Batman is ALWAYS prepared!!!
If there is a simple message to this trade it's that Batman is always prepared! The narrative starts off a little incomprehensible as Grant Morrison is want to do. But once it gets into high gear, I think this is one of the most well-written of his Batman books. I love how he fishes into the past for silly things from the olden days like Bat-Mite and makes it make sense in the post-Year One world of Batman.
I love the art in this book. There are many ways to portray Joker and I'm a huge fan of his Batman: The Animated Series incarnation (and I'll always hear Mark Hammil when I read these comics), but I LOVE the Joker that Tony Daniel brings us. He looks as demented on the outside as he is on the inside. And, in every Grant Morrison portrayal of Joker, I think he gets his neurosis perfectly. Sure, this Joker is beyond macabre, but it's a good phase for the Joker to go through and a great contrast to the playfulness of the Golden/Silver Age and The Animated Series. (Although I would like to see a modern writer tackle a sillier Joker once more. It would take a lot of work to make that fit in with the serious tone Batman books have nowadays, but TAS seemed to toe that line well)
The story is that of an evil conspiracy which was apparently first mentioned in earlier issues of Batman. I just got into Batman this year and I find that DC does a horrible job compared to Marvel of letting you know which books to read in what order. In fact, this copy of the trade I own doesn't even list the collected works on the back cover. If it were sealed in a store I'd have no idea which issues were in it. Anyway, this conspiracy, The Black Glove, is after Batman and seems to know all his secrets. (Why they do is revealed in the epilogue)
Buy this and read it - it's one of the greatest cape stories I've read in a long time. Sometimes Grant Morrison gets a pass simply because he's famous for being awesome. And I've read some of his work that I thought was OK or even sub-par for someone of his statures. This is actually one of the great ones! Read it!
-If there's one negative to this book it's that I was able to spot at a mile away that the Red Head was connected to The Black Glove. Am I just getting that good at narrative? (Having been reading and studying about storytelling for years) Or it is a minor lapse on Morrison's part? Don't know. It's really the only failing. Unless.....
-you consider the fact that Batman is SO prepared for everything that he was even prepared for the possibility of someone mucking with his brain and making him forget who he was that he created the Batman of Zur Arrn (something like that) just in case such a thing happened. And that is how he's still Batman when he's not supposed to be. Personally, while I found it a little too far, at the same time I appreciated Grant Morrison's use of golden/silver age canon as to when he was implanted and I thoughjt it gave Morrison a way to create the Batman we've all wanted to see - Batman without Bruce's conscious. Batman unafraid to kill or maim. And gives us a way to get back to normal Batman after that story was over.
