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dr_matthew_lloyd's review
2.0
I found it really difficult to follow what was going on in this comic book. Each part seemed to jump from one story to the next with little coherence, and added little to the story I'd read in [b:Batman and Robin, Vol. 1: Born to Kill|13228177|Batman and Robin, Vol. 1 Born to Kill|Peter J. Tomasi|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1343869393s/13228177.jpg|18420067]. Things just seemed to happen in sequence, but with no obvious narrative logic to why these things were happening, or in this order.
I think perhaps the most disappointing thing, though, is that I expected Batman Incorporated to build on the world of Batman and add to it, making the operation clearly global and showcasing the other "Batmen", especially Knight and Squire and Batwing (although I'm aware that Batwing has his own series in which he is showcased). But this volume was just about Batman and Robin, raising the question why this story is here, instead of in Batman and Robin. Or, indeed, why the stories don't intersect, with Batman Incorporated focusing on the global operation and Batman and Robin focusing on (gasp!) Batman and Robin.
The overall plot comes across as fairly misogynistic, too. Yes, I know Talia Al Guhl is a baddie and that she's never going to have been the most upstanding mother, but pitting mother against father over the soul of their child, and then completely excluding any other female characters? Apart from a handful of appearances from the largely pointless members of Batman Inc. It just felt pretty horrible.
Good art, though.
I think perhaps the most disappointing thing, though, is that I expected Batman Incorporated to build on the world of Batman and add to it, making the operation clearly global and showcasing the other "Batmen", especially Knight and Squire and Batwing (although I'm aware that Batwing has his own series in which he is showcased). But this volume was just about Batman and Robin, raising the question why this story is here, instead of in Batman and Robin. Or, indeed, why the stories don't intersect, with Batman Incorporated focusing on the global operation and Batman and Robin focusing on (gasp!) Batman and Robin.
The overall plot comes across as fairly misogynistic, too. Yes, I know Talia Al Guhl is a baddie and that she's never going to have been the most upstanding mother, but pitting mother against father over the soul of their child, and then completely excluding any other female characters? Apart from a handful of appearances from the largely pointless members of Batman Inc. It just felt pretty horrible.
Good art, though.
literati42's review
4.0
I love Grant Morrisons batman, and I adore the intro to all the new batpeople! Damien has also really grown on me
captwinghead's review
3.0
*Sighs*
You know, sometimes I start enjoying a Morrison comic (despite the typical grotesque artwork) and then it gets all... Morrison-y. This book was fine before it went totally off the rails around issue 4. The "future" timeline where Barbara Gordon becomes the type of person to break a baby's neck (because of Joker serum). The usual light hearted Knight and Squire going through a fight where Knight's neck gets broken and Squire tries to beat some guy to death with a brick. It was all so incredibly unnecessary. Like it always seems these books start in an understandable place and then veer completely into batshit crazy town for shock value.
This wasn't Quitely's art but it still managed to be terrible, in my opinion. Maybe this art works for someone else but it has never worked for me. I remember this guy from a Civil War era Cap comic and it wasn't pleasant then, either.
Anyway, the Batfam bits were nice. As much as it was hard to look at Damian drawn this way. So, the first few issues of this are pretty good story wise. Then the story takes a huge amount of acid and drives clear off a cliff.
You know, sometimes I start enjoying a Morrison comic (despite the typical grotesque artwork) and then it gets all... Morrison-y. This book was fine before it went totally off the rails around issue 4. The "future" timeline where Barbara Gordon becomes the type of person to break a baby's neck (because of Joker serum). The usual light hearted Knight and Squire going through a fight where Knight's neck gets broken and Squire tries to beat some guy to death with a brick. It was all so incredibly unnecessary. Like it always seems these books start in an understandable place and then veer completely into batshit crazy town for shock value.
This wasn't Quitely's art but it still managed to be terrible, in my opinion. Maybe this art works for someone else but it has never worked for me. I remember this guy from a Civil War era Cap comic and it wasn't pleasant then, either.
Anyway, the Batfam bits were nice. As much as it was hard to look at Damian drawn this way. So, the first few issues of this are pretty good story wise. Then the story takes a huge amount of acid and drives clear off a cliff.
kacey's review
2.0
There was something nagging at me the entire time I was reading this collection, something which kept me from enjoying it as a self-contained story of Batman Incorporated. It's only now that I've gotten into the second volume that I've finally figured out what it was that was bothering me so much.
For all that Batman Incorporated appears to tie-into and affect the rest of the Batman New 52 storylines, its events are completely irreconcilable with the other comic runs. I cannot figure out when all of what is portrayed in this volume is meant to be taking place, using the main continuity (by which I mean Snyder's run of Batman) as a baseline, I cannot puzzle out when all of this is happening.
