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A review by skolastic
Batman Incorporated: The Deluxe Edition by Pere Pérez, Grant Morrison, Scott Clark, Cameron Stewart, Michel Lacombe, Dave Beaty, Yanick Paquette, Chris Burnham
4.0
I wrestled with what I was going to write about this one for a while. This is the beginning of the final act of the saga Morrison kicked off in "Batman and Son", and it's sort of a mixed bag in a lot of ways. The premise that's promised is great (Batman forms up a Justice League which consists only of Batmen), but the execution is debatable in a lot of ways.
The first two issues, "Mr. Unknown Is Dead" and "Resurrector!" are definitely a fun start to the collection. Batman and Catwoman take off to Japan to recruit the Japanese Batman, Mr. Unknown, only to discover he's been killed by the disturbing-yet-hilarious Lord Death Man (who apparently shouts every single sentence he says, and at one point, punctuates a sentence just by shouting "LORD DEATH MAN!" It's something you have to read to believe.) I really dig that Morrison brings in the breathless "Same Bat-time" ending narration from the Adam West Batman. ("LORD DEATH MAN LIVES TO TAKE LIFE, AND HE'S ONLY JUST BEGUN!")
The next two issues, "Scorpion Tango" and "The Kane Affair" are Morrison setting up dominoes - we get the reintroduction of Kathy Kane, the 1950's Batwoman, as well as the introduction of 60s supervillain Otto Netz/Doctor Dedalus. "Scorpion Tango" suffers from some slightly muddled plotting, but "The Kane Affair" is a cool "flashback issue", with appropriately altered art.
"Masterspy" is where my frustration with the book starts. The book is clearly intended to sort of dovetail with the Club of Heroes stuff from the Black Glove/RIP, but Batman takes off to England and we get a totally different "British Batman", The Hood, who's more of a James Bond-ish character. (The Knight from Black Glove/RIP is nowhere to be found, and this is never addressed -- which I found frustrating, since we clearly see him in a flashback sequence with other British superheroes). The writing around Doctor Dedalus and his grand plan isn't really that clear - while I understand that craziness and a lack of clarity is totally Morrison's jam, it doesn't improve over time (see below).
"Nyktomorph", luckily, is a really great issue to resolve any frustrations to date. The frame story is cool (a bunch of villains hire "the private eye of the underworld", Nykto Nero, to figure out what Batman's up to), and we get a look at a bunch of different aspects of Batman, Incorporated. I especially want to call this issue out for continuing to pay off long-running background character Ellie, who I think has been showing up from time to time in the Morrison Batman books since Batman and Son, which just makes me happy.
"Medicine Soldiers" is another great issue, focusing on the "Native American" Batman and Robin, Man-of-Bats and Raven Red. I don't want to say a lot about this one since the premise is so good. This might be my favorite issue of the bunch, and I'd kill for an ongoing Man-of-Bats/Raven Red title.
"Nightmares in Numberland" is another point where, like "Masterspy", I think Morrison really failed to deliver on a great premise. It's definitely a cool idea (Oracle is the Batman of Wayne Industries' new virtual reality system), but it's a muddled mess that uses the same type of terrible CG graphics that showed up in "The Clown at Midnight" in Batman and Son.
"The School of Night" and "Leviathan Strikes!" round out the collection. I really enjoyed "The School of Night", which has Stephanie Brown/Batgirl undercover at an all-girls' school being run by Leviathan. Stephanie has got much more character to her than the other POV characters so far, and this starts to tie together a lot of the threads seen in previous issues. I'm still really weirded out by the fact that three of the teachers appear to be Katy Perry, Rihanna, and Lady Gaga, and I'm not sure that I buy the argument that they're supposed to be Dragonfly/Tiger Moth/Silken Spider (as there's never any reference made to this in the book itself).
"Leviathan Strikes" is an issue that I'm a little frustrated with, as it's supposed to be the big climax, and it has some truly incredible art, but the high Morrisonian weirdness level in this story seems keeps it from greatness a little bit for me. I'm also really turned off by the ending - was it really, really necessary for us to have a character's severed head graphically depicted? Really? Bleh.
