Book: Final Crisis
Pen: Grant Morrison
Pencil: J. G. Jones, Doug Mahnke
Crossover. That word that brings both thrill and dread to the comic book fan. Thrill because it is an occasion to see multiple heroes and villains in the same story. Dread because of the sheer mess it would turn out to be, with hardly anyone getting enough page time.
Marvel does crossovers better because they can still make it palatable for the random reader. DC’s crossovers are bigger events, but is aimed more at the extreme fan. They are years in the making, run bred.through almost all the individual titles and then culminate in in a story that is always less than the sum of the parts leading to it.
Once Grant Morrison’s run on Batman became acclaimed as a classic while he was doing it, there was only one person who was going to drive Final Crisis. If his propensity to refer to obscure bits from hidden comics of yore were not exasperating enough, he now gets the keys to all of DCs characters. Boy, doesn’t he act like a five-year-old playing with everyone’s toys!
It had to be Darkseid, of course. Honestly, there isn’t another villain who could have created havoc on such a cosmic level. However, the way in which he went about it was quite silly. Then again, I don’t have the benefit of reading a year’s worth of comics in every line to know if that was a necessity. He is going to alter reality and shape a new order. All the heroes in the DC stable have to come together to stop him. And just as a backup why not get the superheroes from alternate universes also, including a black Superman who is also the President of the United States? Ahem!
There is one very interesting character in Final Crisis. He is a detective called Dan Turpin. For a while Morrison teases us with a whodunnit, but then just leaves it. Which is a crying shame as superhero tales told from the POV of an ordinary man tends to resonate more with the non-superheroes who read the books. Instead the book then turns out to be all about Gods, beings more powerful than gods, beings who Monitor gods, lesser-known superheroes, wannabe superheroes, and Batman. Who else could figure it all out? Final Crisis, unfortunately, shows the Batman RIP book for what it actually is – a fraud. It is in Final Crisis that Batman actually goes RIP.
Final Crisis, as an individual book, is not at all recommended. It leaves you baffled, benumbed and bored. I look forward to continuing with Morrison’s Batman journey. Let the others go their separate ways
Book: Batman: R.I.P
Pen: Grant Morrison
Pencil: Tony S Daniel
How’s that for a provocative title? Grant Morrison, like all great comic writers, had a definitive end planned for his run. It is how he reached there that would, in equal parts, thrill and frustrate, the readers. It is so easy to say that he suddenly arrived at the titles and then figured out a storyline. But that would be a disservice to his considerable talents.
It’s a much-repeated joke that Batman’s superpower is his preparation. He is ready for anything his foes might throw at him because he has thought of that before and planned for it. He is not just the world’s greatest detective, he is also the world’s greatest strategist. And that is what Morrison counts on.
The prologue introduces the Joker. Well, as much as one wanted Grant Morrison to go for new or obscure villains, one cannot have a Batman RIP storyline without his greatest adversary. We enter straight into the business end of things. The Black Glove has been teased for some time. In the second page itself we see who he is. And then we find out the simple, yet dastardly, plan they have in mind.
Batman is in love. With beautiful model cum African heiress Jezebel Jet. She has discovered his true identity. Bruce wants to keep her safe but is unsure how when they both receive an invitation to an event hosted by the Black Glove. Before they decide on the next course of action there is an attack on the Batcave.
Now comes frustrating Morrison. Bruce wakes up in an alley with no memory of who he is. He is helped by a homeless man who takes him on an ‘odyssey’. He becomes the Batman of Zurr-En-Arhh. Remember the Black Casebook? Which had outlandish stories from the 50s and 60s? RIP is replete with references from that. Including the above version of the Caped Crusader. In fact, the book finds itself being a character.
The Black Glove is attacking Batman’s mind, ensuring he goes down a spiral of self-disintegration. The Joker has been invited to witness the historic event. He does not take kindly to the insinuation that someone could do what he was never able to. He predicts accurately what would happen. Turns out that going after Batman’s mind was actually a brilliant plan. Too bad the dude had prepared for that also.
The latter half of the book is a mixed bag. There are some head-scratching scenes, but there are also some that bring on the goose bumps. The grave sequence is as thrilling as anything you see in a popular comic book. And Grant Morrison can really up the ante in terms of pace, if he wants to.
Batman RIP could have been right up in the annals of Batman lore if Morrison had gone more mainstream. But then he would not have been Grant Morrison if he lost all of the weirdness.
