Rehashed Ruins a Good Story
The Batman, the real one, is back. We all wanted him back I'm sure. Dick Grayson's run as Batman has been lack luster at best and pandering at worst. And it's nice to think that Batman will once again be portrayed Bruce Wayne; but then the climax comes, and all hope is lost.
Spoilers contained below:
Bruce Wayne makes Batman Incorporated after revealing the to the media that the money behind Batman is from him. Granted he doesn't reveal he is Batman as some had speculated but that's not what I'm thinking about right now.
Honestly going public with his identity would have at least felt different that things feel now. The problem with Batman Incorporated is this: Grant Morrison already did it with X-Corp during his run on New X-Men. I'm starting to feel like Grant Morrison has just flat out run out of ideas and so he's going to old projects and reusing ideas from them.
Now to be fair I haven't been a fan of Grant Morrison's tear down and rebuild of the Batman franchise so it might be that dislike showing through, but this last story arch of Batman and Robin has been rather interesting at times, to be honest. To see it take such a blatant left-hand turn into "familiar" territory for Morrison makes me feel cheated.
Right now I am expecting Bruce Wayne to be possessed by the psyche of his unknown twin sister who uses the Batman Incorporated brand to ruin his life work. A bit unfair I know, but with Grant Morrison lately you never know what to expect, in a bad way.
On the good we got to see the "real" Batman do his thing again, even allowing the villain to escape in order to save an innocent. And the Joker's new role in the mythos continues to keep my interest; I want to see where Joker progresses from here. The interactions between Bruce, Dick and Damien were spot on and felt real and organic. It's just this "new direction" that is worrying me the most. The Batman Family is already rather bloated and to add an "enitre corporation of world-wide Batmen" to it just seems like even more will get lost in the shuffle.
Also on a final note about the art, I write this to both Marvel and DC, stop switching out artists in the same comic. It creates a horrible discontinuity for the issues and takes us out of the scene as we adjust to the new art style.