Overall, I enjoyed this collection. My big meta-complaint is that Morrison's promised idea (Batman recruits other Batmen all over the world) doesn't really get delivered on. Most of the characters that we meet either have their own ongoing titles, or are characters Morrison reuses from The Black Glove. The art is incredible (except for the computer-generated stuff in "Nightmares in Numberland", which really needs to get banned from comics altogether), and Morrison's crazy Batman saga continues to entertain, but I have some big reservations about it that keep me from giving it the full five stars.
The first two issues, "Mr. Unknown Is Dead" and "Resurrector!" are definitely a fun start to the collection. Batman and Catwoman take off to Japan to recruit the Japanese Batman, Mr. Unknown, only to discover he's been killed by the disturbing-yet-hilarious Lord Death Man (who apparently shouts every single sentence he says, and at one point, punctuates a sentence just by shouting "LORD DEATH MAN!" It's something you have to read to believe.) I really dig that Morrison brings in the breathless "Same Bat-time" ending narration from the Adam West Batman. ("LORD DEATH MAN LIVES TO TAKE LIFE, AND HE'S ONLY JUST BEGUN!")
The next two issues, "Scorpion Tango" and "The Kane Affair" are Morrison setting up dominoes - we get the reintroduction of Kathy Kane, the 1950's Batwoman, as well as the introduction of 60s supervillain Otto Netz/Doctor Dedalus. "Scorpion Tango" suffers from some slightly muddled plotting, but "The Kane Affair" is a cool "flashback issue", with appropriately altered art.
"Masterspy" is where my frustration with the book starts. The book is clearly intended to sort of dovetail with the Club of Heroes stuff from the Black Glove/RIP, but Batman takes off to England and we get a totally different "British Batman", The Hood, who's more of a James Bond-ish character. (The Knight from Black Glove/RIP is nowhere to be found, and this is never addressed -- which I found frustrating, since we clearly see him in a flashback sequence with other British superheroes). The writing around Doctor Dedalus and his grand plan isn't really that clear - while I understand that craziness and a lack of clarity is totally Morrison's jam, it doesn't improve over time (see below).
"Nyktomorph", luckily, is a really great issue to resolve any frustrations to date. The frame story is cool (a bunch of villains hire "the private eye of the underworld", Nykto Nero, to figure out what Batman's up to), and we get a look at a bunch of different aspects of Batman, Incorporated. I especially want to call this issue out for continuing to pay off long-running background character Ellie, who I think has been showing up from time to time in the Morrison Batman books since Batman and Son, which just makes me happy.
"Medicine Soldiers" is another great issue, focusing on the "Native American" Batman and Robin, Man-of-Bats and Raven Red. I don't want to say a lot about this one since the premise is so good. This might be my favorite issue of the bunch, and I'd kill for an ongoing Man-of-Bats/Raven Red title.
"Nightmares in Numberland" is another point where, like "Masterspy", I think Morrison really failed to deliver on a great premise. It's definitely a cool idea (Oracle is the Batman of Wayne Industries' new virtual reality system), but it's a muddled mess that uses the same type of terrible CG graphics that showed up in "The Clown at Midnight" in Batman and Son.
"The School of Night" and "Leviathan Strikes!" round out the collection. I really enjoyed "The School of Night", which has Stephanie Brown/Batgirl undercover at an all-girls' school being run by Leviathan. Stephanie has got much more character to her than the other POV characters so far, and this starts to tie together a lot of the threads seen in previous issues. I'm still really weirded out by the fact that three of the teachers appear to be Katy Perry, Rihanna, and Lady Gaga, and I'm not sure that I buy the argument that they're supposed to be Dragonfly/Tiger Moth/Silken Spider (as there's never any reference made to this in the book itself).
"Leviathan Strikes" is an issue that I'm a little frustrated with, as it's supposed to be the big climax, and it has some truly incredible art, but the high Morrisonian weirdness level in this story seems keeps it from greatness a little bit for me. I'm also really turned off by the ending - was it really, really necessary for us to have a character's severed head graphically depicted? Really? Bleh.
Overall, I enjoyed this collection. My big meta-complaint is that Morrison's promised idea (Batman recruits other Batmen all over the world) doesn't really get delivered on. Most of the characters that we meet either have their own ongoing titles, or are characters Morrison reuses from The Black Glove. The art is incredible (except for the computer-generated stuff in "Nightmares in Numberland", which really needs to get banned from comics altogether), and Morrison's crazy Batman saga continues to entertain, but I have some big reservations about it that keep me from giving it the full five stars.