I've been annotating "Batman R.I.P." and discussing Morrison's Batman run nearly issue-by-issue since his "Clown at Midnight" story. Click HERE for all my relevant Morrison Batman posts, and comment below to tell me everything I missed. (Also, this issue seemed even more straightforward than the last issue, but I guess I might as well comment on this one just for the sake of symmetry.)
Batman #681: The Annotations
Cover: Doesn't this Alex Ross cover look like a Matt Wagner composition? It does to me, although I can't come up with a specific reference. Can you?
Page 1: This is the last entry from the Black Casebook, and not only does Batman write about himself in the third person, but he underlines his own name. Thus, he reinforces the notion that Batman is just a persona, perhaps one of many inside the mind of Bruce Wayne.
Pages 2-3: The old hero-buried-alive trope. "Batman thinks of everything," becomes a recurring pattern as we learn more and more about the foresight Batman has -- he plans for eventualities that would never occur to your average fly-by-night superhero.
Also, there's an I Ching "Book of Changes" reference here which relates to the Denny O'Neal-created character (for the mod Wonder Woman era) who popped up in Morrison's "Batman" during the "Resurrection of Ra's al Ghul" crossover.
Page 4: My guess is that this flashback scene takes place sometime during the events of 52, after the Batman-cleanse of issue #30. Not the red and black coloring, which turns out to relate to a Joker-devised pattern (if he is to be believed later on), but also evokes the notion of the Devil as I've been saying for a while.
Page 5: I'm not sure what the "hole in [Bruce's] mind" refers to, exactly. Is it a reference to the Dr. Hurt sensory-deprivation experiments, when Hurt tampered with Batman's brain and inserted stuff that didn't belong? That's what I assume. [Although, Hurt refers himself as the "hole" in things. So there's that.]
But couldn't it also refer to some deeper, more primal psychic scar caused at the moment of Batman's origin?
I think it's too ambiguous to make a positive assertion, but it may not ultimately matter as the important part is the notion that Batman has planned way ahead, and created the Zur En Arrh Batman as an OS reboot for his brain.
Also, the monk apparently works for the Black Glove, or the Devil, or whoever you think is "the Master."
Pages 6-7: Robin vs. Pierrot Lunaire and the Swagman.
Dark Ranger, from the Club of Heroes, shows up. He says, "formerly the Scout," who I assume used to be the Ranger's sidekick, and since the original Dark Ranger died in the story arc running through Batman #667-669, the Scout must have taken his place. Note that this pattern, of the former sidekick taking on the mantle of the hero, is part of Club of Heroes history, as it happened with the Knight and now with Dark Ranger.
Will the same thing happen as a former sidekick (like, say, Nightwing) adopts the role of Batman? One assumes so.
Page 8:Do you think Tony Daniel drew this page and then thought, "geez, I guess I'd better Photoshop some kind of hideous, blurry buildings behind the characters now?" or do you think editorial called up Daniel and said, "geez, Tony, we like the poses here, but could you add something really distracting and out-of-place in the background? Cool. Thanks." Or maybe Guy Major did it.
Anyway, the Club of Heroes has shown up just in time to fight some low-level minions!
From left-to-right, top-to-bottom, we have the Squire, Little Raven (or Red Raven), Man-of-Bats, the Musketeer, the Knight, Dark Ranger, and the Gaucho.
Page 9: More red and black flashback action as we find out that Bruce Wayne has -- aha -- switched the poison goblets because he planned ahead! Or, as he calls it, "force of habit." Or maybe it's because of that Princess Bride marathon he has every year with his best pal Alfred.
Page 10: Dr. Hurt and the members of the Black Glove pay their respects to the buried Batman. Note that he has a purposefully shallow grave because Hurt's plan is to un-bury Batman just after brain-damage sets in. Why? Because.
Jezebel Jet, who has turned out to be EVIL Jezebel Jet, wants to disfigure him. Why? Because.
Pages 11: The Joker reveals that he's not a mere pawn of the Black Glove, as we all suspected, and then revels in actually betting on Batman to take these chumps down. That's the Joker for you -- when the chips are down, he's always going to bet on black.
Page 12: That bat-radia was more than just a crazyperson radio. It was a secret transmitter. Suckers!
And I wonder if Jet's line, "an old broken radio he found in a derelict's abandoned shopping cart," is verification that Honor Jackson was merely a figment of Bruce Wayne's mind (like Bat-Mite). I say, yes.
Page 13: Back at Arkham, Le Bossu (now with a broken nose and/or disfigured face) prepares to lobotomize Dick Grayson as Scorpiana assists. But, silly Le Bossu, Dick Grayson was trained by BATMAN. He's not going to lie back and let you pound a spike into his frontal lobe without a fight.
Page 14: Flashback again. Bruce Wayne saves the life of the monk just so he can tell the bad guy that Batman is ready for him. Also, Bruce Wayne apparently "killed and ate the last traces of fear and doubt," which is nice. And here we were all worried, back when we read 52 #30, that he was going to stop being Batman or something. Ha, that would never happen. Never ever, ever ever.
Except maybe at the end of this issue, because he is dead.
Page 15: I like this silhouette of bustin-out Batman. Nicely done, Tony Daniel.
But when exactly did Batman write this Black Casebook entry? He dies at the end of the issue, and by "dies" I mean, we all know he's not really dead, but he's "dead" for now. But this Black Casebook entry describes everything up through the final confrontation between him and Hurt. So is this him writing about the visions of his future? Or is this him writing about his adventure after he "died"? I say it's a forgery, written by the Richard Gere character.
Page 16: Is Batman hunched a bit awkwardly? Does the shape of the figure and the basic musculature evoke Jim Lee? Is the image not quite as iconic as it should be?
Check. Check. And check.
Then it must be a Tony Daniel splash page!
Pages 17: The Joker takes credit for the red and black motif, referring to the 1980s phone-in death of Robin story. This page makes it seem as if Joker played a much more significant role as a puppet master -- perhaps something even the Black Glove members aren't aware of.
"Apophenia" is when you see symbols and patterns in random and meaningless data. Which is what critics accuse me of doing all the time. And readers accuse Morrison of doing all the time. And it's been part of the Joker's whole deal for the past several issues, implying that Batman sees patterns which aren't even there. Yet, Batman's pattern recognition has been pretty accurate, so what does that mean? It means the Joker is the crazy one.
And here the Joker explicitly calls Dr. Hurt the "devil," and says the the Joker trumps him.
What is beyond Good and Evil? The Joker.
Page 18: Tony Daniel reaches into his bag of tricks and pulls out another Batman pose much like the one a couple of pages ago, except with less shadow!
Jezebel Jet says, "I though I smelled dirt," but, amazingly, Batman has no trace of dirt on him at all. Must be that teflon fabric he started using in preparation for the burial alive he knew was coming.
All of which begs the question: if Batman has such foresight, why does he wait until things look to be at their worst before he reveals his plan? Why not just nip it in the bud like two years ago? I guess Batman likes dramatic tension as much as the next guy.
Pages 19: Batman reveals that he did fall for bad girl Jezebel Jet, but he suspected she was part of the trap from the "second after" he realized he had feelings for her. He's been acting the part of the love interest all along. Sure he has. This was ALL part of his plan.
Page 20: Batman knows everything about Jet's history all of a sudden, which is nice. And he gives props to Alfred for passing along some acting skills to young Master Wayne.
If the Black Glove was around 20 years ago, what does that mean? Does that tell us anything we didn't already know? I don't think so. (Other than the notion that the Black Glove is an organization that wasn't created just to mess with Batman.)
Page 21: Nightwing to the rescue, to which Batman says, "I heart you Dick Grayson with all my hearty heart."
Also, in his Black Casebook entry, he reveals that he couldn't nip the plan in the bud, because he didn't know which bud would blossom into EVIL. A flowering evil of flowery flora. I'm pushing this metaphor too far, and I will stop.
Pages 22: Apparently Robin saved the city while Batman dealt with his own issues.
I don't know how he saved the city, besides punching a few costumed bad guys with the help of Batmen International, but the Squire says he did, so he did.
Robin pulls a wicked sweet wheelie as he races off to Batman's aid. Showboat.
Page 23: The final fate of Joker and an appearance by Damian and Alfred, all in a one-page scene. Talk about compression!
Is there a pattern to the fact that Damian is the one who sends the Joker over the bridge, or is it all randomness? Depends on whether you're Batman or the Joker, I guess.
Page 24: Exposition time. Note that between last issue and this one, Hurt and his cronies must have undressed Batman (who was wearing his purple, red, and yellow Zur En Arrh costume) and then dressed him in his more traditional costume. Then, on this page, he says he wants Batman to "put away the costume." Make up your mind, Dr. Hurt!
Hurt also gives Bats a verbal smackdown for being a trust fund orphan who "vents his rage and frustration on the poor," which is something I've heard Morrison say when he talks about the Marxist aspects of the Batman mythos.
Page 25: Dr. Hurt IS Thomas Wayne.
No, he's not.
He's Mangrove Pierce.
Um, no.
Okay, then he's "the hole in things."
Oh, "the hole." That wasn't on my list of suspects.
But you've gotta interpret "the hole in things...the enemy, the piece that can never fit, there since the beginning" to be the Devil, right?
Right? Just like I mentioned a few months ago.
Page 26: Hurt, or the Devil, or the metaphorical Devil, or whatever, offers Batman a Faustian Bargain: dedicate his life to the corruption of virtue and save the reputation of everyone he ever loved. "Nah," says Batman, before a 39-degree Lightning Dive! (Which he totally must have practiced for just such an eventuality. The old Satan in a helicopter scenario.)
Page 27: The third evil Batman pilots the chopper, and if Hurt is the Devil for real, he doesn't show it by using his Devil powers in this scene. He just kind of whines about everything.
"The Black Glove always wins," Hurt says, as Batman's black gloved-fist makes the helicopter go all explodey.
Page 28: Robin shows up a little too late (maybe if he wasn't hot-doggin' all the way here...)
Then Robin sums up the entire Morrison run in three word balloons, except he left out all the good bits.
Talia shows up, with her League of Assassins and their injections of -- one assumes -- Man-Bat formula.
Page 29: It's a good thing Batman took off his cape and cowl before jumping onto the helicopter. Otherwise, Nightwing wouldn't have had anything cool to hold as he watched the flames from the rooftop. One wonders if he -- recognizing the symbolic importance of the moment -- would have swung by the Batcave, picked up a spare cape and cowl and come out to this spot to do the pose anyway. I can picture Dick Grayson doing that.
Obviously, this implies that Nightwing will become the next Batman until the real Batman inevitably returns (probably after a little bit of negotiation with the Devil -- maybe Batman will ride out of Hell on a flaming motorcycle! Cool idea, eh? What's Mark Texiera drawing next year?)
Page 30: This page doesn't show Jezebel Jet die at the hands of Talia's Ninja Manbats, but I'm pretty sure they didn't fly by just to hang out. Still, I'm sure Jet will appear again sometime in the next ten years. Count on it.
Page 31: Six months later, and no sight of Batman. That Battle for the Cowl thing must have kept him out of the limelight.
Le Bossu's "Even Batman and Robin are dead!" line on this page is answered way back in issue #676, as that Batman and Robin (who I guessed at the time -- and I stand by it -- to be Dick Grayson and Damian) shout "Batman and Robin will never die!"
I like how Morrison doesn't show that part again, but relies on the memories of the reader to connect the two pages -- separated by months and months of real time -- together.
Page 32: [Edited to add: Joe Chill pops up on this final page, foreshadowing the death scene to come. I presume his presence is merely ominous, but I think we can also assume that the Black Glove organization and/or the Devil was involved in Batman's origin. Or if we can't assume it, then we can guess at it.] We all know what happens to momma and poppa Wayne after that night at the movies, and the red and the black coloring ties it all back to the Joker and the Devil once again, but the cool part about this final page is when Thomas Wayne says, "they'd probably throw someone like Zorro in Arkham." To which little Bruce says, "what?"
Then, in backwards lettering "Zur En Arrh." As in a slurring of "Zorro in Arkham." That's what this whole thing has been about -- the crazed Zorro, aka Batman, and his adventures into madness. I like how Morrison turns a 1950s nonsense phrase into something meaningful to the Batman character.
Batman is "dead." The Black Glove defeated -- sort of. Dr. Hurt is exploded. The Devil may or may not have even been part of this. The Joker's in a flying ambulance, headed for the river. Plot threads still dangle, and I wonder how many answers we'll get in the next couple of Morrison issues, which are all about Alfred looking back at Batman's life.
Or maybe anyone looking for a plot in the life of a character merely suffers from apophenia.
Showing posts with label annotations. Show all posts
Showing posts with label annotations. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds #2 Annotations
I annotated issue #1 way back when, and so here I am again, writing whatever pops into my head and telling you what I know about the best of the Final Crisis spin-off books.
Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds #2: The Annotations
Cover: Once again, I bought the character-centric cover instead of the one with the ugly red bars on the side. This one's all about the Saturn Girl, as the Levitz-by-way-of-Johns SG thinks real hard and her two parallel selves pop out of her brain. Dave McCaig does a great job digitally painting these covers over the George Perez pencils, don't you think? (Correct answer: yes, you do think.)
Page 1: Ah, a "white-event." The Legion's had a few of those, and this one stuck for a while as the Reboot Legion got whited out once the Threeboot came into existence. This here's Shikari, the Dawnstar-esque character introduced in Legion Lost. (Hence the "lost again" reference by the off-panel Dream Girl.) Like Dawnstar, Shikari has super-tracking skillz.
Page 2: Sorcerer's World is actually Amethyst's "Gemworld," by the way, but in the future! And White Witch? She's a sorceress, and the sister of the Dream Girl from this reality. Not the Dream Girl from the Threeboot, who's dead, or the Dream Girl (or Dreamer, whatever) who's hanging out with Shikari.
Meanwhile, Superboy-Prime gives the evil Saturn Queen her very own "S-ring," and that looks like bad guy Lightning Lord's hand sporting the new jewelry as well. Geoff Johns likes his villains to sport matching accoutrements -- for more examples, see the Sinestro Corps War.
