About as thought out as this entire run
Batman 6-8-1
Haiku is only way to
review this issue
More like a series,
quickly read for fun.
Don’t expect much. (D’oh!)
Action packed story,
Don’t blink, as Batman switches,
He’s smarter than all.
He outwits bad guys,
Knows all the ins and outs planned,
Hunter now hunted.
League of Batmen aid.
Nightwing joins the fight at end.
Robin does own thing.
Joker places bet.
Ambulance on bridge does fall.
Damian still sucks.
Tony Daniel art
works fine and looks very nice.
Alex Ross cover.
Soap opera ending
Batman will return real soon
Want to make a bet?
What really happened?
Grant ties it up nicely here
Changed my mind, perhaps
DC has our cash
Three Stars out of Five at best
Do You Get It Now?
51/51
23 Comments
Batman Killed by Own Father in Controversial New Comic Book Storyline
Friday , November 28, 2008
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The world’s most famous comic book hero has breathed his last Bat breath.
Bruce Wayne — who by night is Batman — gets murdered by a man claiming to be the father he thought was dead.
In a highly controversial new comic book storyline, Bruce, who first appeared in 1939, is killed by Simon Hurt — the leader of the shady Black Glove organization.
Simon claims he is really Dr Thomas Wayne, saying he faked his own passing when Bruce was a child.
The superhero dies when he tries to stop his foe escaping by helicopter in the new comic Batman R.I.P.
“This is so much better than death. People have killed characters in the past but to me, that kind of ends the story!” said writer Grant Morrison.
“I like to keep the story twisting and turning,” he added. “So what I am doing is a fate worse than death. Things that no one would expect to happen to these guys at all.
“This is the end of Bruce Wayne as Batman.”
Batman will live on though, with another character filling his Batsuit.
Two likely contenders are Dick Grayson — the original Robin — or current Boy Wonder Tim Drake.
Slappy, re-read the issue, and you’ll see half of what is written in the “article” is fluff/hype to sell issues. There is absolutely no proof Bruce Wayne dies in that helicopter crash. There’s also no definitive proof – beyond what Morrison is claiming – that Thomas Wayne is indeed the Black Glove.
Didn’t pick up yet, just pulled this from the news. Will pick up Saturday.
The entire story arc revolved around the idea that Bruce Wayne is crazy. It’s clear that he doesn’t die, and Morrison claimed that this ended with a “fate worse than death.”
Am I the only one that thinks Bruce Wayne ends up in Arkham?
as a marvel zombie i am very intrigued by this R.I.P. thing
i’m reading New Krypton (the superman event) and its been really fun
hopefully this RIP thing is collected sooner rather than later
Aside from it being a comic, and that Grant said he wouldn’t actually die, I’d think the fact that you’re reading his final entry in his diary recounting the events would be one hell of a giveaway as to whether he survived. I’m going to call ‘meh’ on the whole thing. Loved the ‘always prepared’ Batman and the Joker bits though. Had no clue who Dr Hurt was really supposed to be (or at least who we’re probably meant to think he is) until reading some other reviews, so I don’t know if I was just slow or it didn’t come across very well in the book/s (and it’s not Thomas Wayne). Maybe I need to reread the whole run.
My only thought are “That’s it!?”
I’ve read Death of Superman, now that’s how to kill a legend! A t least that death “looked” definitive…
Epic FAIL. I wish I could expand upon that statement, and give well-thought and very convincing arguments as to WHY it let me down so badly…. i just can’t, however, get past the notion that even though this is the “end” we have no idea what really “happened”. Who’s Simon Hurt? What’s up with those ManBats flying around Jezzie’s jet? Does the Joker vanish “for good” along with Batman, since Mister J defines himself by the Bat? Is Alfred going to whip the snot out of Damien for being such an arrogant little wank? Etc. Oh, and let’s not forget the obvious one: What will Dick do with the cape & cowl?
THIS IS NOT AN EXIT. Exits do not leave you with more questions than you had starting out.
