Return of Bruce Wayne #6 Inferred to Death. Wow this is long. You, uh, may want to skip this one. I think it's interesting though.

mondomagazine.net doesn't seem to want to work today, which is a shame, because I want to read everyones different comic reviews for this week. A particularly "important" book came out this week, which I got to review. I think it'll be okay to post up my review here:

Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne #6
Grant Morrison (w), Lee Garbett, Pere Perez (p), Alejandro Sicat, Walden Wong (i), Guy Major (c). DC Comics.
The first thing that jumps out about this comic is on the first page, with a series of images that are supposed to be defining elements of Batman’s story, and one of them is a bell. It took forever to see where that came from, but once you got it, it was thoroughly necessary, and pretty brilliant. Not only because it creates a trifecta of images (the gun, the pearls, and now the bell) but also because it ends up being a symbol of the readers’ connection to Batman. It’s the kind of fourth wall breaking that I especially expected from The Return of Bruce Wayne and, had it not been in the comic, I’d have been disappointed. As the panels started to disjoint, and my eyes widened and I was grasping at all the possible data so I could figure out what was happening, Morrison threw a life preserver in the form of a single dialogue box, potentially easy to miss in the frenzy, with the single word ‘apophenia’- the word that has very much been the mantra of Morrison’s Batman run, describing Batman’s process of making sense out of the insensible, and a reminder to the reader that these are supposed to be disjointed sequences. I’ll stop there, but this is essential reading.

And that's all that's getting posted on te site- which is for the best because I know it's unlikely that most anyone will sit through what else I could write. Which is what is written below here.

What's rough about these reviews, especially for the complicated Morrison issues of Batman, is that I have a lot to say and not a lot of room to say it in. I'd also like to include the rebuttal that will inevitably appear from a particular poster who refuses to enjoy, specifically, Morrison's Batman stuff- it's fair enough if he doesn't like it, but his argument is always the same, usually along the lines of "it doesn't make sense." You may notice that the majority of my review here is about how it is difficult to understand, and how that is supposed to be the case- I guess I did get my rebuttal in, but it isn't going to be enough.

Here are things I wanted to touch on (but haven't necessarily formed a cohesive analysis for- the review is done after all!)

The first page, ostensibly four panels, but really it's the page as an establishing shot of the setting, with three panels, one for each of the "representations of (Batman's origin story)'s defining elements"- the pearl necklace, the bell, and the gun. I mentioned this in the review, but something I didn't have space for was the dialogue in the third panel "as they reach the event horizon they will become frozen in time forever." -significant because the images are indeed frozen in time forever, as the static pictures in a comic book.

The second page has the title and credits, important to note the different artists Lee Garbett did pages 1-18, 20, 26-28, and 32, while Pere Perez did pages 19, 21-25, 29-31. The page has a Kirby-esque bent to it, with a particularly square jawed Bruce Wayne on the ground reaching forward and the surrounding walls designed with large circles connected by oddly patterned lines- it's a weird thing to describe, but look at any of Jack Kirby's Fourth World designed characters and you will know what I'm talking about. The Kirby influence appears throughout the book, but there are specific areas where it's more pronounced.

It's page seven where the significance of the bell is revealed, calling back to the Batman: Year One Frank Miller story where a bleeding to death Bruce Wayne hesitates before ringing the bell to call for Alfred, who can save his life, until that bat flies in and he decides to use its image for itself.

Page eight, Batman returns to the present wearing the archivist suit (all that you have to know about that suit is that it looks suitably Batman shaped) but is itself covered in hyper-adapter/hunter-killer/death-idea. That last name should make it especially clear that this is a place holder threat, that it may as well be anything you can think of- essentially Batman is covered in "antagonist", and when asked where he'd been he responds "Alone in the dark with the bats. I'm tying to save everything. Everybody." What becomes clear, particularly given the hindsight of, you know, finishing the book, is that this Batman/enemy is a kind of dark satire of what everyone has come to expect of the character, that he works alone and shuns his allies.

Page nine, following the line from the previous page "Alone in the dark with the bats. I'm trying to save everything. Everybody." The current Justice League have burst onto the scene, having torn the door or wall away... or rather having torn the very page away as Cyborg says "Cool. So we're all on the same page!" first being very obviously all-of-these-characters-are-on-the-same-page, as well as the more normal understanding of him saying "Yes, we all want to save everybody." but ALSO, along the lines of "you are the dark alone, we are a brightly coloured group, we all understand you as the enemy".