Batman Incorporated would have functioned far better had it been made as a standalone run, but as one which has repercussions along rest of the Batfamily continuity (notably the reason behind the brief Requiem arc) it just doesn't make sense.
The story itself is not at all bad, but my inability to make sense of WHERE all of this happens in the grand scheme of things, really ruins a lot of what it has going for it.
For all that Batman Incorporated appears to tie-into and affect the rest of the Batman New 52 storylines, its events are completely irreconcilable with the other comic runs. I cannot figure out when all of what is portrayed in this volume is meant to be taking place, using the main continuity (by which I mean Snyder's run of Batman) as a baseline, I cannot puzzle out when all of this is happening.
Batman Incorporated would have functioned far better had it been made as a standalone run, but as one which has repercussions along rest of the Batfamily continuity (notably the reason behind the brief Requiem arc) it just doesn't make sense.
The story itself is not at all bad, but my inability to make sense of WHERE all of this happens in the grand scheme of things, really ruins a lot of what it has going for it.
skolastic's review
3.0
I'm gonna start this by saying the same thing I said about the first Batman, Inc. collection (don't let that 1 on the spine fool you, kids -- all of the Jezebel Jet/Doctor Hurt/Prof. Pyg/Bat-Mi[te|ght]/Zur-En-Arrh stuff is very much still in play here) - I wasn't really sure what to write for a while here. Ultimately, I think that with Demon Star, the wheels are starting to come off of Morrison's Damian Wayne saga.
First up is a return to the events of The Black Glove and the first, nameless Inc. collection in "Brand Building" -- unfortunately, this time through the lens of johnny-come-lately Frazer Irving rather than original artist JH Williams III. (Irving's art works for me sometimes, but it's far more miss than hit.) Since Morrison has pretty much decided to ignore any of the New 52 continuity changes, this largely serves as an Inc roll call/examination of little things that weren't really explored in the past (the relationship between the two different French Batmen, the new Dark Ranger). I dig the huge, armored Russian Batman, who is apparently dead already. Way to go, DC!
I actually like the beginning, "Demon Star", a lot - the slaughterhouse fight is cool and gives Chris Burnham and Nathan Fairbairn a chance to shine. The goat-themed hit squad is a nice addition after all of the "goat home Gotham" stuff Morrison has been playing with, and Robin's death "clicks" nicely on the second pass.
"Eye of the Gorgon", the "Talia al Ghul Year One" story (and if you don't think it is, check out that panel of her chopping down a tree Frank Miller-style), is significantly less great. I was hoping we'd get some insight into Talia's motivations for why she's initiated this massive war with Batman, but I'm just left scratching my head. (I've heard a lot of people saying that her characterization in & Son/& Robin/Inc doesn't gel with past portrayals, and I'd like to acknowledge that it's entirely possible she's become a casualty of Morrison's "everything is canon, I'll make it work somehow!" approach to things.) There's some more good work by Burnham here, though - I really dig the pages with Talia and her mother, and the repeated Veruca Salt "I want this!" pose from Li'l Talia cracks me up. I'm really pleased that Morrison took the throwaway "Dad gave me a supervillain lair for my sixteenth birthday" joke from Batman and Son and not only gave it an actual backstory, but also declared it's the same underground hideout that Not-Fu-Manchu uses in the first League of Extraordinary Gentlemen arc. Comics!
"The Hanged Man" is a fun little Matches Malone adventure (I've always enjoyed the Batman-as-master-of-disguise stuff) with Morrison getting in a few digs at the New 52 stuff as well. I don't have a lot to say about this one.
"Kill Box" is where the collection starts to fall apart for me. Burnham's art doesn't hold up for the big fight scenes (can someone explain to me what's up with the panels where Merlyn apparently gets shot through the hand and Damian is shushing him?), and didn't we already get a story where Gaucho and the Hood made peace? Talia sends a zillion of the Man-Bat ninjas, who are built up as super dangerous and then rendered harmless immediately (it doesn't work for the Daleks on Doctor Who and it doesn't work here, either). The Jason Todd-as-Wingman reveal is nice, but at this point in the collection, I sympathize with Damian at the end ("What does everyone know that I don't?!?") a little too much - there are way too many moving parts to the Leviathan masterplan (mind control beef! the League of Assassins! replacing city employees!) and I am baffled by how all of this is going to come together.