The purple cloaky guy is the Time Trapper. You can tell because he calls himself "The Time Trapper," and he traps time.
The great thing about his character, is he can be used to explain away any continuity problems ever. Even ones in Marvel comics. That's how powerful he is.
Page 3: "Mordru" is, of course, the super-evil-sorcerer who has imprisoned White Witch. And look who shows up to bust her out, the hot-headed Wildfire, the League-of-Super-Assassins-member-turned-White-Witch-bff Blok, and the super-tracker with the 70s Native American motif, Dawnstar. I think every Legion fan loves Dawnstar, don't they? She is awesome, and Wildfire agrees.
Page 4: Apparently Dawnstar's super-tracking ability lets her see metaphorical paths into the future, which is nice, because, really, if they have Google Maps, she ain't all that useful anymore, otherwise.
Page 5: The last Green Lantern (maybe), Rond Vidar! Son of Universo, the man with the monocle. Rond Vidar was a super-scientist and best friend of Brainiac 5, and then he died, but actually, no, he lived! Because he was secretly a Green Lantern! Why he would not ever use the ring before that, I have no idea. I guess he likes surprises. Well, surprise, he dies for real later in this issue!
That's Mordru with the beard and the purple goblin blasts.
Page 6: Glorith, Dragonmage, and Evillo are supporting characters from Legion history, all of whom have magic connections. Glorith was a former wife of Mordru, and she was also a pal of the Time Trapper, and sort of became a Time Trapper-esque character of her own (in one continuity). Dragonmage actually appeared after the Giffen Five-Year-Gap stories, which Johns seems to be ignoring otherwise, so his mention here shows how screwed up the 31st century timeline really is. And Evillo was evil. Oh.
Pages 7-8: Yeah, Mordru was White Witch's teacher and husband(?) at one point.
Mordru talks like Darth Vader a bit here, and later, Universo kind of does a Lord of the Sith kind of thing. I like to imagine that all of them sound like James Earl Jones throughout the comic. In fact, just imagine everyone in the future talks that way. Except Superboy-Prime. He sounds like Matthew McConnaughey.
Some people criticize Geoff Johns for his bloodthirsty streak, but it's pretty obvious that Mordru's the real crazy one, not Geoff Johns! Seriously, "make love bathed in your blood"? Dude, you're like a thousand years old.
Pages 9-10: The new Legion of Super-Villains, with matching rings! From left to right, top to bottom: Neutrax, Beauty Blaze, Zymyr, Ol-Vir, Emerald Empress, Grimbor, Validus, Tharok, Golden Boy, Tusker, Storm Boy, Sun Emperor, Esper Lass, Dr. Regulus, Universo, Lightning Lord, Superboy-Prime, Saturn Queen, Earth-Man, Hunter II, Persuader, Mist Master, Mano, Spider-Girl, Cosmic King, Micro Lad, Terrus, Lazon, Silver Slasher, Tyr, Black Mace, Echo, Radiation Roy, Chameleon Chief, Titania, Magno Lad.
This is basically the LSV from the early Baxter issues of Legion, plus the Johns Justice League from recent Action Comics issues, a few members of the League of Super-Assassins, the Fatal Five, and a couple of guys who usually work solo (like Universo and Dr. Regulus). In other words, its the most awesome team of bad guys ever.
They all sound like James Earl Jones.
Page 11: Flashback, to Infinite Crisis, written by Geoff Johns. Flashback to "Sinestro Corps War," written by Geoff Johns. Foreshadowing: Sodam Yat -- remember when you beat up a random guy that one time, S-Prime? Not really important right now, but by the end of the issue: important! Sodam Yat, btw, was a Daxamite (like Mon-El) with a power ring, and took the mantle of Ion post-Kyle Raynor.
Page 12: Legion HQ, in panel two, from left to right, top to bottom: bad stuff on monitors, Superman, Lightning Lad, Night Girl, Brainiac 5, Invisible Kid II, Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl, Shrinking Violet, Polar Boy, Ultra Boy, Phantom Girl, Lightning Lass, arrogant S-Prime holo, Chameleon Girl, Tmber Wolf.
The Legion has a code against killing. They also have a code against anyone over 18 joining the team, or at least they did. Changing codes is a slippery slope. Now look at them, all a bunch of long-haired hippie fascists.
Page 13: "gathered some magic," is a reference to Magic: The Gathering, the card game I used to play with all the free time I used to have not annotating comic books. Back when I was cool and hip.
Panel five features the first time in comic book history that "clubhouse" and "bastards" appeared in the same panel. Unless you count the obscure Silverwolf comic from 1987, "Clubhouse Bastards," illustrated by Tim Vigil, which I don't, because it doesn't exist.
Page 14: Superboy-Prime hates whiners! Take that, fanboys!
Page 15: You'd think, by the 31st century, they'd come up with a more elegant computer interface than just a keyboard with extra buttons. Must be the Time Trapper messing up the development of technology by making future tech slightly more annoying than it has to be.
Garth (Lighthing Lad) and Imra (Saturn Girl) are married. One of the old-timey Legion rules was that married couples couldn't remain members. They changed that one too. Seriously, besides the "no murder" rule, what's left? Might as well get rid of that one, too. I'm with the Lad with the Lightning.
Pages 16-17: See, "Lethal Force Enabled." That's what I'm talking about. The Green Lanterns got rid of their "no murder" policy a millenia ago, in a story written, not coincidentally, by Geoff Johns.
The Legion used Stargates way before MacGyver did.
Saturn Queen is all up in her Nurse Ratched mode here, but those black word balloons let you know that you're supposed to say the speech in a deep voice, like, you guessed it, J. E. J.
Pages 18-19: Universo, as Rond Vidar's dad, was Green Lantern once, maybe, or I could be totally misremembering that. But what I'm not misremembering is that the "snap" panel is an allusion to the Levitz/Lightle scene when Princess Projectra snapped the neck of Nemesis Kid after he killed her husband (Karate Kid). She did the deed off-panel, too.
Superboy-Prime is basically from our Earth, so he knows about Parker Brothers board games and their mascot. Although Rich Uncle Pennybags doesn't have a beard. Or mind control powers. As far as I know.
Page 20: "Human supremacist trash," is a reference to Earth-Man's xenophobic Justice League who convinced everyone on Earth that aliens were evil and that Superman was actually a human. Racists are bad guys, even in the future.
"Long Live OUR Legion," is a twist on the famous "Long Live the Legion," the rallying cry of the Legion of Super-Heroes and pretty much anyone who's ever sent me an e-mail about the Legion ever.
Page 21: Ah, the lightning rod from what seemed, at the time, to be a completely pointless Justice League/Justice Society crossover a few years back. You remember "The Lightning Saga," right? A speedster is stuck inside that rod! I wonder who it could be? If we take Brainiac's dialogue in the last panel, "..how SMART I really AM" and take out the letters h,o,w, s, I, r, e, y, a, m, and add a B and an "e" and an "n," I think you'll have a great clue! Geoff Johns is also smart, with his 31st century cryptography!
Page 22: Oa, former home of the Guardians, now kind of a downer. Note, this is Sodam Yat and his collection of jewelry. "Mogo" is the planet-sized Green Lantern, created by Alan Moore, and he was Yat's best bud. Before the dark times. Before the rebellion...
Page 23: Happy Harbor, former home of the Justice League of America, the Doom Patrol, and pretty much anyone who wanted to hang out. All you need is Aquaman's garage door opener to get in, apparently. Trophies on display include Despero's chess board, Abnegazar, Rath, and Gast class photos with accompanying wheel, jar, and bell. Prometheus's digital download helmet, and Dr. Destiny's Materioptikon. Also, some Amos Fortune playing cards, a giant Starro Heroclix, and, of course, that crystal ball that's not really a crystal ball. You may remember that from the first JLA/JSA team-up.
"Sub's satellite," refers to the Legion of Substitute Heroes, who have taken over the old JLA satellite after the dorkface racists got defeated, thanks to the Subs, in Johns's Action Comics issues earlier this year.
Page 24: The Time Institute! In the background we see Booster Gold's sis, Goldstar, Skeets, Rip Hunter, Time Master, and some other dude who I'm probably expected to remember. Time bubbles are good. For time travel.
"He's a Daxamite" is more Sodam Yat foreshadowing, for all you playing the at-home version.
Page 25: "red sky" is a reference to Crisis on Infinite Earths, or maybe Infinite Crisis, or Final Crisis, but definitely NOT Identity Crisis. "The Tornado Twins" are Barry Allen's kids who live in the future, and end up becoming Bart Allen's dad and aunt. Whatever adventure White Witch is talking about is the previous team-up between all three Legions that we still haven't seen. Stupid Time Trapper!
A "Legion Lost" joke. And a reminder from Johns that the Threeboot Legion is still being published. Buy your copy today!
Pages 26-27: Hoo-boy, at least the Threeboot Legion is on the left page, and the Reboot team on the right. Here goes, from left to right, top to bottom: Element Lad, Star Boy, Micro Lad (aka Colossal Boy), Saturn Girl, Shadow Lass, Ultra Boy, Chameleon, Triad, M'Onel, Ferro, Triplicate Girl's legs, Invisible Kid, Light Lass, Atom Girl (aka Shrinking Violet), Karate Kid, Brainiac 5.1, Andromeda, Star Boy, Phantom Lass, Ultra Boy, Triplicate Girl, Lightning Lad, Lightning Lass, Cosmic Boy, Sensor, Timber Wolf, Violet, XS, Dreamer, Princess Projectra, Karate Kid, Chameleon, Timber Wolf, Kid Quantum II, Saturn Girl, Apparition, Triplicate Girl, Brainiac 5, Shadow Lass, Triad, Gates, Invisible Kid, Shikari, Element Lad, Gear, Wildfire, Kinetix.
Page 28: Threeboot Brainiac 5 is from the "Eat it, Grandpa" incarnation from the team. You thought "Long Live the Legion" was a catchy phrase? "Eat it, Grandpa" is the type of thing Matthew Elmslie writes essays about!
Page 29: Sun boy is very sad, as he drinks his SODA POP. Ever since he spent years hooked up to an evil machine that made him turn the sun red, in a story written by Geoff Johns, he just hasn't been the same womanizing douchebag he used to be.
Page 30: Superboy-Prime does have a history of scorching planets with giant space graffiti. His threats are not empty. I've read Countdown, so I know everything there is to know about pain and suffering.
Page 31: The power battery on Oa all black and spooky is a great image. Note to Geoff Johns: you might want to think about basing a huge event on that image next summer. Call it "Shadowy-est Evening," and you'll sell a million books. Mon-El and Shadow Lass make a nice couple, don't they? What a romantic getaway -- going to Oa with a corpse and all.
Page 32: Sodam Yat, I am not a fan of your haircut. But a man with the powers of Mon-El and a Green Lantern ring who hangs out on a planet with a bunch of dead guys is probably not really in the mood to listen to anything I have to say. When you read his final speech, remember that it rhymes with "This is CNN."
And that, my friends, is the greatest Legion story so far this week. Maybe ever.
Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds #2: The Annotations
Cover: Once again, I bought the character-centric cover instead of the one with the ugly red bars on the side. This one's all about the Saturn Girl, as the Levitz-by-way-of-Johns SG thinks real hard and her two parallel selves pop out of her brain. Dave McCaig does a great job digitally painting these covers over the George Perez pencils, don't you think? (Correct answer: yes, you do think.)
Page 1: Ah, a "white-event." The Legion's had a few of those, and this one stuck for a while as the Reboot Legion got whited out once the Threeboot came into existence. This here's Shikari, the Dawnstar-esque character introduced in Legion Lost. (Hence the "lost again" reference by the off-panel Dream Girl.) Like Dawnstar, Shikari has super-tracking skillz.
Page 2: Sorcerer's World is actually Amethyst's "Gemworld," by the way, but in the future! And White Witch? She's a sorceress, and the sister of the Dream Girl from this reality. Not the Dream Girl from the Threeboot, who's dead, or the Dream Girl (or Dreamer, whatever) who's hanging out with Shikari.
Meanwhile, Superboy-Prime gives the evil Saturn Queen her very own "S-ring," and that looks like bad guy Lightning Lord's hand sporting the new jewelry as well. Geoff Johns likes his villains to sport matching accoutrements -- for more examples, see the Sinestro Corps War.
The purple cloaky guy is the Time Trapper. You can tell because he calls himself "The Time Trapper," and he traps time.
The great thing about his character, is he can be used to explain away any continuity problems ever. Even ones in Marvel comics. That's how powerful he is.
Page 3: "Mordru" is, of course, the super-evil-sorcerer who has imprisoned White Witch. And look who shows up to bust her out, the hot-headed Wildfire, the League-of-Super-Assassins-member-turned-White-Witch-bff Blok, and the super-tracker with the 70s Native American motif, Dawnstar. I think every Legion fan loves Dawnstar, don't they? She is awesome, and Wildfire agrees.
Page 4: Apparently Dawnstar's super-tracking ability lets her see metaphorical paths into the future, which is nice, because, really, if they have Google Maps, she ain't all that useful anymore, otherwise.
Page 5: The last Green Lantern (maybe), Rond Vidar! Son of Universo, the man with the monocle. Rond Vidar was a super-scientist and best friend of Brainiac 5, and then he died, but actually, no, he lived! Because he was secretly a Green Lantern! Why he would not ever use the ring before that, I have no idea. I guess he likes surprises. Well, surprise, he dies for real later in this issue!
That's Mordru with the beard and the purple goblin blasts.
Page 6: Glorith, Dragonmage, and Evillo are supporting characters from Legion history, all of whom have magic connections. Glorith was a former wife of Mordru, and she was also a pal of the Time Trapper, and sort of became a Time Trapper-esque character of her own (in one continuity). Dragonmage actually appeared after the Giffen Five-Year-Gap stories, which Johns seems to be ignoring otherwise, so his mention here shows how screwed up the 31st century timeline really is. And Evillo was evil. Oh.
Pages 7-8: Yeah, Mordru was White Witch's teacher and husband(?) at one point.
