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Grant Morrison's Batman

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14:14 / 19.05.08

Also, what's the plot significance of Tim/Robin being so disturbed that Damian is really Bruce's biological son? "The Son of Satan is my brother?" Why devote a whole page to Tim going on and on about the paternity test? Didn't Tim already know that Damian was really Wayne's son about three story arcs ago? Why is that information so intense for Tim?

14:17 / 19.05.08

Are we to assume that in the final 2 panels of the penultimate page (where the voice says "Now that there's a power outage etc."), the Joker kills the psychologist who was showing him the Rorscach ink blot? Or is it that the psychologist was really the Black Glove guy in disguise? (I figure it's the former and not the latter, given the blood all over the Joker in the final panel)

In the dream sequence of the Joker killing everyone, we see Robin, and ...Commissioner Gordon...? is that right?

also, 'what do you see in the Rorschach test? / A pretty flower' must be some sort of tip of the hat to Watchmen, no?

14:27 / 19.05.08

No. I figure the shrink was really Monsieur Le Bossu in his "Dr.Jeckyl" form. Before the invitation panel, he mentions a "new approach". The power outage must be useful in order for the Joker to escape and join the Danse Macabre. And I think Joker's blood is still from the massacre he did on issue 663.

And yes, I assume that's Gordon, though mistakenly colored.

14:36 / 19.05.08

I think there was no big significance for Drake's speech. He was just opening his heart to Alfred, only now having the guts to ask about the paternity test.

Unless this was all only so that Drake could say "So you BOTH know!" and that was a clue about the Black Glove...

Keith, like a scientist

16:29 / 19.05.08

Oh, and something that came to mind when reading the first issue of Batman: RIP. The title of the arc is 'Batman: RIP' or 'Batman: Rest in Peace'. The acronym R.I.P. is immediately associated with death, but if you take it completely literally, it could just mean that Batman/Bruce can finally rest, peacefully. Maybe something happens to make him consider his mission over?

This seems to be the intention to me. Batman/Bruce Wayne isn't going to be dead, but the concept of "Bruce Wayne as Batman" is going to go away/change because Bruce finally avenges his parent's death or (don't love this theory) finds out they never really died.

Perhaps Alfred really killed the Waynes, Bruce finds out, kills Alfred, and that's the final nail in the coffin of "Batman" for him.

This RIP thing strikes me as DCs answer to the death of Steve Rogers.

16:36 / 19.05.08

I think it's clear by now that the villain is none other than Bruce's previously repressed chest-hair, ripped from him and animated by the Lazarus Pit into a flares-and-open-shirt-wearing-70's-disco-god.

16:54 / 19.05.08

...which then gets tie-dyed and becomes Rainbow Chest Haired Batman (action figure sold separately).

Phex: Dorset Doom

18:10 / 19.05.08

Glad somebody bought up Rainbow Batman- one of the highest attainments in the Dzogchen branch of Tibetan Buddhism that Batman practices is attainment of the 'Rainbow Body' composed of the 'five pure lights' which, unfortunately, do not match the six colored costumes Batman wears in Detective Comics #241

18:16 / 19.05.08

still, though, that could be exactly how Morrison will bring in the Rainbow Batman concept --

01:25 / 20.05.08

what if the 7-colored rays of light that compose the Rainbow Batman are 6 different manifestations of the [white light] previously-complete but now-fractured Batman that emerged after the Hurt isolation experiment [prism]?

this is a stiff-upper-lip Bruce Wayne who needs to rest [in peace, finally, after getting rid of crime] that is missing his other 6... chakra-opening aspects to be the alien Batman of Zur-En-Arrh, complete again. he needs back the "guys" who lived all the bizarre adventures catalogued in the Black Casebook.

and who writes in the Black Casebook? Bruce Wayne's hand, wearing a Black Glove.

01:26 / 20.05.08

or Alfred's hand, for that matter.

but i'm almost sure the Black Casebook will make Bruce REMEMBER.

07:36 / 20.05.08

Very nice, Hector, very nice! That's more like you. I always suspected the "Drake is the Black Glove" theory was your Bizarro manifestation.

The Natural Way

08:57 / 20.05.08

Perhaps the 'evil' batman behind the scenes is the BLACK Batman.

11:41 / 20.05.08

The cover to issue 678, the one with rainbow effect, shows a sort of white light on Batman's head. Like his crown shakra - his "WHITE hot room" connection - opening, fracturing, refracting like a ray of light into 7 different colors.

