With Batman and Robin Must Die out of the way and Bruce Wayne’s return to the mantle of Batman, we begin the third and final phase of Grant Morrison’s run on the Dark Knight’s titles. While the first phase was prominently in the Batman (vol 1) title, and the second featuring (for the most part) in Batman and Robin (vol 1), this final run is given its own title not just once, but twice. Batman Incorporated begun at a time when comics were changing. The post-Crisis era from 1986 onwards was coming to an end with the multi-title crossover event, Flashpoint. This made way for the New 52, which basically relaunched everything for money. Batman Incorporated was a title which was split into two because of this, to put the New 52 bluntly, financial scheme. While the main bulk of the story that Morrison wants to tell is in the second run from 2011 to 2013, the first series basically introduces us to Batman Incorporated as a concept. Yes, I know I could have done the whole lot in one post, but I think it’s better to spread it out.
Batman Incorporated (vol 1) 1-5 was published from January to May 2011. The stories were written by Grant Morrison with art by Yanick Paquette, Pere Perez, Chris Burnham, and Michel Lacombe. I’ve read the issues in the Batman Incorporated
Volume One hardcover.
Mr Unknown is Dead/Resurrector --- Written by Grant Morrison with art by Yanick Paquette and Michel Lacombe
In the colourful city of Tokyo, Japan, Grant Morrison begins the first issue of Batman Incorporated with a moment that the title unfortunately gives away. Putting it plainly, Mr Unknown dies, murdered by one Lord Death Man. Excuse the rather bad names. Anyway, Mr Unknown’s body and a group of Lord Death Man’s henchmen are found by Jiro Osamu, sidekick of the late hero. Lord Death Man’s plan is to basically kill every superhero in the country and Jiro thinks, for now, it is time to escape. Elsewhere, Batman, with the help of Catwoman, break into a secret base occupied by Leviathan (the new villains of the run who first appeared in Batman: The Return). Inside, they find a glowing gem named Project X. What does this do and why is it given the name of literally every secret government project? For now, neither are answerable. Meanwhile, the press and virtually the whole world isn’t too fazed by the return of Bruce Wayne. You’d think that since his estate basically claimed he was away on business for a year that some investigative journalist like Vicki Vale would look into it and find out that it’s all a rouse, but I guess not. Either way, Batman and Catwoman head to Japan looking to recruit Mr Unknown into Batman Incorporated. However, they learn quickly that he’s dead and that their next target is Jiro, who meanwhile, heads home only to find his girlfriend held hostage by Lord Death Man. Shockingly, Jiro shoots and seemingly kills Lord Death Man, but his girlfriend falls into a water tank trap. Fortunately, that’s where Batman and Catwoman come into things. Ignoring the stupid names which Morrison gives to both the new hero and villain of the story, Morrison writes a good first issue that feels quite different from his previous work. There’s something about it which feels far more action-based and more reflective of the silver age than most of his other Batman stories. Part two is no different; while Batman and Jiro fight Lord Death Man’s men, Catwoman rescues Jiro’s girlfriend from a giant octopus creature. Afterwards, Jiro’s girlfriend understandably leaves him after learning of his connection to Mr Unknown, while Batman remembers Lord Death Man once called himself Death Man, a foe in a rather ridiculous skeleton Halloween costume who appeared in Batman 180 from 1966. You’ve got to love another silver age reference. Anyway, Batman refuses to offer Jiro a position in Batman Incorporated as he used a gun to kill. Elsewhere, Lord Death Man escapes from hospital after seemingly dying from bullet wounds and he chooses his next superhero victim to be Shiny Happy Aquazon. Seriously, what is with these names. Regardless, as Lord Death Man goes after her, Jiro transforms himself into the second Mr Unknown. Although Lord Death Man is defeated by Batman and Catwoman moments before he can murder Shiny Happy Aquazon, Mr Unknown is killed in his heroic efforts and martyred by the Japanese people. However, it turns out that this is all nonsense anyway as Bruce reveals to Selina that Jiro faked his death and that he is working with Batman Incorporated after all. And oh yeah, Bruce also works out that Selina only tagged along to steal some famous jewellery. Aside from the ending which I think somewhat ruins Jiro’s character arch which put him on the path to redemption, I think this is a good introduction. Sure, the villains might have silly names, but it’s action packed, and the story is simple but also far from mediocre. It’s just a shame that, despite a great opening sequence, the ending isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
Although it often appears bog-standard and lacking in uniqueness, Yanick Paquette and Michel Lacombe’s art tells this action-packed story nicely. Aside from his plainness however, I do find that Lacombe’s inks are very boring in that everything just seems to be inked with one line weight. It lacks much variety and depth, but overall, it’s not bad.