Mordru talks like Darth Vader a bit here, and later, Universo kind of does a Lord of the Sith kind of thing. I like to imagine that all of them sound like James Earl Jones throughout the comic. In fact, just imagine everyone in the future talks that way. Except Superboy-Prime. He sounds like Matthew McConnaughey.
Some people criticize Geoff Johns for his bloodthirsty streak, but it's pretty obvious that Mordru's the real crazy one, not Geoff Johns! Seriously, "make love bathed in your blood"? Dude, you're like a thousand years old.
Pages 9-10: The new Legion of Super-Villains, with matching rings! From left to right, top to bottom: Neutrax, Beauty Blaze, Zymyr, Ol-Vir, Emerald Empress, Grimbor, Validus, Tharok, Golden Boy, Tusker, Storm Boy, Sun Emperor, Esper Lass, Dr. Regulus, Universo, Lightning Lord, Superboy-Prime, Saturn Queen, Earth-Man, Hunter II, Persuader, Mist Master, Mano, Spider-Girl, Cosmic King, Micro Lad, Terrus, Lazon, Silver Slasher, Tyr, Black Mace, Echo, Radiation Roy, Chameleon Chief, Titania, Magno Lad.
This is basically the LSV from the early Baxter issues of Legion, plus the Johns Justice League from recent Action Comics issues, a few members of the League of Super-Assassins, the Fatal Five, and a couple of guys who usually work solo (like Universo and Dr. Regulus). In other words, its the most awesome team of bad guys ever.
They all sound like James Earl Jones.
Page 11: Flashback, to Infinite Crisis, written by Geoff Johns. Flashback to "Sinestro Corps War," written by Geoff Johns. Foreshadowing: Sodam Yat -- remember when you beat up a random guy that one time, S-Prime? Not really important right now, but by the end of the issue: important! Sodam Yat, btw, was a Daxamite (like Mon-El) with a power ring, and took the mantle of Ion post-Kyle Raynor.
Page 12: Legion HQ, in panel two, from left to right, top to bottom: bad stuff on monitors, Superman, Lightning Lad, Night Girl, Brainiac 5, Invisible Kid II, Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl, Shrinking Violet, Polar Boy, Ultra Boy, Phantom Girl, Lightning Lass, arrogant S-Prime holo, Chameleon Girl, Tmber Wolf.
The Legion has a code against killing. They also have a code against anyone over 18 joining the team, or at least they did. Changing codes is a slippery slope. Now look at them, all a bunch of long-haired hippie fascists.
Page 13: "gathered some magic," is a reference to Magic: The Gathering, the card game I used to play with all the free time I used to have not annotating comic books. Back when I was cool and hip.
Panel five features the first time in comic book history that "clubhouse" and "bastards" appeared in the same panel. Unless you count the obscure Silverwolf comic from 1987, "Clubhouse Bastards," illustrated by Tim Vigil, which I don't, because it doesn't exist.
Page 14: Superboy-Prime hates whiners! Take that, fanboys!
Page 15: You'd think, by the 31st century, they'd come up with a more elegant computer interface than just a keyboard with extra buttons. Must be the Time Trapper messing up the development of technology by making future tech slightly more annoying than it has to be.
Garth (Lighthing Lad) and Imra (Saturn Girl) are married. One of the old-timey Legion rules was that married couples couldn't remain members. They changed that one too. Seriously, besides the "no murder" rule, what's left? Might as well get rid of that one, too. I'm with the Lad with the Lightning.
Pages 16-17: See, "Lethal Force Enabled." That's what I'm talking about. The Green Lanterns got rid of their "no murder" policy a millenia ago, in a story written, not coincidentally, by Geoff Johns.
The Legion used Stargates way before MacGyver did.
Saturn Queen is all up in her Nurse Ratched mode here, but those black word balloons let you know that you're supposed to say the speech in a deep voice, like, you guessed it, J. E. J.
Pages 18-19: Universo, as Rond Vidar's dad, was Green Lantern once, maybe, or I could be totally misremembering that. But what I'm not misremembering is that the "snap" panel is an allusion to the Levitz/Lightle scene when Princess Projectra snapped the neck of Nemesis Kid after he killed her husband (Karate Kid). She did the deed off-panel, too.
Superboy-Prime is basically from our Earth, so he knows about Parker Brothers board games and their mascot. Although Rich Uncle Pennybags doesn't have a beard. Or mind control powers. As far as I know.
Page 20: "Human supremacist trash," is a reference to Earth-Man's xenophobic Justice League who convinced everyone on Earth that aliens were evil and that Superman was actually a human. Racists are bad guys, even in the future.
"Long Live OUR Legion," is a twist on the famous "Long Live the Legion," the rallying cry of the Legion of Super-Heroes and pretty much anyone who's ever sent me an e-mail about the Legion ever.
Page 21: Ah, the lightning rod from what seemed, at the time, to be a completely pointless Justice League/Justice Society crossover a few years back. You remember "The Lightning Saga," right? A speedster is stuck inside that rod! I wonder who it could be? If we take Brainiac's dialogue in the last panel, "..how SMART I really AM" and take out the letters h,o,w, s, I, r, e, y, a, m, and add a B and an "e" and an "n," I think you'll have a great clue! Geoff Johns is also smart, with his 31st century cryptography!
Page 22: Oa, former home of the Guardians, now kind of a downer. Note, this is Sodam Yat and his collection of jewelry. "Mogo" is the planet-sized Green Lantern, created by Alan Moore, and he was Yat's best bud. Before the dark times. Before the rebellion...
Page 23: Happy Harbor, former home of the Justice League of America, the Doom Patrol, and pretty much anyone who wanted to hang out. All you need is Aquaman's garage door opener to get in, apparently. Trophies on display include Despero's chess board, Abnegazar, Rath, and Gast class photos with accompanying wheel, jar, and bell. Prometheus's digital download helmet, and Dr. Destiny's Materioptikon. Also, some Amos Fortune playing cards, a giant Starro Heroclix, and, of course, that crystal ball that's not really a crystal ball. You may remember that from the first JLA/JSA team-up.
"Sub's satellite," refers to the Legion of Substitute Heroes, who have taken over the old JLA satellite after the dorkface racists got defeated, thanks to the Subs, in Johns's Action Comics issues earlier this year.
Page 24: The Time Institute! In the background we see Booster Gold's sis, Goldstar, Skeets, Rip Hunter, Time Master, and some other dude who I'm probably expected to remember. Time bubbles are good. For time travel.
"He's a Daxamite" is more Sodam Yat foreshadowing, for all you playing the at-home version.
Page 25: "red sky" is a reference to Crisis on Infinite Earths, or maybe Infinite Crisis, or Final Crisis, but definitely NOT Identity Crisis. "The Tornado Twins" are Barry Allen's kids who live in the future, and end up becoming Bart Allen's dad and aunt. Whatever adventure White Witch is talking about is the previous team-up between all three Legions that we still haven't seen. Stupid Time Trapper!
A "Legion Lost" joke. And a reminder from Johns that the Threeboot Legion is still being published. Buy your copy today!
Pages 26-27: Hoo-boy, at least the Threeboot Legion is on the left page, and the Reboot team on the right. Here goes, from left to right, top to bottom: Element Lad, Star Boy, Micro Lad (aka Colossal Boy), Saturn Girl, Shadow Lass, Ultra Boy, Chameleon, Triad, M'Onel, Ferro, Triplicate Girl's legs, Invisible Kid, Light Lass, Atom Girl (aka Shrinking Violet), Karate Kid, Brainiac 5.1, Andromeda, Star Boy, Phantom Lass, Ultra Boy, Triplicate Girl, Lightning Lad, Lightning Lass, Cosmic Boy, Sensor, Timber Wolf, Violet, XS, Dreamer, Princess Projectra, Karate Kid, Chameleon, Timber Wolf, Kid Quantum II, Saturn Girl, Apparition, Triplicate Girl, Brainiac 5, Shadow Lass, Triad, Gates, Invisible Kid, Shikari, Element Lad, Gear, Wildfire, Kinetix.
Page 28: Threeboot Brainiac 5 is from the "Eat it, Grandpa" incarnation from the team. You thought "Long Live the Legion" was a catchy phrase? "Eat it, Grandpa" is the type of thing Matthew Elmslie writes essays about!
Page 29: Sun boy is very sad, as he drinks his SODA POP. Ever since he spent years hooked up to an evil machine that made him turn the sun red, in a story written by Geoff Johns, he just hasn't been the same womanizing douchebag he used to be.
Page 30: Superboy-Prime does have a history of scorching planets with giant space graffiti. His threats are not empty. I've read Countdown, so I know everything there is to know about pain and suffering.
Page 31: The power battery on Oa all black and spooky is a great image. Note to Geoff Johns: you might want to think about basing a huge event on that image next summer. Call it "Shadowy-est Evening," and you'll sell a million books. Mon-El and Shadow Lass make a nice couple, don't they? What a romantic getaway -- going to Oa with a corpse and all.
Page 32: Sodam Yat, I am not a fan of your haircut. But a man with the powers of Mon-El and a Green Lantern ring who hangs out on a planet with a bunch of dead guys is probably not really in the mood to listen to anything I have to say. When you read his final speech, remember that it rhymes with "This is CNN."
And that, my friends, is the greatest Legion story so far this week. Maybe ever.
Wednesday, October 01, 2008
"Batman R.I.P." Part V: Batman #680 Annotations
I've been annotating "Batman R.I.P." and discussing Morrison's Batman run nearly issue-by-issue since his "Clown at Midnight" story. Click HERE for all my relevant Morrison Batman posts, and comment below to tell me everything I missed. (Also, this issue seemed so straightforward, I almost thought about skipping the annotations on #680, but maybe I'll have enough to talk about once I get started...)
Batman #680: The Annotations
Cover: Alex Ross continues his metaphorical approach to covering "Batman R.I.P." as Batman wears a completely different costume here than he does in the issue. Also, he doesn't fight the Club of Villains. Also, also, he doesn't breakdance inside, either. I hereby label this cover, "go, Batman, go, Batman, go!"
Page 1: Bossu's minions lurk on the rooftops while Charlie Caligula's centurions provide valet service, apparently.
Pages 2-3: Dr. Hurt in the Thomas Wayne proto-Batman costume describes the "Danse Macabre" which is all about gambling with human lives. The red and black motif, so prominent in this arc -- and in Batman #663 -- continues with the table setting and the roulette wheel.
Page 4: This is a pretty straightforward Dr. Guy Dax-turns-into-Le Bossu sequence (and, honestly, I assumed the two characters were the same guy because they looked similar facially -- that's a knock against Tony Daniel's art, I guess, since his ugly faced guys look like ugly-face-with-mask guys). But, Dax/Bossu does have a line that links thematically to the notion of Batman's duality: "In order to give expression to the honest beast within," he says, "I am compelled to an elaborate process of disguise."
Page 5: Nurse Scorpiana stands over the body of Dick Grayson, who was institutionalized mistakenly a few issues ago.
Pages 6-7: Batman, still wearing the Zur-En-Arrh costume cobbled together on the streets, talks with Bat-Mite, and has two great lines about superhero fashion: "The colors demonstrate total confidence. Robin dressed this way for years and survived."
El Sombrero, master of death traps, has prepared Wayne Manor for Batman's imminent arrival, and tells the minions to assume their positions for the Danse Macbre, but the Joker, a force of chaos, has other plans as he butchers his way to El Sombrero. [Edited to add: this scene takes place at Arkham, apparently.]
Page 8: As he did in the previous issue, Batman calls Bat-Mite, "might," which seems to imply the possibilities inherent in the character, or possibly the concept of strength. Either way, Bat-Mite is part of Batman's psychic reboot, offering some guidance on his journey. "Who is the Black Glove?" is, of course, the big question for Morrison's Batman run, and this issue maybe answers it at the end.
Page 9: Batman refers to Bat-Mite as "soldier" here, which is what Frank Miller's Batman calls Robin. Perhaps it's a sign that he's regaining his sanity or at least his "normal" mental state, because all of a sudden Bat-Mite withdraws. I've proposed that Bat-Mite is just a figment of Batman's imagination -- part of his psychic reboot -- but I didn't expect Batman to come out and ask the question directly. Bat-Mite's response is typical Morrison: "Imagination is the 5th dimension." Oh, yeah. Why didn't I think of that?
Pages 10-11: Is there a precedent for all of these rich guys wearing masks as they attend the Danse Macabre? I don't know of one, but it's a pretty funny image, I think. And I love when the generalissimo whines, "Batman is cool! Batman wears black!" in protest for this weird Zur-En-Arrh Batman on the monitors. I don't know if this is exactly Geoff Johns-channeling-fanboy-rage like Superboy-Prime, but it's close enough to make me laugh.
"I own the keys to Batman's mind" seems to imply a hubris on Dr. Hurt's part, but maybe he has even more tricks up his sleeve still.
El Sobrero flies through the window, courtesy of the crazed Clown at Midnight Joker. Hurt seems to misunderstand everything about the Joker when he says, "you'll be disappointed by the way it messes with your pattern..." The Joker doesn't have a pattern. That's the opposite of the Joker aesthetic.
Pages 12-13: Wayne manor has been booby trapped by El Sombrero, but since he's clearly out of comission, I'm not sure who's talking to Gordon here, but I assume it's Dr. Hurt. The red phone hotline is an allusion to the Adam West Batman television show.
Damian, Talia, and a few of her League of Assassins peeps show up just in time. (And since Damian is surely to be the new Robin by next year, it's important to get him back into the action ASAP.)
Page 14-15: Batman's cat and mouse game with the Joker. His reference to the "Dead Man's Hand" is an allusion to the scene in DC Universe #0 in which Joker showed four of the five Aces and Eights. In their scene from that one issue special, red and black was the major motif, and since it's so pivotal to the climax in this issue, I really don't understand why it wasn't in the main Batman title.
Okay, so, Batman here is all about logic, and the Joker laughs at such notions. But when Batman says, "Cupid and the Devil" in connection with the red and the black, he's not wrong.
Page 16-17: "Love really is blind," says the Joker, giving Batman yet another (quite obvious) clue as to what's going to happen at the end of the issue, but Batman is too stubborn to pick up on it. And, let's be honest, it's tough to really take the Joker at face value. The red and black tiles are a callback to the floor pattern in Batman #663.
