Last issue of “Batman Incorporated” didn’t exactly live up to the rest of the series. Now, though, Grant Morrison is back at the helm of the ship to steer it towards the conclusion of his seven year run on Batman. Is it the conclusion we’ve all been waiting for? We’ll have to wait and see, but the build up to it isn’t too shabby.
Written by Grant Morrison
Illustrated by Chris Burnham
Leviathan and the Heretic are on the ropes…could Batman be on the verge of avenging all he’s lost?
There’s always a worry as a writer comes towards the end of a run that has spanned a good number of years that the conclusion will be unsatisfactory. It comes from the fear of having followed the serialised media for years only to be let down by the payoff and wondering if it was all worth it in the first place. After having read the penultimate issue of Grant Morrison’s final chapter in his seven year long Batman saga, that fear is nowhere to be found. The soul of Gotham city hangs in the balance. Leviathan is on the verge of victory. But Bruce Wayne’s rage at losing his son means Batman won’t go quietly into the night. If you’ve ever wanted to see Batman at his most desperate, look no further than this issue.
Over the course of his run, Grant Morrison has covered nearly all bases when it comes to Batman. We’ve seen him write the gun-totting Batman of the 1940s all the way through to the ultimate, “peak” Batman of the 2000s. But here, Morrison brings a new side of Batman to the forefront: a Batman who is fueled by the rage of a father who has lost his son. Batman may be a creature of fear, but he has never looked as terrifying as he does here, in the pages of this issue. This is thanks to both Morrison and Burnham creating a Batman who is raw and powerful and haggard and whose rage seeps from every panel. The majority of this issue focuses on Bruce finally facing down on the Heretic and looking to seek revenge for killing Damian and the tension that has built up not just over the course of this series, but ever since Damian was first introduced, is palpable on the page. This is a final fight to the death done right.
Both Morrison and Burnham bring their ultimate A-game to this issue to provide a build up to the conclusion of a story seven years in the telling. Not only is the death of Damian given closure with the battle between Batman and the Heretic, but Morrison and Burnham are going way back to tie up loose ends from the beginning of the run. Talia’s true motivations, and even her true nature, are teased for a climactic battle in the final issue. Even plot points from the “Batman Incorporated: Leviathan Strikes!” one-shot make a reappearance here as Morrison makes one final pull at all the strings that have lead to here in order to (hopefully) tie them all up in the final story. While this issue may only work on some levels as a lead-in to the final issue, it does so by bringing everything, even from Morrison’s first issue, together to be tied up.
Burnham is back as the artist of this issue after writing the intermission of last issue and he really hits it out of the park here. From the epic, rain soaked opening pages of Batman and his colony of bats descending upon Gotham City to the quiet confrontation between Talia and Bruce that closes the issue, Burhman really nails the atmosphere of the issue. The battle between Batman and the Heretic is heavy and frantic, but filled with a passion that nicely compliments Morrison’s writing and shows Batman in a way we’ve never seen him before. Batman has always been defined by his rage as child having lost his parents, but Burhman and Morrison show him here as a parent who has lost his son. While Bruce may have mourned Damian in the other Bat-titles, here he is angry and wants revenge. Burnham shows that during the battle with the Heretic making the fight mean something beyond simply forcing a fight for the sake of it to build to a climax.
As a conclusion to a story that Morrison has been telling on and off over the course of seven years, this last issue before the climax has not missed a step. The writing is superb as always and Morrison gets to briefly explore a side of Batman that has never been seen before while finally getting to tie everything together to lead into the last issue. The art is simply wonderful and Burnham gets to let loose with a raw Batman that is full of rage and doesn’t have anything left to hold back. If you’ve been following this story since the beginning, this is as fulfilling an issue as you could want.
Final Verdict: 9.8 – This is it. While it’s not the best jumping on point, if you’ve been following Morrison’s Batman story for the last seven years there is simply no reason to miss this.
