BATMAN AND ROBIN #15

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Written by GRANT MORRISON
Art by FRAZER IRVING
Cover by FRANK QUITELY
Variant cover by FRAZER IRVING

Size: 32 pages
Price: 2.99

This review contains spoilers, click here to read

I don't know how he does it.

Magic, maybe.

Yeah, must be magic.

Morrison's always going back and making little connections among his plot threads. A throwaway line from two years ago ends up foreshadowing an entire issue today. A recurring theme gets a totally new and unexpected spin.

I wish I'd known that two years ago, when, in the wake of Nolan's The Dark Knight, I got back into comics. I started picking up three titles: Daredevil, Detective, and Batman. Detective made me think, "This Paul Dini's good." Daredevil had me saying, "This Ed Brubaker's great."

And Batman made me shout out loud, "What the *%$#& is going on?"

This was in the middle of the R.I.P. arc. Bruce was running around in a purple, yellow and red costume. Bat-Mite was whispering things in his ear. Thomas Wayne wasn't dead after all.

Garbage, I said.

Then I discovered the online comics community. "Grant Morrison is a genius," people were saying. "Better than Alan Moore." "People who don't like his comics just don't get it." Say what?

Two years later, I've read R.I.P., Final Crisis, the Final Crisis aftermath issues of Batman, the full run of Batman and Robin, the first five issues of The Return of Bruce Wayne, and various other odds and ends.

Now I get it.

I realize a lot of people don't. And that's fine. I would never tell them they're wrong. A lot of people say the problem is that "Morrison gives his readers credit for being smart." I don't like that explanation at all. The implication is that Morrison's detractors aren't smart. I think, rather, that Morrison's run on Batman is like a great serialized TV series, like LOST. The greatness of an episode isn't intrinsic to the episode itself, but depends on the way it ties in to the broader tapestry that's been woven by the entire run of the series. Show the best episodes of LOST to someone who hasn't followed the series, and they'll have no bloody clue what's going on. None at all. Which means they won't enjoy it. And that doesn't mean that person lacks intelligence. You simply can't enjoy discovering a solution when you don't know what the mystery is.

There are so many payoffs to so many mysteries here. Dr. Hurt's plan. Damian's deal with the devil. The nature of Barbatos. The nature of Hurt. Bruce's return. And, just like on LOST or the X-Files, as many mysteries are left unsolved. How did Bruce actually get back? What's the Joker's role in all this? Or Professor Pyg's? How will the contagious addiction be cured? And all this mystery-mongering and tapestry-weaving happens in the context of a terrific story about super-heroes defeating the villains. The dialog is fantastic: Morrison knows how to avoid being on the nose better than almost any writer in comics.

Frazer Irving's art is exactly right, too. Moody, atmospheric, creepy, emotional, and well-choreographed. I like this just as much as the work Quitely did on the first arc.

Irving also did a nice reproduction of Bruegel's 'The Triumph of Death'. Eerily, I just changed my desktop to that very painting yesterday, the day before this comic was released. And that change had nothing to do with the last issue of this series, which also bore that title. I was just feeling like a change, and settled on that image, unaware of what it was called.

So now Morrison is even making connections to things going on in my own life. How does he do it?

Must be magic.

Story: 5 - Excellent
Art: 5 - Excellent

Comments

froggulper says:

October 21, 2010 at 12:17 am

Great review. Glad you put in the reading necessary to enjoy the current issues after being turned off initially.

I agree in general about what you said regarding how it’s not that people who don’t like GM’s Batman are "stupid" or whatever or that those who like it must be "smart". I would say it’s not a matter of intelligence (of which there are different types anyway), but it’s a matter of the work that the reader puts in. It isn’t that GM’s Batman rewards you for being "smart", but it rewards you for…reading…reading closely and actively. That seems a fair deal to me, but I can understand why that experience isn’t for some people, who want more straightforward entertainment, and of course that’s their choice and it’s fine.

But the situation does get kinda frustrating to see some people understand and enjoy certain, obvious crowd-pleasing elements about GM’s Batman ("Crowbar!)"), but then they’re blind to all the under-lying goodness that you only see after a critical reading or two. You don’t blame the other reader; but you just wish more people would "get" it so they can see all the neat stuff you’re seeing. That’s how I feel.

