Batman R.I.P
Written by Linkara Monday, 23 February 2009 02:57
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02.22.2009 - 22:32 | Y Ruler of Time
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02.22.2009 - 23:36 | Epileptic Gamer
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02.23.2009 - 00:07 | SuperfantastischYou could have added the "I was shot point blank and all I got was this lousy forehead scar" joker picture but oh well, it still does pretty much sum it all up.
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02.23.2009 - 01:49 | NinjaGodzillaHILARIOUS.
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02.23.2009 - 02:18 | DeSandman
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02.23.2009 - 02:59 | Crow-453
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i will never understand why people think that r.i.p. was so complicated to understand. in all seriousness, everything morrison builded up in his run before, that means the club of heroes, batman's son and jezebel jet ,came to a very logical conclusion in this book. besides that, i think that r.i.p. was a very interesting view into batmans psychology, dealing with his fear that he looses his mind. that being said, i think that the major aspect of this comic, that batman is too good of a hero so that he eliminated every mobster in gotham with only the psychopaths left who are inspired by his doings, was incredibly well done. you see a batman who wants to live a normal life, but the wounds of his doings are just too big and bloody to left behind. rest in peace is one of the few comicbooks these days that show as ultimately what batman in the end is: a human, behind the mask, but still, a hero. i really really liked batman r.i.p.
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02.23.2009 - 06:14 | Linkara
Eh, batpawn the problem with a lot of Morrison's writing is that it feels like you turned over two pages at once. Huge leaps in situations are given and dialogue feels forced sometimes. Why did we need an entire issue with Bruce on heroine? How did the Black Glove find out who he is? Who is the Black Glove (yes, I understand the concept of five people in it, but it's not clear from the writing)? Why did Talia show up when she did? If Bruce knew Jezebel Jet was evil all along, why play into the Black Glove's game, or for that matter, why did he try so hard to save her in the penultimate issue? Does Joker know Bruce is Batman now? Does he even care? Is Dr. Hurt the devil? Is he some washed up crazy actor? What the hell is up with the red and black?
Of course the story was good, the ideas were good, but the execution felt lacking in places. The final issue was awesome because it DID reinforce who Batman was - the man who was always prepared, always having the upper hand, and etc.
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02.24.2009 - 04:38 | futureruleri actually heard debates on rather or not joker knew Bruce was batman or not so i was wandering what you guys thought some say if he knows then why dosent he go after Alfred or some one he cared about but others say that he knows but dont care cause hes after batman not really who he is behind the mask or something like that as far as the comic book goes i haven't read it though it does sound weird this is just a response to linkara asking if joke knows hes Bruce
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02.23.2009 - 07:13 | Bonkers
@Linkara
Well, at lst someone who seems to share my opinion with Morrison.
I already saw some of your videos and I think you are very good.
But I don`t want to give standing ovations, but I would know one thing from you:
Honestly, what ist your opinion about the Final Crisis?
Because I read it (or at last what we could get in germany from it) and I just want to ask one thing:
Why? I know, great crisis are always the deal with DC and Marvel, but what was the point of this thing? Darkside becomes again a menace, and? For something they build up during the last two till thee years, I thought this was just... well, just another "doomsday event" and that is it.
Nothing against Superman and Co, but honestly, so often as there was a word war three in this world, DC should just someday someone let yell "what the fuck is the point of being saved, in three months I can be dead by the next event!"
Okay, enough about this "clichee" but Final Crisis... I have to admit I like the art. Also the idea of "the end of Darkside" isn`t so bad, but... well, he will surely come back I mean, since when does DC kill of a character forever?
But what I found really idiotic was the entire "cast" Grant Morrison picked together for this. I mean, he is somehow a great writer and I really liked his old work with the JLA, Superman All Star and other of his work, but Final Crisis...
it may be for him his "opus Dei" but I really don`t get it. In my opinion it is just another invasion of some bigger menace, there are a lot of characters which were developped in the "Crack"Era of the silver age.
And let`s not forget, he "killed" Batman.
Well.. or as I call it "developped the Beginning of some Deus ex machina story for future artists".
I mean, if yomeone kills Batman, I think it should happen with a betetr style and for example in a showdown with the Joker or something. But this... shoot down by the Omega beam...
I wouldn`t call Final crisis the stupidest idea of DC ever (that was Countdown) but I think it wasn`t good compared to other events, especially for the story, the "death" of Batman and as I see it, the "return" of Barry Allen.
