Batman, Incorporated:
The Deluxe Edition is an oversized hardcover collection containing Batman, Incorporated #1-8 and the
one-shot Batman, Incorporated: Leviathan
Strikes! along with a collection of bonus materials. The book itself is
quite impressive looking, and I look forward to putting it up with the rest of
my collector edition books once I find a way to make room for it.
The stories in this collection focus on Bruce Wayne creating
an organized, international group of Bat-men and women who will stand against
the coming threat of a terrorist organization known as Leviathan. During Bruce
Wayne’s time traveling/death thing a few years back, following Final Crisis, he witnessed a future
where the world needed protection from a coming threat, and so he begins to
publically, financially back Batman (and Bat-people around the world). If that
sentence made sense to you, good, because this book relies on your previous
knowledge of recent events to really get the maximum enjoyment from this book.
I, myself have only really followed these events through information gathered
on the internet over the past few years, and so I knew just enough for me to
not feel entirely out of place, though I do feel I would have benefited more
from reading Grant Morrison’s previous work with the character. It would also
help to really know your Bat-history, as Morrison seems thrilled to comb
through the mythos of Batman to dredge up long forgotten characters to put the
spotlight on once again. The supplement material found in the back of the book
has Morrison explaining a bit of the history of each of these characters and
why he selected them, so eventually you do get a broader view of the
characters, but it would have been nice to know how they were connected before
reading a story featuring them.
Every issue or two we are introduced to a new Batman, Inc.
recruit, as The Batman visits each one and works towards solving a case. Some
of these stories really shine, and some of them are the tangled mess of meta-storytelling
that Morrison seems to favour. However, the issues that do stand out are some
of the best pure comic superhero stories I have read. The first two issues
reintroduce Lord Death Man, who is a villain I find entertaining- he treats the
world as one over-the-top violent video game-esque experience where he goes out
of his way to cause violence and mayhem-, as well as the Japanese Batman. The
final page of the first issue is pure, zany genius, and I loved it. (SPOILER:
Batman’s recruit rushes home to make sure his girlfriend is alright, and as he
dashes up the stairs the land lady is complaining about a leak. When he enters
the apartment, he discovers Lord Death Man has tied his girlfriend to chair sitting
on a trap door. Events happen, leading to her falling through the trap door,
and in the last page we discover that the apartment below has been completely
filled with water, and a giant squid is preparing to devour the girl! It is the
insanity that only Grant Morrison can come up with, and why, even though I
don’t like everything he does, I know I will be rewarded with moments like that
if I persevere.)
The other moment that really sticks out is the issue where
we meet Man-of-Bats, a Native American who performs the Batman role on a
reserve, helping wherever he can. The issue was an interesting look at justice
on a small scale without glorified super-villains, (though Leviathan does show
it’s a head a bit), and on a budget. There is a sequence where we see
Man-of-Bats’ Bat Cave, which acts as an off-the-road-tourist area, and see low
tech variations of many of the things Batman has in his cave. It is a moment
that both echoes the mythos of Batman as well as being a touching moment,
seeing the ideology of Batman represented in a place as poor as the reserve is.
Morrison has woven an interesting concept into a number of
fun storylines, and while not every issue resonated with me, I can see why this
series had so many people singing its praises. The building of a global
Bat-army is a fascinating concept within the realm of comics, and truly fits
the belief system of Bruce Wayne so well that I am surprised no one thought to
do something like this long before. In that, I can see the genius of Grant
Morrison and why he should be recognized as dynamic force on the medium. Yes, I
do not feel that every story was great, and without a lot of background knowledge
of some of these characters much of the impact that was intended was lost on me;
however, there are still good stories to be found in this volume.
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