Through these last two pages we've had Red Robin on the scene, aka the third Robin, aka Tim Drake, aka the fanboy who figured out who Batman was and then became Robin, aka a representation of a genre savy comic book reader who just wants everything to work out in the end for his hero Batman. It's Red Robin who talks to Batman on page eight, asking about what he's covered in, informing him that the Justice League and a fight scene is just around the corner, and asking whether or not such a fight is necessary. (he also asks where Batman has been, essentially the simple question this whole series is supposed to answer to the reader. Not to suggest that it doesn't answer that, or that there was ever any real question, I only mention it because Robin asking it here strikes me as very in keeping with my reading of him as a comic reader.)

And then on the last panel of page nine Robin tells the Justice League to wait "five minutes before you... start breaking..." important because- a lot of modern comics will only take 5 minutes to read- especially if you avoid the fight scene, as Robin was attempting to do. And of course by only saying "start breaking" as opposed to saying "start breaking things" we're left to imagine him as saying "start breaking the fourth wall". In which case, he isn't asking the Justice League to stop, but the writer to stop. This comes up again later.

Page ten and eleven has Superman, Green Lantern, Rip Hunter, and Booster Gold (and Booster Gold's robot buddy Skeets) trapped in a force field at the end of time, but the way the panel is set up it looks more like they're trying to punch and heat vision there way out of their comic panel. The final panel has Skeets say "the bubble you're all trying to break is our only way out" which I'm going to go ahead and say he's referring to how it's only through the expression of each panel do these characters progress and have life. Also they were inside a rapidly evolving time machine, so there's that more literal thing he's talking about.

I'd also like to point out that they're worried about dying through the heat death of the universe at the end of time, and the best they've got is Green Lantern making boxing gloves and pointless drama and argument. Pretty much classic comic fare.

Page twelve is notable for saying "(Batman) was bonded with a biorganic archive machine. He could have known potentially... everything for a while." This happened in story, but it also describes the creative process behind creating the story- whatever the writer has plans for in the future of the series, not just the end of this single comic itself, the character has access to all that as the writer is constantly running through the different permutations of what the characters will and won't do.

It occurs to me that in saying Batman was bonded with a biorganic archive(the writer), Batman becomes an avatar of the writer- so when Booster Gold says "Batman thought of this. Wow." It's a little bit self aggrandizing on the authors part.

Page thirteen has a line I love- Superman saying "It's the heat death of the universe. Even body temperature's a super-feat."

Page sixteen, the Justice League has been defeated, so Robin gets to talk to Batman again- and everything he says is exactly what you would say if you had been reading the story all along and could actually talk to the character:

-"When Darkseid shot you back in time, I was the one who knew that corpse couldn't be you." (Pretty easy if you'd read the comic)

-I knew you'd leave messages(Return of Bruce Wayne series) if you could, and I knew you'd find a way back(again, Return of Bruce Wayne series).

-I'm Tim, your partner(reader)

Page seventeen continues this trend, but with two differences. After Batman calls him Tim, then Robin, Tim corrects him, saying he's Red Robin now, that Damian is Robin, and that Dick Grayson is Batman. "Everything changed." he says, somewhat akin to a disgruntled fan. One of his next lines is excellent because of how much it sounds like he's been reduced to a little kid- "(Listen!) you're Bruce Wayne and you wear a disguise to frighten bad people, okay?" It's like, "get it together, you're not supposed to be the bad guy here!" I enjoy it.

Page 19 is the first Pere Perez page, and has what I can only interpret as the voice of the archivist suit being worn before being completely taken over with "antagonist". It's dialogue balloons are partially obscured, it says "mother box" at one point, a Jack Kirby deus ex machina type device in his stories, but that was actually a red herring for me, when what I should have been focusing on was the words "mother" "nothing" "lied" "nothing" "father" "stay lonely" "stay dead forever" "father" "fear"- all pretty clearly negatives.

Combine that with the Kirby-dot covered bat cape and cowl on page 18 (maybe I SHOULD have mentioned that before, I was going to leave it out until I saw this connection) and the archivist seems to represent the portion of the fanbase that would prefer Batman be super dark, that hates Robins, etc. while the "Kirby-dot Bat-cape" is representational of the light hearted 50's and 60's era of Batman (an era that Morrison has heavily drawn on during his current run of stories, an era that he has gone a long way towards legitimizing).

This is then what the battle is between, dark Batman versus light Batman.