I mean come on, how often want they bring back another superhero? I just accepted the death of Bart Allen and now I hear he is coming back?
Okay, well...
as another question:
I heard you also would read mangas, at last you said you would review them if you would find some bad written examples. Could I suggest for you an example?
Ever heard of the early examples of the Yugioh Manga?
I mean, you can say about the anime/manga whatever you want(I also like some of the things to read there) but the surealism of this manga is just "stupid" if you think about it. People try to solve all their problems by...
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02.23.2009 - 07:54 | batpawni agree with you on many points, believe me. i don't think it's all morrison's fault, i see the problem more on the side of dc comics which may give morrison all the free hand he needs for the his story, but at the same time limits his capabilities, only lets him do his stuff by the book, etc. still, that doesn't excuse that there are always some flaws with morrisons storylines. the biggest problem clearly is that he is a very inteligent writer with great ideas and huge knowledge of psychology and science. but his stories always lack on the emotional parts, making it very hard to read and follow.
still, and i have to say that (for the case you haven't already realised), i'm a grant morrison fanboy. i'm following his works since the 90's. i think that he really is one of the few writers right now who totally get the batman persona. he knows that batman is a dark with psychological problems driven vigilante, almost an anti-hero. but in the end, he knows that he is a hero. someone who stands up for the good of a dirty corrupted city. driven by revenge, yes, but he would never go too far and take somebodies lives. maybe that is really the only thing that differs him from his villians, but in the end, it differs him from them. that's why i love morrison so much. he plays with the psychology of his characters, almost plays mean games with them and pushes them to the edge, but he never lets them fall, because they are heroes, because in the end, they are better than their villians.
rest in peace got some flaws, i give you that, but some things you criticize are also easily to answer if you re-read morrisons run and do some research. the blackglove knows bruces identity from doing and psychological experiment with him. you know, the storypoint where batman locked himself up in a box for 10 days, playing with his own mind and madness? in this process, the black glove got a view into batmans memories, finding out what traumatical element made him to be what he is and finding out who he is. so that they can use these informations in the end to creat the "three ghosts of the batman".
what the black glove is? it's pretty clearly pointed out that the black glove are just som civiliced people from all over the world who just dreamed to be bad guys. rich folks who just want to get a kick out of their lives. in "the club of heroes" arc, morrison pointed that out. the black glove is the evil counterpart of the "club of heroes". as for talia - she is just a jealous little cow who thinks that it would impress bats if she comes to help him.
well, there is one way to know somebody, and one way to KNOW somebody. batman is a romantic kind of guy, all his life, he saw so much pain and suffer, but in jezebel, he saw some kind of light. someone who would understand him, loving him although she sees the monster he is. that's even what batman thought in r.i.p. she's someone too good to be true, an...
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Bat-Mite? Red and yellow Batman? Whatever happened to just telling a good story and dropping all the nonsense? The worst part about it is we all know he's not dead so where's the suspense?
I think I'll just go back to my old Batman trades.
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02.23.2009 - 08:47 | HAL 9000
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02.23.2009 - 10:09 | Linkara
Batpawn, I appreciate the complexity and depth present in Morrison's work. I appreciate the layers and the subtleties and the moments of awesome (sure, I make fun of it here, but the last issue of Batman RIP is pure, unadulterated win and I own the Club of Heroes arc), but the fact that I HAVE to do research, that I HAVE to have followed along since the start of his run on the book takes away the enjoyment for me.
Do I expect everything to be simply laid out for me? No, but as Stan Lee said, every issue is someone's first. At least Marvel has the decency to put it in a summary of events leading up to an issue as the first page of the book, but for RIP there was none. I shouldn't have to go online and do research or ask you about plot details in order to enjoy a book. Researching characters and storylines should be done because you're curious about the longer history of something, like I was after I read Titans/JLA: Technis Imperative.
Here, let me give another example: Blue Beetle. During John Rogers' run on the book, he had simple done-in-one issues that someone could pick up and not need to know extensive backstory for the character. However, when he ended his run, he tied all of those done-in-ones together, explaining their significance, and paid off the reader who had invested in them gloriously. It made having read those books a richer and more enjoyable experience, especially for someone like me who DID pick up the book for one of those done-in-ones and enjoyed it enough to keep getting it.