Story: 8.5/10
Art: 7/10
Scorpion Tango/The Kane Affair/Masterspy --- Written by Grant Morrison with art by Yanick Paquette, Pere Perez, Michel Lacombe, and Chris Burnham
If you thought characters named Mr Unknown and Lord Death Man were ridiculous, then the introduction of this story takes the cake. During the Falklands War in 1982, the British government sent in a group of five superheroes to take out the Argentinian forces, but only one survives, that being Knight. I guess it’s because I’m British that I find this introduction a bit odd, but I suppose the Falklands is the only war you can choose to add British superheroes to, despite the conflict not exactly standing tall next to World War Two. However, we’ll ignore the somewhat embarrassing opening, and we arrive in the present, where Argentinian criminal El Papagayo discovers a hero working undercover, named Cimarron, in his organisation searching for three missing children. Just before the villain can murder Cimarron, Batman and El Gaucho appear to rescue their buddy. However, El Papagayo releases a swarm of blue scorpions (who turned up in a previous story), but the heroes manage to escape by latching onto El Papagayo’s hot air-balloon designed for his grand escape! While their foe ends up falling out of the balloon after being stung by one of the scorpions, the (continued)
heroes use his talking parrot to discover the real evil mind behind the crime organisation: Oroboro. The relevance of this isn’t clear until later, when, as Bruce Wayne, he’s given a snake ring by Tristessa Delicias, one of the most famous women in the world. Both in civilian identities, Batman and El Gaucho work out that Delicias is linked to Oroboro because the word is engraved on the ring. The name is also shared by a book about a manipulator, written by a man assassinated by three blind killers before it was revealed that the author never existed and the whole thing was created by some poets wanting a laugh. I don’t know what this has to do with anything and frankly, I don’t really care as Morrison doesn’t really make the plot interesting in the first issue. I do like how El Gaucho returns and he is very suspicious of the whole Batman Incorporated idea, mainly since the last time a millionaire assembled an international team of Batman superheroes, he was working for the Black Glove and tried to kill them all. Aside from those character moments, the plot here doesn’t get that interesting until the re-emergence of El Sombrero; he orders the two heroes to fight to the death to save the three children. For those like me who forgot about him, El Sombrero also worked with Simon Hurt, but was killed in Batman RIP. That’s obviously turned out not to be the case. However, we’re now thrown into a detour with as much subtlety as a combine harvester crashing into a petrol station. Back in Gotham, Batwoman chases a villain with known links to Oroboro. And then, we’re back in the past with Kathy Kane in her funfair fun, where is she is met with Agent-33 working for an organisation called Spyral. She accepts the job to work out Batman's true identity and she ends up becoming Batwoman to gain the Dark Knight’s trust. However, her plan failed when she fell in love with him and she is forced to hide her past from him since it turns out that she is the daughter of Otto Netz, a Nazi whose secret identity was Oroboro. The reason we keep coming back to Oroboro in this complex and confusingly dull way is because something changes in Batman when Kathy Kane breaks up from him because of it. This is all in Batman’s subconscious as, in the present, El Gaucho punches him with electroshock gauntlets to save the children. The Dark Knight uses his mind and uses El Gaucho’s gauntlets to short-circuit the death traps drowning the children. His next stop is El Sombrero. Batwoman also takes out that guy in Gotham only to learn that Oroboro is a weapon, causing her to reopen the cause of Kathy Kane’s murder. The problem with this story is that it is, in a very Morrisonian way, too clever for its