Posted on: July 20th, 2010 The State of the BAT-VERSE Pt. 2
I was recently asked by a potential suitor this question: if you could only read one comic book series for the rest of your life, which one would it be? Good question, eh? I mulled over the question, thinking about the poetry of Sin City, and the depth of imagery of Preacher and finally said, “Batman. It is the only logical conclusion. It goes on forever.”
This may be slightly cheating I guess, but the Bat-verse does go on forever, and it is continuing to forever go on as we speak. Right now, Bruce Wayne is head-butting his way through history and will inevitably kill us all with his doomsday-edness. Yes, I reserve the right to make up words when discussing Batman.
So what’s the state of the Bat-verse?
Neil Adams is delivering a 12 part series entitled Batman Odyssey. I’m not sure what it’s about because as soon as someone uses the word ‘matrix’ in a plot description, I stop reading and go do something else. I picked up the first issue, and Adams’ drawing of Bruce Wayne is kind of hot. Sometimes Bruce gets a little too square-jawed for my liking, but he’s done perfectly in this series. There’s a lesson on how guns are wrong and how Batman should be a sleuth, and Bruce yells at Man-Bat, and there may or may not be a dinosaur bone bomb? There are 11 more issues. It may make sense at some point. There is a higher likelihood that it will not make any sense at all.
Batman 701 is a two-parter entitled RIP The Missing Chapter. Now my comic book guy quipped that he didn’t even know there was a chapter missing, but I’ve read RIP and Final Crisis and Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader, and I can’t sort it all out. Picking up my copy of RIP, I was able to determine that Batman 701 fits nicely in between two frames near the last of the book. Bats goes missing, and then he’s dead, in RIP. In 701, he manages to check in at the bat-cave for some of Alfred’s signature mulligatawny, and heads off for some sleuthing, and it’s a ‘to be continued’. I’m not even kidding.
The Batman and Robin series continues to impress visually. Like really, if you’re a Joker fan, pick up issue 13 for the gorgeous yet disturbing cover alone. It saddens me that I know far too little about art to describe the techniques faithfully, but there are points were Robin reminds you of a little toy soldier nut-cracker doll (there’s a pun there, cause he’s gonna kick the Joker’s ass). I was worried about Frazer Irving’s art style, but he blended in the primary color simplicity of the series with some really messed up distorted imagery.
And what about The Return of Bruce Wayne? We are half way through the series, and I still am a giant MEH on the art. Issue one features prehistoric Batman. Of course, the cavemen think he’s a man-god and Bruce doesn’t disappoint, kicking some ass in a makeshift Bat-skin costume. Supes and his team arrive too late to catch Bruce, as he has disappeared into the next time shift. Apparently if Brucey makes it back to the 21st century, everyone dies.
Issue two features pilgrim Bruce, and a scathing social commentary on the tragedy of the witch trials and the toll man takes on nature. Yawn. Bruce makes out with a hot witch-pilgrim chick though. In issue three, we don’t actually get to see pirate Batman, except on the cover. Bruce does headbutt Blackbeard which is neat, and there is a special guest character at the end.
Philosophical question: is Bruce working his way back in time to set himself up to be the Batman? Or does the bat stuff bring Bruce back to his Batman-ness, so he can leave clues for Dick and Damian and the Justice League? What comes first, the bat or the Batman? Time travel makes me queasy.
Last month, there was a series of villain one shots called Joker’s Asylum. I’m not a villain fan, so I only picked up the Mad Hatter issue, and it was absolutely sublime! Must read for any Alice fans, or fans of general psychosis expressed in art.
I am slowly being distracted by Batman converse shoes, but I’ll quickly run down next week’s highlights. Comic book day will bring us the finale to the first half of Kevin Smith’s superb Batman:Widening Gyre, then we’re in for a six month wait for volume two (bastards). Batman: Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader is coming out in softcover, collecting Neil Gaiman’s two issues and some other junk. And Return of Bruce Wayne is back with issue four: COWBOY BATMAN! Note: It is not actually called COWBOY BATMAN, but it should be.
Oh there’s more, but I’m off to look at shoes.