Comic Books

> > 674
BATMAN #674


Price: $2.99
iFanboy Community Pick of the Week Percentage: 0.9%

Reviews

UserAddedSpoilers
ZombiePanda03/15/08YesRead Review
Superyan03/13/08YesRead Review
cylonpete03/03/08YesRead Review
batman02/27/08YesRead Review
309
Pulls
Avg Rating: 3.7
 
Users who pulled this comic:
 

Comments

  1. flapjaxx says:
    February 25, 2008 at 6:50 pm

    Really, really looking forward to this. The Morrison run has been very (purposely?) uneven, but it seems like many answers have to be revealed in this issue.

  2. alexhoward says:
    February 25, 2008 at 10:34 pm

    Feel like I need to flip through this again to fan the fires of rightuous indignation.  I have disliked Morrison’s run almost as much as I expected to.  His Batman has little to do with the Batman that I’ve spent the last 15 years reading.  Though it seems to have less to do, surprisingly, with the fact that Grant Morrison is nuts and more to do with laziness for being unfamiliar with the character.  I had such hope for the One Year Later Batman but that’s been pretty well crushed by everything but Dini’s Detective issues and some of Batman Confidential.  Oh, wait, that’s not-necessarily in continuity so that may or may not count.

  3. Avatar photo mistersizzle says:
    February 25, 2008 at 11:47 pm

    I haven’t enjoyed Morrison’s run to much, but will continue to pick it up as it is Batman after all.

  4. Avatar photo jmstump says:
    February 26, 2008 at 3:12 am

    When will the bad man writing this book quit keeping Batman hostage so that I can start reading it again.  This book has not been good in years which is sad.

  5. Balefuego says:
    February 26, 2008 at 9:54 am

    I loved the Batman & Son story and the League of Heroes arc too, but this Three Batmen story has been going on forever it seems like. (The 3 month interruption of the terrible Ra’s crossover didn’t help, but that’s not Grant’s fault).

     Going back and re-reading the issues (aside from the Ra’s ones), it’s a fine story it just has dragged on too long and needs to get to the point.

  6. Avatar photo Jim says:
    February 26, 2008 at 1:51 pm

    Overall, I haven’t found much to like in Morrison’s run.  The Batman & Son arc was tolerable– although I don’t know that we really needed Damien when we already had Tim and Dick– hey, if we wanted a petulant brat running around, Jason’s back, right?

    Anyway, I really didn’t like the League of Heroes arc, and I’m just closing my eyes and waiting for this current arc to be over.  Or a new writer on the book, whichever comes first.

    My favorite Batman book for the past several months has actually been Superman-Batman.

  7. flapjaxx says:
    February 26, 2008 at 3:47 pm

    @alexhoward: Why would you read a book you expected to dislike anyway?

    The "Batman & Son" issues were by far my least favorite of Morrison’s run so far.

    I can deal with the "3 Batmen" stuff being spread out as it has been. If there’s a shadowy group operating behind the scenes to kill Batman or drive him insane, it makes a lot more sense for them to just pop up one at a time, here and there, than it would for them to just confront Batman all at once. Obviously I understand that this isn’t the easiest way to please readers.

    But I love all the strange little referential details that aren’t explained. I love the mentioning of the "Black Casebook" a few issues ago. I love that he’s pulling up seemingly random things from ’40s and ’50s issues–I love researching those back issues and seeing the original material. There’s so much in the little details: from the graffiti in the earlier issues to even the references to the poetry of W.B. Yeats at one point. I think this is all really well thought out, and there’s a lot of deliberate audience misdirection going on.

    I love the inexplicable nature of Morrison’s run. The #666 issue was so far the best example of this. It’s such a non sequitur. You look at the issue and think, "Is this real? ‘Are these visions of things that WILL be or visions of things that MIGHT be’?" And people had the same reaction to last months issue: "Is this a hallucination Bruce is having? Is this something that he really did to Joe Chill? IS THIS REAL??" I love stories that throw reality into doubt like that! The whole run has been, it seems, deliberately confusing and difficult. I love that this is going on in the "flagship" title, being shoved in people’s faces like this!

  8. Avatar photo Muady says:
    February 26, 2008 at 4:07 pm

    Yea, I totally dig Morrison’s run. I agree that the greater concept could’ve done without the Ra’s Al Ghul interuption, but what’s he going to do about that?

    It is difficult, but not confusing in the least. It is only confusing if you are looking for answers that he hasn’t presented yet.  I, for one, am grateful that there is a writer out there that doesn’t want to tell the same benign stories over again in the easily consumable way we all already know(Dini’s). 

