Overall: And so we kick off the official beginning of Grant Morrison's latest big Batman story... We begin in Japan with a villain by the name of Lord Death Man(really?)killing a super-hero by the name of Mr. Unknown. An associate of Unknown happens across the scene and manages to escape Lord Death Man and his henchmen. From there the scene shifts to Batman and Catwoman, who are in the process of stealing a weapon from the pathetic Dr. Sivana. Bats and CW manage to acquire what they were after with little trouble and head out to Japan since Bats wants to offer Mr. Unknown a spot in his Batman Inc. organization. Bats and CW sneak into Unknown's base figuring that would impress him, but there's no impressing a dead man as Bats learns when he comes across Unknown's corpse. Bats and CW investigate the scene and are jumped by some of Lord Death Man's goons. The heroes make quick work of the goons and Bats scares one goon into giving up the location of Lord Death Man. It turns out that Lord Death Man has gone and captured the girlfriend of Mr. Unknown's associate from earlier and placed her in some sort of death trap. Lord Death Man decides to taunt Unknown's associate and gets shot in the face and knocked out a window for his troubles. Unknown's associate rushes into the room, but that sets off the death trap, and his girlfriend falls into a pool of water. By this point Bats and CW have arrived on the scene and while Bats helps Unknown's associate take on Lord Death Man's remaining goons, CW jumps into the water after the woman, discovering that a massive octopus was also in the water, and that it was preparing to crush the life out of the woman and CW.
Hey, you know what, I really enjoyed this issue! And that's not X the new disciple of Grant Morrison saying that, that's X the comic fan saying it. This comic surprised me with the rather sensible story, as well as the lack of confusion most of Morrison's work tends to contain. I really hope that this issue signifies that we'll be seeing CW making some regular appearances in this series, because out of Bruce's MANY girlfriends, she's definitely my favorite. So while the overwhelming majority of this comic was good, there were a few little quibbles I had... Such as this, why can't Morrison seem to come up with a good super-villain's name? Lord Death Man?! That's nearly as bad as the Pink Flamingo or El Sombrero... But hell, if the only thing I can complain about is the name of the characters in this comic, then in my eyes, that's a good thing!
Score: 8 1/2 out of 10.
You know, you really do have to respect the henchmen in the DCU, because they always play out the gimmick they're given.
You know, you really do have to respect the henchmen in the DCU, because they always play out the gimmick they're given.
Hi X,
ReplyDeleteI read your review first, then a few hours later went over to Wikipedia. Apparently, Lord Death Man first appeared in the Batman manga in the 1960's. Who knew?
L8r days!
Cole
Wait, there was a Batman manga? In the 1960's?! I'm... wow. Huh. Now that's news to me... Thanks for the strange little bit of trivia Cole. That's something I'll have to dig into when I get home from school. A Batman manga from the 60's... Wow...
ReplyDeleteThere's actually a really good collection of that manga available, called (fittingly enough) "Bat-Manga!: The Secret History of Batman in Japan." It's not just reprints, though, it has a lot of interesting history and even an interview with the guy who wrote a good deal of the 1960s Batman manga. Here's the link on Amazon:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.amazon.com/Bat-Manga-Secret-History-Batman-Japan/dp/0375714847/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1290581837&sr=8-1
Anyway, glad you're warming up to Morrison's Batman a little bit! I'm actually not the biggest fan of the Batman/Catwoman dynamic (or even the character of Catwoman in general), but I have the feeling that's because I've read the wrong stuff. Any stories featuring the two (or even just Catwoman) that you would recommend?
Well I can understand why it's called the "secret history", because I was totally oblivious to it! Thanks for the link Marc, when I start my Christmas shopping, I'll make sure to add that as a present for myself! :D
ReplyDeleteYup, Morrison is winning me over big time. He may be a bit out there at times, but the man is always trying new stuff, bringing in new characters, etc, so good for him.
Hmm... Off the top of my head I can't think of much. The Heart of Hush storyline went a long way in solidifying Bruce's feelings towards Selina. I think I liked her in the original Hush story, and there was a comic with Nightwing from the Nightwing series where I found her kind of funny. I haven't read much from her series, but that's one of those series that if I come into some extra money I'd probably try to snag it off of eBay. I'd just rather Bruce with somebody like Selina than one of the usual floozies he dates.
That's exactly how I've always felt about Morrison! Even when I read something by him that isn't necessarily my favorite, I certainly can't fault him for not being creative.
ReplyDeleteAnd I'm kind of interested to read Brubaker's work on Catwoman, given what a great writer he is today. Maybe that'll be what finally turns my opinion around!
Yep, I just had a whole thing with JT about Morrison and the work he was doing on the Bat-books. I am definitely in the Morrison camp now.
ReplyDeleteThat's EXACTLY why I've always wanted to get my hands on that series! I am such a sucker for Brubaker's work, but so far I haven't been able to score the full run... One day...