One of my favorite fiction series is the Alvin Maker books by occasional comic writer Orson Scott Card. In this alternative American history almost everyone has a (usually small) bit of magic power known as a knack...
(I'm getting to Batman, promise)
...anyway..At one point a character becomes angry at young Alvin and complains that "Alvin got no respect for any knack but his own."
That's how I feel about Grant Morrison after reading the Magical Mystery Tour that is Batman #678. To rephrase, Grant Morrison has no respect for anyone's stories but his own (oh and Jack Kirby's of course). Didn't Batman spend a WHOLE YEAR getting in touch with his inner self? Finding the iron core and forging even more of it into steel?
Forget about that. In this story he's on DRUGS!
No wait. He's the BAD GUY!
Nope, I mean, he's having a VISION QUEST!
Wait! I mean he's insane!
I think I'm done with this. I've decided that I prefer Dini's Detective. Dini creates plots that help explore and expand the Batman's character. Morrison just seems to like to blow shit up. What happens if I do this? Or this? Or this? I will plant the seed in the reflection of a mirror 20 issues back and then voila! Batman is dead!
Or something.
Forget about everything else. Everybody else. No respect for any knack but his own.
Pretty Art though.
Story: 1 - Poor
Art: 4 - Very Good
For me this is one of the best Batman stories I have read in quite sometime. This current Morrison run is quite the opposite of just "blowing **** up." It is complex, shocking and at it's core a very good mystery. A mystery that requires more than one reading and obviously can spark a multitude of opinions and speculation. The fact that Morrison is using the wild Batman lore of the 50's only helps demonstrate the current drug induced state the Batman finds himself in. I mean who hasn't thought the writers of that era must have been on drugs when writing some of those stories. This is no paint by the numbers here. Pardon me but what Dini writes has been done many times before. It's good but will be forgetable. Somehow I think this Morrison story will be mentioned with Year One, the Killing Joke etc. -groundbreaking Batman stuff of the Modern period.
Posted by Indycwf on 07/04/08 at 07:00 AM