Written by Grant Morrison
Illustrated by Yanick PaquetteThe dynamic new era of Batman continues! The Dark Knight and Mr. Unknown — the Batman of Japan — go up against Lord Death Man. It’s going to be a fight to the end that could see the failure of Batman, Inc. before it’s even begun!
Nothing about this series excited me when it was initially revealed other than the name Grant Morrison attached to it, and even then I was unsure how much Batman goodness he really had in him after the monumental redefining he gave the character over the last few years. Issue #1 of the second stage of his Batman Epic did away with a lot of that skepticism and Issue #2 picked up the pace and more thoroughly set the stage for what is assuredly going to be a crazy ride with some immense implications for the DC Universe.
The issue opens where the last one left off, with Catwoman fighting a giant squid inside a tiny apartment in Tokyo. Thanks to some cunning tactics from OG Batman Bruce Wayne, crisis is averted and many one liners are spewed. The exact details of this fight are secondary, but needless to say it was choreographed with the specificity and innovation expected of a Grant Morrison fight scene. Following this, we witness the public dismantling of former Mr. Unknown sidekick/stand-in Jiro Osamu as his girlfriend leaves him and Batman basically calls him a chump AFTER he deciphers who the “couldn’t possibly have a more evil name” villain Lord Death Man will be targeting next. We’re then gifted with a phenomenal Death Man centric scene of him awaking from death and killing most of the people populating the hospital where his body was set to be autopsied. Following an amazing scene involving flying cars, breaking glass, tommy gun’s and a failed assassination attempt on a Japanese hero no one cares about, Bruce Wayne, who not 10 pages before chewed out young Jiro for using a gun, THROWS LORD DEATHMAN OFF A MULTI-STORY BALCONY AND THEN TRAPS HIM IN A SAFE. It seems the new Wayne status quo includes a lot of…untoward tactics to deal with villains. I personally can’t wait until he pushes Killer Croc in front of a moving train.
Following this, we get a better idea of just what Batman Incorporated will look like in the long term…and it’s not quite what I expected. I figured that Bruce was going to travel the world recruiting like-minded heroes and creating an international network of scary, badass detectives. While that is still the case, he actually takes it a step further as this issue sees young Jiro fake his death and become reborn with a very similar identity. That’s right folks, Batman Japan has been birthed. And people thought it was weird when there were just two of them…
On the art side, Yanick Paquette hasn’t sold me yet…while is backgrounds are detailed, his lines are crisp and his characters are anatomically correct, dude can NOT do faces. Granted, he is getting much better at it than he used to be, but his characters (with the exception of Jiro) really do not convey any emotion or body language. I guess the best word to describe his work is “static.” It works, but there’s nothing particularly mind blowing about it either. Maybe if Morrison hadn’t been working with consistently fantastic and unique artists over the last year it would be as noticeably, but I guess I’m just used to a certain standard of art bringing Morrison’s work to the page and I remain unconvinced that Paquette lives up to that standard.
Overall, I’m still not 100% sold on this series or the concept behind it. However, its an absolute joy to see Morrison write widescreen, quirky super-heroics as opposed to intricate mind-messes again, and I am definitely curious to see where he goes with things.
Final Verdict: 9.0 – Buy
