Comic Books

BATMAN, INCORPORATED #10

• When only one can survive, which will it be: the man or the bat?

Story by Grant Morrison
Art by Chris Burnham, Jason Masters, & Andrei Bressan
Colors by Nathan Fairbairn
Letters by DC Lettering
Cover by Chris Burnham, Nathan Fairbairn, & Jason Masters

Price: $2.99
iFanboy Community Pick of the Week Percentage: 3.2%
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  1. Hoping for some violent retribution now?!

  2. I may end up buying the variant for this. After seeing the whole wrap around cover, it is my least favorite of Chris Burnham’s work.

  3. Batman: Vengeance! 0_o

    As soon as Batman Inc. #13 will hit out the stores, we’ll all go back and re-read this Bat-Epic from all the way back in Batman and Son!

  4. I know Morrison will figure out to make Bruce not do this….But boy it’s hard to imagine how he iSN’T going to kill off Talia after this.

  5. Can I just say that I still think that there is a chance that Damian isn’t really dead?

    If you watch/read Grant Morrison interviews that pertain to his ongoing comics work, he tends to treat them as part of the story. Its an evolution from his early career interviews, which were usually given ‘in character’ (he actually talks about it in ‘SuperGods’). I think, in his mind, interviews are like extra story avenues, maybe even part of the overall plot itself (if you think back to ‘Animal Man’, that kinda makes sense). Ergo, he often lies and misleads in order to preserve the plot he’s crafting. For our part as readers/fans, we consume the interviews along with the story, so it totally works on us, creating a collage of reality and fiction, the kind of idea that permeates all of Morrison’s work.

    Case in point: does anyone remember the interview where he said that the revelation of Dr. Hurt’s true identity would be “the biggest shock in this comic for 70 years”? That was around the time when fans were speculating as to whether or not Dr. Hurt was actually Thomas Wayne (Bruce’s father). Now, Hurt’s eventual revelation certainly wasn’t the biggest shock in 70 years, was it? But the idea got us all talking.

    Anyway, with Damian’s graphic, on-panel death and Bruce’s discovery of the body, we’re almost re-creating ‘Final Crisis’ here (except Batman, the Ubermensch, went out fighting a God and Damian, the child, went out fighting his future self). Self consciously exposing the reader to the body (thus directly violating the old comics edict of ‘no body = no death’), is another technique eerily reminiscent of ‘Final Crisis’. Plus, the ‘Batman Inc’ Issue 8 cover came straight out of ‘Batman R.I.P’…and did Batman die in that story?

    So, when Grant claims in interviews that he was always going to kill Damian, I think we have to consider that he’s actually just leading us up the garden path again.

    Whatever happens, we’ll definitely find out by the end of Grant’s run in ‘Incorporated’ Issue 13 and, although I’m 95% sure that Damian is dead, there are definitely windows through which he could return.

    Just something to think about.

  6. I wonder if the Damian that was killed was even the real Damian? Who knows how many Damian clones there are and who is even the real one? My guess is if they bring him back one day they will see he is the real Damian and the one that was killed was a clone all along.

    • *they will SAY he is the real Daiman….*

    • That sounds plausible.

    • I didn’t write the story, nor can I see the future, but I’m confident that the Damian that was killed is the same Damian we’ve been reading about since 655. Talia shows him the clone in B&R sort of as an “all-in” move that doesn’t work. Then in Batman: The Return, when Damian first meets the Heretic (his clone) he says something like, “you will know me in the end” and Talia told Bruce that it will be the clone, not Damian, that brings on the end of the world (Bruce’s dream). These things point to the idea that Damian’s demise is real. There are ways to reverse it, but I think its a done deal for now. All the future (Batman 666, time and the bat, ect) Damian stuff is where it all gets tricky for me, and points me in the direction that there’s something up Morrison’s sleeve in these last few issues. Guess we will all find out soon enough.

    • Well we know that in order to be a better Batman for Gotham, Damian made a pact with the Devil…

      Maybe he came back from Hell to take up the mantle!?

      It’s a long shot, but it would be Damian to tell fuck you to Satan in his face! 😉

    • Oh, I think we will get Damian, the boy, back at some point. He will either be resurrected in a Lazarus Pit, or he will be another clone. But I think when they do bring him back, he will be evil and an enemy of Batman instead of a crimefighter. That would seriously mess with Bruce and the whole Bat-family.

  7. Considering that a certain 90s bat-hero is getting his new52 debut here, i wonder if any other much-asked for characters will show up…:)

  8. Man the fill in artist on this issue really kind of killed it for me.

  9. ***POSSIBLE SPOILERS***

    ‘The Fatherless’ is also the future Damian. I can’t believe I didn’t see it when it was staring me in the face for so long.

    The best hiding place is in plain sight after all, I guess.

