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Grant Morrison's Batman

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Aha! I am Klarion

22:37 / 01.05.08

The reason I said that it might be Thomas Wayne is a line that the Joker says about the Black Glove organization believing that Bruce "deserves to be punished."

That would be the most evil and sadistic thing... well, ever.

It is ridiculous, but it sends chills down your spine.

What if they faked the whole thing? They were rich, for god sakes.

23:58 / 01.05.08

I read a theory that could be a hired suicide by Wayne (maybe gone wrong, maybe blahblah). But, no...

Well ok. When in speculative fanfic Rome: Thomas Wayne hired Chill through Alfred to kill Little Bruce since he's a fucking pain -- and maybe for some other benefits, maybe Bruce was draining them dry or he kept falling in caves breaking legs, or Thomas wanted his childless sex life back -- Chill either fucks it up or was actually saving Brucie. Bruce's entire sense of revenge, rigid purpose and obsessive anger with criminals is put into perspective (enters dance number with sweet-loving good-hearted criminals). "MY PARENTS ARE DEAD!" is said with the same frequency, now with smiles and release. The repetitive flashbacks of BANG!s in alleys are now music beats, Bruce dances to these flashbacks like that clubber dude from 'Spaced'. In between weird silver-age adventure parties, he fights only the worst of criminals and rich folks -- repetitive images of pearl necklaces being pulled (by Batman's hand) and each being put under poor children's pillows. He's finally at peace, his soul rests. Alfred is truly sorry, but Batman punishes him by injecting the 80 year old butler into a cat (although it's not much punishment since Alfred becomes immortal, by switching through cat bodies through the years, and other things).

Is it even possible for a genuine and good surprise at this juncture (even if blocking off from your head the ruined sense of a surprise twist)? I'm afraid I feel that anybody would be a bit too Xorn-y. There might be perhaps "clues" that make some sense when looking back after a reveal (for instance, if it's Gordon, we saw Gordon altered on the first). I might be forgetting things (or not picking up on them) by the overall monthly rhythm. But can there be anything genuinely surprising or efficient, that doesn't feel somewhat like a cheat or bearing little impact on what's being seen so far?

00:20 / 02.05.08

Is it even possible for a genuine and good surprise at this juncture

I think that, whoever the Black Glove turns out to be, it might qualify as a shock if Batman has to beat him to death with his member of parliament. That'd have to seem pretty transgressive;

'It's not an "-arang", it's a weapon!'

02:34 / 02.05.08

But The Goddamn Batpeepee isn't cannon yet.

09:35 / 02.05.08

Somehow it just clicked in my head, after re-reading my yesterday's post and your replies:

It's ALFRED ("His library is a shrine to blood spattered prose."... 'blood spattered prose'? Crime novels? How do lots of crime novels end? 'The butler did it!').

But...under fractured psyche BRUCE WAYNE's ORDERS! That explains Alfred's motivations: he obeys Wayne's orders. Everytime Bruce undergoes a weird experiment that may take him out of his path, Alfred is there to ensure Wayne/Batman keeps his focus. At the beginning of Grant's run, Batman had put in jail most of Gotham's "super-villains"; what better time for the 3 ghosts of Batman to resurface and keep him focused?

And what about Dr. Simon Hurt? Well... there's no Simon Hurt, just an actor in desguise. An actor with a deep understading of Batman's psysche and origin. Yes. Alfred or Wayne.

10:17 / 02.05.08

That's a fucking fantastic idea. Everyone remains a goodie but gets to be a baddie.

Absolutely bloody brilliant. So bloody good that I'm tempted to nick it, bung it in my blog, and claim it as my own.

The Natural Way

11:07 / 02.05.08

I'd already contemplated the idea that the Glove was on the side of the angels. I think it's very likely that the *new* batman will still be Bruce, but a Bruce that's undergone the 'secrets of death', etc. I really enjoy the idea that Batman's problems aren't simply reducible to his parents' untimely demise. Afterall he's been through! There's a bunch of other stuff to deal with and his mission needs a new focus instead of TEH REVENGE BROKENBACKS!

11:13 / 02.05.08

Not claimed as my own, but in the blog nonetheless.

11:20 / 02.05.08

My money's on Matches Malone.

Or Plastic Man.

13:08 / 02.05.08

Oh come on guys, the evil Bruce Wayne/Batman has and always will be the inestimable Killer Moth.

It's as plain as day!

15:37 / 02.05.08

Funnybook Babylon posted a version of this theory a week or so ago--but I love the idea that he's acting under Bruce's direction...

15:49 / 02.05.08

Yes, the clues are all there for us to see, so it's absolutely normal more than one person came to the same conclusion.

Anyway, there are still some things bugging me, making this theory of Alfred + Wayne = Black Glove far from bullet proof. There have been deaths. Unless...

Everything was an act during Batman's stay at Mayhew's island. Everybody knew it except "sane" Batman and Robin.
What if the Club of Villains showing up in an upcoming issue are none other than the Club of Heroes posing as their imagined archenemies? What if they were so lame they even had to create their own enemies? And you saw Mayhew posing as El Sombrero, so anyone can be El Sombrero. If all was an act, there were no deaths, then.

Just more food for thought.

16:25 / 02.05.08

Although I don't know if I buy into this theory, this speculation reminds me of a great Sherlock Holmes play I saw years ago called SHERLOCK'S LAST CASE, which posited the theory that Sherlock Holmes WAS Moriarity -- he created the persona of Moriarity because he needed a rival, an arch-enemy, someone to truly challenge him. And no such person existed, so he created him. It was all rather like playing chess with himself.

17:31 / 02.05.08

I keep going back to "the ultimate joke" line from DC#0. What is the ultimate joke? The one that would effectively kill the Batman. I can't break away from "turns out your parents are alive this whole time."

