Grant Morrison’s greatest trick was convincing the world that he was a mainstream superhero writer. After all, you don’t get much more mainstream than writing for the X-Men, the Justice League or Superman nowadays. Grant Morrison has become a mainstream star like Geoff Johns and Brian Michael Bendis, servicing the needs of their corporate overlords and characters and yet there’s something different about Morrison’s work which rarely plays nicely with mainstream expectations. Just take a look the recent release Batman R.I.P.. Morrison’s Batman is less about Morrison trying to adapt to working on Batman and more him bending the Batman mythos to play nicely with his larger concerns and themes as seen as recently as Seven Soldiers and as long ago as his Doom Patrol.
The first splash page of Batman R.I.P. defiantly announces “Batman and Robin will never die.” For a story who’s title implies the death of Batman, that’s on odd statement, seemingly pronouncing their immortality while following it up with a story about Batman’s death. Of course, in comics death can mean so many different things or nothing at all. This story about the “death” of Batman picks up from Morrison’s previous stories as the Black Glove, an unseen opponent manipulating Batman through Batman’s own past, finally makes his shocking move. But who is the Doctor Hurt? Is he a psychotic actor who once tried to put together his own “Club of Heroes” made up of Batman imitators? Is he Thomas Wayne, still alive and looking to corrupt his own heroic son? Is he the devil, the ultimate evil that’s been whispered about throughout Morrison’s run? Doctor Hurt’s identity is not as important as what he is– a twisted version of Batman himself. Look at the costume that Hurt wears. It’s a masquerade party version of Batman that Thomas Wayne wore when Bruce was a child that later (supposedly) helped inspire Bruce to become Batman. Without knowing the real identity of the villain, Batman R.I.P. is Batman vs. Batman to the death.
Morrison’s Batman has been about exploring what it is to be Batman through imitators and villains. Batman and Son opened with one of those imitators shooting the Joker point blank in the head and another imitator pumped up on drugs. Morrison’s second Batman book The Black Glove featured a club of Batman-like heroes and a third imitator who induced a heart attack on Batman. Those imitation Batmen were police officers, tricked and drugged into thinking they could take over for Batman but you can see what they were reduced to as they were addicts and killers. Even Batman becomes a crazy version of himself as he takes on the role of the Batman of Zur-En-Arrh. Bruce Wayne becomes Batman in turn who becomes someone else but, in all of this, he still remains the one and true Batman whether he’s wearing gray and black or whether he’s wearing the red and purple tatters of costume. Driven to the point of insanity by the BDoctor Hurt, Batman breaks but remains a hero. That’s who Batman is.
That is not to say that no one but Bruce Wayne can live up to the ideals of Batman. Throughout this story, Morrison has shown others who have followed Batman’s path without losing their own moralities. Robin, Nightwing, The Knight and Squire and the other members of the Club of Heroes do not get lost in the idea of Batman like the Black Glove and the imitation Batmen do. These Batman-inspired characters remain true to the spirit and soul of Batman while carving out their own identities and paths. This seems to imply there’s a point of madness to being Batman that somehow Bruce Wayne escapes from while others fall into it.
And what’s a Batman story without the Joker who has a small but pivotal role in Batman R.I.P.. If Batman is one extreme of what some men try to be, the Joker is the other. As lesser men and women try to be Batman, they become more like the Joker, psychotic and disconnected from reality. Doctor Hurt and his accomplices are trying to be dark-side versions of Batman but, of course, the true opposite of a man dressed in black and gray has to be a man with pale white skin who has green hair and purple pants. The opposite of a hero with the highest morals would have to be a villain who lacks any sense of right or wrong. While Hurt may claim to be the devil, the true devil in story has to be the Joker.
Batman R.I.P. is the culmination of a story that Morrison started in 52 and has continued to develop through Batman and Son and The Black Glove. Perhaps the biggest failure of R.I.P. is that it almost completely fails as a stand-alone story as Batman has to face a threat who has operated in the background since Morrison’s first issue and steadily come more to the forefront. Even if Morrison’s second volume was called The Black Glove, that ogranization barely made an appearance until R.I.P. where even the true identity of its ringleader is a riddle. Since his first issue, Morrison has been layering this story together. Each element and plot twist he’s introduced has been a building block for Batman R.I.P. and this story assumes you’ve been following Morrison since the beginning and paying attention to what he’s been doing. Characters are brought in with no explanation of who or what they are. There’s no explanations of the past plot points that make this story understandable. Batman R.I.P. works only when taken in the context of the rest of Grant Morrison’s Batman stories.
Morrison’s Batman is a different Batman than we’re used to. He’s not the brooding movie Batman or the jovial The Brave and the Bold on Cartoon Network Batman or even the straight-forward super-hero Batman that should exist in the comics. Morrison makes him an existential hero, fighting for all of his soul while losing his own sanity. He’s the character everyone thinks they want to be but only Bruce Wayne is capable of being and that may be Batman’s biggest tragedy– there’s no one else who can be him.
Batman R.I.P.
Written by: Grant Morrison
Penciled by: Tony S. Daniel and Lee Garbett
Inked by: Sandu Florea and Trevor Scott
Colored by: Guy Major and Alex Sinclair
Lettered by: Randy Gentile, Jared K. Fletcher and Nick J. Napolitano
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