Batman & Robin #10

Man, I'm loving Grant Morrison's mad take on the Dark Knight. This issue is the first real payoff on Morrison's plan to lose Bruce Wayne in time. As NightBats and Damian travel through Wayne Mansion, there are clues hidden all over the place pointing to Bruce's exile in history. I love the way Morrison transforms Wayne Mansion into a foreign environment for the heroes to explore. Keep in mind that they've lived here for years, but now all of the sudden there are all these new clues and mysteries needing to be explored. It's very exciting, and by linking the work back to El Sombrero's traps during the Black Glove storyline. There are more callbacks to that storyline in Damian's opening scene at Wayne Enterprises too. Damian's sudden involvement with the Bat-family has an interesting development too, he's actually not sure how he feels about Bruce Wayne coming back. Damian fears that this means he won't be Robin anymore, a realistic and identifiable fear, I think it adds a lot to his character. This issue really makes it clear how the last few years have been part of Morrison's master plan for the character. Once again, I'm amazed at the concepts Morrison just drops out there that could each support its own storyline.

I will admit that I'm hoping that the reason the weird new detective character, Oberon Sexton, feels familiar to Dick Grayson isn't that it's Bruce Wayne. He's a neat new character and I love the idea of him taking Damian under his wing for a bit, but I hope that it isn't that obvious an out.

Andy Clarke was destined for great things from his first book. He was clearly too big for R.E.B.E.L.S., and he fits right in on these big event books. His Batman is awesome and his Batmobile looks spot-on too. I'd love an ongoing rotation of Frank Quitely, Cameron Stewart, and Andy Clarke.

Excellent