Reading Through 2021 87: Batman by Grant Morrison Omnibus Volume Three, by Grant Morrison and Chris Burnham

Batman by Grant Morrison Omnibus Volume Three, by Grant Morrison and Chris Burnham

Collecting work from the 2010s, published 2020

Omnibus One was fun. Omnibus Two was better. Now for the story of Batman Inc.

It's very good cover, but the set of omnibuses aren't unified as a set outside of the logo

Right up front, this is not as good as Omnibus Two. It has the problems of high expectations working against it. I really enjoyed Two and was hoping for it to keep up the compelling story. And when this was coming out, I remember people praising Batman Inc. as exciting... 

The Japanese here is a fun Easter egg. Mike Marts, Nathan Fairborn, and Morrison himself get shout outs in the signs

Omnibus Two left off with Bruce Wayne announcing Batman Inc, and this book begins with Batman rounding up his international team of Batmen. He starts in Japan, then moves on to Argentina, and South Dakota on a recruiting drive. This part of the book was the most fun for me. The book has two arcs, one for each of the two Batman Inc. series collected. The first arc is building up the organization, and the second is letting all the dominoes Morrison had lined up fall down.

Yeah, I want to see a Native American Batman riding a bison

These recruitment adventures are the most exciting and novel. Seeing how Batman concepts can filter through other cultures is really cool, and the stories are solid. Burnham draws a lot of this, with Yanick Paquette also doing some art chores. Nathan Fairbairn does consistently great colours. You get the feeling that this is an AAA package. No filler. If the story lags, the art and novelty carries it along.

A stunning double-page title card

The story is not flawless. There is too much reliance on double-crosses and triple-crosses and quadruple-crosses. At certain points, I didn't know who was a good guy if they weren't in the immediate Bat-family. If you don't know who you're rooting for, it's hard to be invested in their objectives or care about the dangers. So I ended up reading for the moments rather than for the story. And there are many exciting moments.

Some work better than others. At the end of one issue, they promise a great cyber-Batman story on the Internet 3.0, and I was excited to turn the page.

I'm ready for this!

The next issue was all done with computer rendering, and was unreadable in many places, with muddy images.

Batwoman is outlined in yellow, Bruce in red

It was a single issue that, while it mostly didn't work, it showed Morrison having fun and playing with the book. Internet Batman rendered in 3-D; he had to take it to the next level to make it worth the concept.

There are some side stories with other characters which were mostly enjoyable. And for the most part, I liked the art across this whole book. Most of the art was clean and dynamic, not overly reliant on heavily shadowed capes. If I had a complaint with the second volume, it was that a lot of the art was over-rendered with shadow, which is not an issue with this one.

Cameron Stewart continues to have some of the cleanest forms in mainstream comics

The second half of the book is decent, but not as exciting. Batman Inc. is a great concept, Batmen around the world, but it adds up to about six other Batmen. It ends up feeling much smaller than "worldwide." The villain of the book, Leviathan, is a massive secret organization, but Batman Inc. never seems to be similarly omnipresent.

I love the counter-culture concepts Morrison sneaks in: be afraid of your kids

And the Internet made much so much of Batcow at the time. I wasn't reading it, I wasn't looking for Bat-news, but I heard of Batcow a lot. I don't know what I expected a cow to do, but it mainly just stood there, and was a mascot for Damian. It was cute, but pretty throwaway.

Another writer will take a stab at Bat-Cow in a decade or two

The Leviathan storyline features Talia Al Ghul, a suiting character to tie a run featuring Damian Wayne, her and Batman's son, together. She gets some good character definition, as someone who has capabilities but has been held back by her overprotective father. Her emotional connection to Batman and Damian gives complexity to her dynamic with them.

The Bat-clone Talia grows is a sad, damaged thing

But at the end of the day, I barely remember how the book ends. The book tries to have ramifications as Bruce Wayne becomes a wanted man, and his empire collapses, but it all seems to be back to normal by the end. At the end of the book, a few people are dead, but they've all come back since because it's a comic, so there isn't much point in caring. The book is about the ride, not the impact on continuity.

Some fun storytelling in a Japanese capsule hotel. The top line shows a nice time lapse from evening to night, and the middle row shows a great use of panels to break up a single space

I was surprised how much of the art Chris Burnham did. Most modern mainstream books, artists do three issues and swap out, and Burnham did half this book. His art style wasn't entirely consistent. Sometimes there would be a real janky image and I wouldn't think it was his art. And he would sometimes draw massive eyeballs on characters, which just looked weird. But a majority of his work was clever and clear, with a great balance of cartoonishness and realism. He's not Frank Quitely, but he's a real good substitute. His art can carry a story.

I got a laugh out of seeing Spring-Heeled Jack

I loved the way Morrison mined old, often embarrassing, Batman continuity for his international Batmen. Some adjustments were made, but he used the foundation Silver Age writers had left for him. The detail throughout was impressive, but not surprising from a hyper-literate writer like Morrison.

The first appearance of Spring-Heeled Jack in the 1840s

All in all, I liked this book and will probably revisit it in a decade, though after I re-read the second, more exciting and coherent Omnibus. There was unreached potential in the concept of Batman Inc. It's fun, but the execution felt smaller than the concept. Another writer could take the ball and run with it, but with the current state of dour that guides DC, it's unlikely that a concept as wacky as Batman Inc. will be explored again anytime soon.

 

Omnibus Three was not something that gave me deep thought, or something that I even found particularly easy to follow to as I was reading. It was very much blockbuster entertainment that bounced from crazy set piece to crazy set piece. It had something that I don't associate with Batman these days: fun.