I'm not trying to attack Morrison. Of course he's an awesome writer, with fantastic ideas and lots to say about metafiction and superheroes (All-Star Superman is one of the best Superman stories of all time), but sometimes the man needs to take a step back and remember that not everyone reads a book the same way he does.
As for Final Crisis: great ideas, needed more than seven issues to explore them. And Batman isn't dead. The last page of #7 showed that. Batman is alive and living in a cave in another dimension. And I'll never get tired of saying that.
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02.23.2009 - 11:03 | FatAnon
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02.23.2009 - 11:15 | batpawn@Linkara
I can really understand what you mean, reading a morrison book can be a real pain, because the man either thinks his readers have enough knowledge about the things he writes about, or that the fans WANT to do research. so, believe me, i know exactly what you mean.
i can only talk for myself. it's very hard for me to concentrate on a comicbook throughout, it's hard for me to read through a comicbook because i'm always thinking about certain things that are going on in the comic, what the writer thought about the story. so i pretty much do research to almost every comic i read, and thats why i like grant morrison so much. he gives the reader so much symbolism and depth, i think that is the thing that is so much attracting to morrison - that you have to do research to fully enjoy his thoughts. that might sound akward... well... maybe it is, but - at least for me - it's so much fun, and so interesting. it's like morrison tries to teach his readers abput certain cultures and psychology.
i think that's what morrison's fans want, and what batman fans who never had anything to do with morrison doesn't like - reading between the lines, panel by panel. because if you doesn't do it, you are pretty much lost. it's funny, because he CAN write a comicbook without overcomplicating but still building up symbolism. all-star superman is a perfect example for it, there are so many layers, so much symbolism inside of it, but you are still able to read it without losing your mind. even though, do i really want morrison to do the same thing with batman? i'm not so sure, after all, his batman run is filled with pschological madness, it's about batman grinding down the darkest alleys inside of his own mind. taking away this "search and find" aspect of the books would also pretty much take away a bit of it's appeal. i'm very sure that morrison can write a batman story that's easy to get into, but that wouldn't be his point.
i also think that the idea of marvel to explain what happened so far in it's comicbooks is very nice and would be absolutely welcome in comicbooks by dc, but allthough it would be much easier for some people to get into morrison's run, it would also kind of eliminate a certain appeal of morrison's run, so fans wouldn't easily jump back to older issues to sort out what's going on, re-read and finally understand it. at least i think so.
but it's true, as good as i think r.i.p. is, it's really not easy to enjoy. in fact, it's very uncomfortable, but as funny as it sounds, that was exactly what i expected from it and i'm therefor very happy that it ended up like this.
I haven't read final crisis, since it isn't out here in austria yet (so is r.i.p., i bought the english trade. i don't think that final crisis is already out as a trade, is it?), but i think that this whole "batman dies" thing is something dc comics messed up pretty badly. dc thought it wou...
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02.23.2009 - 11:44 | DeathByMetal08
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02.23.2009 - 13:22 | advancedrebelThe build-upwas pretty cool. Batman seemingly defeated and forced to adopt his "weapon of last resort" the emergency help persona of Zur-en-Arh was a pretty wicked idea. The showdown between Batman & the Joker was intense and pretty creepy (the Joker slices his tongue giving him a snake like appearance) But like Linkara said. it feels like panels are missing. it's disjointed and hard to follow. But the thing that gets on my nerves is the ending. Boom an helicopter explodes. Batman's dead. But no wait. You have to buy Final Crisis #6 to find out the final fate of the dark knight?! I'm not going to talk about that train-wreck. But Batman being killed by a madman is acceptable. Being murdered by a god with something called the omega sanction (something I had to look at wikipedia to know what it was) is a WTF moment in comics. Morrison writes for Morrison. it,s far from his classic JLA run.
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02.23.2009 - 15:04 | DanManX
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02.23.2009 - 19:04 | ThatGuyInTheHeadband
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[quote=ThatGuyInTheHeadba nd]...
So, random stuff happens and at the end Batman says "You're wrong! Batman and Robin will never die!"?[/quote]
Actually it's the very first page of the comic. XD But since it's the thematic point of the book, I decided to include it at the end.
[quote]Is there a chance we'll be seeing this comic again in Atop the Fourth Wall?[/quote]
Nah, it's a confusing comic, but not that bad.
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02.24.2009 - 06:38 | ShawnomaticThis song is now in my head, and I doubt it will ever leave.
When you put it to that, you made it make more sense than it had to...
Anyway, nice video!
:D