Aha! I am Klarion

20:26 / 02.05.08

Or...
It turns out Bruce's mom had an affair...with Ras Al Ghul.

Then Bruce mutters "I have to get some soap and go wash the taste of Princess Leia out of my mouth now."

21:50 / 02.05.08

Finder, there are also echoes of THE PRISONER there.

i'm in for this. since when we learned the baddie reveal was going to be big and dramatic i was of the mind Alfred would be behind it, but Freitas gave us a nice motivation.

BUT one thing doesn't fit for me: if after RIP Bruce won't probably be behind the mask [as we are being led to believe] why would he quit, if the whole thing was designed to put him back on track? will something go wrong along the way and lead to the "fate worse than death"?

this is not a Bruce that would quit: "thanks, Alfred, for showing my demons - now I remember everything. and it went all according to plan. I understand myself better, and I can be a better Batman. let's build a new car now".

i'm thinking we're being mislead here by false clues. well, it's a comic about solving mysteries.

04:51 / 03.05.08

Clearly enough, it will all go wrong, in the grand Bat-tradition of Tower Of Babel, War Games and OMAC and any other time the man had a plan. Instead of being re-motivated to be Batman, Bruce will quit, leaving the streets unsafe.

Left with no alternative, Alfred will take up the mantle of the Bat. I mean, did you see him against them there ninjas in Ra'surrection? He's got the mad skillz.

06:21 / 03.05.08

If it is Alfred, a lot of the above thoughts, with regard to him doing this for Bruce's own good, seem totally reasonable. It would be a very George thing to write too, and not in a bad way - 'this is a rescue mission' and so on.

That said, he's been on about his desire to embrace evil in the DC universe in his interviews lately, so who knows?

06:28 / 03.05.08

Will something go wrong along the way and lead to the "fate worse than death"?

I'm not sure if Alfred and Bruce will end up making out, if that's what you're getting at.

14:53 / 03.05.08

hah! no, in that case they'd be having some fun, which "Bruce" wasn't having much in the anal-retentive [sorry] years prior to GM's.

11:53 / 06.05.08

More food for thought:

Morrison's run second issue (#656), page 2, first panel; Bruce says to Jezebel:

'I collect tribal art, schizofrenic painters, "Outsider" work, I think they call it.'... I didn't add the commas to Outsider, They're already there. We have the words 'schizofrenic' and 'Outsider' in the same dialogue. Very curious...

...especially f you consider how schizofrenia is a recurring theme in Morrison's run so far. You have Gordon poisoned by the Joker in the first issue; you have Two-Face still on the loose (it means schizofrenia is free), you have Batman's fractured psyche, and you have a potentially schizo Alfred. Not to mention the changes the 3 cops underwent after the experiment.

And is anyone here familiar with the Artemis Fowl books? Alfred is reading the 3rd volume of the series (The Eternity Code), at the end of #655. It's about a 13-year old evil genius with a faithful Butler...

12:59 / 06.05.08

>> Could that character be the Outsider, Alfred's evil persona from the 70s? Don't forget Morrison considers everything to be part of the continuity, so that must include the alleged death of Alfred in the 60s and his return as a super-villain many months later.

Well, if it is hinting at the "Outsider's" return, this would be a very subtle but interesting way to telegraph it... also, it's a line that most of us (except you!) have forgotten about from the first issues of Mozzer's run.

14:42 / 06.05.08

My memory is not that good!

I just reread the whole thing and sometimes I go back when I figure there may be something else hidden. Morrison's work asks for multiple readings and his stuff gets deeper and richer every time you do it. That's certainly old news for most of you.

Oh, and right after that "Outsider work" mention, in the following panel, Bruce is looking at a sculpture of an inverted yellow paint bucket, and just says "...There's a message here somewhere. If I just stare hard enough...".

'Nough said!

The Natural Way

21:06 / 06.05.08

I don't mean to be a *buster*, but it's 'schizophrenia'.

The rest is all good, though.

23:20 / 06.05.08

Batfreitas!

09:22 / 07.05.08

...Two-Face still on the loose..."good and evil"..."red and black"...

Surely it's not Two-Face?

Nah. That'd just be silly. As you were.

13:37 / 07.05.08

Nah. That wouldn't be a big shock.

13:54 / 07.05.08

Oh, and Alfred has been doing computer back-ups of the Black casebook contents...

"You remember the Black Casebook, Alfred."
"As a matter of fact, I recently began transferring its rather lurid contents to Memory Stick, Sir."

...and paying attention to what he's doing:

"Reading between the lines of what I've already copied (...)"

What if something there triggered his other personality, his evil side? Like the word "Zurr-En-Arh"...

...or maybe he's doing it on Bruce's orders. But which side of Bruce?

And what about Mangrove Pierce, the actor from "The Black Glove", who was having an affair with John Mayhew's wife? Could he be one of Alfred the actor's aliases, after the Alfred Beagley fiasco? This would be a nice way of Alfred having revenge on the man who killed his lover...

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

15:06 / 07.05.08

Perhaps there's a second, red casebook...?

18:32 / 07.05.08

3-page preview for #676.

20:04 / 07.05.08

The big guy with the goggles, who's he? The demonic Batman?

20:07 / 07.05.08

Ah, almost certainly King Kraken.

Who's the other guy with the helmet and the eye slit?

20:30 / 07.05.08

Not sure, but he's one of Dark Ranger's enemies - the Ned Kelly look's the giveaway.

20:32 / 07.05.08

Also, if I were a betting man, and I'm not, I'd put money on the Black Glove being put together by Joe Chill's "lost" son, mentioned in #673. Be some symmetry there.

20:56 / 07.05.08

Interesting idea.

Ned Kelly, indeed!

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