So, Damian Wayne is eleven years old. And Batman met Talia al Ghul when? And he’s fighting a globe-trotting war with Leviathan at roughly the same time he took on the Court of Owls? Continuity nuts, get your aspirin out. The rest of you? Just strap in and enjoy an okay comic, dammit.
Written by Grant Morrison & Chris Burnham
Illustrated by Frazer Irving– Batman, Incorporated wants you!
– Batman has a war to fight, but first he must recruit an army to combat the menace of Leviathan.
– See how The Dark Knight assembled his lieutenants!
Morrison builds his zero issue around the idea that Batman has never been alone in his quest for justice. It is this revelation (held over from the pre-Flashpoint “Batman and Robin” book) that drives him to create an international organization of trusted crimefighters. The rest of the issue quite literally runs the reader through all of the recruits as they happen. Fan-favorite British defenders Knight and Squire feature heavily, their particular brand of plucky humor (and Dr. Who nods) is wholly welcome. But the scene-stealer is Batman Japan, whose segment is packed with so many crazy ideas that you’d think Morrison actually set his brain to “Japanese Gameshow.” It’s hilarious, and results in one of Batman’s best retorts in recent memory. One of Morrison’s favorite things to write are new characters that are facsimiles of old characters. This idea had been present throughout his “JLA”, “New X-Men”, and “Batman” runs. It’s no surprise that he wanted to build an entire organization out of “Batmen” and has a lot of fun doing it.
While the first few issues of the new 52 volume of “Batman Incorporated” have given the new reader enough to get the gist of what’s been going on with Leviathan, readers are going to want to familiarize themselves with Morrison’s early Batman work. Almost the entirety of Batman’s international squad is highlighted here, but with no breathing room. Each of these sequences is entertaining, but a few of them give the reader absolutely no indication of where the character fits in. My point is that though this fits the definition of a “zero issue” by being about the recruitment of the Incorporated members, it does little to actually introduce them to you if you’re an uninitiated reader. Rather, Batman shows up and we have a fun recruiting scene that may or may not tell you anything about the character.
I’ve praised Frazer Irving’s art in the past (specifically in my review of The Shade #11) and really enjoyed his work on Morrison’s “Batman and Robin” of a couple years ago. There are pages and panels of this issue that show Irving at his stylistic best, but also a few where more detail and a more dynamic style would have suited the material better. One particular highlight is a 1-page reprise of Bruce Wayne’s classic bell-ringing scene from Frank Miller’s “Year One.” This has been shown in various media, what, a hundred times by now? Still, Irving’s rendition is as moody and ominous as it has ever been. He breathes new life into something that’s been done to death. There’s another sequence that depicts a portentous vision of Leviathan’s attack that Bruce Wayne sees before deciding to form Batman Incorporated that is almost avant-garde in its abstract beauty.
Having said that, Irving also has a tendency to err on the side of minimalism with his action panels this time around. There are sequences that lose their impact, because the setting isn’t present in any detail or the action is hid in silhouette without a clear reason. The aforementioned sequence in Japan could have had so much more of an impact if the art had matched the gusto of the off-the-wall writing. Instead, the idea shrinks into a smallish panel with muted color and little detail. Frazer is a high-level artist. A handful of these pages would look wonderful framed on a Batman fan’s wall. I’m just not sure this material was totally right for his style.
There’s no reason to skip this issue and there’s certainly a lot of fun to be had with it. On the downside, it continues the trend of the “zero month” interrupting a lot of story arcs that had a lot of momentum going through their current story arc at their own pace. This was an issue where the story seemed like we were not only going back to the origin of Batman Incorporated, but actually taking a step back to a place that Morrison’s story has already moved on from. In a similar fashion, Frazer’s art was perfect for Bruce Wayne’s triumphant return from the grave in Morrison’s “Batman and Robin.” It doesn’t feel entirely right alongside the wacky antics and jet-setting present in “Batman Incorporated.” Instead, what we got was a fine enough comic that is a bit of an odd-man-out in Morrison’s bat opus.
Final Verdict: 7.0 – Buy. Fun, offbeat and little else, but that’s okay.
