BATMAN #680

Review by: Mart

What did the
iFanboy
community think?

622
Pulls
Avg Rating: 3.8
 
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Size: pages
Price: 2.99

This review contains spoilers, click here to read

Story: 5 - Excellent
Art: 5 - Excellent
 

Comments

  1. Avatar photo WadeWilson says:
    October 3, 2008 at 6:58 am

    I agree, this will read ALOT better in trade.

  2. Avatar photo Titanesque says:
    October 3, 2008 at 12:36 pm

    BINGO – you see? Grant Morrison doesn’t understand the nature of a narrative. Best part of this issue – Forked tongue – NICE! Hope it sticks. Worst part – This reviewer doesn’t know where the action of the book was taking place – Arkham Asylum, not Wayne Manor. It’s not the reviewer’s fault. It’s Grant Morrison’s "Go back and read my run from issue #1" attitude that I can’t stomach. Look at the Wikipedia entry. No one can properly explain who these random ass weirdoes are that make up the black glove. And, let’s clarify, how many random people at this point know that Bruce Wayne is Batman including the Joker? Commissioner Gordon meets the son of Batman and Talia Al Ghul who randomly happen to be at Wayne manner? Morrison clearly wants to topple the franchise by sticking his flag in it; and all he’s doing is begging for a retcon. Let it come, Grant, because despite what the iFanboys believe, you are the worst thing to happen to DC since I’ve been reading week-to-week. 

  3. Avatar photo flaggthecat says:
    October 3, 2008 at 4:03 pm

    @Titanesque: I think it’s grossly unfair to accuse Grant Morrison of not understanding narrative. This story has had a sequence of events which unfold over a defined period of time (that is, moving forward chonoligically, as is most common in storytelling). There’s a particular group of people who are the actors, with some of them well known, others more mysterious. The action has occured in determinable places: Mart’s confusion about Wayne Manor/Arkham Asylum aside, it’s possible to establish where things happened by means of evidence in the comic. Have those three things in some form, and you have a narrative.

    The confusion people feel is so clearly intentioned by Morrison that I don’t think anyone’s claimed otherwise. There seems to be more ground for argument about whether or not the cause and effect of things were understood by the author and gradually made known to the reader, if it will all "make sense in the end" or not–but I think it’s also reasonably clear that Morrison knows what he’s doing as a writer. Elements of the story have been revealed at the times Morrison intended, even if people had to work to interpret the clues, and in the end, I don’t think there will be much doubt as to what happened in the arc. The storytelling may be complex (and people have a right not to like it), but the story itself really isn’t.

  4. Avatar photo ActualButt says:
    October 3, 2008 at 10:22 pm

    @flaggthecat, yeah, you’re right. you just said everything that i forgot to say in my review of this issue.

  5. Avatar photo lmiller31 says:
    October 4, 2008 at 1:21 am

    I’m fairly certain that the reader is supposed to (at least partially) be experiencing the same confusion that Batman is experiencing, which is why no one knows what the hell is going on here, because Batman doesn’t either. I think we’ll only get all the answers when and if Bruce gets all the answers. A lot of people probably won’t like it if they don’t get all the answers, and say its a cop out by Morrison and that he probably didn’t have everything figured out himself. But, honestly, for a run where the threads have been woven since the beginning of ‘Batman and Son’ back in issue #655, does anyone really think he’s just making this up as he goes?

  6. Avatar photo Mart says:
    October 4, 2008 at 5:40 am

    @Titanesque, thanks for the clarification – I’m an inattentive sod.

    As for everyone knowing Bruce’s secrets, I think we can expect a nice big explosion . . .

  7. Avatar photo WadeWilson says:
    October 4, 2008 at 9:52 am

    You guys are right about Morrison deliberately writing to confuse the reader … what confuses me is the number of people who enjoy this. I find it very frustrating & annoying to read … but maybe that’s the intention.

    *shrug*

  8. Avatar photo JumpingJupiter says:
    October 5, 2008 at 4:09 am

    "I’m fairly certain that the reader is supposed to (at least partially) be experiencing the same confusion that Batman is experiencing"

    Yes, as evidenced by Batman’s asking Bat-Mite if he’s real or not. Had that been clearly established in issue 2 we wouldn’t have all this griping.

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