Joker even goes so far to say "jet-black irony" to clue everyone in that the word "jet" does indeed mean "black" just in case we didn't make the connection yet.
Oh, yeah, also the Joker slices his tongue because (a) he's crazy, and (b) it's the whole "forked-tongue" thing of the serpent who tempts humanity. It's a biblical allusion and all that. (Keep it in mind for later.)
Pages 18-19: "You think it all breaks down into symbolism and structure..." says the Joker. "No, Batman, that's just Wikipedia." Ha. My Morrison book is all about the symbolism and structure of Morrison's work, so the Joker must not be a fan. The Joker does get off a few more zingers here, dismissing everything Batman tried to do -- like the Dr. Hurt sensory deprivation experiment -- to get inside the mind of the Joker. Batman's "fatal" flaw was in trying to approach the chaotic and insane with a logical, reasonable plan.
The Joker's lines about "it's so simple," "it's all a big joke" reflect the specific situation Batman finds himself in, and the Joker's general worldview. As you'll note, if you've read Grant Morrison: The Early Years (a.k.a. the Joker's least favorite book), when I asked Morrison about his absurdist approach to comics, he said, "you should be able to make people cry and you should be able to make people feel emotions, but underneath it all, it's all bloody ridiculous."
Pages 20-21: The red and black poison petals (as seen in the previous issue) fall as Bruce Wayne struggles with his identity. Is he Batman? Bruce Wayne? The Batman of Zur-En-Arrh?
Page 22: Batman holds the Bat-Radia (which is just a plain old junky radio, actually), ineffective and useless. Clearly the red and black has overtaken the entire color scheme inside Jezebel Jet's chamber.
Pages 23-24: Jezebel Jet is revealed as the Black Glove. Well, she pulls on a literal black glove, and she's clearly working for the bad guys. I suspect, just as I proposed in my annotations for issue #679, that this is the devil incarnate. Although I didn't think Jezebel Jet was the Black Glove herself, it makes sense that the Devil would take the form of a temptress -- "Cupid and the Devil" as Batman said himself earlier in the issue.
"Now do you get it?" the Joker yells at Batman, and it's clearly a message from Morrison to the reader, too. Do you get it? The red and the black? The clues and hints? The devil is in the details.
Batman #680: The Annotations
Cover: Alex Ross continues his metaphorical approach to covering "Batman R.I.P." as Batman wears a completely different costume here than he does in the issue. Also, he doesn't fight the Club of Villains. Also, also, he doesn't breakdance inside, either. I hereby label this cover, "go, Batman, go, Batman, go!"
Page 1: Bossu's minions lurk on the rooftops while Charlie Caligula's centurions provide valet service, apparently.
Pages 2-3: Dr. Hurt in the Thomas Wayne proto-Batman costume describes the "Danse Macabre" which is all about gambling with human lives. The red and black motif, so prominent in this arc -- and in Batman #663 -- continues with the table setting and the roulette wheel.
Page 4: This is a pretty straightforward Dr. Guy Dax-turns-into-Le Bossu sequence (and, honestly, I assumed the two characters were the same guy because they looked similar facially -- that's a knock against Tony Daniel's art, I guess, since his ugly faced guys look like ugly-face-with-mask guys). But, Dax/Bossu does have a line that links thematically to the notion of Batman's duality: "In order to give expression to the honest beast within," he says, "I am compelled to an elaborate process of disguise."
Page 5: Nurse Scorpiana stands over the body of Dick Grayson, who was institutionalized mistakenly a few issues ago.
Pages 6-7: Batman, still wearing the Zur-En-Arrh costume cobbled together on the streets, talks with Bat-Mite, and has two great lines about superhero fashion: "The colors demonstrate total confidence. Robin dressed this way for years and survived."
El Sombrero, master of death traps, has prepared Wayne Manor for Batman's imminent arrival, and tells the minions to assume their positions for the Danse Macbre, but the Joker, a force of chaos, has other plans as he butchers his way to El Sombrero. [Edited to add: this scene takes place at Arkham, apparently.]
Page 8: As he did in the previous issue, Batman calls Bat-Mite, "might," which seems to imply the possibilities inherent in the character, or possibly the concept of strength. Either way, Bat-Mite is part of Batman's psychic reboot, offering some guidance on his journey. "Who is the Black Glove?" is, of course, the big question for Morrison's Batman run, and this issue maybe answers it at the end.
Page 9: Batman refers to Bat-Mite as "soldier" here, which is what Frank Miller's Batman calls Robin. Perhaps it's a sign that he's regaining his sanity or at least his "normal" mental state, because all of a sudden Bat-Mite withdraws. I've proposed that Bat-Mite is just a figment of Batman's imagination -- part of his psychic reboot -- but I didn't expect Batman to come out and ask the question directly. Bat-Mite's response is typical Morrison: "Imagination is the 5th dimension." Oh, yeah. Why didn't I think of that?
Pages 10-11: Is there a precedent for all of these rich guys wearing masks as they attend the Danse Macabre? I don't know of one, but it's a pretty funny image, I think. And I love when the generalissimo whines, "Batman is cool! Batman wears black!" in protest for this weird Zur-En-Arrh Batman on the monitors. I don't know if this is exactly Geoff Johns-channeling-fanboy-rage like Superboy-Prime, but it's close enough to make me laugh.
"I own the keys to Batman's mind" seems to imply a hubris on Dr. Hurt's part, but maybe he has even more tricks up his sleeve still.
El Sobrero flies through the window, courtesy of the crazed Clown at Midnight Joker. Hurt seems to misunderstand everything about the Joker when he says, "you'll be disappointed by the way it messes with your pattern..." The Joker doesn't have a pattern. That's the opposite of the Joker aesthetic.
Pages 12-13: Wayne manor has been booby trapped by El Sombrero, but since he's clearly out of comission, I'm not sure who's talking to Gordon here, but I assume it's Dr. Hurt. The red phone hotline is an allusion to the Adam West Batman television show.
Damian, Talia, and a few of her League of Assassins peeps show up just in time. (And since Damian is surely to be the new Robin by next year, it's important to get him back into the action ASAP.)
Page 14-15: Batman's cat and mouse game with the Joker. His reference to the "Dead Man's Hand" is an allusion to the scene in DC Universe #0 in which Joker showed four of the five Aces and Eights. In their scene from that one issue special, red and black was the major motif, and since it's so pivotal to the climax in this issue, I really don't understand why it wasn't in the main Batman title.
Okay, so, Batman here is all about logic, and the Joker laughs at such notions. But when Batman says, "Cupid and the Devil" in connection with the red and the black, he's not wrong.
Page 16-17: "Love really is blind," says the Joker, giving Batman yet another (quite obvious) clue as to what's going to happen at the end of the issue, but Batman is too stubborn to pick up on it. And, let's be honest, it's tough to really take the Joker at face value. The red and black tiles are a callback to the floor pattern in Batman #663.
Joker even goes so far to say "jet-black irony" to clue everyone in that the word "jet" does indeed mean "black" just in case we didn't make the connection yet.
Oh, yeah, also the Joker slices his tongue because (a) he's crazy, and (b) it's the whole "forked-tongue" thing of the serpent who tempts humanity. It's a biblical allusion and all that. (Keep it in mind for later.)
Pages 18-19: "You think it all breaks down into symbolism and structure..." says the Joker. "No, Batman, that's just Wikipedia." Ha. My Morrison book is all about the symbolism and structure of Morrison's work, so the Joker must not be a fan. The Joker does get off a few more zingers here, dismissing everything Batman tried to do -- like the Dr. Hurt sensory deprivation experiment -- to get inside the mind of the Joker. Batman's "fatal" flaw was in trying to approach the chaotic and insane with a logical, reasonable plan.
The Joker's lines about "it's so simple," "it's all a big joke" reflect the specific situation Batman finds himself in, and the Joker's general worldview. As you'll note, if you've read Grant Morrison: The Early Years (a.k.a. the Joker's least favorite book), when I asked Morrison about his absurdist approach to comics, he said, "you should be able to make people cry and you should be able to make people feel emotions, but underneath it all, it's all bloody ridiculous."
Pages 20-21: The red and black poison petals (as seen in the previous issue) fall as Bruce Wayne struggles with his identity. Is he Batman? Bruce Wayne? The Batman of Zur-En-Arrh?
Page 22: Batman holds the Bat-Radia (which is just a plain old junky radio, actually), ineffective and useless. Clearly the red and black has overtaken the entire color scheme inside Jezebel Jet's chamber.
Pages 23-24: Jezebel Jet is revealed as the Black Glove. Well, she pulls on a literal black glove, and she's clearly working for the bad guys. I suspect, just as I proposed in my annotations for issue #679, that this is the devil incarnate. Although I didn't think Jezebel Jet was the Black Glove herself, it makes sense that the Devil would take the form of a temptress -- "Cupid and the Devil" as Batman said himself earlier in the issue.
"Now do you get it?" the Joker yells at Batman, and it's clearly a message from Morrison to the reader, too. Do you get it? The red and the black? The clues and hints? The devil is in the details.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds #1 Annotations
Like my "Batman R.I.P." annotations, my approach here is to talk about what I notice about stuff and what I know. I don't know everything, but I know an awful lot about the Legion.
Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds #1: The Annotations
Cover: I bought the Lightning Lad cover because I'm an old-fashioned kind of guy who wants to see Legion characters on the cover of a Legion comic. Supermanboy-Prime doesn't cut it. The Lightning Lad cover shows the Johns version of the post-Levitz era Lightning Lad, and inside his ball o' lightning, we see the Reboot Lighting Lad with the robot arm and the Threeboot Lightning Lad with the David Cassidy haircut.
Page 1: Enter the Time Trapper, the Legion's most powerful villain. He has been revealed to be a member of the Sun-Eater-unleashing Controllers and an aged Cosmic Boy who has come back to "fix" time. Presumably this version shows here is the "original" Time Trapper, though what that means isn't exactly clear when you're dealing with time travel and alternate realities. But on page one he refers to how he tried to "rip out their soul" which refers to TT's creation of a pocket universe which the Legion had erroneously travelled back to. It was basically the continuity patch to explain how Superboy still inspired the Legion if Superboy no longer existed in the "post-Crisis" DCU. The pocket universe was later removed from continuity as well, but apparently Time Trapper still remembers it happening. And since he used a Superboy in his past plans, he uses a Superboy here: Superboy-Prime (a.k.a. Supermanboy-Prime, since DC isn't sure what to call him from page to page).
Pages 2-3: The "Earthman" stuff refers to Geoff Johns's recent arc in Action Comics #858-863. In that arc, the multicultural Legion had been branded as traitors by a xenophobic Earth and its Justice League, led by a character called Earthman (kind of a Superman type, but racist). Those are Martha and Jonathan Kent analogues (Mara and Jun) from Smallville's future. Notice how the alien-fearing future-Kents see a spaceship crash landing and try to blast it, unlike their liberal 20th century precusors. Also, Legion stories always take place 1,000 years in the future. So, 3008. (The only exception being the "Five Years Later" stories of Giffen and the Bierbaums, which would be 1,005 years in the future.)
Pages 4-5: Supermanboy-Prime, formerly of Earth Prime, the only superhero on his planet. He was one of the central heroes of Crisis on Infinite Earths and then removed into a pocket continuity bubble until Infinite Crisis, where he started punching extra-dimensional walls and causing/curing continuity problems galore. Since then, he's been locked up in space and joined the Sinestro Corps. He's had a rough couple of years. He's also a fanboy analogue, complaining about continuity changes and superheroes not being like they used to be when he was a kid.
The Interlac on the Superman Museum reads "Superman Museum." I'm not going to translate all the Interlac in the comic, unless it's funny and/or important to the story. I'm sure someone else will translate every single word, though. Good for them. We need that kind of gung-ho attitude.
Pages 6-7: Just the big images and characters : Pictured on the top of page 6: (1) Young Clark Kent with Ma and Pa, (2) Clark Kent getting married to Lois Lane, (3) Perry White, Jimmy Olsen, and Clark Kent at the Daily Planet, (4) Lex Luthor. Top of page 7: (1) Power Girl, (2) Steel, (3) Lori Lemaris, (4) Original Justice League of America. Middle of page 6: (1) Superman of the Golden Age/Earth 2/or from Superman for All Seasons by Tim Sale, depending on what you're looking for, (2) Superman 1,000,000 , (3) Kingdom Come Superman, (4) Tangent Universe Superman (a.k.a. Earth 9 Superman). Middle of page 7: (1) Krypto, the Superdog, (2) Superwoman (Kristin Wells) of the 29th century, (3) Supergirl--current version, (4) Superboy, Conner Kent. Bottom of page 6: Jonathan Kent, Martha Kent, Pete Ross, Lana Lang (all looking like the ones from the Byrne revamp). Page 7, bottom: Clark Kent, Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen, Perry White. Also of note: the golden statue is the image from the cover of Action Comics #1 and the manger scene above the steps is from Superman: The Movie.
The Superman Museum of the future apparently draws from multiple realities and timelines.
Page 8: Jimmy Olsen's whole shtick in the Silver Age Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen comics was that he'd turn into a different weirdo monster or hero each issue. Hence, the 1,000 Olsens. As Elastic Lad, he was even a member of the Legion of Super-Heroes.
Page 9: Top left: Nightwing and Flamebird, the superheroes of Kandor (actually Superman and Jimmy Olsen in disguise!) Interlac joke: the "Portrait Gallery" at the bottom of the page features artist credits. The one in the foreground is labelled "Perez," (although it's the famous Neal Adams image of Superman breaking the chains). Behind that, we see artist credits for (Joe) Shuster, (Wayne) Boring, (Curt) Swan, (Jose Luis) Garcia-Lopez, something I can't make out, and what looks like (Rob) Liefeld (?!?--But check out that exaggerated hand and pointy feet!) [UPDATED: It's "Hirschfeld"!]