"Asylum" is a return to the "Batman 666" future from "Bethlehem" and the "Future" segment from "Time and the Batman", but it feels like someone lost the outline along the way. Terry McGinnis, baby Batman Beyond, turns up again here, but now he's the cure for the airborne Joker toxin rather than an ordinary, kidnapped baby? I had the impression that things had gone south since Bethlehem, but everyone's locked up in Arkham against the hordes? The answers aren't here. Also, there's a terrible reference back to The Killing Joke, a dead baby on panel (comics, kids!) and somehow Doctor Hurt is no longer buried alive and works for the President. The 666 future ends with Gotham getting nuked, and things get even more confusing when we return to the present (is Talia somehow aware of this future? how?) A few positives, though: the crazy rogues' gallery hinted at in the past two visits to quasi-post-apocalyptic (now just post-apocalyptic, I guess) Gotham is still great (the reveal that Jackanapes, the requisite "talking gorilla" villain is also a cigar guy and a molecular biologist, is spectacular), and the Goblin Glider-styled Ro-Bat is perfect for this setting. Ultimately, it feels like someone lost the "hyper-colorful, extra-bizarre" rider that was supposed to go on this "grimdark" future.
"Garland of Skulls" wraps the collection up. Chris Burnham seems to be trying real hard to channel Frank Quitely here, but it's kind of a mixed bag. Cyril's death at the hands of the Heretic is a bit of pointless violence that the title really doesn't need. Upon further reading about Morrison's use of the goatherd parable/story, I like it a bit more, but I have to agree with Batman's request that they just have a "normal conversation". Again, Talia's conversation at the end about the Oroboro power source, mind control, and Damian muddies the waters and continues to confuse me about what's going on here.
In summary: I'm in Morrison's crazy story for the long haul (I am "that guy" who looks forward to new annotations and discussions about what the hell is going on), but I'm getting that feeling that things are going on for too long without answers. It feels like a lot of the fun that was going on in the first Inc collection is gone post-New 52 (I really miss the Adam West titles at the end of issues), and has been replaced by a lot of typical comic book sound and fury. Chris Burnham's art works in some places, but in others, it feels like he's trying to ape the style of someone else and not really succeeding. Hopefully, the next collection will resolve some of this, but from what I've seen in discussions, I'm not going to hold my breath.
First up is a return to the events of The Black Glove and the first, nameless Inc. collection in "Brand Building" -- unfortunately, this time through the lens of johnny-come-lately Frazer Irving rather than original artist JH Williams III. (Irving's art works for me sometimes, but it's far more miss than hit.) Since Morrison has pretty much decided to ignore any of the New 52 continuity changes, this largely serves as an Inc roll call/examination of little things that weren't really explored in the past (the relationship between the two different French Batmen, the new Dark Ranger). I dig the huge, armored Russian Batman, who is apparently dead already. Way to go, DC!
I actually like the beginning, "Demon Star", a lot - the slaughterhouse fight is cool and gives Chris Burnham and Nathan Fairbairn a chance to shine. The goat-themed hit squad is a nice addition after all of the "goat home Gotham" stuff Morrison has been playing with, and Robin's death "clicks" nicely on the second pass.
"Eye of the Gorgon", the "Talia al Ghul Year One" story (and if you don't think it is, check out that panel of her chopping down a tree Frank Miller-style), is significantly less great. I was hoping we'd get some insight into Talia's motivations for why she's initiated this massive war with Batman, but I'm just left scratching my head. (I've heard a lot of people saying that her characterization in & Son/& Robin/Inc doesn't gel with past portrayals, and I'd like to acknowledge that it's entirely possible she's become a casualty of Morrison's "everything is canon, I'll make it work somehow!" approach to things.) There's some more good work by Burnham here, though - I really dig the pages with Talia and her mother, and the repeated Veruca Salt "I want this!" pose from Li'l Talia cracks me up. I'm really pleased that Morrison took the throwaway "Dad gave me a supervillain lair for my sixteenth birthday" joke from Batman and Son and not only gave it an actual backstory, but also declared it's the same underground hideout that Not-Fu-Manchu uses in the first League of Extraordinary Gentlemen arc. Comics!
"The Hanged Man" is a fun little Matches Malone adventure (I've always enjoyed the Batman-as-master-of-disguise stuff) with Morrison getting in a few digs at the New 52 stuff as well. I don't have a lot to say about this one.
"Kill Box" is where the collection starts to fall apart for me. Burnham's art doesn't hold up for the big fight scenes (can someone explain to me what's up with the panels where Merlyn apparently gets shot through the hand and Damian is shushing him?), and didn't we already get a story where Gaucho and the Hood made peace? Talia sends a zillion of the Man-Bat ninjas, who are built up as super dangerous and then rendered harmless immediately (it doesn't work for the Daleks on Doctor Who and it doesn't work here, either). The Jason Todd-as-Wingman reveal is nice, but at this point in the collection, I sympathize with Damian at the end ("What does everyone know that I don't?!?") a little too much - there are way too many moving parts to the Leviathan masterplan (mind control beef! the League of Assassins! replacing city employees!) and I am baffled by how all of this is going to come together.
