Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Batman & Robin #3

That was a great comic. Grant Morrison delivers a mind-bending thrill ride that is hard to describe. Morrison's best work mixes the insanity with solid heroics, and that is precisely what he's delivering with this comic. Dick Grayson/Batman and Damian Wayne are a fantastic pairing, with Dick finally becoming comfortable being Batman and starting to be the bad-ass we all know he is. Damian is a hilarious little jerk who is just a shade away from becoming a villain himself. Those two provide the solid heroics that I enjoy in my funnybooks. The insanity comes from the villains.

Mr. Pyg is a horrifying fat dude in a mask who rambles and threatens the tied-up Boy Wonder. There is a 3 page sequence where Pyg turns on some music and chubbily dances his way over to Robin, rambling and ranting totally insane dialogue the whole time. It is one of the most upsetting and captivating scenes I've read in months, if not years. It is precisely this type of insanity that makes Morrison the fantastic writer he is. Of course Batman and Robin prevail, but Morrison has more delights lined up for us since one of Mr. Pyg's dollies meets up with a new benefactor as the issue closes. A new Red Hood has arrived, and I'm sure he's going to be crazy. Morrison also delivers on the first scene in Batman RIP as Dick and Robin take out Le Bossu. Morrison is writing an epic here, folks, don't miss it.

Morrison's story wouldn't work as well without the unsettling visuals of Frank Quitely. Quitely delivers wondrous work that unsettles even as it entertains. This is just about the pinnacle of adult super-hero comics.

Excellent

2 comments:

Martin Gray said...

I still enjoyed this but not so much as the previous issues, mainly due to Prof Pyg's rant - it felt like I was missing the literary knowledge to make sense of it (I know he's nuts but there's usually a way to read these things).

Timbotron said...

When Pyg said "imagine you meet a handsome man, but he has pig's feet!" or whatever, I was sold. That insane dialogue was my favorite part!