Batman R.I.P. – review
You’ll have to forgive me. I have a bad cold and I’m attempting to review Batman R.I.P. so there’s a very good chance that none of this post will make sense.
What is it about Batman that makes me so sad? The whole Dark Knight, troubled soul, citizens of Gotham – just brings me down. Not that it’s necessarily a bad thing, a lot of beautiful writing comes out of sadness. Elie Wiesel’s Night comes to mind and of course there’s England’s version of the Bat, Hamlet. But the level of sadness in Batman has really been cranked up hasn’t it?
Batman faces the Black Glove. He’s on the Glove’s trail when his “love” Jezebel Jet betrays him, whispering the code word that shatters his psyche. Luckily, he’s got a backup personality – I promise it’s much cooler than it sounds. Together with Robin and Nightwing (who aren’t much help but what can you do) the new Zur en Arrh Batman continues his efforts to destroy the Black Glove even at the cost of what’s left of Bruce Wayne’s life.
Batman R.I.P. isn’t so much about Bruce Wayne’s physical death or even his psychological death (that happened a while back) but his emotional end. I can’t decide if I think this is brilliant or cheap. I’ve heard people argue that Bruce Wayne had it coming. In fact, the book itself makes the point, in clue flashbacks from The Butler Did It, that Bruce Wayne has had numerous chances to take his pain and actually learn from it and doesn’t. But to break him with a rumor? Though it’s a pretty good one and I love the idea that maybe the Wayne’s aren’t the saints we thought – still…
There’s no beating Morrison’s feel for plot or timing. I loved the second personality even if it came with some kind of freaky little batkid. Actually, I became sort of attached to that Life with Louie looking sidekick. There’s also the sad truth that no one understands Batman except his worst enemy, who happens to be insane. That’s when you know it’s all gone horribly wrong, when the Joker speaks reasonably about what the rational thing to do is and of course everyone ignores him. It suggests that maybe the Joker is a twisted Cassandra, telling the sad fate of Gotham to power hungry villians and heroes.
I do have a few gripes though. First, Arkham Asylum – when is this place going to get some better security? I mean, really. It’s just irritating. Second, the artwork is too over the top. I’m sure Morrison and Daniel were intending it to be this way. A friend of mine told me the back story of the whole Zur en Arrh, explaining that Morrison is heavily influenced by past, campy Batman stories. So the artwork reflects that but I don’t know if it needs to. Joker looks too much like a monster, like Pennywise the Clown and the faces of Gotham citizens sit flat. Finally, I always find myself wondering stupid things like where the Joker finds purple pinstripes on such short notice? Does he have a special store that he stops by? Do they let him keep some in Arkham?
That may just be the cough syrup talking….
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Comments
Hi! Just found this newsblog and your RIP review.
I’ve just read the deluxe edition (I’m from Brazil, so this means reading stuff a lot behind US and Europe countries). The story (plotine) is indeed good, and I think that Grant Morrison has talent, but RIP sounded to me, in some parts, like a disjointed story, specially when Morrison studies the inner ways of Bruce’s mind, that end up being as freakish as the one of his “soulmate” enemy, the JOker; maybe that can explain why the crazy clown understands Batman even better than Bruce’s closer friends… And the Joker, well, for someone so crazy, I must say, he seeems to see things and people through a lot better than sane people usually do, at least in DC storylines. Really, he’s quite ‘ahead of the curve’, knowing what’s about to happen and solving Batman’s enemies puzzles much better than the bat himself – it is quite clear it’s his insane card games that make Bruce see who’s the ‘read’ in the game, right?
Anyways, I guess its conclusion was a bit forced out, but in its own way, fitted with the real death of the bat, by darkseid’s hands.
A brilliant story with a not so brilliant ending, but anyway, a worth reading, I think.
Get better, Sadie. And thanks for the review.
I, for one, prefer to remember the Batman of my youth (with the exception of certain JLA stories). I like dark tales, but I have a special place in my heart for those superheroes that entertained me when I was a punk kid. Just don’t want to see them go to those *really* dark places. I think I’ll get my graphic angst elsewhere.