First of all, if you think this issue had content that was “too sensitive” in light of the Aurora victims, you may as well think that the cover should be banned out of respect for people who die in fires. The allegedly offensive content has scarcely any commonalities with last month’s tragedy. I gave DC the benefit of the doubt when they said the pushback wasn’t due to scheduling, but now we find out that issues #4 and #5 have been pushed back as well, so this seems to be another case of Morrison’s Bat-comics running frustratingly slowly, even after a lot of lead-time.

I also have to point out how disappointed I was at an iFanboy’s suggestion that any retailers who didn’t hold this back are “jerks”. LCS owners had to buy this comic in advance and then voluntarily find space to store all copies of it for a month. We all know that comic series tend to sell fewer copies month in and month out — which means that fewer copies of this issue will sell through to the ever-shrinking customer base than would have sold last month. In other words, the LCS retailers (mostly small businesspeople) lost money on this while the big corporation soaked up positive media attention for being so “sensitive”, while also seamlessly obscuring the fact that Batman Incorporated was already going to be running behind schedule as of issue #4 (which was originally due out today but has been pushed back two months).

So instead of just taking DC’s word at face value, dutifully and gullibly believing that this issue was definitely “very offensive”, and following every media-directed behavior (not matter how irrational) just so long as the idea is not to “offend” anyone, maybe iFanboy could apologize to retailers for calling them “jerks”. I doubt it. Instead the next time something like this happens, maybe DC can mandate that everyone who buys their comics will have to sign a waiver promising not to commit any crimes that DC could be irrationally blamed for… and then iFanboy can post an editorial saying that the practice “sounds like a fair one”, “we can handle that”.

The actual content of the issue is, of course, excellent. This comic feels like a mash-up of old gangster movie tropes mixed with the creepy Lynch-ian surrealism that Morrison is known for. The Matches Malone character is used to great effect, and really the entire supporting cast shines. You get the distinct impression that Bruce & co. (literally, Batman and his “company”) are up against a colossal organization: they have slowly become enmeshed in a web of nefarious connections dating back to Morrison’s first work on the “Batman” title several years ago. It’s rare for contemporary comics to bring so much continuity to bear in such a tangible way.

Like no other current writer of superhero comics, Morrison’s panel-to-panel transitions and scene changes always seem to flow beautifully. This issue isn’t as much of a “channel-surfing” affair as, say, issue #2, but the reader’s attention is still driven around quite often, with a scene change usually occurring every couple of pages. And it should be noted that though Morrison dubbed his new style “channel surfing” around the time of Final Crisis, in practice it does read very much like a feature of comic books themselves rather than of television (in other words, it doesn’t seem to borrow from television in the way that “cinematic” comics borrow from movies).

Chris Burnham’s art is also very good. All the characters’ faces look so distinct and interesting. The two big bald golem-like henchmen look particularly great. As with Morrison’s multi-genre story, the art conveys a free-flowing sense of time and era, with the reader wondering “Are we in the ’70s? The ’30s? Over here it looks modern, but there is a creepy sense of nostalgia at times.” At least, that’s how I felt, and Burnham’s art really adds to the feel. When I first saw his work a few years ago in “Batman & Robin”, people were drawing comparisons to Frank Quitely. At the time, I agreed, and if Burnham’s style stayed just as it was it would have been fine. He seems to have grown into his own style more, however, and the change is a good one. Otherwise I’d have kept thinking, “Ah, this is nice but I wish it were the real Frank Quitely doing the art…”. The art does look a little scratchier in this issue, however, and I wonder if this is evidence of Burnham starting to rush a bit so as to keep up with the monthly schedule.

Regardless of all the frustrating and unnecessary controversy surrounding this issue, it remains just another example of Morrison’s Bat-saga: very, very good comic booking, far and away the most innovative of all mainstream superheroics going on today… even if it does take forever to come out.