Monday, September 13, 2010

Batman & Robin #14

Wow. I absolutely love some of the elements that Grant Morrison has created in this oddball story, but wow. I'm totally befuddled by what is happening here. Just like Final Crisis and Batman RIP, it feels like Morrison is skipping over portions of the story.

There are huge leaps in the plot, with characters leaping locations and with new plot elements like Commissioner Gordon getting hooked on Professor Pyg's drugs. Now, I can fill in the blanks, but this does make for a disjointed read.

Pyg is still absolutely horrific. His odd grunts and snorts while he rants makes him terrifying. Dick Grayson is doing a nice job as Batman, but Damian is finding out how tough the Joker can be to deal with. I do find myself rooting for Damian to find a way to get the upper hand.

Frazer Irving's art remains stunning. His Joker is a monster and his Batman is heroic. Pyg is going to give me nightmares for another month.

Good (but a low good because of the gaps in plots)

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Don't let Morrison read your post about being befuddled and skipping portions of the story - he'll just write another page of text in the back of Batman Inc. #1 decrying the simple-minded American comic book reader and how we just can't follow along with his brilliance. And if - like me - we don't believe he's a genius, just ask him, he'll tell us so.

Jeff said...

I loved this issue. So solid, although I really was hoping we'd get to see Damian club the Joker to death, with that being the Joker's final appearance. (Well, okay, final appearance for about five years...I'm not that stupid to believe we'd actually never have the Joker again.) I'm sorry, I just truly believe that would be "a fitting end for his kind".

Timbotron said...

Ha! I agree with both of you!

I love Morrison, I just think his style of writing climaxes works better in some books (Final Crisis) than in others (Batman RIP).

And yeah, I've totally turned around on Damian. I wanted to see him bust Joker up.