Chris Burnham

I'll admit that I'm not a huge fan of Batman. I think I'm generally in the minority when I say that I prefer the campier versions over the serious ones. But I decided to give Grant Morrison's run of [b:Batman Incorporated|10863384|Batman Incorporated|Grant Morrison|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1391572351s/10863384.jpg|15778514] a try since I enjoyed his time on X-men. Unfortunately, I didn't like this collection. The stories tended to bore me and only managed to catch my attention in a few show more brief spots. And the idea of Batman making himself into a global corporation, of sorts, was creeping me out by the end.

It also didn't help that the artwork was all over the place. At one point we even ventured into Tron/CGI land with the "Batman and Oracle in Nightmares in Numberland". I absolutely hated the artwork in that issue. It made the story unreadable for me because the images were so bad and so busy looking that I had hard time paying attention to the text.

If you're a hardcore Batman fan, I'm sure you'd enjoy this run. However, if you're like me, and kind of picky about the franchise, then I wouldn't recommend it. show less

There is a lot going on in this TPB. The Talia and Leviathan story come to their conclusion for the most part, and while I usually enjoy a good Talia vs. ‘the Detective’ story, this one just seemed off. Actually, a whole lot of the story seemed off. Perhaps that was because it seemed to jump between past, present and somewhere in between during the story. Damian’s character seemed off too, and, I don’t approve of what was done with his character during this TPB. Did the writers, or show more DC, or whomever, did they really, really feel they needed to do this? I get that DC is trying to go toe to toe with

I liked some of the art, I think the stuff by Chris Burnham, but the art by Jason Masters I did not like. I did like other Batman International stories that we got to see. The stuff with El Gaucho, Ranger was good. As was the issue with Batman Japan and Canary. But, I really, really liked the issue with Raven Red.

I just feel bad, because most of the Bat titles have at least been good. Even at times during the Death of the Family storyline, or the Court of Owls storyline when I didn’t totally understand where everything was going, it was still a fun ride. This TPB just seemed scattered and a muddled mess. I’ve also read a lot of Grant Morrison and usually like his stuff, but this just seemed different.

I got this advanced galley through Netgalley on behalf of DC Entertainment. show less

Batman goes corporate as he plans to establish a worldwide army of Batmen to combat an equally global criminal organization known as Leviathan. I'm all for new spins on long-running characters, but this isn't really how I like my Batman, out of the shadows. There are far too many characters to keep track of, and I felt like I was missing a lot. (Fortunately, in the back pages supplement, Morrison goes over who everyone is and where (and when) they appeared before.) The art is very nice, show more although a chapter that takes place entirely in virtual reality is hard to look at. The only really exciting part was the very end, where the mastermind behind Leviathan is revealed. Chaotic and tiring, mostly. show less

I wrestled with what I was going to write about this one for a while. This is the beginning of the final act of the saga Morrison kicked off in "Batman and Son", and it's sort of a mixed bag in a lot of ways. The premise that's promised is great (Batman forms up a Justice League which consists only of Batmen), but the execution is debatable in a lot of ways.

The first two issues, "Mr. Unknown Is Dead" and "Resurrector!" are definitely a fun start to the collection. Batman and Catwoman take show more off to Japan to recruit the Japanese Batman, Mr. Unknown, only to discover he's been killed by the disturbing-yet-hilarious Lord Death Man (who apparently shouts every single sentence he says, and at one point, punctuates a sentence just by shouting "LORD DEATH MAN!" It's something you have to read to believe.) I really dig that Morrison brings in the breathless "Same Bat-time" ending narration from the Adam West Batman. ("LORD DEATH MAN LIVES TO TAKE LIFE, AND HE'S ONLY JUST BEGUN!")

The next two issues, "Scorpion Tango" and "The Kane Affair" are Morrison setting up dominoes - we get the reintroduction of Kathy Kane, the 1950's Batwoman, as well as the introduction of 60s supervillain Otto Netz/Doctor Dedalus. "Scorpion Tango" suffers from some slightly muddled plotting, but "The Kane Affair" is a cool "flashback issue", with appropriately altered art.

"Masterspy" is where my frustration with the book starts. The book is clearly intended to sort of dovetail with the Club of Heroes stuff from the Black Glove/RIP, but Batman takes off to England and we get a totally different "British Batman", The Hood, who's more of a James Bond-ish character. (The Knight from Black Glove/RIP is nowhere to be found, and this is never addressed -- which I found frustrating, since we clearly see him in a flashback sequence with other British superheroes). The writing around Doctor Dedalus and his grand plan isn't really that clear - while I understand that craziness and a lack of clarity is totally Morrison's jam, it doesn't improve over time (see below).

"Nyktomorph", luckily, is a really great issue to resolve any frustrations to date. The frame story is cool (a bunch of villains hire "the private eye of the underworld", Nykto Nero, to figure out what Batman's up to), and we get a look at a bunch of different aspects of Batman, Incorporated. I especially want to call this issue out for continuing to pay off long-running background character Ellie, who I think has been showing up from time to time in the Morrison Batman books since Batman and Son, which just makes me happy.

"Medicine Soldiers" is another great issue, focusing on the "Native American" Batman and Robin, Man-of-Bats and Raven Red. I don't want to say a lot about this one since the premise is so good. This might be my favorite issue of the bunch, and I'd kill for an ongoing Man-of-Bats/Raven Red title.

"Nightmares in Numberland" is another point where, like "Masterspy", I think Morrison really failed to deliver on a great premise. It's definitely a cool idea (Oracle is the Batman of Wayne Industries' new virtual reality system), but it's a muddled mess that uses the same type of terrible CG graphics that showed up in "The Clown at Midnight" in Batman and Son.

"The School of Night" and "Leviathan Strikes!" round out the collection. I really enjoyed "The School of Night", which has Stephanie Brown/Batgirl undercover at an all-girls' school being run by Leviathan. Stephanie has got much more character to her than the other POV characters so far, and this starts to tie together a lot of the threads seen in previous issues. I'm still really weirded out by the fact that three of the teachers appear to be Katy Perry, Rihanna, and Lady Gaga, and I'm not sure that I buy the argument that they're supposed to be Dragonfly/Tiger Moth/Silken Spider (as there's never any reference made to this in the book itself).

"Leviathan Strikes" is an issue that I'm a little frustrated with, as it's supposed to be the big climax, and it has some truly incredible art, but the high Morrisonian weirdness level in this story seems keeps it from greatness a little bit for me. I'm also really turned off by the ending - was it really, really necessary for us to have a character's severed head graphically depicted? Really? Bleh.

Overall, I enjoyed this collection. My big meta-complaint is that Morrison's promised idea (Batman recruits other Batmen all over the world) doesn't really get delivered on. Most of the characters that we meet either have their own ongoing titles, or are characters Morrison reuses from The Black Glove. The art is incredible (except for the computer-generated stuff in "Nightmares in Numberland", which really needs to get banned from comics altogether), and Morrison's crazy Batman saga continues to entertain, but I have some big reservations about it that keep me from giving it the full five stars. show less