What happened to Batman between Batman R.I.P. and Final Crisis? Grant Morrison and Tony Daniel come together to explain what happened to the Caped Crusader in the 30 day period before Batman was killed.
The Good
Grant Morrison's writing can get a little confusing, unless you're reading every issue in a story back-to-back. Maybe I'm a little dumb, but when I read R.I.P. and Final Crisis, the light bulb above my head was constantly off. This issue turned the light back on. A wave of "oh, now I get it" swept over me as I read the issue. I felt like an idiot. Why? Because the answers to what actually happened in R.I.P. and Final Crisis were a lot simpler than I thought. I've felt that Morrison has made the Batman book a little surreal and hard to understand at times the past few years, but luckily, this singular issue, puts a lot of my questions to rest. I'm most happy about tony Daniel not writing this book. I enjoy him infinity more as an artist over a writer, and he and Morrison make a great team for this two-part story.
The Bad
The issue moves a little slow. It's a lot of inner-monologue. I knew there wouldn't be a lot of action, but I didn't think there's be a complete absence of it. So the issue is slow, and it covers Days 30-27 before Bats kicks the bucket. So, the next issue will cover days 27 (or 26)-0? There's also a couple big questions they allude to but don't answer in this issue, which annoyed me a bit, but I understand you can't give it all away in one issue.
The Verdict 4/5
Great start to an incredibly revealing two issue story. If you were confused by the events of R.I.P. or Final Crisis, at least with everything Batman related, this is a MUST HAVE. Aside from that, it was flat-out a great read too. I'm not saying I lost faith in Morrison as a writer during those two story arcs, but it's stuff like this that reminds me why I like him.