Plus, the solicitation to #680 is out:

BATMAN #680

Written by Grant Morrison
Art by Tony Daniel & Sandu Florea
Cover by Alex Ross
Variant cover by Tony Daniel

It’s “Batman R.I.P.” part 5 – and this issue features two events so monumental that one comic can barely contain them! First, Batman faces off against The Club of Villains. Then, The Joker makes his stand, challenging the Dark Knight to the ultimate battle of wits. Will Batman survive either of these threats – or could this be the end of Gotham City’s greatest hero?

Retailers please note: This issue will ship with two covers. For every 25 copies of the Standard Edition (with a cover by Alex Ross), retailers may order one copy of the Variant Edition (with a cover by Tony Daniel). Please see the Previews Order Form for more information.
On sale August 27 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US

And here's the cover (that shows the Batman uniform with the big chest Bat we've seen on 666).

12:20 / 20.05.08

isn't that the way Ross always draws the Bat-symbol? He always paints mega-huge Bat and "S" symbols on Bats and Supes, respectively (just look at his posters and his oversized Paul Dini Batman: War on Crime and Superman: Peace on Earth specials).

12:52 / 20.05.08

a lot of the reviews I’m reading seem to think that ‘Ned Kelly’ in the Club of Villains is in fact ‘Springfield Jacques’, despite the lack of similarity between S. J. and his traditionally-depicted sartorial choices. anyone got any previous appearances to hand so we can say definitively?

note: I feel I must apologise for last week’s statements. in an earlier post I clearly say ‘morrison doesn’t do clues’, which is rally utter tosh. This is a badly computertronned bitcharse of what I originally typed: ‘morrison doesn’t do clues so much as he does red-herrings’, which while still contentious does I hope bear a closer resemblance to something approaching reality. apologies for any confusion and/or resultant impatience.

sometimes the tetchocracy produces sanity. the Barbelith Prime Directive lives another justified day.

13:17 / 20.05.08

thanks, MFreitas. yet somehow i still can't remove Robin completely out of the equation. maybe they're all in this together: Alfred, Tim, The Batcomputer, maybe even Gordon, to help Batman be whole again.

anyone remember this movie?

The Game is a 1997 American psychological thriller film directed by David Fincher, produced by Polygram and starring Michael Douglas and Sean Penn. It tells the story of an investment banker who is given a mysterious gift: participation in a game that integrates in strange ways with his life. As the lines between the banker's real life and the game become more and more uncertain, there are hints of a larger conspiracy.

The game in the movie can be viewed as a sort of alternate reality game with a large live action role-playing game component. Participants in real life versions of alternate reality games and live action role-playing games find the movie interesting and a source of inspiration for this reason.

the wiki entry contains a spoilerish description of the end. i'd advise anyone who never heard of this to watch it. it' a neat flick.

the paralell i'm drawing here is that Douglas' character looks a lot like Wayne's if he never had become a costumed crime fighter, although a childhood trauma kind of made him the Batman of bankers [Fincher is probably the 2nd best director that could pull this modern take of Batman in the movies].

the Game had a purpose, which is accomplished at the very end of it. it'd be kind of cool for me if at the end of RIP they shared some similarities.

13:17 / 20.05.08

I remain faintly unimpressed by Alex Ross. From the looks of things he could draw an impeccably lifelike rendition of Batman taking a big old shit, but if it comes to anything resembling smooth motion or action, it's like watching a mannequin trying to emote.

13:23 / 20.05.08

'Springfield Jacques’??

Ok... now that's... funny...

I also mistakened Ned Kelly for SPRINGHEELED JACK, because I was not aware of the existance of said australian outlaw. I doubt they'd give such a distinguished look to a british villain like Jack (he's the former Knight's killer).

13:26 / 20.05.08

And yes, Hector, I remember "The Game" and thought of that when I theorised everything in Mayhew's island could be a ruse. But the many deathes seem to exclude it.

Anyway, about Alfred and Robin acting together: it doesn't make much sense given their conversation last issue, does it?

14:26 / 20.05.08

Funny, I think that's the first time I truly liked Ross' art (and perhaps the rainbow cover as well). It captured the campyness of the 60's show, and it blowed it up to eleven thousand, but in a way I would totally watch it. He usually goes for that stiff photo-realitistic bore that unintentionally ends up campier than hell, but it worked here for me somehow. There's an interesting exchange between the photo-realism and the more colorful aspects, that speaks pretty well with what Morrison's being doing. Can't quite explain it (maybe bringing a "realism" into those things some don't want to take in).

