Grant Morrison's Batman run - any good?

Elodan · Aug 21, 2009

I've seen mixed reviews on this. Looking for some ENWorlder feedback to help decide if I should pick it up.

Thanks.

Pour · Aug 21, 2009

You could skip all of Batman R.I.P. and not miss much. I personally didn't care for it. It was overly complicated, had more than a few dead-end and dangling plots, and every time he used an iconic character it felt off, strange, or just plain wrong. The end is a total cop-out, too.

However, Morrison's work on Batman and Robin (which I think is up to issue 3 this month) has been pretty stellar. I'm not sure how much you know about the recent goings-on in the bat universe, but this tackles Batman and Robin in the wake of Batman R.I.P. I find Morrison starts to feel more at home in this series. We get some good action, some funny moments, and some real gruesome ones too, as well as some legitimate drama. There is a really twisted new villain introduced, as well.

Klaus · Aug 21, 2009

Pour has it right. The lead-up to the new status quo was so-so, but Batman & Robin is very good (specially with Frank Quitely on art). That being said, most of the recent Batman and Superman books have been consistetly entertaining.

Elodan · Aug 23, 2009

Pour said:
You could skip all of Batman R.I.P. and not miss much. I personally didn't care for it. It was overly complicated, had more than a few dead-end and dangling plots, and every time he used an iconic character it felt off, strange, or just plain wrong. The end is a total cop-out, too.

However, Morrison's work on Batman and Robin (which I think is up to issue 3 this month) has been pretty stellar. I'm not sure how much you know about the recent goings-on in the bat universe, but this tackles Batman and Robin in the wake of Batman R.I.P. I find Morrison starts to feel more at home in this series. We get some good action, some funny moments, and some real gruesome ones too, as well as some legitimate drama. There is a really twisted new villain introduced, as well.

Pretty much have no idea what's going on in the bat-universe. I generally just pick trades by authors I like, such as Morrison, Geoff Johns and Mark Millar as well as the characters I'm interested in (both on the DC and Marvel sides). I see a trade for Batman & Robin on Amazon, maybe I'll wait for that.

Klaus · Aug 23, 2009

Elodan said:
Pretty much have no idea what's going on in the bat-universe. I generally just pick trades by authors I like, such as Morrison, Geoff Johns and Mark Millar as well as the characters I'm interested in (both on the DC and Marvel sides). I see a trade for Batman & Robin on Amazon, maybe I'll wait for that.

[sblock]
Bruce Wayne is dead. Darkseid hit him with his Omega Sanction at the end of Final Crisis. Superman recovered the corpse.
To prevent the Bat-mantle from being tarnished by the psychotic Jason Todd or to prevent the world at large from realizing that The Batman was just a man, the task fell to one man to honor his deceased mentor.
Dick Grayson is the new Batman. As his Robin he chose not the best candidate (that'd be Tim Drake Wayne) but the one that needs mentoring the most: Damian Al Ghul, son of Bruce Wayna and Talia Al Ghul.
Across town, Catwoman, Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn are now sharing a condo.
Meanwhile, Thomas Elliot (aka "Hush") is now impersonating Bruce Wayne (thanks to some cosmetic surgery he underwent a while ago).
Everyone thinks he's gone mad with grief, but Tim Drake knows best: he thinks Bruce Wayne is still alive! He takes on the role of Red Robin and is crisscrossing the world in search of evidence, with the help of none other than Ra's Al Ghul.
And finally, former Robin Stephanie Brown (aka "Spoiler") has taken on the role of Batgirl, much to Barbara Gordon's chaggrin.
[/sblock]

The Serge · Aug 24, 2009

[sblock]I thought Spoiler was dead...[/sblock]

Klaus · Aug 24, 2009

Dr. Leslie Thompkins faked her death to "teach Batman a lesson". It didn't take him long to find out the truth, but kept it from Tim. Meanwhile, Leslie and Stephanie went to Africa, where Stephanie discovered that she was indeed born for the vigilante life, when saving a village from warlords. She has since returned to Gotham.

Doug McCrae · Aug 25, 2009

I thought Morrison's run was good but far from essential, nothing like his best work. He does what he has done on All Star Superman, JLA, and his uncredited single issue of the Authority featuring Seth - updates the Silver Age for today's world. This was a good move imo, you don't see the 50s/early 60s Batman referenced much these days. Morrison gives us his take on wacky, weird SA ideas such as the Batmen of Many Nations, the classic Robin Dies At Dawn and the bizarre Batman of Zur-En-Arh. I thought his cleverest stuff was the in the first issue of his run. There's a scene in a pop art exhibition and Grant has the paintings comment on the real world action. Postmodern or what?

Overall good stuff, worth getting if you're a fan of his work. Buy one TPB and see if you like it. Imo the quality remains pretty constant throughout the run. One severe drawback to the last arc is that it's one of those comic crossovers so the story is very disjointed if you only read Batman. I don't know if the TPB prints the whole story or not.