The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 518: Batman, Inc. #5, May 2011

A few weeks back I reviewed MangaMan as part of my weekly graphic novels. There's a fairly vibrant conversation to be had about the cross-pollination of North American comics and manga. But every now and again a writer comes along who tries to perform a similar feat with comics of a different cultural background. Because they're written in English, and, quite often, by the same group of people, British comics can often seem very similar to their North American counterparts. But they're not. I haven't quite been able to put my finger on the exact differences, but they're there. Morrison has done this previously in the first volume of The Invisibles, and the Edginton/Adlard written The Establishment does something similar. With the introduction of The Hood, a British super secret agent, Batman, Inc. takes on something of a (not-so) United Kingdom cast.

There's a couple of really great moments in this comic. First, Morrison and company poke at the still-festering wound of the Falkland Islands war in the early 80s. There was certainly something very "last gasp-y" about this "war," the final throes of a prime minister who wanted to return to the British Empire. The more I think about it, the more Trump-y Thatcher's Britain seems. The other good bit is when Batwoman meets Bruce for the first time, having only had the pleasure of meeting Dick and Damian earlier. She treats him like a revered general, calls him "Sir." It's a nice touch. Kate Kane's cleaving to the military side of life is a fantastic part of her character. That she can believe in it so whole-heartedly and disagree with it fundamentally all at the same time speaks to the facility of the creators involved in her stories. I really ought to pick those up again...

Batwoman does offer us a great focal moment in this comic as well when she ponders aloud "How many twists and turns can one case take?" - Morrison is plying something common in his writing here by not giving us every single piece of story and evidence - we have to trust that there are detectives who are far more intelligent than we, or at least far better at what they do, and we're simply along for the exciting bits of the ride.

And what a ride. Onward!

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 516: Batman, Inc. #3, March 2011

Read this today.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 516: Batman, Inc. #2, February 2011

Aaannd we're back!

Today's comic finishes up the origin story of the Batman of Japan, and is really cool for its deployment of ideas that would be fairly commonplace in manga (if such a thing can ever be said) but seen through a North American superhero lens. Lord Death Man's car flying through the air, crashing through apartment buildings and trains, yet remaining not only intact but airborne as Batman tries to pummel his way in, was strange to see for a moment, until I realized that it's not just the setting of these comics that is different from the usual Bat-titles, but the cultural aesthetic. There's a remarkable tradition of graphic fictions around the world, each incorporating not only particular narrative qualities, but technical ones as well. If Incorporated really is aiming to be an international title on a narrative level, it must in many ways try to be one on a technical level as well. If we consider, as we should never stop considering, that the medium is the message as well, then this medium has to be reflecting, at least on some perfunctory level, the message of the culture it is attempting to trasmit/channel.

Also, just for the record, I kind of love Yanick Paquette's version of Catwoman.

Onward.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 514: Batman, Inc. #1, January 2011

Okay, apologies, but this will be a short one. I think my favourite thing in this comic is the utter and explicit depiction of Bruce and Selina Kyle having a "friends with benefits" relationship. It makes complete sense, and hopefully will keep Alfred off Bruce's back about having meaningful relationships (the conversation that starts Morrison's Bat-Opus).

Paquette's art is, of course, fucking beautiful, but I'm still feeling a bit of the loss of the Dick and Damian dialogue that made Batman and Robin under Morrison's pen such a joy. Bruce may be reinvigorated, but he's still a morose piece of work.

Anyway, that's it, I think. I'm a bit burned out today. I'll try to pull things together more tomorrow as we continue Bruce and Selina's Japanese adventure.

Onward!

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 499: Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne #3, August 2010

I think I must forget every time I read this series that there's a lovely little link to James Robinson's Starman in the character of Jack Valor, grandson of Jon Valor, the Black Pirate. It's little touches like this that make the reading of a narrative set in a shared universe that much more rich. The story isn't hurt if you don't make the connection, but it infinitely enhanced if you do. Considering my relative lack of knowledge about the Bat-universe, I'm sure I've missed many of these little nods over the course of this run. Maybe next time through, I'll have increased my knowledge base.

I can't help but think of Watchmen when I read this issue, a story about ghosts and pirates, with a little superheroics mixed in. I'm not sure if that's intentional, but Moore and Gibbons' use of pirates to replace superheroes in Watchmen forever colours any discussions we might have of the two in conjunction. That said, I don't see much of narrative or thematic connection. This really is, as the previous two issue have been, a story of Batman being Batman, just in a different time period. I mentioned briefly in an earlier post the idea that Bruce has gone back in time in order to seed history not only with clues as to his whereabouts, but also with his own mythology. Batman is often argued to be one of the least mythic characters in the DCU on account of his humanness - unlike those he allies himself with, he is not, technically, superhuman. This, however, should not dissuade us from thinking of him as a mythic character. Of course he's superhuman - what Batman does is impossible, just like Superman or Wonder Woman - it's just that in his case the impossible is parsed through the human. So to have him travel through time to seed his myth, to create the very environmental circumstances that, in some ways, lead to the creation of Batman, is very interesting. His myth becomes an ontological paradox. If he's inspired to become Batman by the very clues he left in the caves after he'd become Batman, where does the idea of Batman come from?

Well, from Bob Kane and Bill Finger, I suppose.

I'm not going to bother trying to unravel the paradox - that's not the point of a paradox. Like a metaphor, it's in the cognitive dissonance that meaning is revealed. And, oftentimes, that's a meaning that is impossible to put into words.

Onward.