On page 20 now, with the archivist/dark Batman suit completely subsumed by "antagonist" the panels become disjointed (as mentioned in my review) as Robin seems to be able to see the panels comprising his body. The panels surrounding Batman now consist of a variety of images or words, not both (with the exception of the obscured panel that is clearly a "HA HA HA HA"- but as it's a done like a comic book sound effect, especially associated with the Joker, it therefore has a very strong immediate visual component to it, so I consider it 'image') ripe for analysis.

On my first reading, this is when I started to go "what what where what?" trying to see where there was order, or more appropriately, trying to figure out what the "proper" order was to everything. Tucked away in the bottom left corner of the page was the word apophenia, important enough that it got a mention in my review- because that was the cue to just relax buddy! It doesn't have to all come together perfectly, it can all be nonsense.

That said, having one of the images be Orion's belt, the constellation, and therefore indicative of Batman's utility belt, was cute.

Also, one of the more prominent images was the tarot Hanged Man. I looked it up, and well, I guess I won't post the whole article, but here's the link http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/learn/meanings/hangedman.shtml

and here's the pertinent excerpt:

"The Hanged Man... is a card about suspension, not life or death. This is a time of trial or meditation, selflessness, sacrifice, prophecy. The Querent(inquirer) stops resisting; instead he makes himself vulnerable, sacrifices his position or opposition, and in doing so, gains illumination. Answers that eluded him become clear, solutions to problems are found. He sees the world differently, has almost mystical insights. This card can also imply a time when everything just stands still, a time of rest and reflection before moving on. Things will continue on in a moment, but for now, they float, timeless."

Page 21, Tim refuses to leave, playing witness to the unfolding events (again, as is the reader)

Bruce is now smiling as he talks to the antagonist, telling it that the plan was to get it to destroy itself in battle "in an age of superheroes" where it's "just another monster for my friends to practice on." Green Lantern appears, and his last word on the page is "Challenge".

Super, friends, challenge- I know I'm putting way too much thought in this, but Morrison seems to now be alluding to the family friendly "Challenge of the Super-Friends".

Page 22 is notable for having Batman say "Have to get out of this MY WAY" which seems to be counter intuitive to the idea that this whole comic is about Batman needing others, followed by a panel that ONLY has Batman on it, tearing off the "antagonist" from himself. Fortunately, even when he's alone, there's still at least one person around- the reader. Still, this is the weakest panel in the book.

Page 25 is great because things are falling apart, time is breaking apart (ie the panels are breaking apart) and Batman is dying, and Robin is just yelling (at the writer, though of course it appears as though he's talking to the heroes around him) "This is NOT fair! You throw the Joker at him, fine! Killer Croc! Bane! Empty-handed! Don't make him fight gods on his own. He fought his way back and you have all these powers... do something..."

Page 26 and 27 is sort of a 2-page spread that is the height of Kirby design, it's pretty awesome panels within panels, and worlds between worlds, with scenes of Bruce Wayne fighting more terrestrial, sword wielding threats alone- another representation of what Batman is fighting against, the pull to the same kind of battles over and over again. Batman touches the face of the panel, silencing the phantoms around him (and potentially us) "Shh! What is this, like... glass? But it's warm... it's... thought... it's... alive."

Metron shows up, prompting Batman to tell him "The first truth of Batman." so as to "Take control of Darkseid's design." Darkseid, being the ultimate evil of the Kirby pantheon, as well as the guy that blasted Batman into the past in the first place, is pretty important, but stepping away from the character, he's also the literal "dark side" that Batman is facing off against- the idea that Batman is a dark, necessarily terrestral loner. The first truth must then be counter to that idea.

Page 28, we return to that scene in Batman: Year One, with the oddly important bell, and Bruce Wayne has just decided to become Batman- ringing the bell for Alfred to come save his life.

The first truth is that Batman has never been alone, he has always relied on people.

"Whoah, Isaac, maybe that's true after Batman: Year One- but isn't this kind of a stretch before that? Before that Alfred didn't always exist as a character!"

Even when that was the case, Batman has ALWAYS had at least ONE person with him- the reader, calling him into action and cheering him on.

Following on from that thought is Page 29- Superman and Wonder Woman are working on trying to revive Batman, and Robin, once more the voice of the reader, says "I know how to bring him back. Tell him Gotham's in trouble. And tell him he'll need this (Robin holds up the tattered left overs of the once Kirby-dot riddled Bat cape and cowl)."

Naturally Batman wakes up, and there you go. The return of Bruce Wayne.