own good. He could have written a good old fashion mystery story which, although it could have been complex, it could have been a satisfying read. This just complicates a story that isn’t worth complicating. Immediately at the start of the final issue, we realise just how pointless El Sombrero is as Batman reveals that Scorpiana (Delicias) is the real villain behind this. What was the point in bringing him back if he’s just going to be intimidating and then not turn out to be the main villain? I think this is a wasted opportunity since he’s written as a far more cunning foe in the first phase of Morrison’s run, but here, he’s demoted to a forgettable sidekick. Meanwhile, Otto Netz is still alive and out there rambling about Oroboro and how Hitler put him on a mission to do with it (at this point, Oroboro has become so unclear a concept that it could mean anything). Anyway, Netz is on the Falkland Islands with an agent from Leviathan, who is suddenly poisoned by the old Nazi in a scene that makes me question its relevance. For some good news, we do witness the return of the Hood. Remember him? No? As an avid reader of Alan Grant’s Shadow of the Bat from the 1990s, the Hood was a slightly more tolerable English vigilante who helped Batman in issues 21-23. He’s never been a major player in the Bat family, but it’s nice to see him return. Anyway, he works with Batwoman in the Falklands and to cut a very long story short, Batman turns up to battle Netz, Scorpiana, and the Leviathan agents only to discover that it was an imposter Netz all along. The real one is still out there hiding behind Leviathan’s skirt. And to end the story, Batman finds a new inductee for Batman Incorporated, David Zavimbi, a character known as Batwing who has become part of the core cast of the Bat Family since in runs written by Scott Snyder and Tom King. Apart from that, this marks the end of this story which could have been a lot better if it was cleaner. I think there is
an interesting and enjoyable plot in here, particularly with the Leviathan stuff and some of the Kathy Kane story, but Morrison has buried it under piles of exposition and pretentiousness that it just comes across as boring. I still think Morrison wasted an opportunity to make El Sombrero the main villain, especially since he was far more threatening in earlier stories, and he would have proven to be far more interesting than Scorpiana. Overall, there are some good elements here, but the story as a whole is just a mess and it's often hard to understand what is going on.
While Paquette and Lacombe, along with Pere Perez, submit art which is just above average and is far from unique, revolutionary, or inspiring, the visual appearance of the second issue is radically different. Chris Burnham’s art, particularly those scenes in the past, appear far more colourful and interesting. That middle issue has a far more identifiable appearance, and it just sticks in my head more. Luckily, we’ll be seeing more of Bunham’s art in the future.
Story: 3.5/10
Art: 8/10
VERDICT
Overall, the first half of Batman Incorporated (vol 1) is mixed in the sense that one story is good, and the other isn’t, but Morrison creates a good mood for the title and makes it interesting by having a great cast of characters. The first story with Mr Unknown is very good and, despite the ending, I think it’s an enjoyable ride. The three-parter feels much more like a chore to read and while there are some very intriguing aspects in there, they’re often drowned in the wave of pretentious storytelling which Morrison unleashes. But this isn’t a terrible start to the title. Morrison is still setting up the fundamental storyline and, in the grand scheme of things, this is just setting up a much larger story which begins in Batman Incorporated (vol 2).
Stories: 6.5/10
Art: 7.5/10
Next Week: Batman: Leviathan Strikes (Batman Incorporated (vol 1) 6-8, Batman Incorporated Leviathan Strikes). Written by Grant Morrison with art by Chris Burnham, Scott Clark, Cameron Stewart, and David Beaty.
Comments