This second issue of Return of Bruce Wayne offers much more in the way of substance than the first. Those fanboys criticizing the lack of story in the first installment should feel rewarded for sticking with it. There's a whole lot of Morrison goodness to chew on this time around.

The Mad Scotsman does a solid job conveying the paranoia of the early American witch trial era. If the Puritan seemed to you like the oddest choice of the five Batmen, you might be surprised at how well our boy fits into the role of witch hunter. When one stops to consider how big a part the fear of the unknown played in the witch trials, it becomes a more natural fit for a character for which fear has always been a central theme.

The character of Annie is a sympathetic one, and does a nice job of showcasing Bruce's soft spot for slightly crazed brunettes. It's fun to theorize that in Morrison's DC, puritan-era witches have some way of communicating with the new gods, whether they know it or not. She refers to them as her "bright gods", which harkens back to the cavemen in issue #1 and their reference to the "shining ones". Was the kraken "an infestation of hyperfauna" as the Archivist calls it, or did she actually summon it with a spell to the new gods? Another intriguing clue is the charm of Wonder Woman and Superman's symbols? How did she come to posses these? Did she fashion them after the hieroglyphs she found in the cave of the hidden bat-people?

Another fascinating idea is the reveal that Malleus (the villain of the peice) is in fact Nathaniel Wayne. Annie's final curse on him and "all his kin" will no doubt prove to be important, and could give validation to Dr. Hurt's claim of immortal ties to the Waynes.

More light is shed on just how much Bruce knows about his past in this issue (very little). It's fun to see him unable to deny his natural detective instincts, never willing to accept the most obvious conclusion, and almost always refusing to put stock in the supernatural. Although he appears to have adjusted to the current timeline, he cannot ignore his amnesia, and the nagging suspicion that something is amiss. This is consistent with Morrison's Batman. Never resting, always questioning.

The role of the Time Masters is much more prevalent than expected, and a lot more light is shed on what exactly their mission is. Perhaps the biggest revelation in the entire issue is the staggering discovery that Darkseid counted on Bruce making his way back, and is using him as a weapon to destroy the DCU. This changes everything, and whether Morrison planned it all along or editorial shoehorned it in as a way to sell Time Masters, it does raise the stakes considerably.

The concept of the Vanishing Point is classic Morrison, and expectedly a bit over-the-head initially. Apparently Hal Jordan feels the same way, seeing as how he barely says a word the entire time. An experienced Morrison reader learns to roll with scenes like this one. After a while, your brain stops melting after lines like "at that time our anti-entropy aegis will succumb to the unstoppable conclusion of the thermodynamic process", and you trust that all will be clear soon enough. The most essential moment of these scenes is the revelation that The Archivist is Bruce Wayne himself, piloting the Vanishing Point in his mission to get back to the 21st Century. The moment where he says to his friends "You'll all just have to trust me." is goose-bump inducing.

Frazer Irving packs quite a punch in this issue, and is a surprisingly easy segue from Sprouse's clean-cut linework in issue #1. The most distinctive part of Irving's art is his coloring. Everything from the scruff on Bruce's face to the rays of light piercing the forest canopy feels like it's carefully chosen from a selective pallet. Each scene feels like a different season, and his blues and oranges are particularly mood-inducing. Certain panels feel rushed, with some missing lines creeping up from time to time. His anatomy wavers occasionally. Some of his faces are slightly disproportionate and big-chinned, but more often than not the appropriate expression makes up for it. The choice to keep Bruce's face concealed under the "cowl" of the hat's shadow is an effective one. The fight scenes with the kraken are quite impressive, and illustration enthusiasts will appreciate small touches like the light trail left by the torch as Bruce flings it into the kraken's mouth.

All in all, this issue more than makes up for the sparse content in the first issue. It reads easy (for the most part) and looks fantastic. The pacing doesn't quit, and it adds a surprising amount to the mystery of Grant Morrison's Batman epic. If the cliffhanger is any indication, it looks like the action will continue with Bruce Wayne versus Blackbeard. Morrison continues to deliver on his promise to simultaneously deepen the Batman mythos, and show why Bruce Wayne is the pinnacle of humankind.