It is not a conclusion. It’s the start of the next “story arc” which will lead to more issues which will lead to a trade paperback, which will eventually lead to a collected hardcover edition of all the TPs, and man…. i’m starting to get REALLY cynical towards writing in comic books. It’s almost worse than sitcom format constrictions…. Anyway, I thought we’d be able to fairly evaluate the success/failure of this storyline based on the conclusion of it. Despite the fact that the cover SAID “conclusion” there weren’t no such beast contained therein. The End.
@wyntermute
-Notice Talias ninjamen injecting themselves with the Manbat formula, as she swears revenge.
-Joker will most likely (And conviniently) be incapacitated for a while…. because Damian rammed the ambulance he was driving.
-My money is on Dick being Bats 2.0
-Smart money says Bats is alive but gonna go crazy because he isnt sure who the hell Hurt really was…I know i am.
The questions left are who was Hurt? Where is Bats and in what condition? Who will don the cowl and did Jezzabel die quick in a crash or did Talia ride a Manbat up to her so she could torture her in a diving airplane? Am i missing anything?
Sure it was messy and sorta lacking..it really needed an epilogue if it was supposed to be a conclusion…but it wasnt horrible. I especially looooved the “if hes prepared …and he is you will get your asses kicked” speech delivered by the Joker.
Best review ever.
Steve Rogers wants to know
Is Bruce Wayne still dead?
My attempt at haiku aside, this finale in no way supports the assertion that this reads better as a single volume. Throwing in a bunch of characters that I remember from the last two dozen issues does not detract from this trainwreck of a story. Hell, when you think about it, this R.I.P. isn’t much better than the Rha’s Al Ghul storyline…
Average Review EVER.
If anyone’s been reading Rich Johston’s Tabloid column at http://www.ComicBookResources.com you’d know that Dan Dildo-di-oh has been wrecking Morrison’s stories behind the scenes in order to preserve his precious and vile status Quo. Not only has Dildo-di-oh mangled Morrison’s intended Batman storyline he’s also responsible for deleterious rewrites of Morrison’s Final Crisis. Dildo-di-oh is all about catering to the lowest common denominator even though he’s failed at that as well.
If you’re going to do a thorough review you should take these well known facts into account. [The only reason Grant Morrison is saying nominally “positive” things about Dildo-di-oh is because he doesn’t want his future Vertigo projects deep-sixed.]
Compare this Batman run to the superlative All Star Superman. Grant Morrison obviously was free to write the stories he wanted to in Superman because he wasn’t restricted by the suits at Warner Brothers who are sooo concerned how the comic book might effect their movies but it doesn’t occur to them that very few people actually read the Batman Comic Book Series.
But having said all that, Clearly, Grant Morrison’s best work is when he’s calling the shots: The Invisibles is his Magnum Opus, Animal Man, Doom Patrol, Flex Mentallo, We3, Seven Soldiers of Victory are probably my favorite comics EVER. Even better than Warren Ellis and if you know me that’s saying something.
Brother129- change “wants” to “would like” in the second line. 5-7-5 baby!
You know, I was expecting this whole arc to be DC’s answer to Bru’s Captain America. Obviously that hasn’t occured. Captain America went out in a nigh-perfectly played out issue; this “RIP” is just garbage. Who in the world honestly is stupid enough to believe that Bruce Wayne is dead? Come on.
The whole plot in general is typical of Morrison’s works-you never know what the hell is going on, and not in a good way.
Cory, you might want to learn a little about the publishing industry – editor has say over writer. And regardless of what Morrison is trying to do, or tried to do, he is still beholden to the editor, Dan DiDio or whoever edited this series. As the EIC, DiDio is answerable to the shareholders, readers, and the compay. So it is in his best interest to determine the direction of the DCU
When he comes back I’ll bet the answer to the were was he question will be amnesia, just to complete the soap opera “death”…
I’de love if he’d believed he really WAS Matches Malone for a while.
P.S.- How are they gonna covert the whole Bruce Wayne disappearing thing!?
I can’t express how disappointed I am in this arc. I kept hoping that it would come together in an impressive finale but the whole, “Batman prepares for everything” just doesn’t do it. I don’t like deux ex machinas and that is exactly what this ending provides us with… all in all, pure let down, all around.
