Batman Incorporated #8

First off I need to address that most people hate on this issue since it is the so called "last" issue before the relaunch and because of it it is not a satisfying ending for those who don't get what Grant Morrison is doing.  Sorry if that if offensive of a statement, I am not saying I am smarter, but I get what he is doing.  This issue had to be released before the 52 releases and you can blame DC for hurting the momentum, not Grant.  I love how he got this issue out and that it is #8, the symbolic mobius strip, much like how his series layers new layers on top of classic Batman stories, this issue carries the same spirit with paying homage to the 1990's computer generated story Digital Justice.  I don't hate on those who only see a Tron rip-off, that is back to Morrison's acclaimed and controversial series the Invisibles and how it is about Information and how powerful it is.
 
This issue of Batman Incorporated is in the spirit of the Invisibles since most people who read this issue likely wouldn't of read Digital Justice and it is likely no coincidence that chapter three is called Digital Justice.  Grant Morrison's work is layered in many ways, one layer is the shallow layer in which most see and that is why this issue was not satisfying.  Most people haven't been doing the Detective work that Grant Morrison has brought back into Batman titles.  Another layer in which Grant writes is his hidden agenda, an agenda to speak to the invisible cells out there.  I once made a list of suggested reading for Grant Morrison's Batman, which is found here.  I listed the Invisibles in the initial drafting of the list because that series let me understand what it is like being an Invisible.  Batman Inc's hidden message if an attack on society and how escapism is everywhere.  In issue #7 I pointed out the baby crying in his own soiled diaper.  In this issue Grant Morrison attacks digital addiction.  There are many people who live their lives just to pay bills, but they really live their lives on the internet via Avatars. 
 
The CG art at times can be distracting because our minds are conditioned to see CG and move not stay static and this is where I think those who truly appreciate "Sequential Arts" and those who read "comics" for escape read the story differently.  There are a lot of "Comic book" readers who see the medium as nothing more then pretty pictures with words, almost like pretty storyboards. The greatest writers if "comics" don't write comics, but write "Sequential Art" in a balance that it forms a language all its own, a language Scott McCloud called the Invisible Language.  Because the traditional pencil and ink style of comics most of us are use to is abandoned in this issue our brains are forced to handle this information in whatever way we can.  Some will enjoy the art because other mods Sequential Art, such as painted art, have been digested before, but those who are more immature to the potential of the medium might not digest all what Grant Morrison and co. have laid out for us.
 
Grant Morrison has really put back Detective work in Batman and I cannot stress that enough.  To truly understand and appreciated what he doing, the reader must want to discover.  If the reader just wants fluff and an easy to digest story you should really stop reading Grant Morrison.  I can understand some of the negative reviews and none of them I take seriously, because Batman Inc remains as the best mainstream book I was reading off the shelf.  There is so much depth to the writing that the reread levels are the price of admissions returned in ten fold, if and only if you want to understand the meta-fiction in which is being written.
 
Before  leave and this spoiler if for those who read the book.  Last page second panel, I wonder if Morrison is poking fun and online dating with the two new lovebirds?  Also once again Bruce is talking about "The Future".  Everything Morrison has written for Batman is calculated and precise.  Why question a genius?  Don't question try to understand. As I stated in Batman: The Return, all of what Grant Morrison is doing is tying a tighter mythos by looping in older stories in this constant Mobius strip,
 
"I see the Future and it works"
 - Silkcuts