    • so the clone who killed Batman is the future batman in 666?

    • I mean Damian …

    • That’s what Morrison’s suggesting.

      I’m still not convinced.

      But that’s probably just because I enjoy 666 Batman so much that I want it to be Damian.

    • Yeah, I loved Batman 666. There is no way the Clone could be redeemed like that. Of course that’s what I had said about Damian.

    • I’m pretty convinced right now, I have to say.

      However, in my heart of hearts, I still really want Damian to either not be dead or to return to life.

      If you imagine that ‘Fatherless = Future Damian’ and go back and read all the ‘666’ stories, about the only thing that doesn’t follow are the flashbacks to Robin kneeling by Batman’s body. In fact, the stories make a little bit more sense.

      Sadly (and I really hope not), the villainous ‘Bat-Devil’ in the story ‘Bethlehem’ could be a resurrected Damian.

      Anyway, I really hope I’m wrong, because I just want Damian back.

      >Tt<

  10. Great issue, fantastic final page.

  11. Avatar photo PymSlap (@alaska_nebraska) says:

    Jumping on with this issue! Morrison is one of my favorite writers and hearing him promote it as ‘Batman out for revenge’ is tantalizing.

  12. Holy Moses that was awesome.

  13. Aw shit. Next issue is gonna be bonkers.

    Everything is falling into place. The word “epic” gets thrown around a lot nowadays. This is already a legendary run, but if Morrison sticks this landing, it will stand apart as a Batman story that deserves to be described as epic.

  14. Confusing, over the top, but not boring… in other words, typical Grant Morrison!

    • what was confusing?

    • Morrison’s very style is confusing. He dumps you into the middle of a conversation between two characters, never wraps the conversation up, then dumps you into the middle of another scene between completely different characters. There are never any transitions and the whole thing is like a puzzle. It’s like you are given random pieces and you pretty much put the story together yourself. Some people like this but until you just accept it, it can be annoying.

    • Although i agree with you Grant Morrisons writing can be confusing at times i didnt find this issue in particular or this story arc so far that confusing but to each his own, i tottally get where your coming from

  15. Woof this was bad.

    Having so many artists fill in for Burnham is disorienting and hurting the finale of this. Masters seems to be getting worse and having yet a third person on pencils doesn’t help. What Burnham brings here is fantastic but unfortunately it feels like we’re getting less and less of it. The story was alright but now it seems we’re going into crazytown with Morrison. Like it we got to see Azrael come back into the universe though.

    2/5

  16. Another great issue. It’s always exciting when a long running story is about to wrap up. Morrison nailed the wrap up of Return of Bruce Wayne so hopefully he can do something similar here.

    I agree the fill-in art is hurting the series a bit. The New 52 run (though I don’t really consider it a New 52 book) of Batman Inc. would make a beautiful collection if Burnham had the time to do the whole thing or at least entire issues at a time. Nothing against any particular artist, it’s just the nature of mid-issue fill-ins being jarring in most cases.

  17. So I came of reading this jazzed up and ready for Bruce to kick some major ass. Then, I let it gel a little and had a couple of problems with this. First, the fill-in art, as others have noted, hurts it a bit. Not a deal-breaker, but inconsistent. The second problem I had is that Bruce injecting himself with Langstrom’s formula seems out of character. Almost as out of character as Tomasi having him dissect Frankenstein in an effort to figure out a way to bring Damien back. Sure, I know Bruce is loading up with the Azrael armor, the exo suit, and the Man-Bat formula. He’s loaded for bear, as they say. But using any kind of chemical enhancement seems weird given his past experience with venom. It seems like something Bruce would never do.

  18. I wish I knew what Morrison is drawing for the variant.

  19. I realise this may be the nerdiest thing ever put down into writing but did anyone try to follow the chess game in Ra’s (Ra’s’s?) cell? The fact that Morrison included a diagram along with the “overlooking one detail” dialog and apparent coup de-grace move by Ra’s makes me think that it’s an actually playable sequence. All the pieces are correctly placed between scenes and seems to begin with white rook taking the black pawn on b2, the dark knight takes the queen off the board at g5 (very apropos) and then…?

    • I would suggest going back to Batman & Ra’s chess game in ‘Son of the Demon’ by Mike W. Barr & Jerry Bingham. If that was an actual chess game, then it is entirely possible that Grant would continue to play it out to its logical conclusion (it fits the story perfectly). If so, then that may be the early stages of the same game. I tend to pay attention to stuff like that too, so you’re not entirely alone, Mr. Crisis.

  20. Can’t wait to see how this all wraps up.

  21. Finally got around to reading this today. The jumps in artstyle detracted from the issue but damn was it interesting to read.

    It’s been said before but hot damn, Morrison is creating one hell of a run here. The few stumbles this series has had so far is outweighed by all the comic bookey greatness it offers.

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