Well, well, well. After Time and the Batman, along with the RIP Missing Chapters, cleared up some of the air about where exactly Batman is and what his real plan is, Morrison now has the horrible job of translating that into a neat miniseries. The second phase of Morrison’s run has focused heavily on the past of the Wayne family and there’s clearly a sense of mystery to that aspect of the run. Somehow, every previous member of the Wayne family has contributed to this moment in time, the moment when Bruce Wayne finally arrives back in the present and takes his rightful place as the Dark Knight once again. There are several reasons why The Return of Bruce Wayne is far from my favourite part of Morrison’s run. Many would describe this as Morrison at his best, using a complex sense of storytelling to tell an over-complicated plot. His bizarre, yet unique, style is appealing to many, and I guess this story is
attractive to those who drowned themselves deeply in his other works such as the Filth and the Invisibles. I wasn’t one of them…
Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne 1-6 was published from July to December 2010. It was written by Grant Morrison with art by Chris Sprouse, Karl Story, Frazer Irving, Yanick Paquette, Michel Lacombe, Georges Jeanty, Walden Wong, Ryan Sook, Pere Perez, Mick Gray, Lee Garbett, and Alejandro Sicat. I’ve read the miniseries in its trade paperback.
The Return of Bruce Wayne begins instantly with a reminder that this story is not for the average reader. For starters, you need to have a masters in dada to fully grasp the plot’s real intent, but more importantly, you’ll need to be fully aware of what happened previously. That includes significant details in issues ranging from Morrison’s Final Crisis to minute moments in Batman and Robin. What I’m trying to say is that The Return of Bruce Wayne should not be recommended as a first reading for new Batman fans. Then again, nor should Morrison’s whole run due to its love of self-referencing and mentioning events from the 1950s. However, this story is a bit different. That’s mainly due to the return of Morrison’s drugged-up inner-writer, the creature that penned works that plagued Vertigo in the nineties. Therefore, we enter this already-confusing mess with Bruce Wayne in cavemen times. We can take some comfort in that the first issue of the Return of Bruce Wayne is relatively brief as, for much of it, Bruce Wayne fights some angry Neanderthals. Oh yeah, remember that memorial to Batman from Final Crisis 7 that the heroes fired into space? Well, that’s turned up in the past after the heroes somehow sent it back into Batman’s time. Wait, surely if they can do that, they can just go back in time and rescue him? Whenever there’s time-travel, there’s plot holes. Anyway, Batman finds Superman’s cape inside the rocket along with some other stuff which really doesn’t advance the plot in any way. From there, Batman becomes the first superhero in history by helping out some helpless cavemen from the Blood Tribe. Again, angry Neanderthals. Although Batman is nearly killed, he adopts the identity of Man-Of-Bats to defeat the villains and uses his futuristic technology to win the day. That is, until he falls into a river and wakes up centuries later to be attacked by a furious underwater menace. But before that cliff-hanger can even be begun to be explained, Superman arrives from the future. Batman is long gone, but Superman is determined to find the Dark Knight as, thanks to Darkseid’s trap, it will mean that the whole world will end when Batman returns to the 21st century. So, it was a trap by Darkseid all along? And Batman knew? And then Superman knew? And the Justice League? Welcome to the land of co-incidences. It may end an action-packed first issue, but with all of its problems, it makes you depressed when you realise that there’s another five to go. Anyway, issue two takes place during the days of witch-hunting (a rather vague term). Bruce Wayne, in his fight against the underwater monster, is injured and looked after in the time period. Meanwhile, Superman, with the help of Booster Gold, Hal Jordan, and Rip Hunter, visit the Vanishing Point at the end of time. It proves to be yet another sequence of Morrison showing off his knowledge of time-travel and succeeds in being dull rather than interesting. The main point is that by using the Vanishing Point, the heroes can follow the Omega trail and therefore locate Batman. To be frank, this is all that’s really happening throughout the story. The real bits of importance come from the heroes in the present trying to rescue the Dark Knight, while the man himself effectively fools around in different time periods while meeting his Wayne ancestors, most of whom also seem to have a fetish for bats. I suppose an interesting aspect would be Bruce Wayne, a modern man, finding himself in unrecognisable cultures. His differing attitude often lands him into trouble. In issue two for instance, his very soft stance on witch-hunting puts him against Nathaniel Wayne, basically the witchfinder general of his day. Morrison does some unsubtle hinting when Annie, a woman who Bruce falls in love with, is executed for witchcraft by Nathaniel. She places a curse on the Wayne family for eternity and we’re all supposed to believe that that’s the root cause of Bruce Wayne deciding to dress in tight clothes and stand on rooftops. Makes sense. Either way, Bruce isn’t present for this as he, again, ends up travelling through time as he slips in another puddle and ends up meeting Blackbeard. You see, the problem I have with this story isn’t so much the time- (continued)