Glitch: yes, I noticed those things. We were “promised” answers, and only got implied resolutions… I’m looking at this from a “ends the story, and tells us things” perspective. There wasn’t much “tell” going on, just a whole lotta “show”. And as far as an “end” to anything? This was not such.
I don’t get any sense of resolution from this so-called “conclusion” and that’s not just due to the episodic nature of the medium. You CAN end a story and leave plot-threads to work with… As much as his history has been a mess, look at Spidey (as well as the excellent and timely Cap America example). He’s had the death of Gwen Stacy, the death of himself, the death of his marriage, etc etc etc. None of these may have been executed very well, but they seemed to be “endings” to a chapter. This book leaves everybody, it seems, with the “Bruce will be back” taste in the mouth DESPITE what G-Mo says about “no more Bruce”.
It may or may not hold up in the context of everything else in the long run (and yes, I _do_ consider those sorts of things as I ramble), but as a “Conclusion” — like it said on the cover? No soup for you R.I.P.! This feels like Act III of a five act play, and a potentially BAD one at that. Sorry if I’m repeating myself at any point, but I just kinda wanted to emphasize that I _did_ “get it”. I just didn’t “like it”. :o)
P.S. Yeah, G-Mo seems to work best when he’s left alone to play in his own sandbox… Which is EXACTLY WHY this man shouldn’t get his hands on the “big” characters. In this age of I.P. and copyrights and money-making properties and capitalism capitalism fishcakes… Give him stuff that people hardly have an attachment to, and it’s fine to tinker with those to the degree that he likes to. When you mess with a “cultural symbol” like El BatHombre, you’d better do it well. If you want someone who’s good at “fringe storytelling” to stay good, you don’t give him the keys to a Big-Budget-Blockbuster and expect good things. You fund his art-house films even if they don’t make money. [/end rant and apologies in triplicate for length of post]
The poster above is the first person I’ve seen claiming that RIP was as rewritten as Final Crisis. While it might be logical, I haven’t read it anywhere in print as having happened. And besides, if Morrison had been forced to rewrite the end of RIP don’t you think he would have been made to make a little bit of sense?
@ Stephen; RE: Cory’s comments
It’s true that the EIC has the final say in everything.
But why change a story to fit your status quo if that change ruins the writers vision of the story, ultimately ruining the story?
Joe Q over at Marvel (I know, not a very good reference) has said that they wont worry about continuity; if the story is good, the story gets published.
But Mark Waid said it best on your very podcast: They cant do anything that wont piss off the readers anymore.
Maybe this story of Batman should have been told out of continuity.
IMHO, clinging to continuity can be a bad thing for comics because (like in this case) the story the writer comes up with is great but has to be changed to fit current goings on, and that change tweaks the writer’s vision just enough to screw things up.
Continuity is do overrated anyways :)
But I havent read ANY of R.I.P., so I may be speaking out of turn.
@Wynter
Cant argue with that.
But it wasn’t bad just lacking..and i just need people to distinguish those two.
A lacking title can be made good later..because for all intents and purposes this was never the end we still need the fight for the cowl..Whereas a bad story can have a better 2nd half but still be bad in itself.
Interesting comment by ‘andy’ about Arkham… notice on the last page where Thomas Wayne tells Bruce that “the sad thing is they’d probably throw someone like zorro in arkham.”… Haven’t considered that possibility till now… hmmmmmm….
It seems this story
Was, lacking resolutions,
A big pile of ‘Meh.’
Plot threads left untied,
Questions left unanswered, and
No conclusions here.
Morrison opted
For a cop out at the end.
Sadly, typical.
I’m glad Bruce lived, but
I think the ending was far
from satisfying.
Glitch: I can understand where you’re coming from, but I still have to sit on the side that thinks it was a “bad” resolution. I do agree that it can be “made better”, but Morrison was telling us that this was the most awesome thing EV4R, etc etc etc. Anyway, I spend no more of anybody’s bandwidth on me. It’s nice that responsible adults like us can agree to disagree, and do it maturely! :)
Good haiku, jacin.. both in content and form.