But…So many neat touches and callbacks in this issue. Pyg is "Thomas Wayne’s" lawyer in this issue, and last issue Hurt told Pyg he’d make a good lawyer. And Hurt last issue was practicing shooting vegetables to make the smallest hole, and in this issue he shoots Dick in such a way that he doesn’t get instantly killed.

btw, Don’t know if you have them, but be sure to reading "Batman & Son", "The Black Glove", Batman 670 & 671, and 52 #30 & #47. Those are the things pre-RIP that are relevant to the run. (And kinda "Batman: Gothic".)

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robbydzwonar says:

October 21, 2010 at 12:26 am

I was so hoping that this would be the end of the story, especially since BW The Road Home already started last week!! I was absolutely loving it for a while, but aren’t they kinda dragging this out a bit?

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Franktiger says:

October 21, 2010 at 1:17 am

Pretty envious but glad actually you guys have been able tie it all together to see all the ‘underlying goodness’ that others who might not be following the details so closely seem to be blind to. I’ve tried to enjoy Morrison’s stuff, as I don’t consider myself as just wanting straightforward entertainment, and I do consider myself an active reader, but his writing has rarely failed to confuse the shit outta me, and the frustration that results leads to a less enjoyable reading experience….until this book, which by itself was able to hold its own as a stand-alone issue, with what I thought was minimal enough cryptic dialogue from Morrison that is usually the stuff that turns me off about his writing, but I guess is the kinda stuff that peeps who get it and have been following closer than I have like.

Btw: the blood-curdling scream Damian lets out when Joker takes his muzzle off in the beginning really sets the tone, that was awesome.

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ResurrectionFlan says:

October 21, 2010 at 5:58 am

I only started reading this with Batman & Robin #1. Needless to say I don’t really have a clue about what is going on. What was in the box? It was pretty unclear to me?

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daccampo says:

October 21, 2010 at 1:07 pm

Y’know, I only really ever take issue with the fact that people seem to lump Morrison detractors into one category – as people who don’t like to/want to "work for the story."

There’s a bit of a passive-aggressiveness here, as no one actually states this outright, but the idea is that "if you read it closely, you’ll see that it’s great." It suggests that anyone who doesn’t think it’s great hasn’t been reading closely.

My issues with Morrison have NOTHING to do with a critical reading to the material or a lack of understanding. I’ve watched Morrison change his storytelling style, change the way he cuts scenes, and change the pacing of his stories. And I have found some of the changes to be lacking. This has nothing to do with a lack of understanding of the larger picture, the symbolism, or the overarching themes. I’ve simply found points at which his storytelling is offputting to me as a reader.

That said: this Batman and Robin series actually seemed to shift away from a bit of what bothered me previously, and I’ve been enjoying this series quite a bit. In fact, I’ve also been enjoying his Bruce Wayne time travel story.

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Neb says:

October 21, 2010 at 1:50 pm

daccampo swoops in with an excellent retort as always. I am not a Morrison detractor by any stretch. Love RIP, JLA, and other stories, but this series has just completely lost me. And its not a matter of not putting in the work. I re-read a majority of the series when the last issue came out.

My issue with this series has to do with the fact that his storytelling relies too much on me catching the nuances and not enough time actually telling the story. I feel like he’s being too clever to the detriment of the story. I don’t mind having little nods here and there to previous things (like the ones mentioned in your review), but when I have to read every issue with a microscope and a notebook with detailed notes of the previous issues, it takes away from my overall enjoyment. And I’m glad that people enjoy it and that he’s a creator that pushes the envelope. But as much as I appreciate that, he still frustrates me sometimes with the way he constructs his stories.

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ScorpionMasada says:

October 21, 2010 at 7:20 pm

I’ve read nine issues of this run. Thought that four of the nine issues were excellent but they were not mind blowing on some literary criticism type shit.

So not only do I agree with daccampo, I’ll one up him and say that as far as I can tell (I haven’t read R.I.P. or Final Crisis) the multifaceted mindblowing substance that cats are claiming his Batman books have, isn’t there.

It might be rich continuity, which can be very rewarding, but I haven’t read anything in this run that has changed how I view super hero dynamics, comics, storytelling or literary conventions.

There is definitely excellent characterization, character moments, dialogue, plot lines and action scenes. But I think even Morrison detractors should be able to see that.

Nevertheless, djd’s review was awesome and his explanation about the rewards of and impenetriability of continuity was perfectly executed.

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Cedric says:

October 22, 2010 at 5:08 am

Great review. I liked how you settled the differences between Morrison-lovers and haters. You would be a great diplomat!

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BATMAN AND ROBIN #15

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