I don't know, it just violently brought to my head the notion of why there were these colorful villains in the Bat-lore in the first place, instead of more grimgrity-plausible or whatever.

16:05 / 21.05.08

That #680 cover is skill. See, Alex Ross' photo-referenced human model poses are, in general, a bit shit at doing superheroes. But for that cover, where the villains are normal, if chicken oriental, people in costumes, it somehow works.

Batman looks toss though.

I'm really excited about possible Rainbow Meditation Batman. As should you all.

Actually, I'm glad George has emphasized something in the Bat-mythos. That Bruce isn't just trying to be the pinnacle of physical and mental perfection (something way back from the first issue) but also the peak of spiritual (zen) excellence. To fight crime!

Rainbow Bat!

16:12 / 21.05.08

Oh, and the original Rainbowbat story is, apparently:

"The rainbow Batman story has Batman and Robin trying to foil a group of thieves who pose as cameramen. Robin gets a look at the thieves faces in the begining of the story and can identify them. Batman continues to wear differently colored costumes throughout the story to act as a distraction and garner all the intention because Robin had been hurt as Dick Grayson and if anyone had noticed may have put the mystery of their secret identities together. "

So now you know.

16:55 / 21.05.08

I could have sworn that I remembered seeing an image of the 50s Rainbow Batman where he's wearing a costume of horizontal rainbow-colored stripes - sort of like the old Weather Wizard outfit, but with thicker stripes, with all various day-glo colors. I guess I made it up; since a Google search has not revealed that image at all. What I was picturing was like the Fruit Stripes zebra-type setup. Ah well... it existed in my mind and that's what matters.

18:54 / 21.05.08

Just reading through Wikipedia's various Dzogchen related entries* and I'm getting the feeling that this is what Batman RIP is all about. I'm not knowledgeable enough, either about Dzogchen or Batman RIP, to put the pieces together, but I'm thinking The Game might not be our best guide.

*Particularly interesting to me because my Godparents are both practitioners and I once went on a Dzogchen retreat (even though I know bugger all about it)

18:56 / 21.05.08

I just read through the Wikipedia entries on it also (well, yesterday)!

15:06 / 22.05.08

I've been browsing a little more about "Le Bossu" and its movie incarnation and found out something which was not clear in the first entries I read:

The KNIGHT, Lagardère, actually DISGUISES himself as a Hunchback to INFILTRATE the villain's domain and pretending to work for him...

Could this be the "stupid cheap mask"? One of the crazy clues we'd never work out? Or just another red-herring?

Red. And black.

15:13 / 22.05.08

Oooh, we're in that territory where speculation starts to look like spoilers.

16:55 / 22.05.08

Oh and Le Bossu is nowhere to be seen on the cover to 680...

There's Batman, Robin, Krakken, Scorpiana, Sombrero, Kelly, Caligula and Lunaire, but no Le Bossu. And also a glimpse of a figure in a black suite with white gloves: Hurt or...?

17:50 / 22.05.08

I could really go out on a limb and say that if the hunchback here *is* really a good guy pretending to be a bad guy, working for Bruce, there's always the infamous Harold, the mute hunchback weird dude who used to help out with Batcave and Batmobile mechanics. But I think he died a few years ago... still, "dead" in comics is always very much in quotes. Although I think this theory is ludicrous, let the record state.

18:11 / 22.05.08

In a thread were Batman's ultimate villain has been posed as, variously, Alfred, Robin, Batman, King Tut, Thomas Wayne, Batman, B.A.T.C.O.M.P.U.T.E.R. and others, I don't think you have to distance yourself from any speculation, Finder.

Phex: Dorset Doom

18:12 / 22.05.08

He died in the Hush arc as I recall, after Hush used his surgical magics to de-hunch him to get him to betray Batman. Fun fact: the hunch was not only removed from Harold's back but from the DCU completely, and now reside in our universe, where it is currently writing the new Titans series.

21:16 / 22.05.08

i really hope our friend and mentor grant 'your favourite aunt' morrison goes for all of the above. as for the hunchback being the knight though, letting the joker out has to count as a pretty risky strategy.

22:53 / 22.05.08

Risky? Not for someone suffering from Multiple Personality Disorder and who is simultaneously Batman, the Hunchback and the Black Glove

Am I kidding or do I really think this may be a possibility?

Uatu.is.watching

15:32 / 23.05.08

Don't forget Matches Malone, too.

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