Random Thoughts On... Grant Morrison's Run on Batman and Robin

Next up for this phase of Batman talk, I thought I’d return to ‘ole Grant Morrison. This time, we’re not dealing with the dankness of Grant Morrison… oh wait, Professor Pyg shows up here. Never mind! Anyway, I’ve talked about Morrison’s Batman run from the 2000’s. I got through Black Glove, R.I.P., and Battle For the Cowl. Yeah, that last one wasn’t Morrison, but you needed it to get to the next phase: the Dick Grayson Era or “Batman Reborn”.

                                               

“Batman Reborn” started off the small era where Dick Grayson donned the cape and cowl, Damian Wayne became Robin, and Tim Drake became a restaurant. I’m only talking about the Morrison themed stuff here, so you’ll have to wait on my thoughts about Judd Winnick’s time on Batman. Morrison left the Batman book and got his own series, Batman and Robin. While he worked on that book for 16 issues, he also returned to Batman to write some issues. Then, he also had a mini-series called The Return of Bruce Wayne. Guess what happens in that mini. There’s also Batman: The Return, a one-shot that basically started off Batman Incorporated, to consider, but I’ll save that for another time.

As you can guess, Morrison was the writer for all of what I mentioned. This was more or less meant to wrap up what Morrison started with his run back in 2006. The art duties varied by story arc and even by issue. You had artists like Frank Quitely, Andy Kubert, Ryan Sook, David Finch, and Chris Sprouse doing work. There’s literally too many to list off especially when you get to the inks. I’m splitting this up by arc, so this won’t get too confusing. This is Grant Morrison, remember?

• Batman Reborn (Batman and Robin #1-3) – This features the first adventures of Dick Grayson and Damian Wayne taking on the iconic roles. They got to prove themselves to Gotham that they’re up to the task as a new, creepy villain called Professor Pyg enters the scene.
• Revenge of the Red Hood (Batman and Robin #4-6) – Jason Todd, the formerly dead Robin,  resurfaces as the Red Hood with a new costume and sidekick. They take to the streets in delivering their own brand of justice, but the Dynamic Duo provide a threat. Also, a masked British novelist named Oberon Sexton makes his first appearance here.
• Blackest Night (Batman and Robin #7-9) Dick decides to use a Lazarus Pit to bring back Bruce Wayne from the dead… yeah, you read that right. They’ve had the body since the end of Final Crisis. Of course, things go awry as they find out that this resurrected Batman isn’t what he seems to be. Also, you’ll get a dose of British slang.
• Batman vs. Robin (Batman and Robin #10-12) – Dick, Damian, and Alfred start to piece together where Bruce Wayne actually is by scouring hidden parts of Wayne Manor. They got problems, though. Talia al Ghul decides to make a major play against Dick by controlling Damian. A certain “Terminator” is also involved with that. Then, Oberon Sexton ends up being chased by members of the Black Glove. We also get a revelation on his true identity… it’s not Bruce Wayne, y’all.
• Time and the Batman (Batman #700) – This story revolves around a time travelling doctor as he interacts with past, present, and future versions of Batman. You just get a chance to see some good artists Batman. It’s a weird one, guys.
• R.I.P.: The Missing Chapter (Batman 701-702) – This goes into more detail on what Bruce Wayne did between the end of Batman R.I.P. and Final Crisis. It’s stuff that we’ve mostly seen, but with a little more detail. It ties right into The Return of Bruce Wayne.
• The Return of Bruce Wayne – Bruce Wayne goes all “Quantum Leap” on us as he’s sent through time because of Darkseid’s Omega Sanction. As he comes closer to the present, he ends up interacting with his own ancestors and known DC figures like Vandal Savage. Also, the present day heroes are looking for him throughout time and space because his return could endanger the present. A lot of the lore Morrison set up gets explained here especially when it concerns Doctor Simon Hurt, a villainous mastermind who claims to be Thomas Wayne.
• Batman and Robin Must Die! (Batman and Robin #13-16) – While the heroes of the present are dealing with Bruce Wayne’s return, Dick and Damian have to deal with a lot of Gotham craziness. Simon Hurt (claiming to be Thomas Wayne) returns and causes trouble with his different groups. Professor Pyg is unleashed from Gotham. Then, the Joker has to let his pale butt in and screw around with our new heroes. It all culminates in two Batmen, one Robin, and a lot of bruised bodies… yeah, I said two Batmen since the OG returns!

OPINION

Since we’re in this quarantine phase, I wanted to re-read this part of the run. So, what do I think of this phase? While it has some dips here and there, it was a pretty fun read overall.

Yeah, "The Brat" is is full force, but somehow... he gets better.

Story

While Morrison gets to go all… “Morrison” on the world of Batman, the main thing that makes this run work is his treatment of the new Batman and Robin. While this wasn’t Dick Grayson’s first run time under the cowl, it definitely felt like it. Instead of taking his place for a little while, Dick was possibly taking Bruce’s place indefinitely. We get to see him deal with the responsibility, and he steps up to the challenge. Seeing him interact with folk like Commissioner Gordon and other Gotham regulars was cool. The biggest surprise was Damian Wayne. While he still had his “Brat” tendencies, this was where he started to grow on me a bit. He does start to earn the ‘Robin’ title even with his grandfather’s tendencies. Damian’s relationship between Dick and Alfred was also really good.

