic, Batman will win — Batman is in control.

In the centre panel, when the Joker is looking straight ahead, saying, “you can never prepare for the unexpected, the well-timed punchline, the wild card,” I think this is another reference to the unavoidable victory for Batman: the villain can never prepare for whatever trick Batman will have up his sleeve. (How can you defeat a man who, if you attack with sharks, will whip out the Bat-shark repellent?) There’s the corny “all’s-well-that-ends-well” punchline completing every adventure.

All that said, what should you walk away from the Joker having learned? He uses the word “apophenia,” which means seeing patterns or connections in meaningless data. Everything I’ve just laid out to you about the panel layout, red colour scheme, subtext and fourth wall interpretations of the Joker’s dialogue, and anything else we could pick apart in this issue — it’s pretty much useless. The very existence of the readers’ apophenia has placed us in the position of trying to figure everything out like Batman. Though we’re doomed to somehow or other be wrong, we’re on the good guy’s team again. We readers have become a whole legion of Robins, supporting and trying to keep up with our hero. Bill Finger would be pretty happy with all this, especially if everyone learns a new word out of it.

What actually happens through the comic is action-packed awesome. It’s undignified to say Batman clawed out of that grave, and inaccurate. Would you believe Batman bench-pressed his way out? The ridiculous Bat-radia device Batman had been carrying around while he was the slightly crazed Batman of Zur-En-Arrh? Not so ridiculous. Making like he never cared for the evil Jezebel Jet, he totally riled her up. Let’s see, am I forgetting something? Oh yeah, punching a helicopter to death!

One big question on everyone’s mind is whether Dr. Hurt, the main villain of this story arc, was actually the devil or not. Batman will always cling to his logical explanations of who this villain was as a mortal man, a natural enough inclination for a man inhabiting his Detective Comics landscape. I prefer, however, to take him as a comic-book devil. He is a perfect distillation of villain that could come from anywhere, with no real clue as to his origins and goals, becoming an obstacle for Batman to overcome again and again. He is the reiteration of the Mad Monk, of the nebulous origins of Joe Chill’s life of crime, the impetus for every comic character turned bad, and the reason we read Batman in the first place — he is the challenge to be met and vanquished.

A twisted version of the “well-timed punchline” corny ending happens here. We revisit the Wayne family exiting from “The Mask of Zorro,” all smiles talking about the movie, Bruce imagining what it would be like for Zorro to come riding down the streets of Gotham. Thomas Wayne laughs and replies, “I’m not so sure Gotham City would welcome a masked man taking the law into his own hands, Bruce! The sad thing is they’d probably throw someone like Zorro in Arkham.” The smiles continue, and about here is when the fade to credits would happen, with the laugh-track finishing its sympathetic jocularity. We get one more panel where Bruce thinks about what his father has said, a panel of shadow and red with the spectre of the Wayne’s murderer in the foreground, and Bruce just says, “What?”

Grant Morrison has taken a classic blueprint for a Batman adventure, added all the misleading trappings of modernity, and in truth revealed the apotheosis of what makes a Batman story.

Miles’ Book(s) of the Month

The Amazing Spider-Man #576-8
Written by Joe Kelly (576), Zeb Wells (577), and Mark Waid (578)
Art by Chris Bachalo (576), Paolo Rivera (577), and Marcos Martin (578)
Marvel Comics, 2008

This month something amazing happened — Amazing Spider-man became the series I most look forward to reading every week. The three issues that came out this month were hot, hot, and fucking so hot.

Issue 575 saw Joe Kelly finishing off an excellent two-parter where Spidey took on a new and improved, and extremely menacing, Hammerhead. This issue demonstrated why a single Spidey is a more interesting character because you can introduce new love interests out of left field that you as a reader just wanna yell, “Holy shit, Parker, you better tap that!” Peter’s new reporter friend had a disarming wit that made me fall in love with her instantly. I haven’t read a lot of Joe Kelly’s work, but he wrote a funny Spidey, and I’m excited to see him handle the character more. And Bachalo continued to show that he’s much better drawing Spider-man than he is drawing the X-Men.

Next, Zeb Wells turned in an excellent done-in-one issue guest-starring the Punisher. The real highlight of this issue was Paolo Rivera’s excellent rendition of Spider-man. His take on the character is classy, and I hope they bring him back for more.

Lastly, Mark Waid and Marcos Martin (easily my pick for artist of the year when we do our awards next month) knocked out a fantastic issue that saw Spider-man leading a group of commuters out of the crumbing New York subway system. Besides the perfect art, Waid writes a fantastic Peter Parker/Spider-man with several lines that made me laugh out loud.

If you like Spider-man you really should be reading him now. What Joe Quesada did to the Peter Parker/Mary Jane Watson marriage is unforgivable — until you read what they’re coming out with now. This book is starting to beat out Captain America as the best book Marvel is publishing.