travelling aspect, but the fact that it’s Batman doing the time-travelling. Sometimes, time-travelling works. Take Doctor Who for example. But when it’s a character who has nothing to do with hard-science fiction travelling through time, not only is it unbelievable, but it makes the whole premise of the character appear smaller and more stupid than it should be. The Return of Bruce Wayne not only confuses Batman’s mythos, but just makes it into something silly and less dramatic. The third issue treads much of the old ground, expect this time with pirates. Need I say more? If it wasn’t obvious enough already, Bruce is leaving clues all across history so the heroes can find him, which explains the hidden Batcave in Batman and Robin (vol 1) 10-12. Yep, this is effectively six issues of exposition, with very little enjoyable story to it. Back in the present, Red Robin (Tim Drake) reports to the Justice League about his discoveries involving Batman and the clues he has been leaving behind. If you’ve just been reading Morrison’s run like me, you’d be forgiven for not knowing when Robin became Red Robin. I guess it was after Tony Daniel’s Battle for the Cowl, and after Damian took Tim’s place. Red Robin actually had his own title, but then again that’s not exactly special since everyone does. Anyway, elsewhere, Batman and Robin (Dick and Damian) investigate Darkseid’s Evil Factory and find the machine which the devilish villain placed Batman in. These moments I find more interesting because while it still isn’t exactly that important, it’s in the present and it feels like it contributes to the mystery plot. The rest of the issue is just some words and pretty pictures. Things get slightly more interesting with the fourth issue, where Batman finds himself in the Wild West during the 19th century and his vigilantism is more at home. That and Jonah Hex turns up just to make things feel more authentic. It’s in this time period where Batman is introduced to that mysterious wooden box, the same one that Simon Hurt, and his men stole from underneath Wayne Manor in Batman and Robin (vol 1) 12. A century-and-a-half before, the box is stolen yet again from the Waynes by cowboys. It’s interesting because you begin to see the origins of Gotham City and it feels far closer to Batman’s natural territory than the days of witch-burning, pirates, or cavemen. This issue reminds me of the Justice Riders Elseworlds story. Jonah Hex is hired as a bounty hunter to take out Batman by… Vandal Savage. Whenever time-travel is involved, this guy has to turn up apparently. Regardless, while he’s up to no good in the background trying to blackmail the Waynes using that mysterious box, Batman does what he does in an attempt to rescue his ancestors. In the end, Batman is given the wooden box for good luck by his distant relative, and all is well… until Jonah Hex appears and shoots him in the chest before walking off into the sunset. It’s a nice touch and all, but unfortunately Batman then fell into some more water and ended up in 1930s New York. The transition from period to period are incredibly disorientating and inexplicable. Clearly water has something to do with it, but since there’s no rational or even acceptable reason why it would make sense, it’s just lazy writing. With the penultimate issue, the Justice League prepare in the present for the return of Batman and the dangers he may cause to the world due to his Omega-charged journey throughout time. Back eighty years, Bruce Wayne awakens in hospital with amnesia. Didn’t see that one coming at all. Anyway, he’s immediately hired as a private detective to help solve a murder, specifically the killing of Martha Wayne. Good thing that amnesia kicked in when it did. In all (continued)