Page 10: Do you want me to name all the Legionnaires?I could, but that seems silly. [Okay, people want to know, I guess. Starting from the back and going from right to left: Colossal Boy, Polar Boy, Night Girl, Timber Wolf, Shadow Lass, Wildfire, Ultra Boy, Lightning Lass, Blok, Invisible Kid II, Lightning Lad, Chameleon Girl, Sun Boy, Phantom Girl, Dawnstar, Brainiac 5, Saturn Girl, Superman, Shrinking Violet, Sun Boy.] The group in panel 3 is the group seen in Johns's Action Comics arc--a kind of post-Levitz team that ignores anything after "Magic Wars" and inserts years of undisclosed continuity in its place--although Johns hinted at a lot of the bad stuff in his recent arc. Note that Colossal Boy's wife is now part of the team, as Chameleon Girl. The final panel shows the team from my favorite era--the Levitz Baxter time period, but Tyroc and Sensor Girl were never on the team at the same time. Still, who doesn't love Tyroc? [Well, I guess I'll name all of these Legionnaires too. From left to right, front to back: Bouncing Boy, Dream Girl, Matter-Eater Lad, Tellus, Duo Damsel, Karate Kid, Tyroc, Sensor Girl, Chameleon Boy, Duo Damsel, Mon-El, White Witch, Star Boy, Element Lad.]
It's important to note that throughout this issue, and Johns's other use of the Legion elsewhere, he doesn't seem particularly concerned about using a team from a specific time period, so the team compositions are a bit out of whack and members who had left or died are sometimes shown with characters who hadn't yet joined. But since the Time Trapper, Supermanboy-Prime's continuity punching, reboots, Crises, and multiple Earths are all in play, it doesn't really matter, does it? Everything is in flux, especially in the future.
Page 11: Most of the villains are identified here. Not named in the bottom right panel: Cyborg-Superman (also of the Sinestro Corps), Metallo, Toyman.
Page 12: A biased retelling of Supermanboy-Prime's life thus far, but it's not too far from the truth. Sodam Yat is the new Ion, in case you were wondering. Neutron, mentioned in the bottom panel, is a particulary lame Superman villain, and saying he made a "bigger impact" is a bomb joke but also a slap in the face to S-Prime.
Page 13: Bottom left: Composite-Superman. Almost-bottom-right: Geoff Johns's version of the Teen Titans from his relaunch a few years back.
Page 14: S-Prime did kill Conner Kent, a.k.a. Superboy. Although the Siegel lawsuit probably didn't help.
Page 15: The United Planets is a bunch of planets, united (but very geocentric, to be honest).
Page 16: In the Johns/Perez version of the 31st century, the United Planets meets just like the Federation in Star Wars: Episode II. Remember when Jar Jar became a Senator? Ha! That was hilarious and touching. Here, everyone hates the Legion because the Justice League of future xenophobes messed them up recently (as seen in Johns's Action Comics arc). The three Legionnaires at the bottom are, of course, the founders of the team, and you can tell they aren't the spry young teenagers who formed the team in 2958. They look pretty good for being in their mid-sixties, though.
Page 17: Blah, blah, blah summary of the aftermath of the Action Comics storyline. Brainiac 5 helped the Legion, so he's out at Colu. Everyone else is grumpy. Nobody takes the Legion seriously. Johns makes a meta-commentary on why they still have "boy" and "girl" names even though they are grown men and women. Seriously, why doesn't the Legion get any respect?!? Johns is asking that question in the comic and inviting the outside world to respond.
Page 18: Mon-El always ends up in the Phantom Zone. It's the only place he's safe from the lead poisoning that will kill him ever so quickly. Shadow Lass and Mon-El were a couple for years, at least in the original continuity (whatever that means).
Page 19: You can tell things have gotten bleak in the future, because the straight-laced Brainiac 5 stopped grooming.
Page 20: When Brainiac 5 says that he "alone" created the anti-lead serum, he's paraphrasing Dr. Frankenstein from the 1931 James Whale classic film. Goes along with his mad scientist haircut and everything.
Page 21: Sun Boy, the Johnny Storm of the Legion--in powers and lady-killing skills--was used in the Johns Action Comics arc to turn Earth's sun into a red sun, thus negating Superman's powers. He's literally burnt out from that. Polar Boy, the first Legion of Substitute Heroes member to get promoted to the big show, lost an arm in that arc as well. Fire and Ice, cynical and optimistic: contrasts.
Page 22: More from the United Planets of Grumpy Xenophobia. Karate Kid II (Myg) has grown facial hair AND an attitude since we last saw him. He started out bad, and even the Legion Academy couldn't whip him into shape, apparently.
Page 23: R. J. Brande, super-gazillionaire and benefactor of the Legion of Super-Heroes. Before Brainiac 5 invented the flight rings, the Legionnaires used to fly around with flight belts. Flight belts! How 2950s! Brande is actually the father of the Legion's Chameleon Boy, and a Durlan shapeshifter himself, although that is not known to the world at large. Such was revealed in Secrets of the Legion of Super-Heroes, one of the first comic book mini-series ever (published in 1981).
Page 24: Takron-Galtos, the prison planet. I love to see it pop up in Legion stories, but every time it does, some prisoners escape and cause trouble. This is the third Takron-Galtos in this continuity, I think, but maybe they should come up with some other rehabilitation program. I'm telling you. A prison planet SOUNDS like a good idea, but it rarely ends well.
Page 25: Do you want me to name all of the Legion of Super-Villains too? Really? [Okay, fine. From left to right, back to front: Zymyr, Mist Master, Silver Slasher, Magno Lad, Ol-Vir, Hunter II, Lazon, Neutrax, Spider Girl, Esper Lass, Sun Emperor, Tyr, Micro Lad, Ron-Karr, Titania, Radiation Roy, Tarik the Mute, Chameleon Chief, Cosmic King, Lightning Lord, Saturn Queen, Nemesis Kid, Terrus.] Anyway, this collection is from the first arc in the Levitz Baxter run, as recently reprinted in the An Eye for an Eye trade paperback. It's really good, except Giffen quit halfway through and Steve Lightle had to finish it up. Both are fantastic artists, but with COMPLETELY different styles. LSV, though. Bad news all around.
Page 26: Man, this is a long comic. With so many panels! We're getting our money's worth here, aren't we?
The Legion of Super-Villains was founded by Lightning Lord, Cosmic King, and Saturn Queen. They're adults with the same powers as the original Legion founders. Because adults are evil and always try to mess up our clubhouse with their smoking and cussing. [UPDATED: The adult Legion of Super-Villains was from the future, and originally founded by Tarik the Mute. Also, Cosmic King looks like Cosmic Boy, but he actually has powers similar to Element Lad.]
Page 27: Brande's speech implies that the Legion taught Superboy how to become Superman. That's not really what happened, but it's a pretty cool interpretation of the events. Maybe it happened between panels. Let's all say that it happened. Feel better now? I do. I like it.
Page 28: Leland McCauley was not only Brande's rival, but in the post-"Zero Hour" reboot he was actually revealed to be Ra's al Ghul, still alive in the 30th century! Wheeee. He's not Ra's al Ghul in this version, though. He's just a bitter rich dude.
Page 29: "Long Live the Legion" is the rallying cry of the team. Brande almost gets it out, mentally before he gets all Durlan on everyone. By the way: TOLD YOU he was a Durlan! Totally called it. It gives McCauley a chance for more xenophobia and provides a touching moment. Geoff Johns can write comics!
Page 30: McCauley was apparently in cahoots with the Time Trapper. Folks, that's never a good idea. It's about as dumb as putting every single powerful criminal together on one giant space station.
Page 31: My guess is that Chameleon Boy, Dream Girl, and Element Lad are up to something. Probably something involving the Legion Espionage Squad. Because Johns is definitely not going to leave the Espionage Squad out of the action. Look for them to pop up with some vital information/secret weapon/awesomeness around issue #4.
Page 32: Thats the silhouette of the Legion clubhouse on the right side of the skyline. The old upside down spaceship. Of course, Secret Origins revealed that the original clubhouse was Fortress Lad, who had transformed into a clubhouse and then everyone, including him, totally forgot about it because of the after-effects of an angry Mnemonic Kid. (I am not making this, or anything else, up.)
Page 33: Superman arrives in 3009. A year after Supermanboy-Prime, thus leaving time for S-Prime to...
Page 34: Free all the prisoners from Takron-Galtos! I knew that prison planet was a bad idea. It's like rescuing evil fish from a space barrel. Although the 3008/3009 thing doesn't exactly make sense, since Cosmic Boy said the Smallville stuff and the freeing of the prisoners just happened in the past few hours. Hmmm... a time inconsistency. Who's the villain behind this whole thing again? [EDITED: Apparently, he stopped just before 3009. So, yeah, 3008 it is.]
"L.O.S.V"? L.S.V. sounds better, doesn't it? Maybe it's just to make it clear to all the new readers. But that's what I'm here for. L.O.S.V. is the Legion of Super Villains, silly.
Page 35: The post-"Zero Hour" Reboot Legion. A.k.a. the "Archie Legion" because everyone looked straight outta Riverdale. (I don't agree with that label, by the way.) This image on the top shows that Johns is not cherry-picking teams from a certain time, he's cherry-picking entire rosters that never existed. Some of these characters, like Kid Quantum died well before others, like Gates, joined. Do you want me to name all of these characters too?Seriously, if anyone wants such a thing, e-mail me, because I'm not really planning on wasting your time with a long list otherwise. [Okay, people want to know. From left to right, front to back: Apparition, Chuck Taine, Inferno, Kid Quantum, Thunder, Leviathan, Magno, Wildfire, Shikari, Monstress, Invisible Kid, Gear, Timber Wolf, Star Boy, Element Lad, Triad, Kid Quantum II, Ferro, M'Onel, Umbra, Spark, Chameleon, Dreamer, Andromeda, Live Wire, Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl, Ultra Boy, Karate Kid, Shrinking Violet, Brainiac 5.1, Sensor, Gates, XS.]
"I've met them both. We all did a long time ago." I'm not sure what the second part means. Who's the "all." If it's just him and the other 20th/21st century heroes, then, yes, they met around the time of Final Night and recently in The Brave and the Bold. If he's putting Mon-El into the mix, I don't know what he's talking about.
Page 36: I literally have used my whole laptop battery on these annotations, as feeble as they are. I have six minutes to wrap it up.
This Legion is the Waid/Kitson Threeboot era, with the Shooter/Manapul costumes (mostly). Once again, it's not a roster that ever existed in the series, since Dream Boy (second from top left) and Dream Girl (third from top right) were never on the team at the same time. Yet it doesn't have any members from the "future" of the team. I guess that would make it too complicated. [From left to right, back to front: Mon-El, Dream Boy, Timber Wolf, Colossal Boy, Dream Girl, Supergirl, Phantom Girl, Shadow Lass, Triplicate Girl, Princess Projectra, Triplical Girl, Ultra Boy, Triplicate Girl, Sun Boy, Element Lad, Light Lass, Brainiac 5, Saturn Girl, Cosmic Boy, Lightning Lad, Star Boy, Karate Kid, Invisible Kid, Atom Girl, Chameleon.]
Do you think this series will end with the redemption of Supermanboy-Prime? Will he sacrifice himself to save the Legion and bring harmony to the United Planets?
Long Live the Legion(s)!
(P.S. I'm not the one reviewing this issue for CBR, but if I did, I would have given it four and a half stars.)
[Michael Grabois has annotations at The Legion Omnicom as well.]
Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds #1: The Annotations
Cover: I bought the Lightning Lad cover because I'm an old-fashioned kind of guy who wants to see Legion characters on the cover of a Legion comic. Supermanboy-Prime doesn't cut it. The Lightning Lad cover shows the Johns version of the post-Levitz era Lightning Lad, and inside his ball o' lightning, we see the Reboot Lighting Lad with the robot arm and the Threeboot Lightning Lad with the David Cassidy haircut.
Page 1: Enter the Time Trapper, the Legion's most powerful villain. He has been revealed to be a member of the Sun-Eater-unleashing Controllers and an aged Cosmic Boy who has come back to "fix" time. Presumably this version shows here is the "original" Time Trapper, though what that means isn't exactly clear when you're dealing with time travel and alternate realities. But on page one he refers to how he tried to "rip out their soul" which refers to TT's creation of a pocket universe which the Legion had erroneously travelled back to. It was basically the continuity patch to explain how Superboy still inspired the Legion if Superboy no longer existed in the "post-Crisis" DCU. The pocket universe was later removed from continuity as well, but apparently Time Trapper still remembers it happening. And since he used a Superboy in his past plans, he uses a Superboy here: Superboy-Prime (a.k.a. Supermanboy-Prime, since DC isn't sure what to call him from page to page).
Pages 2-3: The "Earthman" stuff refers to Geoff Johns's recent arc in Action Comics #858-863. In that arc, the multicultural Legion had been branded as traitors by a xenophobic Earth and its Justice League, led by a character called Earthman (kind of a Superman type, but racist). Those are Martha and Jonathan Kent analogues (Mara and Jun) from Smallville's future. Notice how the alien-fearing future-Kents see a spaceship crash landing and try to blast it, unlike their liberal 20th century precusors. Also, Legion stories always take place 1,000 years in the future. So, 3008. (The only exception being the "Five Years Later" stories of Giffen and the Bierbaums, which would be 1,005 years in the future.)
Pages 4-5: Supermanboy-Prime, formerly of Earth Prime, the only superhero on his planet. He was one of the central heroes of Crisis on Infinite Earths and then removed into a pocket continuity bubble until Infinite Crisis, where he started punching extra-dimensional walls and causing/curing continuity problems galore. Since then, he's been locked up in space and joined the Sinestro Corps. He's had a rough couple of years. He's also a fanboy analogue, complaining about continuity changes and superheroes not being like they used to be when he was a kid.
The Interlac on the Superman Museum reads "Superman Museum." I'm not going to translate all the Interlac in the comic, unless it's funny and/or important to the story. I'm sure someone else will translate every single word, though. Good for them. We need that kind of gung-ho attitude.
