Batman Incorporated by Grant Morrison, Chris Burnham, Yannick Paquette and some other dudes..
Quite simply Batman Inc is N U T S
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| How nuts? Catwoman rescuing a teenge girl from an octopus nut, THATS HOW NUTS!! |
I have a lot of time for Grant Morrison. He is responsible for a whole cornucopia of amazing comics, graphic novels and a huge prose book detailing the history of comics (you should buy it!!)
A bunch of years ago Morrison started to write Batman. His whole run is incredible. Morrison posited that everything that had happen to Batman, in any comic, had ACTUALLY had happened to Batman. From his early noir crime busting capers to the psychedelic excess of the 60s through to his ascent to A league, top shelf bonafide superhero!
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| That's right: EVERYTHING |
For me his whole run on Batman revolves around one fact; Batman (and, SPOILER ALERT, Bruce Wayne) is a man. A highly trained, millionaire, super detective man but still a man like you or me (or a woman...whatever you know what i mean) Over the years, especially in the 60s and 70s, Batman has been exposed to his fair share of mental torture, emotional trauma and mind altering psychedelics. He has been physically and mentally (especially mentally) push to the threshold. Morrison's run explores how much Batman/Bruce Wayne's mind can actually take. We are taken to some pretty trippy zones by Morrison......
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| sure why not.. |
With the above in mind we approach this years Batman Incorporated.
Towards the end of last year Bruce Wayne held a press conference to announce he was backing Batman financially allowing the formation of the worldwide Batman Incorporated organisation. Batman then visited various countries to elect suitable representatives for Batman inc.
Its essentially a team-up comic, albeit a team-up comic drenched in Morrison's signature psychedelia. The first couple of issues see Batman and Catwoman, his on-again off-again lover/ally/enemy, travelling to Japan to anoint the inaugural member of Batman Inc. They run into Lord Death Man and shit gets trippy.
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| Lord Death Man, the most metal villain ever? |
Now then, Lord Death Man first appeared in a Japanese Batman comic in the 60s or something. This is how far back Morrison is prepared to go. It immediately makes the comic exciting because there is a genuine feeling that anything could happen. A queasy psychedelic feeling already creeps in. A giant octopus is also amongst the treats from the first issue of this comic.
As the series progresses we visit Argentina, where the crazy is upped significantly thanks to flashbacks to just after the Falklands conflict where a team of heroes is on the trail of the crazed Doctor Daedalus, we journey to Africa and Native American reserves in the U.S.
Morrison is weaving one huge story across the issues of this title. A shadowy organisation called Leviathan is orchestrating simultaneous crimes around the world, causing chaos and turmoil. They basically call out Batman, making it very clear he is a target and will be powerless to stop their ring of crime that chokes the world. They are brainwashing kids and turning them into killers, attempting to steal huge priceless gems and generally causing mayhem. In this respect the story is simple, its a huge, complex game of Mousetrap. We ride shotgun with Batman and his colleagues trying to get to the bottom of WHO Leviathan is.
But the story is not simple. Its like a labyrinth. Batman (and buy extension, us) is led by a trail of clues, all over the world. He encounters Doctor Daedalus, an associate of Leviathan, who has an actual GOD DAMN LABYRINTH!! I heard Batman Inc described as a simple story told in a complicated way. Morrison has a very fertile imagination and a precise grasp on aspects of Batman's past...at a few points when i was reading this comic i thought to myself 'holy shit, maybe Grant Morrison is Doctor Daedalus!' such is his deft weaving and interlocking of storylines.
I can't really talk about the story too much as i wouldn't want to spoil the story. It is so well constructed and paced so well. Each issue reads like a drug soaked episode of the old Batman TV show with Adam West etc....its what comics should be about; The unexpected, the fantastic, the absurd.
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| THIS ABSURD ENOUGH FOR YA?!? |
A few different pencillers join Morrison on Batman Inc, the excellent Yannick Paquette who i mentioned in the breakdown of Swamp Thing is one. The guy i want to talk about is Chris Burnham. I had never heard of the guy before but he fuckin' smashed it this year with Batman Inc.
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| too badass |
His style is almost Frank Quitely-esque in its detail. His figures have a gritty but rounded and human style. Some of his layouts had me speechless and moisted eyed, detailed and complex but easy enough to read.
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| *THUD* that was the sound of me getting a boner, folks... |
To summarize Batman Incorporated is a comic fans comic. It has suspense, enough retro references and conventions without being cheesy, amazing art and sprawling yet focussed writing (yeah, a paradox DEAL WITH IT)
It is pure grade, class A comics.
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