seriousness, issue five is most probably my favourite because it reminds me of a good old fashioned Batman story. It’s a murder mystery and due to its setting, it reminds me of some of those old golden age classics written by Bill Finger and drawn by Jerry Robinson. The story itself is much more Morrisonian however, with Bruce discovering that his parents were corrupt and evil. This obviously harkens back (or perhaps forwards depending on how you look at it) to Batman RIP and Simon Hurt’s plan to effectively destroy the Wayne family's reputation. Just to top things off, the Black Glove are revealed to be the villains here once again and their plan of using fake evidence to defame the Waynes after death fails. It’s a great idea for a story but unfortunately, Morrison must have forgotten that he’d done that one before. I get that he’s attempting to tie up loose ends and to make everything neat before concluding the second phase of his overall run, but it often feels like he’s trying too hard to connect everything beyond believability. Overall, the scenes in the past really do vary from above average to just pointless. It just comes across as filler that doesn’t advance the story much at all. More often than not, it just confuses things. For the final issue, Batman appear at the Vanishing Point, where he spends much of his time being lectured by a bunch of Rip Hunter’s time-know-it-all robots. Just to summarise a very tedious and dull finale issue, Darkseid’s possession of Batman develops, and the villain mentally fights with the Dark Knight in an attempt to win him over to Anti-Life. The heroes cannot help Batman, for he must help himself. He imagines himself on that fateful night from Batman: Year One when the bat crashed through the window. He was covered in blood from his injuries and all he had to do was ring the bell and Alfred would tend to his wounds. To defeat Darkseid, he does the same. I think it’s meant to be metaphorical and symbolic, but it still doesn’t make any sense and it comes across as far too pretentious and lazy. It’s a prime example of the Morrison I don’t like so much. This Morrison cares far too much about overwhelming the reader and impressing them, as opposed to conveying an entertaining and emotionally interesting tale. In the end, The Return of Bruce Wayne may deliver on what its title promised, but it failed to deliver everything else an enjoyable story demands. In terms of the time-travelling element, it’s often very confused. It’s not just about when it happens or how it happens, but also for the fact that there are other characters in the DC Universe who can time-travel at will. Since they managed to find Batman’s location in the first issue, why didn’t they continue to hunt him and find him in the next time period? Then they could have rescued him before he became supercharged from Darkseid-juice or whatever the hell it is. Using time-travel as a storytelling device doesn’t work with characters like Batman and when it messes up, which it usually does because it’s a difficult device to use in storytelling, it just confuses everything. Why these five time periods? Why not more? It’s just inconsistent. Apart from everything else, the biggest
issue with The Return of Bruce Wayne is that it’s just boring. The scenes in the past may have some potential, but they rarely contribute anything meaningful to the overall plot. In the end, any purpose they had is null (expect from a few instances of retconning and exposition). Without a doubt, The Return of Bruce Wayne is the worst part of Morrison’s Batman run and while far from the deep depths of his worst writings, it certainly isn’t a classic.
In terms of the art, I find it difficult to judge from the large number of artists involved and due to the fact that none of them have any distinctive style which I think is attractively unique or even great. From the top, Chris Sprouse and Karl Story, although plain and often uninteresting, tell the story well enough with some good visual moments. Frazer Irving’s style is far more modern, subtle, and smooth for my liking while Yanick Paquette isn’t bad as his simplistic yet inoffensive style does the job well. Jeanty and Wong most probably have the most attractive art here. They supply detailed storytelling for issue four that proves to be very dramatic and never in-your-face. Ryan Sook and Mick Gray’s style work for a 1930’s noir tale, but I think their art is lacking something. Lastly, Lee Garbett and Pere Perez provide rather generic and boring art for what’s a bizarre, yet boring finale. The Return of Bruce Wayne’s art may be varied, but absolutely none of it is garbage, unlike the story these poor artists had to draw.
VERDICT
Overall, The Return of Bruce Wayne was a disappointment and one which stands out embarrassingly in Morrison’s otherwise great run. The time-travelling aspect doesn’t work not just because of Batman, but because of the inconsistencies and the overall pointlessness of it all. The stories supplied by those moments in the past lead nowhere as Morrison runs around randomly trying to tie up every last loose end when really, he shouldn’t bother. Really, nothing that important happens in The Return of Bruce Wayne and the conclusion to the story is both anti-climactic and ridiculous. Definitely the worst of Morrison’s run. Happy New Year.
Story: 3.5/10
Art: 6/10
Next Week: Stalker by Steve Ditko (Stalker 1-4). Written by Paul Levitz with art by Steve Ditko, and Wally Wood.
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