Batman # 678 - Batman R.I.P.: Zur En Arrh

WARNING!!!
THIS REVIEW WILL SPOIL THIS INSANE STORYLINE!

Or bring new light to it... Buyer beware!





I love this series, even more this week when I found out what the hell was going on in this book. Let me let you understand a little bit more on the craziness. During the 50s a single issue of Batman came out (located in the TPB Batman: In The Fifties, around page 168 or 198, one of those two) where Batman goes to this kind of parallel dimension, where he meets... himself in the land of Zur En Arrh. The Batman of Zur En Arrh looks exactly like you'd think, Batman and the Technocolor Dreamcoat style. Now, you might be wondering, "So, who cares?" Well, here's the kicker: Regular Batman in the Zur En Arrh dimension has powers comprable to Superman. And I assume vice versa also works. Now, we haven't seen Batman in this book currently with any super-powers, but the night is young. There's a few more things going on, like the fact I speculate that Zur En Arrh's Batman is that actual guy and Bruce is being held at that hospital by Hush (you must read Detective to understand all of the storyline). Thus, there are actually TWO Batmen/Bruce Wayne's running around Gotham right now. At least, that's my guess.

Morrison uncorks Batman in Dante's Inferno in this issue. The Batman R.I.P. books are typical Morrison scatology kicked up a notch. What I love about this series and Morrison's work leading up to this storyline (as well as the All-Star Superman work) is that it mines long-buried and out-of-fashion source material to add depth and mystery to an avant-garde, contemporary take on the character. This is not Frank Miller's gritty urban Stark Knight, but a brilliant, pulp Batman, the love-child of Agatha Christie and Timothy Leary.

It's interesting, subjective, challenging stuff that's a different stripe from other books on the market and I'm grateful for the difference. I'm only writing this review here because I wanted to google the source material (Batman of Zur En Arrh) and I noticed the one star avg. review. Too bad this material doesn't seem to be finding an audience here. For those of you lost in the admittedly confusing story arc, take heart: it will all become clear in the end. I am certain this story and Morrison's other work on Batman will make a great set of trade paperbacks.

Bruce is on the streets with little memory and recovering from weapons-grade drugs. He meets the homeless man from earlier and  that helps him out because he recognized him.

Elsewhere, Nightwing gets attacked by the Black Glove's mute minions, but escapes. Robin calls him and tells him that something could have happened to Bruce, but it turns out that the Black Glove did something to Dick and he's shown into Arkham, foaming at the mouth like a lunatic.

The Black Glove has taken over Wayne Manor, and we see that Bruce tries to become the colorful Batman of Zur En Arrh...Yeah, Bruce lost it.

This is a good one. Seems it's starting to pick up.

Well it seems that The Black Glove has taken over the Batcave. Bruce Wayne is strung out on Weapons grade heroine, and is being led all across Gotham city.  In the meantime the Bat Family realises something is wrong, and they begin to get really worried for their boss.
  There really is just not a lot of action in this book. The drama comes from the characters themselves, especially Bruce Wayne and Honor Jackson. The one thing this book has going against it is that so far it is not the easiest story to follow. I am a Batman fan, so I am interested in seeing where it goes based on that, but this issue has gone off the rails.

At first I was very intrigued with this story line. I could not wait for it to get going. I kept thinking about the possibilities of who could be the next Batman. Bu this issue confused me. Half the time I could not tell who was saying what to whom. And how the heck the bad guy get Nightwings mask?

I hope this arc will end on an interesting note. I would hate for all this hype to end Batman on a dud.