Pages 6-7: Just the big images and characters : Pictured on the top of page 6: (1) Young Clark Kent with Ma and Pa, (2) Clark Kent getting married to Lois Lane, (3) Perry White, Jimmy Olsen, and Clark Kent at the Daily Planet, (4) Lex Luthor. Top of page 7: (1) Power Girl, (2) Steel, (3) Lori Lemaris, (4) Original Justice League of America. Middle of page 6: (1) Superman of the Golden Age/Earth 2/or from Superman for All Seasons by Tim Sale, depending on what you're looking for, (2) Superman 1,000,000 , (3) Kingdom Come Superman, (4) Tangent Universe Superman (a.k.a. Earth 9 Superman). Middle of page 7: (1) Krypto, the Superdog, (2) Superwoman (Kristin Wells) of the 29th century, (3) Supergirl--current version, (4) Superboy, Conner Kent. Bottom of page 6: Jonathan Kent, Martha Kent, Pete Ross, Lana Lang (all looking like the ones from the Byrne revamp). Page 7, bottom: Clark Kent, Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen, Perry White. Also of note: the golden statue is the image from the cover of Action Comics #1 and the manger scene above the steps is from Superman: The Movie.
The Superman Museum of the future apparently draws from multiple realities and timelines.
Page 8: Jimmy Olsen's whole shtick in the Silver Age Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen comics was that he'd turn into a different weirdo monster or hero each issue. Hence, the 1,000 Olsens. As Elastic Lad, he was even a member of the Legion of Super-Heroes.
Page 9: Top left: Nightwing and Flamebird, the superheroes of Kandor (actually Superman and Jimmy Olsen in disguise!) Interlac joke: the "Portrait Gallery" at the bottom of the page features artist credits. The one in the foreground is labelled "Perez," (although it's the famous Neal Adams image of Superman breaking the chains). Behind that, we see artist credits for (Joe) Shuster, (Wayne) Boring, (Curt) Swan, (Jose Luis) Garcia-Lopez, something I can't make out, and what looks like (Rob) Liefeld (?!?--But check out that exaggerated hand and pointy feet!) [UPDATED: It's "Hirschfeld"!]
Page 10: Do you want me to name all the Legionnaires?
It's important to note that throughout this issue, and Johns's other use of the Legion elsewhere, he doesn't seem particularly concerned about using a team from a specific time period, so the team compositions are a bit out of whack and members who had left or died are sometimes shown with characters who hadn't yet joined. But since the Time Trapper, Supermanboy-Prime's continuity punching, reboots, Crises, and multiple Earths are all in play, it doesn't really matter, does it? Everything is in flux, especially in the future.
Page 11: Most of the villains are identified here. Not named in the bottom right panel: Cyborg-Superman (also of the Sinestro Corps), Metallo, Toyman.
Page 12: A biased retelling of Supermanboy-Prime's life thus far, but it's not too far from the truth. Sodam Yat is the new Ion, in case you were wondering. Neutron, mentioned in the bottom panel, is a particulary lame Superman villain, and saying he made a "bigger impact" is a bomb joke but also a slap in the face to S-Prime.
Page 13: Bottom left: Composite-Superman. Almost-bottom-right: Geoff Johns's version of the Teen Titans from his relaunch a few years back.
Page 14: S-Prime did kill Conner Kent, a.k.a. Superboy. Although the Siegel lawsuit probably didn't help.
Page 15: The United Planets is a bunch of planets, united (but very geocentric, to be honest).
Page 16: In the Johns/Perez version of the 31st century, the United Planets meets just like the Federation in Star Wars: Episode II. Remember when Jar Jar became a Senator? Ha! That was hilarious and touching. Here, everyone hates the Legion because the Justice League of future xenophobes messed them up recently (as seen in Johns's Action Comics arc). The three Legionnaires at the bottom are, of course, the founders of the team, and you can tell they aren't the spry young teenagers who formed the team in 2958. They look pretty good for being in their mid-sixties, though.
Page 17: Blah, blah, blah summary of the aftermath of the Action Comics storyline. Brainiac 5 helped the Legion, so he's out at Colu. Everyone else is grumpy. Nobody takes the Legion seriously. Johns makes a meta-commentary on why they still have "boy" and "girl" names even though they are grown men and women. Seriously, why doesn't the Legion get any respect?!? Johns is asking that question in the comic and inviting the outside world to respond.
Page 18: Mon-El always ends up in the Phantom Zone. It's the only place he's safe from the lead poisoning that will kill him ever so quickly. Shadow Lass and Mon-El were a couple for years, at least in the original continuity (whatever that means).
Page 19: You can tell things have gotten bleak in the future, because the straight-laced Brainiac 5 stopped grooming.
Page 20: When Brainiac 5 says that he "alone" created the anti-lead serum, he's paraphrasing Dr. Frankenstein from the 1931 James Whale classic film. Goes along with his mad scientist haircut and everything.
Page 21: Sun Boy, the Johnny Storm of the Legion--in powers and lady-killing skills--was used in the Johns Action Comics arc to turn Earth's sun into a red sun, thus negating Superman's powers. He's literally burnt out from that. Polar Boy, the first Legion of Substitute Heroes member to get promoted to the big show, lost an arm in that arc as well. Fire and Ice, cynical and optimistic: contrasts.
Page 22: More from the United Planets of Grumpy Xenophobia. Karate Kid II (Myg) has grown facial hair AND an attitude since we last saw him. He started out bad, and even the Legion Academy couldn't whip him into shape, apparently.
Page 23: R. J. Brande, super-gazillionaire and benefactor of the Legion of Super-Heroes. Before Brainiac 5 invented the flight rings, the Legionnaires used to fly around with flight belts. Flight belts! How 2950s! Brande is actually the father of the Legion's Chameleon Boy, and a Durlan shapeshifter himself, although that is not known to the world at large. Such was revealed in Secrets of the Legion of Super-Heroes, one of the first comic book mini-series ever (published in 1981).
Page 24: Takron-Galtos, the prison planet. I love to see it pop up in Legion stories, but every time it does, some prisoners escape and cause trouble. This is the third Takron-Galtos in this continuity, I think, but maybe they should come up with some other rehabilitation program. I'm telling you. A prison planet SOUNDS like a good idea, but it rarely ends well.
Page 25: Do you want me to name all of the Legion of Super-Villains too? Really? [Okay, fine. From left to right, back to front: Zymyr, Mist Master, Silver Slasher, Magno Lad, Ol-Vir, Hunter II, Lazon, Neutrax, Spider Girl, Esper Lass, Sun Emperor, Tyr, Micro Lad, Ron-Karr, Titania, Radiation Roy, Tarik the Mute, Chameleon Chief, Cosmic King, Lightning Lord, Saturn Queen, Nemesis Kid, Terrus.] Anyway, this collection is from the first arc in the Levitz Baxter run, as recently reprinted in the An Eye for an Eye trade paperback. It's really good, except Giffen quit halfway through and Steve Lightle had to finish it up. Both are fantastic artists, but with COMPLETELY different styles. LSV, though. Bad news all around.
Page 26: Man, this is a long comic. With so many panels! We're getting our money's worth here, aren't we?
The Legion of Super-Villains was founded by Lightning Lord, Cosmic King, and Saturn Queen. They're adults with the same powers as the original Legion founders. Because adults are evil and always try to mess up our clubhouse with their smoking and cussing. [UPDATED: The adult Legion of Super-Villains was from the future, and originally founded by Tarik the Mute. Also, Cosmic King looks like Cosmic Boy, but he actually has powers similar to Element Lad.]
Page 27: Brande's speech implies that the Legion taught Superboy how to become Superman. That's not really what happened, but it's a pretty cool interpretation of the events. Maybe it happened between panels. Let's all say that it happened. Feel better now? I do. I like it.
Page 28: Leland McCauley was not only Brande's rival, but in the post-"Zero Hour" reboot he was actually revealed to be Ra's al Ghul, still alive in the 30th century! Wheeee. He's not Ra's al Ghul in this version, though. He's just a bitter rich dude.
Page 29: "Long Live the Legion" is the rallying cry of the team. Brande almost gets it out, mentally before he gets all Durlan on everyone. By the way: TOLD YOU he was a Durlan! Totally called it. It gives McCauley a chance for more xenophobia and provides a touching moment. Geoff Johns can write comics!
Page 30: McCauley was apparently in cahoots with the Time Trapper. Folks, that's never a good idea. It's about as dumb as putting every single powerful criminal together on one giant space station.
Page 31: My guess is that Chameleon Boy, Dream Girl, and Element Lad are up to something. Probably something involving the Legion Espionage Squad. Because Johns is definitely not going to leave the Espionage Squad out of the action. Look for them to pop up with some vital information/secret weapon/awesomeness around issue #4.
Page 32: Thats the silhouette of the Legion clubhouse on the right side of the skyline. The old upside down spaceship. Of course, Secret Origins revealed that the original clubhouse was Fortress Lad, who had transformed into a clubhouse and then everyone, including him, totally forgot about it because of the after-effects of an angry Mnemonic Kid. (I am not making this, or anything else, up.)
Page 33: Superman arrives in 3009. A year after Supermanboy-Prime, thus leaving time for S-Prime to...
Page 34: Free all the prisoners from Takron-Galtos! I knew that prison planet was a bad idea. It's like rescuing evil fish from a space barrel. Although the 3008/3009 thing doesn't exactly make sense, since Cosmic Boy said the Smallville stuff and the freeing of the prisoners just happened in the past few hours. Hmmm... a time inconsistency. Who's the villain behind this whole thing again? [EDITED: Apparently, he stopped just before 3009. So, yeah, 3008 it is.]
"L.O.S.V"? L.S.V. sounds better, doesn't it? Maybe it's just to make it clear to all the new readers. But that's what I'm here for. L.O.S.V. is the Legion of Super Villains, silly.
Page 35: The post-"Zero Hour" Reboot Legion. A.k.a. the "Archie Legion" because everyone looked straight outta Riverdale. (I don't agree with that label, by the way.) This image on the top shows that Johns is not cherry-picking teams from a certain time, he's cherry-picking entire rosters that never existed. Some of these characters, like Kid Quantum died well before others, like Gates, joined. Do you want me to name all of these characters too?
"I've met them both. We all did a long time ago." I'm not sure what the second part means. Who's the "all." If it's just him and the other 20th/21st century heroes, then, yes, they met around the time of Final Night and recently in The Brave and the Bold. If he's putting Mon-El into the mix, I don't know what he's talking about.
Page 36: I literally have used my whole laptop battery on these annotations, as feeble as they are. I have six minutes to wrap it up.
This Legion is the Waid/Kitson Threeboot era, with the Shooter/Manapul costumes (mostly). Once again, it's not a roster that ever existed in the series, since Dream Boy (second from top left) and Dream Girl (third from top right) were never on the team at the same time. Yet it doesn't have any members from the "future" of the team. I guess that would make it too complicated. [From left to right, back to front: Mon-El, Dream Boy, Timber Wolf, Colossal Boy, Dream Girl, Supergirl, Phantom Girl, Shadow Lass, Triplicate Girl, Princess Projectra, Triplical Girl, Ultra Boy, Triplicate Girl, Sun Boy, Element Lad, Light Lass, Brainiac 5, Saturn Girl, Cosmic Boy, Lightning Lad, Star Boy, Karate Kid, Invisible Kid, Atom Girl, Chameleon.]
Do you think this series will end with the redemption of Supermanboy-Prime? Will he sacrifice himself to save the Legion and bring harmony to the United Planets?
Long Live the Legion(s)!
(P.S. I'm not the one reviewing this issue for CBR, but if I did, I would have given it four and a half stars.)
[Michael Grabois has annotations at The Legion Omnicom as well.]
Monday, June 02, 2008
"Batman R.I.P." Part II: Batman #677 Annotations
People seemed to like my annotations on Batman #676, and who am I not to pander to readers? So here are my page-by-page thoughts on Batman #677:
Page 1: I like that this issue begins with a single word, "Who?" That's the big question of Morrison's whole run on this series, isn't it? Who is behind all of this? Who is the Black Glove? Who hired Tony Daniel? (sorry, it was just too easy and I couldn't resisit.)
Pages 2-3: Batman's line, "...you ever see a Gotham hood dressed like this?" referring to the guy with the rag-tag Halloween costume, complete with sneakers and a demon mask--that's a bit curious isn't it? Aren't Gotham's hoods often dressed almost exactly like this? Doesn't Gotham have hundreds of costumed characters, many of whom dress their minions up in rag-tag Halloween costumes? This isn't the Golden Age Gotham City, when it was just a bunch of gangsters in suits.
The "old movie" Commissioner Gordon refers to is The Black Glove, of course, the John Mayhew film Batman describes on the following page. But there is a real-life "Black Glove" film, at least it was called that in America. In the U.K. it was released as Face the Music, a 1954 film directed by Terence Fisher, known for his lurid Hammer horror films. Here's the IMDB summary of the Fisher flick: "Brad Bradley (Alex Nicol) is a famous trumpet player who is suspected of murdering a blues singer. Using only two minor clues, he narrows the suspects down to four people, after surviving some fights and having poison placed on the mouthpiece of his trumpet." A murder mystery. But it doesn't look at have any other connection to this comic. But surely Morrison is familiar with the work of Terence Fisher.
Page 4: Is that supposed to be the movie poster for The Black Glove film? Didn't it appear in the "Club of Heroes" arc and look a bit more professional? This one looks like it was drawn and lettered by a child. A clue! The Black Glove is Damian! Probably not, as it's just another example of the rushed artwork by Tony Daniel on this particular issue. For another example of the rushed and problematic art, look at the final panel on this page when Alfred comments upon a wound he cannot actually seen according to the way it's drawn here. As I mentioned in my review for this issue, when the comic is a mystery, and visual clues are important, you really need to have an artist who gets it right. Is Alfred's awareness of the wound a clue? How can he possibly see it from that angle? I think it's just inaccurate drawings.
Also on this page, we get the plot of the DC Universe version of The Black Glove movie: "It's the story of two innocent lovers corrupted and destroyed by a group of super-rich gamblers." That parallels the Jezebel Jet/Bruce Wayne romance, and the corruption from outside, although clearly Jezebel and Bruce are anything but innocent.