Of course, I got to mention the other Batman here, Bruce Wayne. We essentially get the whole story behind his “death” and the little bits we missed. While it’s not perfect, The Return of Bruce Wayne was good. It was fun seeing Bruce become a caveman, a pilgrim, a detective, and a cowboy. While Morrison tried to have some fun with this concept, it also was a way for him to play around with the elements he introduced in his run.  We got explanations on Bruce’s family as well as the “main” villain of this run, Dr. Simon Hurt, aka “the fake Thomas Wayne.” That’s not much of a spoiler, guys. Morrison basically took the Silver Age and brought it to the modern age with all this here.

Yeah, we re-live Bruce "busting a cap" into Darkseid, one of his best moments... yeah, I said it!

As for the villains, they’re fine for the most part. We only get a couple of new villains here like Professor Pyg, Pink Flamingo, and the 99 Fiends. They’re both pretty weird overall. I guess Morrison wanted to pull go “Dark Silver-Age” on this mofo.  Pyg seems to have some longevity since he’s still around. One villain that was actually kinda interesting was the “Batman” that Dick, Damian, Batwoman, and the others had to face. The mystery behind that body was actually cool since it was a big holdover from Final Crisis.

Pyg is one sick dude. 

Then, we get to the more traditional villains and they are also a bit mixed. We get the Joker back in another form, and that’s always cool. Morrison used the Joker in some interesting ways during his run, and this was no exception. What would the Joker do if Batman was “dead?” This kind of answers it. As for Simon Hurt, he’s alright. I actually wasn’t that much a fan of the character beforehand especially when the rumors of him being Thomas Wayne was being thrown around. That’s one horse Morrison shouldn’t have messed with, but at least he brought that and the Wayne scandal to a close. We also got some appearances from other DC villains like Deathstroke and Vandal Savage (he shows up a few times in the Bruce Wayne mini).

Simon Hurt... eh. 

My negatives for this story-wise are few but noticeable. I wasn’t the biggest fan of the Jason Todd arc. The story wasn’t great, and I’ll touch on that weird art below. Heck, I wasn’t a fan of him going all kill-crazy on the Bat-family in Battle for the Cowl either. At least this tried to put a stamp on that weird era for the character. While I liked the RIP issues from Batman, I do wish there was more there story-wise. Basically, all we get is Bruce heading back to the Batcave after RIP, and then we get his part of Final Crisis. What we did get wasn’t bad, though.

Then, some of the stories in the ROBW mini were okay. I thought the Wild West story, the 1930’s story, and the pirate story were pretty good. As for the rest, they were okay. Even the present day story where the heroes had to stop a weird version of Batman from destroying everything was kinda pat. At least the actual ending where Bruce meets up with Dick and Damian was pretty good. Also, Morrison just had get weird on us here too. It’s everywhere in the main series as well as the mini. I can handle it sometimes, but other times, it can be too much of a chore.  Other than those things and pretty small nitpicks, this phase of Morrison’s run was good story-wise.

While the ending of ROBW was fine, seeing Tim Drake save the day was cool.

Artwork

The artwork for these bunch of books was pretty good. While most of it was done by some big majors like Frank Quitely, Andy Kurbert,  Yannick Paquette, and Tony S. Daniel, there were some artists I hadn’t seen before. I wasn’t exposed to folk like Frazer Irving, Andy Clarke, Cameron Stewart, and Chris Burham.

Irving's stuff was weird, but it worked.

The artwork in Batman and Robin was pretty good. My favorite artists from there were Quitely, Clarke, and Irving. Quitely brought his A-game to his arc and to all of the covers he did for the series. Clarke’s stuff and Irving’s stuff were pretty good. Irving’s stuff was different but pretty interesting. The only artwork I wasn’t too big a fan of here was Chris Burhnam’s and Phillip Tan’s. Tan’s artwork was one reason I wasn’t a big fan of the Red Hood arc. It just seemed messy in places, though that could have been the inks and colors. Burnham’s was okay, but not great. At least he drew Comm. Gordon in a dress.  Other than those two artists, the artwork on the main book was good.

Ah yes... the Chruch of Batman. 

The Batman issues (#700-702) were good for the most part. #700 had Quitely, Daniel, Kubert, David Finch,  and Scott Kollins on the artwork. #701-702 had Daniel doing the artwork in a most peculiar way. I really enjoyed the artwork from Kubert, Quitely, Finch, and Kollins on #700. Daniel’s artwork on #700 was pretty good. I don’t know what to say about his stuff on  #701 and #702. It was just weird-looking. He inked himself here and had a different colorist, so that could be why it looked a little off. It wasn’t bad, but some of the faces could look weird. Superman’s face especially looked weird like he took too many steroids or something. Other than that, it was good here.

Finally, the artwork on The Return of Bruce Wayne is… (drum rolls)… good! We had Chris Sprouse, Frazer Irving,  Yanick Paquette, Georges Jeanty, Ryan Sook, and Lee Gabret on artwork. Andy Kubert handled the main covers to the mini while the other artists handled the variants. I felt they all did a good job with what they were given. Morrison wanted to capture their given eras and they did it well. My favorites from the mini were Sook, Paquette, and Irving. Gabret’s artwork for the final issue was fine, but not on the level as the rest of the artists. Other than him, this was some good stuff to see.

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In the end, this was a nice part of Morrison’s run. Even though he didn’t have Bruce under the cape and cowl, that doesn’t mean it’s a bad thing. He showed that Dick could be a suitable replacement and that Damian could actually be likable. I don’t know how the final part of Morrison’s run will go, but something tells me I may need to pull out some tissues. Anyway, that’s all I got for this one. Next time, I think it’s time to return to something considered to be one of the best trilogies: the Dark Knight Trilogy. Until then, Peace, God Bless, and be careful out there.