"Asylum" is a return to the "Batman 666" future from "Bethlehem" and the "Future" segment from "Time and the Batman", but it feels like someone lost the outline along the way. Terry McGinnis, baby Batman Beyond, turns up again here, but now he's the cure for the airborne Joker toxin rather than an ordinary, kidnapped baby? I had the impression that things had gone south since Bethlehem, but everyone's locked up in Arkham against the hordes? The answers aren't here. Also, there's a terrible reference back to The Killing Joke, a dead baby on panel (comics, kids!) and somehow Doctor Hurt is no longer buried alive and works for the President. The 666 future ends with Gotham getting nuked, and things get even more confusing when we return to the present (is Talia somehow aware of this future? how?) A few positives, though: the crazy rogues' gallery hinted at in the past two visits to quasi-post-apocalyptic (now just post-apocalyptic, I guess) Gotham is still great (the reveal that Jackanapes, the requisite "talking gorilla" villain is also a cigar guy and a molecular biologist, is spectacular), and the Goblin Glider-styled Ro-Bat is perfect for this setting. Ultimately, it feels like someone lost the "hyper-colorful, extra-bizarre" rider that was supposed to go on this "grimdark" future.
"Garland of Skulls" wraps the collection up. Chris Burnham seems to be trying real hard to channel Frank Quitely here, but it's kind of a mixed bag. Cyril's death at the hands of the Heretic is a bit of pointless violence that the title really doesn't need. Upon further reading about Morrison's use of the goatherd parable/story, I like it a bit more, but I have to agree with Batman's request that they just have a "normal conversation". Again, Talia's conversation at the end about the Oroboro power source, mind control, and Damian muddies the waters and continues to confuse me about what's going on here.
In summary: I'm in Morrison's crazy story for the long haul (I am "that guy" who looks forward to new annotations and discussions about what the hell is going on), but I'm getting that feeling that things are going on for too long without answers. It feels like a lot of the fun that was going on in the first Inc collection is gone post-New 52 (I really miss the Adam West titles at the end of issues), and has been replaced by a lot of typical comic book sound and fury. Chris Burnham's art works in some places, but in others, it feels like he's trying to ape the style of someone else and not really succeeding. Hopefully, the next collection will resolve some of this, but from what I've seen in discussions, I'm not going to hold my breath.
booknooknoggin's review
4.0
Wow. The truth about Damian's death,and whole plot against Batman. Great story.
ipacho's review
2.0
This continues the saga pitting Thalia Al Ghul, Batman's second villain love crush, who took over with outstanding ease the power hungry secret society/ global dominator Leviathan. For me, this was Morrison's most simplistic plot, most lame took on Batman. And Damian Wayne could not be worse as a character. I was surprised at the mediocrity of this work by Morrison.
strikingthirteen's review
4.0
Wow, I have to say this volume pulled out the stops right when they were needed. I thought everything was getting a little dull, with the exception of the great use of Talia Al Ghul here, and then you see that the stakes are even higher. Then, of course, we ended on a cliffhanger. Way to go Talia!
Batman has started up an international league of heroes. We meet a few of them here. I have encountered Knight and Squire before but the rest are new to me and that didn't mar my enjoyment of this volume. The story in the beginning does get a little bit rough to follow, I think I missed the significance of Matches Malone, but that doesn't kill the story. The main plot, even though this Leviathan organization just feels like a copy of Hydra from the Marvel universe, is engaging and rife with personal issues - as is par for the course with the Bat family but especially so considering Robin is Damien Wayne at this point.
I really need volume two at this point. Come on now, write faster.
Batman has started up an international league of heroes. We meet a few of them here. I have encountered Knight and Squire before but the rest are new to me and that didn't mar my enjoyment of this volume. The story in the beginning does get a little bit rough to follow, I think I missed the significance of Matches Malone, but that doesn't kill the story. The main plot, even though this Leviathan organization just feels like a copy of Hydra from the Marvel universe, is engaging and rife with personal issues - as is par for the course with the Bat family but especially so considering Robin is Damien Wayne at this point.
I really need volume two at this point. Come on now, write faster.
nigellicus's review
5.0
Batman Incorporated is the best batman. Batman goes multinational, sprading his cape across the world, recruiting other crime-fighting superheroes to be part of his franchise as the prepare for war with the mysterious Leviathan, an evil organisation up to evil things everywhere. Japanese Batman, African Batman, South American Batman, British Batman, native American Batman, and crazy super-spy plots and traps and mazes. Mad, Ted, mad.
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