Page 5: "This thing goes back years and involves people my parents knew," says Batman. This issue is full of such references, although Morrison hasn't mentioned much about the previous generation of Waynes in earlier issues. But perhaps this Black Glove stuff isn't even about Batman. Maybe Bruce Wayne is just the target because of something his parents were involved in years ago. That would be an interesting reversal. So often in recent Batman stories, he's fighting against monsters he has created himself, and sure, he might turn out to be the Black Glove and it might be some kind of multiple personality thing, but what if it's not. What if it's a bunch of things set in motion before he even donned the cape and cowl. That would make it more like a Greek tragedy, then, wouldn't it. Unstoppable force of fate and all that.
Also, Batman says, regarding his relationship with Damian, "That's not what I wanted to happen." Really? Because you brought the kid home and just let him hang out for a while. Is Batman so emotionally obtuse as to not imagine the effect on Tim Drake? Apparently so, and Morrison seems to be exploring Batman's emotional issues--his inability to process normal human emotions, perhaps. After all, he refers to his girlfriend by her last name. Batman, a cold, professional lover.
Page 6: To tie the "super-rich gamblers" of Mayhew's film even more closely to the events of this issue, we see a roulette wheel at the start of this page as the Club of Villains plans their attack. Dr. Hurt claims that the Club has two motivations: "to teach our upstart idealist a lesson," and to do it "as a work of art." These are cliche, evil-villain things to say, but the "teach a lesson" bit implies something patronizing, which strengthens the connection between the villains and the older Wayne generation. And the "work of art" bit is classic Morrison--he frequently connects "evil" schemes to art, as in the rogue Thanagarian "chaos artist" in Animal Man or the Brotherhood of Dada from Doom Patrol.
Page 7: Hurt refers to Batman as "our boy" and says "no one knows him better than I do." Is Dr. Hurt a resurrected (or never dead) Thomas Wayne? That makes no sense, but he does act as if he's an evil father figure, surely. The trigger phrase Hurt refers to is "Zur-En-Arrh" the homeworld of the alien Batman from issue #113. For more on Dr. Hurt and the strange sleep deprivation experiment, see my commentary on Batman #673.
Pages 8-9: I like how Tony Daniel shows Batman sneering when he's got the cowl on--even when he's with his girlfriend on a "romantic getaway" to the batcave--and he only allows Batman's face to soften when he takes the cowl off. I've given Daniel a lot of flak for his work in this issue, but at least the facial expressions come across in these two pages. I also like Batman's comment that "Alfred and I used to huddle around a PC covered in bat droppings." I've seen some criticism of Morrison's dialogue in recent months, and I don't understand that at all. Yes, Morrison is an idea guy, a structure guy, but his dialogue is as good as anyone working today.
Pages 10-11: "Ed Sheldrake" might be a subtle allusion to Rupert Sheldrake, biologist, who Morrison would surely have been familiar with. Rupert Sheldrake is one of the main proponents of the "morphogenic field" a notion which Morrison explored with Buddy Baker's powers in Animal Man.
There's a lot of information on this page that explicitly states things readers have suspected, particularly the notion of Bruce Wayne's schizophrenia. And the connection between Alfred and the Black Glove conspiracy. The scandalous details of Thomas and Martha Wayne's life is new to me--does anyone know of any prior stories implying their secret history?--and the notion that Thomas Wayne may have faked his own death is straight out of any soap opera, but I would be shocked if Morrison actually pulled it off.
Pages 12-13: I like the implied danger of the first panel, as the assault on Wayne mansion begins without Batman's knowledge, while inside he tours through his own fetish objects--his history as a costumed character--on display in the batcave. Jezebel Jet asks the question everyone asks about Batman, "what if you're not well?" When she refers to "those sad, blood-spattered little super hero costumes," it's hearbreaking on more than one level (and it's yet another example of Morrison's ability to write effective bits of dialogue).
Page 14: This splash page, with the bat-gyros and batcopters looming overhead, makes Bruce Wayne seem to be at the bottom of an ocean, with sharks swimming above him. It's a nice visual metaphor for what Batman's going through right now.
Pages 15-17: Morrison loves patterns, and so does Batman. Detective work is, after all, figuring out the patterns in the appearance of randomness. His reference to DC Universe #0, the scene with Joker's incomplete "dead man's hand" shows how integral that scene was to Morrison's overall story--I hope those pages are included in the "Batman R.I.P" collection. Or maybe not integral, but relevant. And the decoded message? "Ha Ha." Perfect.
I like how Batman goes on and on about "numerology" and "qabalistic correspondences" as if his knowledge has become a burden. He can't see the patterns because he's looking at too much stuff. His paranoia has made every piece of information important, which would make him a really bad detective actually. He has to weed out the irrelevant stuff, and he seems incapable of doing that. It's Jezebel Jet who cuts to the heart of the matter: "what if it's you?" she asks, in half-conern, half-fear. All Batman can do is walk away, implying that he knows it might be true.
Pages 18-19: The trigger word, "Zur-En-Arrh" appears on the screen, but all Batman can see is "static." Then the images on the screen are replaced by the face of the alien from Batman #156, which was part of Dr. Hurt's sensory deprivation experiment--the experiment which caused Batman to lose the ability to distinguish hallucination from reality.
Pages 20-22: Is Batman having a stroke? That's how I read it--apparently caused by the trigger word. Le Bossu says "La Bas" in reference to Alfred--meaning "the lower depths" or "deep," implying that they have been looking for him, looking to beat him or kill him. It could also be a reference to Alfred being "deep" undercover, although the final splash page makes it seem as if Alfred's life is in jeopardy. He may not be involved with the Black Glove after all.
Page 1: I like that this issue begins with a single word, "Who?" That's the big question of Morrison's whole run on this series, isn't it? Who is behind all of this? Who is the Black Glove? Who hired Tony Daniel? (sorry, it was just too easy and I couldn't resisit.)
Pages 2-3: Batman's line, "...you ever see a Gotham hood dressed like this?" referring to the guy with the rag-tag Halloween costume, complete with sneakers and a demon mask--that's a bit curious isn't it? Aren't Gotham's hoods often dressed almost exactly like this? Doesn't Gotham have hundreds of costumed characters, many of whom dress their minions up in rag-tag Halloween costumes? This isn't the Golden Age Gotham City, when it was just a bunch of gangsters in suits.
The "old movie" Commissioner Gordon refers to is The Black Glove, of course, the John Mayhew film Batman describes on the following page. But there is a real-life "Black Glove" film, at least it was called that in America. In the U.K. it was released as Face the Music, a 1954 film directed by Terence Fisher, known for his lurid Hammer horror films. Here's the IMDB summary of the Fisher flick: "Brad Bradley (Alex Nicol) is a famous trumpet player who is suspected of murdering a blues singer. Using only two minor clues, he narrows the suspects down to four people, after surviving some fights and having poison placed on the mouthpiece of his trumpet." A murder mystery. But it doesn't look at have any other connection to this comic. But surely Morrison is familiar with the work of Terence Fisher.
Page 4: Is that supposed to be the movie poster for The Black Glove film? Didn't it appear in the "Club of Heroes" arc and look a bit more professional? This one looks like it was drawn and lettered by a child. A clue! The Black Glove is Damian! Probably not, as it's just another example of the rushed artwork by Tony Daniel on this particular issue. For another example of the rushed and problematic art, look at the final panel on this page when Alfred comments upon a wound he cannot actually seen according to the way it's drawn here. As I mentioned in my review for this issue, when the comic is a mystery, and visual clues are important, you really need to have an artist who gets it right. Is Alfred's awareness of the wound a clue? How can he possibly see it from that angle? I think it's just inaccurate drawings.
Also on this page, we get the plot of the DC Universe version of The Black Glove movie: "It's the story of two innocent lovers corrupted and destroyed by a group of super-rich gamblers." That parallels the Jezebel Jet/Bruce Wayne romance, and the corruption from outside, although clearly Jezebel and Bruce are anything but innocent.
Page 5: "This thing goes back years and involves people my parents knew," says Batman. This issue is full of such references, although Morrison hasn't mentioned much about the previous generation of Waynes in earlier issues. But perhaps this Black Glove stuff isn't even about Batman. Maybe Bruce Wayne is just the target because of something his parents were involved in years ago. That would be an interesting reversal. So often in recent Batman stories, he's fighting against monsters he has created himself, and sure, he might turn out to be the Black Glove and it might be some kind of multiple personality thing, but what if it's not. What if it's a bunch of things set in motion before he even donned the cape and cowl. That would make it more like a Greek tragedy, then, wouldn't it. Unstoppable force of fate and all that.
Also, Batman says, regarding his relationship with Damian, "That's not what I wanted to happen." Really? Because you brought the kid home and just let him hang out for a while. Is Batman so emotionally obtuse as to not imagine the effect on Tim Drake? Apparently so, and Morrison seems to be exploring Batman's emotional issues--his inability to process normal human emotions, perhaps. After all, he refers to his girlfriend by her last name. Batman, a cold, professional lover.
Page 6: To tie the "super-rich gamblers" of Mayhew's film even more closely to the events of this issue, we see a roulette wheel at the start of this page as the Club of Villains plans their attack. Dr. Hurt claims that the Club has two motivations: "to teach our upstart idealist a lesson," and to do it "as a work of art." These are cliche, evil-villain things to say, but the "teach a lesson" bit implies something patronizing, which strengthens the connection between the villains and the older Wayne generation. And the "work of art" bit is classic Morrison--he frequently connects "evil" schemes to art, as in the rogue Thanagarian "chaos artist" in Animal Man or the Brotherhood of Dada from Doom Patrol.
Page 7: Hurt refers to Batman as "our boy" and says "no one knows him better than I do." Is Dr. Hurt a resurrected (or never dead) Thomas Wayne? That makes no sense, but he does act as if he's an evil father figure, surely. The trigger phrase Hurt refers to is "Zur-En-Arrh" the homeworld of the alien Batman from issue #113. For more on Dr. Hurt and the strange sleep deprivation experiment, see my commentary on Batman #673.
Pages 8-9: I like how Tony Daniel shows Batman sneering when he's got the cowl on--even when he's with his girlfriend on a "romantic getaway" to the batcave--and he only allows Batman's face to soften when he takes the cowl off. I've given Daniel a lot of flak for his work in this issue, but at least the facial expressions come across in these two pages. I also like Batman's comment that "Alfred and I used to huddle around a PC covered in bat droppings." I've seen some criticism of Morrison's dialogue in recent months, and I don't understand that at all. Yes, Morrison is an idea guy, a structure guy, but his dialogue is as good as anyone working today.
Pages 10-11: "Ed Sheldrake" might be a subtle allusion to Rupert Sheldrake, biologist, who Morrison would surely have been familiar with. Rupert Sheldrake is one of the main proponents of the "morphogenic field" a notion which Morrison explored with Buddy Baker's powers in Animal Man.
There's a lot of information on this page that explicitly states things readers have suspected, particularly the notion of Bruce Wayne's schizophrenia. And the connection between Alfred and the Black Glove conspiracy. The scandalous details of Thomas and Martha Wayne's life is new to me--does anyone know of any prior stories implying their secret history?--and the notion that Thomas Wayne may have faked his own death is straight out of any soap opera, but I would be shocked if Morrison actually pulled it off.
Pages 12-13: I like the implied danger of the first panel, as the assault on Wayne mansion begins without Batman's knowledge, while inside he tours through his own fetish objects--his history as a costumed character--on display in the batcave. Jezebel Jet asks the question everyone asks about Batman, "what if you're not well?" When she refers to "those sad, blood-spattered little super hero costumes," it's hearbreaking on more than one level (and it's yet another example of Morrison's ability to write effective bits of dialogue).
Page 14: This splash page, with the bat-gyros and batcopters looming overhead, makes Bruce Wayne seem to be at the bottom of an ocean, with sharks swimming above him. It's a nice visual metaphor for what Batman's going through right now.
Pages 15-17: Morrison loves patterns, and so does Batman. Detective work is, after all, figuring out the patterns in the appearance of randomness. His reference to DC Universe #0, the scene with Joker's incomplete "dead man's hand" shows how integral that scene was to Morrison's overall story--I hope those pages are included in the "Batman R.I.P" collection. Or maybe not integral, but relevant. And the decoded message? "Ha Ha." Perfect.
I like how Batman goes on and on about "numerology" and "qabalistic correspondences" as if his knowledge has become a burden. He can't see the patterns because he's looking at too much stuff. His paranoia has made every piece of information important, which would make him a really bad detective actually. He has to weed out the irrelevant stuff, and he seems incapable of doing that. It's Jezebel Jet who cuts to the heart of the matter: "what if it's you?" she asks, in half-conern, half-fear. All Batman can do is walk away, implying that he knows it might be true.
Pages 18-19: The trigger word, "Zur-En-Arrh" appears on the screen, but all Batman can see is "static." Then the images on the screen are replaced by the face of the alien from Batman #156, which was part of Dr. Hurt's sensory deprivation experiment--the experiment which caused Batman to lose the ability to distinguish hallucination from reality.
Pages 20-22: Is Batman having a stroke? That's how I read it--apparently caused by the trigger word. Le Bossu says "La Bas" in reference to Alfred--meaning "the lower depths" or "deep," implying that they have been looking for him, looking to beat him or kill him. It could also be a reference to Alfred being "deep" undercover, although the final splash page makes it seem as if Alfred's life is in jeopardy. He may not be involved with the Black Glove after all.
Monday, May 19, 2008
"Batman R.I.P." Begins: Batman #676 Annotations
Because I didn't get into many specifics in my review of Batman #676, here are my annotations for the issue. And by "annotations," I mean "stuff I thought about as I read each page."
Cover: People are griping about this Alex Ross painting because it looks like Batman's body is made out of cloth. "Where's his body?" they whine. It's called symbolism, folks. Batman, shrouded in inky darkness, looking ghostly. The arc is called "Batman R.I.P," and if you can't connect the dots between that title and the cover image, then maybe comics aren't for you. They can get confusing with their fancy pictures.
Page 1: My guess is that this image shows the Dick Grayson/Damian team as Batman and Robin. The red skies and the lightning allude to Final Crisis, and this might very well be a page straight out of that series, something that we'll see in a few months real time. Morrison threw some important Batman stuff in DC Universe #0, so there's definitely a link between his work on the crossover and his work in this series.