    And yes, I’m a sucker for self-reflexivity and meta-textuality, an aspect of Morrison’s work which walks hand in hand with his aproach that many see fault with. 

  9. Avatar photo jmstump says:
    February 26, 2008 at 10:32 pm

    The Ra’s Al Ghul storyline was painful.  I was really excited about "Batman and Son" but the ending was a total cop out.  Which is how I feel about most of Morrison’s stuff.  I’m really afraid to see what he does with Final Crisis.  At least that book is mostly going to be written by DC in the whole.

  10. Avatar photo Labor says:
    February 26, 2008 at 11:59 pm

    Nah. Morrison’s Batman has been some of the most visionary mainstream comics of the last five years. With the Club Of Heroes arc being the best self-contained arc in any comic series of all last year.

     

    Only the ho-hum action/adventure of the Ra’s Al Ghul arc has marred Morrison’s metatextual examination of the Batman’s mythology.

  11. Avatar photo PhantomPhrenemy says:
    February 27, 2008 at 11:03 am

    this is my favorite arc of Morrison’s run so far, I’m very interested and a bit worried about Batman’s future.  can’t wait to read this issue.

  12. Avatar photo Muady says:
    February 27, 2008 at 12:00 pm

    @jstump

    I hope you’re aware Final Crisis is going to be a Morrison story through and through, and much less of a collectively editorial effort than your average summer crisis.  Past interviews about it even put a great deal of emphasis on the fact that it’s Morrison’s story and that he was going to try to make it an out-of-continuity book if he couldn’t make it a Crisis. 

  13. Balefuego says:
    February 27, 2008 at 2:12 pm

    @flapjax

     I probably wouldnt have as much of a problem with the pacing if it wasn’t for the interruptions. Wasn’t there also that awful Grotesk fill in-arc somewhere too? As a straight run I have no doubt it reads great, but the fill-ins and sidetracks have turned the slow boil into a start-stop traffic jam.

  14. Avatar photo batman says:
    February 27, 2008 at 5:35 pm

    At first glance, I enjoyed #674 becuase Morrison is finally explaining the whole "3 Batmen"  thing. After the conclusion of this issue (without the death of Batman), I am really anticipating how the current story will lead to the upcoming "Batman R.I.P." story arc. Although Morrson’s run on Batman has not been my favorite (I have much more enjoyed Dini on Detective), but the last few issues have left me wanting more – and I like that. I give this issue a 3.5 out of 5.

  15. StPaulDoug says:
    February 27, 2008 at 7:50 pm

    Grant Morrison is the most overrated comic book writer in history. The fact that he’s on the character I’ve always liked the most is very painful. I realize he can do good work, but let’s face it — it’s been a while. And for the record, his prose Joker story a few months back was a hack job. Terrible. Morrison can’t shine Dini’s shoes.

  16. Avatar photo DocSamson says:
    February 28, 2008 at 8:07 pm

    I’ve gotta agree with the naysayers. Reading this book is akin to doing homework. I feel like I HAVE to do research in order to understand what’s going on. Now maybe if I wanted to spend an hour reading it, that’d be fine, but when I’ve got 15 minutes max to read one comic…I don’t think so.

  17. Avatar photo Muady says:
    February 28, 2008 at 11:18 pm

    Wow, I just read it. Now Morrison is hinting at trauma theory in a mainstream superhero book?! Outstanding. That is why I love Morrison: he treats comics like literature.

  18. Avatar photo Paradiddle says:
    February 29, 2008 at 2:48 pm

    I’m enjoying Morrison’s run, as well, and this issue was particularly good. His take on the character just feels fresh to me. There are at least 20 years’ worth of "classic" Batman stories for people to read if they don’t like what Morrison is doing, as well as Dini’s work on Detective (which I love, as well).

  19. Avatar photo Ilash says:
    March 1, 2008 at 12:47 pm

    This issue was incredible!

    After a boring first arc and an unreadably bad Joker prose issue, the three Batmen storyline is much more inline with what I expected from Grant Morrison – even if it has been annoyingly interrupted by stories both good (the League of Heroes) and not so good (Ra’s return). This is mainstream superhero comics at their freshest and most innovative. And if that means that it may take a few readings to really see what Morrison’s going for, then so be it because this is truly excellent stuff. This issue also sets up what is to come over the next few months (Batman RIP) and I for one cannot wait.

     

    As for Tony Daniel, I didn’t think much of his stuff when he did the Teen Titans a few yaers ago but hisworj here has been excellent, reminding me a lot of Graham Nolan. 

Leave a Comment