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BATMAN RETURN OF BRUCE WAYNE #4 (OF 6)

Grant Morrison’s can’t-miss Batman story rolls on as Bruce Wayne’s next stop on his amazing journey through time brings him to the Wild West – but will he escape alive? Artist Cameron Stewart (BATMAN AND ROBIN) joins Morrison to take The Dark Knight on a ride!

Written by GRANT MORRISON
Art by GEORGES JEANTY
Cover by ANDY KUBERT
Variant cover by CAMERON STEWART

Price: $3.99
iFanboy Community Pick of the Week Percentage: 0.6%

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Comments

  1. Avatar photo TheNextChampion says:
    July 26, 2010 at 2:46 pm

    Well DC never got around to changing the solict. Stewart infamously dropped out and Georges Jeanty is doing it instead.

    That guy must be a work horse cause he finished this quicker then I expected. He only had, what, less then a month to get this out? Worried it might look a bit too rushed.. 

  2. Avatar photo misterckent says:
    July 26, 2010 at 2:57 pm

    For these, it’s all about the writing anyway.  I also like the Elseworld flair it has to it.

  3. Avatar photo wallythegreenmonster says:
    July 26, 2010 at 3:20 pm

    So i have to admit. I checked out of this series earlier on getting frustrated with Morrison’s writing. After reading Kater’s article on "slowing down" i went back reread them at a slower pace, and picked up the last issue that i had missed (it was constatnly starring at me when i went to my LCS!!). I seem to enjoy the series now that i’ve been able to read 3 issues in a row and i’m looking forward to this next one. 

    I do have some nitpicks, but overall its pretty good.  

  4. Avatar photo OnASunday says:
    July 26, 2010 at 3:28 pm

    Good, I don’t really care for Stewart anyway.

  5. MisterJ says:
    July 26, 2010 at 4:00 pm

    Let’s keep the crazy train rolling!

  6. Avatar photo JimBilly4 says:
    July 26, 2010 at 4:28 pm

    These are definitely not all about the writing. I have been really enjoying them because they have been some solid Morrison weirdness, mixed with amazing art. Next up Batman as the Man with No Name vs. Jonah Hex for a ball’s out bad ass off. I assume he maintains at least a partial gun phobia. Hope he has the sense not to bring a batarang to a gun fight.

  7. Avatar photo glunders says:
    July 26, 2010 at 4:33 pm

    Jeez, what kind of a crazy person doesn’t "really care for Stewart anyway?" :p

  8. Avatar photo DarkKnightJared says:
    July 26, 2010 at 4:36 pm

    Batman vs. Jonah Hex? I’m SO there. 😀

  9. Avatar photo stasisbal says:
    July 26, 2010 at 5:45 pm

    It seems like Stewart was just moved over to Batman & Robin 16.  I don’t think a Grant Morrison story is ever all about the writing.  You need a good artist who can keep up with and coherently present the way Morrison paces his stories.  Some artists definitely work with Morrison better than others.

    Actually, as far as I’m concerned a comic book is NEVER all about the writing, no matter how good or imaginative the writer is, because the art is such a massive part of the storytelling.

  10. Avatar photo balsalm says:
    July 26, 2010 at 6:22 pm

    Hex vs Bats! Only one can survive, but both probably will.

  11. froggulper says:
    July 26, 2010 at 6:53 pm

    I totally forgot about who the artist was on this. Hopefully it will be a solid replacement. Yeah, this series is more about the writing in a sense, but for me it’s seemed like a great showcase of art talent as well. Sure wish Cam Stewart could have drawn B&R #16 AND this.

    @wally: Good to hear. Yeah, slowing down (and rererereading) definitely helps me appreciate (most) Morrison comics more. There’s a heck of a lot of references and slight clues going on in all of his Batman work, and it only helps to read the entire run a few times through; that might sound like work, but there’s a tipping point after which it starts becoming really fun and obsessively awesome. For me anyway. It’s obviously not everybody’s thing. And like a few people have mentioned, even as a big fan of Morrison’s whole Bat-saga, I haven’t been exactly over-the-moon about RoBW. Still good enough, though.

  12. Avatar photo wallythegreenmonster says:
    July 26, 2010 at 7:38 pm

    @froggulper–well i think the key for me, was to read all 3 in one sitting. It made more sense that way, as some of the clues were more fresh in my mind. The break between issues is frustrating as well as the non satisfaction i’d get from it. I think Morrison is only readable (for me) in collected form where you can read several chapters at once. I read the first Batman and Robin trade the same way and dug it, although i don’t think i would have wanted to deal with it in issue form. 

  13. Avatar photo NawidA says:
    July 27, 2010 at 6:12 pm

    I really dug #2 but not really #3 very much. This one has Jonah Hex though.

  14. Avatar photo WinTheWonderboy says:
    July 28, 2010 at 12:46 pm

    Yay!!!

  15. Avatar photo TheNextChampion says:
    July 28, 2010 at 3:35 pm

    So could this be the worst thing Grant Morrison has done this year or of all time?

    I’m not even confused with what was going on, this was just bad writing from page one. If you’re going to use Jonah Hex then you better use him right. Here he’s delicated to a background role for the ENTIRE issue and that was pissing me off. Morrison didn’t seem to get a grasp at Western speek cause it felt so hollow to read.