Pages 2-3: I like how gothic this flashback looks, and how it isn't really a flashback but a jump back to present continuity. Present continuity that looks like 120 years ago. The hunchback, Le Bossu, smashes a Victor Hugo vibe into a Sherlock Holmes vibe (with the panel of the dead man). What's with the "12712" tag on the carriage? And are all the umbrella-holders significant? I have no idea. But the "we are operators at the highest level" line sounds like something Daniel Plainview might say during one of his rants. "I drink your Bat-shake. I drink it up."
Pages 4-5: The Club of Villains, from left to right: Charlie Caligula (nemesis of the Legionary), King Kraken (nemesis of Wingman), El Sombrero (nemesis of the the Gaucho), Pierrot Lunaire (nemesis of the Musketeer), Dr. Hurt (who appeared in Batman #156 and #673 as part of the sensory-deprivation experiment, now revealed to have ulterior motives), Scorpiana (nemesis of el Gaucho--he gets two nemeses!), and Springheeled Jack (nemesis of the Knight). Although this group may be collectively known as "The Black Glove," which is what this issue seems to imply, I still suspect that the Black Glove is someone behind the scenes, either Alfred, Thomas Wayne Jr., or a schizophrenic Bruce Wayne. By the way, in my original commentary on the "Club of Heroes" arc I applauded Morrison's imaginative use of quick backstory by mentioning all of these evil counterparts of the Batman of Many Nations. I said that these characters would probably never actually appear, but it was just Morrison's way of implying a deep mythology. How wrong I was! Those names were clues. Who would have known? Not me. I said, "I doubt they are clues." Silly. Everything has meaning. I should have known better.
Pages 6-7: The parallels to Batman's origins are clear in this sequence as a young boy and his parents are held hostage by a criminal. But this is no Joe Chill--this is a post-Batman maniac who calls himself the Green Vulture since costumed madmen are all the rage these days. The Green Vulture is s supervillain fanboy who wants to be locked up in Arkham. His presence in this issue contrasts nicely with the portrayal of the "Clown at Midnight" Joker at the end. There's something called "Ganser's Syndrome," by the way, which is what you call it when someone pretends to be crazy. The Green Vulture acts crazy, but he's trying too hard. It looks like a case of Ganser's Syndrome. The Joker, on the other hand: he's crazy.
Pages 8-9: Batmobile! We saw the early hints of this version way back in the "Batman and Son" arc. Here it is in all of its sexy glory. I don't know anything about cars, but I'm sure this Batmobile is inspired by some real vehicle. Except, you know, this one has Bat-hubcaps and can jump down a flight of stairs. The graffiti next to the stairs says "Todd's" (Jason Todd's?) and something else I can't quite make out (X8e?).
Pages 10-11: I think Geoff Klock pointed out the "CD changer" line on his blog, and he's right. The Batmobile shouldn't sport out-of-date technology. Batman should be years ahead of the stuff we've got. (Although, his Bat-computer is a beast of a machine, so maybe he likes old-school tech after all.) Homeless people love Batman, apparently. In Morrison's Gotham City, Batman is down with the people on the street. He knows pimps and hookers by name, as we've seen in previous issues, and here he hands out money to Woodrow, Tracy Morgan's SNL homeless guy. I like Robin's line to the Green Vulture: "You're on bad drugs in a Halloween suit with about a dozen cameras recording your complete loss of self-respect." Batman and Robin don't need to smack this guy around, because the DC Universe has YouTube to do the job for them.
Pages 12-13: Morrison's never been afraid to mix pop music, pop culture, and superheroics, and Alfred's line about "an 'American Idol' era of equal opportunity supercrime" is classic Morrison. Morrison from the Zenith days. But it's a good line, and since Morrison foreshadowed the reality TV craze a decade before it became a reality (in Doom Patrol with the Sunburst character), I think it's only fair that he gets to use the line even if the concept's a bit stale. It's also Alfred saying it, and not only might he be evil (if he's the Black Glove), but he's a old fogey like your grandpa. The kiss with Jezebel Jet would have been 78% cooler if Bruce had the cowl on, circa 1971 Neal Adams--the no shirt, just pants and cowl look--but it's still a very Neal Adamsish panel anyway. It's more Batman/Talia than Batman/Silver St. Cloud. Hey, maybe that's a clue! Maybe Jezebel Jet is the Black Glove! Nah, probably not. But you never know.
Pages 14-15: This is a ton of exposition, a good way not to scare off readers who jumped on board for the "Batman R.I.P." event. It gets everyone basically up to speed on the whole Nanda Parbat situation and the Damian problem. It also shows that Tim is still rational in an increasingly irrational world. Plus, Alfred's really into Batman. He understands the pressure Batman is under, trying to be the perfect everything. None of this points to Alfred being the Black Glove, and if anything it seems to show that Batman's fractured sense of self might be causing all the problems. But, whatever. It's a lot of talk for the new readers (and the readers who have trouble figuring out where Batman's body is on the cover).
Pages 16-17: Page 16 reads like a scene out of a Batman movie: "What happens when you've finally won? When they're avenged at last? How will you know?" That question , and the complete LACK of a response by Bruce Wayne, is the essence of this character. He cannot answer it, because he knows he can never win. He can never get his parents back. And on page 17, we're reminded that Batman is, in fact, a detective. He's connecting the dots, slowly. The fourth panel seems like a bit much as Bruce Wayne does a spit take when Jezebel reads the Black Glove invitation. A spit take? Hold it together, Bruce! Maybe now that Jezebel knows his true identity, he doesn't have to act tough anymore. But you've gotta play it cool around the ladies, Batman. Come on.
Pages 18-22: In the foreground of the Arkham establishing shot, we see tulips infested with centipedes. Morrison uses insects to signify the "other," the strangeness from outside, and here they provide a bit of uneasiness as we descend into the blood-drenched hallways. The "Clown at Midnight" Joker, seen only in Batman #663 and DC Universe #0, is now getting the spotlight. "The comedy's in the timing" says Joker, as we get black and white and red images of the murdered Tim Drake, Commissioner Gordon, and Dick Grayson. Although it's apparently all a hallucination as the blood on the floor connects to the rorschach inkbot. The entire sequence is fragmentary and it's difficult to discern reality from insanity. Apparently, Le Bossu arrives to offer Joker an invitation from the Black Glove, but we don't see that take place. Is it another hallucination? The Joker is covered in blood when the lights come back on, and we can only assume that the doctor administering the rorschach test is dead. But it's all implied. Fiendishly implied and the image of the Clown at Midnight licking his lips at the end, saying "another pretty flower" is far more disturbing than anything we saw in Batman #663. It's also the first time green is introduced into the color scheme of this sequence, which was all about red and black (even in the DC Universe #0 scene). Red and black. Red Hood and Black Glove. What's the connection?
Morrison Batman comics are good.
Cover: People are griping about this Alex Ross painting because it looks like Batman's body is made out of cloth. "Where's his body?" they whine. It's called symbolism, folks. Batman, shrouded in inky darkness, looking ghostly. The arc is called "Batman R.I.P," and if you can't connect the dots between that title and the cover image, then maybe comics aren't for you. They can get confusing with their fancy pictures.
Page 1: My guess is that this image shows the Dick Grayson/Damian team as Batman and Robin. The red skies and the lightning allude to Final Crisis, and this might very well be a page straight out of that series, something that we'll see in a few months real time. Morrison threw some important Batman stuff in DC Universe #0, so there's definitely a link between his work on the crossover and his work in this series.
Pages 2-3: I like how gothic this flashback looks, and how it isn't really a flashback but a jump back to present continuity. Present continuity that looks like 120 years ago. The hunchback, Le Bossu, smashes a Victor Hugo vibe into a Sherlock Holmes vibe (with the panel of the dead man). What's with the "12712" tag on the carriage? And are all the umbrella-holders significant? I have no idea. But the "we are operators at the highest level" line sounds like something Daniel Plainview might say during one of his rants. "I drink your Bat-shake. I drink it up."
Pages 4-5: The Club of Villains, from left to right: Charlie Caligula (nemesis of the Legionary), King Kraken (nemesis of Wingman), El Sombrero (nemesis of the the Gaucho), Pierrot Lunaire (nemesis of the Musketeer), Dr. Hurt (who appeared in Batman #156 and #673 as part of the sensory-deprivation experiment, now revealed to have ulterior motives), Scorpiana (nemesis of el Gaucho--he gets two nemeses!), and Springheeled Jack (nemesis of the Knight). Although this group may be collectively known as "The Black Glove," which is what this issue seems to imply, I still suspect that the Black Glove is someone behind the scenes, either Alfred, Thomas Wayne Jr., or a schizophrenic Bruce Wayne. By the way, in my original commentary on the "Club of Heroes" arc I applauded Morrison's imaginative use of quick backstory by mentioning all of these evil counterparts of the Batman of Many Nations. I said that these characters would probably never actually appear, but it was just Morrison's way of implying a deep mythology. How wrong I was! Those names were clues. Who would have known? Not me. I said, "I doubt they are clues." Silly. Everything has meaning. I should have known better.
Pages 6-7: The parallels to Batman's origins are clear in this sequence as a young boy and his parents are held hostage by a criminal. But this is no Joe Chill--this is a post-Batman maniac who calls himself the Green Vulture since costumed madmen are all the rage these days. The Green Vulture is s supervillain fanboy who wants to be locked up in Arkham. His presence in this issue contrasts nicely with the portrayal of the "Clown at Midnight" Joker at the end. There's something called "Ganser's Syndrome," by the way, which is what you call it when someone pretends to be crazy. The Green Vulture acts crazy, but he's trying too hard. It looks like a case of Ganser's Syndrome. The Joker, on the other hand: he's crazy.
Pages 8-9: Batmobile! We saw the early hints of this version way back in the "Batman and Son" arc. Here it is in all of its sexy glory. I don't know anything about cars, but I'm sure this Batmobile is inspired by some real vehicle. Except, you know, this one has Bat-hubcaps and can jump down a flight of stairs. The graffiti next to the stairs says "Todd's" (Jason Todd's?) and something else I can't quite make out (X8e?).
Pages 10-11: I think Geoff Klock pointed out the "CD changer" line on his blog, and he's right. The Batmobile shouldn't sport out-of-date technology. Batman should be years ahead of the stuff we've got. (Although, his Bat-computer is a beast of a machine, so maybe he likes old-school tech after all.) Homeless people love Batman, apparently. In Morrison's Gotham City, Batman is down with the people on the street. He knows pimps and hookers by name, as we've seen in previous issues, and here he hands out money to Woodrow, Tracy Morgan's SNL homeless guy. I like Robin's line to the Green Vulture: "You're on bad drugs in a Halloween suit with about a dozen cameras recording your complete loss of self-respect." Batman and Robin don't need to smack this guy around, because the DC Universe has YouTube to do the job for them.
Pages 12-13: Morrison's never been afraid to mix pop music, pop culture, and superheroics, and Alfred's line about "an 'American Idol' era of equal opportunity supercrime" is classic Morrison. Morrison from the Zenith days. But it's a good line, and since Morrison foreshadowed the reality TV craze a decade before it became a reality (in Doom Patrol with the Sunburst character), I think it's only fair that he gets to use the line even if the concept's a bit stale. It's also Alfred saying it, and not only might he be evil (if he's the Black Glove), but he's a old fogey like your grandpa. The kiss with Jezebel Jet would have been 78% cooler if Bruce had the cowl on, circa 1971 Neal Adams--the no shirt, just pants and cowl look--but it's still a very Neal Adamsish panel anyway. It's more Batman/Talia than Batman/Silver St. Cloud. Hey, maybe that's a clue! Maybe Jezebel Jet is the Black Glove! Nah, probably not. But you never know.
Pages 14-15: This is a ton of exposition, a good way not to scare off readers who jumped on board for the "Batman R.I.P." event. It gets everyone basically up to speed on the whole Nanda Parbat situation and the Damian problem. It also shows that Tim is still rational in an increasingly irrational world. Plus, Alfred's really into Batman. He understands the pressure Batman is under, trying to be the perfect everything. None of this points to Alfred being the Black Glove, and if anything it seems to show that Batman's fractured sense of self might be causing all the problems. But, whatever. It's a lot of talk for the new readers (and the readers who have trouble figuring out where Batman's body is on the cover).
Pages 16-17: Page 16 reads like a scene out of a Batman movie: "What happens when you've finally won? When they're avenged at last? How will you know?" That question , and the complete LACK of a response by Bruce Wayne, is the essence of this character. He cannot answer it, because he knows he can never win. He can never get his parents back. And on page 17, we're reminded that Batman is, in fact, a detective. He's connecting the dots, slowly. The fourth panel seems like a bit much as Bruce Wayne does a spit take when Jezebel reads the Black Glove invitation. A spit take? Hold it together, Bruce! Maybe now that Jezebel knows his true identity, he doesn't have to act tough anymore. But you've gotta play it cool around the ladies, Batman. Come on.
Pages 18-22: In the foreground of the Arkham establishing shot, we see tulips infested with centipedes. Morrison uses insects to signify the "other," the strangeness from outside, and here they provide a bit of uneasiness as we descend into the blood-drenched hallways. The "Clown at Midnight" Joker, seen only in Batman #663 and DC Universe #0, is now getting the spotlight. "The comedy's in the timing" says Joker, as we get black and white and red images of the murdered Tim Drake, Commissioner Gordon, and Dick Grayson. Although it's apparently all a hallucination as the blood on the floor connects to the rorschach inkbot. The entire sequence is fragmentary and it's difficult to discern reality from insanity. Apparently, Le Bossu arrives to offer Joker an invitation from the Black Glove, but we don't see that take place. Is it another hallucination? The Joker is covered in blood when the lights come back on, and we can only assume that the doctor administering the rorschach test is dead. But it's all implied. Fiendishly implied and the image of the Clown at Midnight licking his lips at the end, saying "another pretty flower" is far more disturbing than anything we saw in Batman #663. It's also the first time green is introduced into the color scheme of this sequence, which was all about red and black (even in the DC Universe #0 scene). Red and black. Red Hood and Black Glove. What's the connection?
Morrison Batman comics are good.
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