    Scratch that, I was confused with this issue. Mainly because Jeanty did a piss-poor job here. I know he was rushed to get this done but…..I’d rather have a late issue to see ‘good’ Jeanty art then this. Characters were off model the entire issue, facial expressions were always ‘smiles’ even at the dark bits, and the panel layouts and structures were a joke. Jeanty might be good at Buffy by looking at DVD box art but doing a Western comic he can’t do.

    Just a horrible issue all around and this entire mini in general has been pretty blah. If it wasn’t for the cavemen/pirate issues being slightly better then this (and #2) then I would say ignore this mini entirely.

    1/5 (I would’ve given it a 0 if I could)

  16. Avatar photo Hexsas says:
    July 28, 2010 at 8:00 pm

    my least favorite of the series so far, the art matched the story by being bland and generic but not terrible.

  17. Avatar photo WheelHands says:
    July 28, 2010 at 11:35 pm

    I’ve loved this mini so far, but this was definitely the weakest issue. Both Jeanty and Morrison seemed rushed and phoned-in. I’ve enjoyed Jeanty over on Buffy, but this ranged from bland to sloppy. And Morrison just doesn’t grasp westerns or just got lazy with this one. Very little was done to move the plot along, and the use of both Hex and Savage was pointless and out of character, which is strange considering how well GMo has written Savage in the past.

    I’m still on board though. Here’s hoping for a good #5.

  18. patch11001 says:
    July 29, 2010 at 7:32 am

    Can’t wait for Cap, er, Bats to get back to his own time. . .

  19. incredibledave says:
    July 29, 2010 at 8:44 am

    I wrote a review outlining my thoughts on this issue on this site, but I’ll just quickly say that I think the failure of this issue comes more from organizational problems beyond anyones direct control rather than the creators being lazy/untalented

  20. Avatar photo WilliamKScurryJr says:
    July 29, 2010 at 9:24 am

    The scripting was not good here. I didn’t have a clue what was going on, no idea of who the guy who wanted the box opened was, what the deal with the Randal Savage was, why Jonah Hex was here… any of it. And the Jeanty art, while cleanly laid out, was not particularly well rendered.

  21. Avatar photo stuclach says:
    July 29, 2010 at 9:35 am

    It is very hard for me to determine if the writing/scripting is bad or if the art was so poorly done that it made the story seem jumbled.  I think I understood the basic tale (I don’t think this is meant to be an incredibly complex story), but everything felt much messier than necessary.

    I can’t help but wonder what might have been… 

  22. Avatar photo drakedangerz says:
    July 29, 2010 at 11:45 am

    Easily the worst issue of the series, but not really all that hard to follow.

  23. Avatar photo comicBOOKchris says:
    July 29, 2010 at 2:33 pm

    This issue certainly had the most average art out of all the issues so far, but I don’t think that should dock points from this issue for that. The art wasn’t bad, it was just average and nothing special.

     

    Morrison gets what makes nihilistic and gritty westerns tick, but I feel that he didn’t get enough space to expand on that. It’s a shame, because you can tell that the seeds of a great spaghetti western are there, but not enough time is allowed to let the whole plant bloom. I still enjoyed what was here though, as from the gritty slaughter at the beginning to the mysterious silent gunman hero, this had the makings of a great western ala Sergio Corbucci. Plus, it did a good job in subtley filling in the blanks of the greater mystery that Morrison has been weaving.

  24. Avatar photo stasisbal says:
    July 29, 2010 at 8:48 pm

    I enjoyed the issue.  Certainly not the best of the series but it was a cool little western story with Batman that furthered the central mystery/conflict of the overall story.  I don’t understand everything that’s going on but I feel like I will when the series wraps up and I can read through each issue together.

    I do wonder if there was a bit of a coloring gaffe towards the end.  Dr. Thomas’ jacket was suddenly black rather than brown which confused him with the gentleman walking across the street a bit (even though their suits were somewhat different).

  25. Avatar photo Minion says:
    July 30, 2010 at 12:25 am

    …What the hell did I just read?

  26. Avatar photo robbydzwonar says:
    July 30, 2010 at 1:45 am

    Will somebody please explain to me what the hell happened in this issue?  I read it twice and I still can’t make out what the %#@* is going on!!!

  27. Avatar photo Malecema says:
    July 30, 2010 at 9:14 pm

    Ok good, I’m not the only one who couldn’t figure this one out…

  28. Buckeye1986 says:
    July 31, 2010 at 2:38 pm

    Have you guys read Morrison’s B&R and RIP?

    It’s all tied together. It should be easy to follow if you have been reading/read those.

  29. Buckeye1986 says:
    July 31, 2010 at 3:42 pm

    I’m not sure but I think in Final Crisis Metron gave Anthro a MotherBoxxx.

    that box sounds like a Motherboxxx since the girl mentions a “dark god” which is probably Darkseid.

  30. Avatar photo Minion says:
    July 31, 2010 at 3:46 pm

    Yes I read Batman and Robin and its crap too.

  31. Buckeye1986 says:
    July 31, 2010 at 5:40 pm

    Potential Motherboxxx, dark god Darkseid,Jonah Hex, Thomas Wayne, Vandal Savage, Bruce’s Ancestors, more clues about Barbatos,etc

     Great issue.

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