Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Grant Morrison may be the most polarizing of comic book writers out there today. Depending on who you ask, he's can be either revered as the savior of X-Men comics (with his early 00s New X-Men run), or demonized as the destroyer of quality X-Men comics. His stories are always deep, complex, psychedelic, and sometimes too smart for their own good. And that was before Grant admittedly totally changed the way he writes his comics' narratives. While Final Crisis is probably the prime example of this new, uber-compressed narrative style, Batman: RIP certainly exhibits it in many, many ways. The premise of RIP is, rather than the death of Batman, it is the reconstruction and redefinition of the character. It takes Batman on a journey through his mind and his history and really attempts to show what Batman is, and why Batman is who he is. Does it succeed? Well, Morrison certainly does do a good job of making the reader feel as though they're apart of this long, disoriented journey with Batman. You go through the pieces never quite sure exactly what's going on, and we certainly don't have a clue what's going to happen next. And for you guys and girls who like that type of writing? Batman: RIP might be considered a great piece of Batman fiction. It really does embody exactly what Morrison strives for in his work. It's every other Grant Morrison story you've read times a thousand. But personally, I don't that type of writing. I can't handle some mystery in a story, I can handle some confusing and psychedelic happenings, but I found that Morrison went way, way beyond simply telling an "out there" story about Batman, and quickly deteriorated into the realm of nonsensical. As RIP progresses Morrison presents ideas and depictions of Batman and his universe that aren't just innovative, but are nearly offensive to anyone who holds Batman's long-lasting status-quo close to their hearts. I won't reveal anything specific, but, when you get to certain scenes featuring Batman in a purple and red costume calling himself Zur-En-Arrh, the Joker with a split, reptilian tongue, and Alfred harboring a secret that could forever tarnish his immaculate reputation as the world's best butler and surrogate father, you might begin to realize Morrison is doing things with Batman that maybe shouldn't be done at all. Outside of the inherent flaws of the premise of the story, definitely my largest complaint is the narrative itself. It's just plain confusing, I think. As I said a few paragraphs above, Morrison paints an extremely disorienting, scattered picture throughout the entire piece. Nothing is explained, nothing is presented, everything is just thrown at you, and you're expected to figure it out yourself, or wait for it to be explained several issues later. I'm not a fan of this style of writing at all. I feel that this style of writing almost guarantees a poor experience the first time reading it, and while subsequent readings improve the story dramatically, it still exposes a very real flaw; why read a story that you have to read multiple times to understand? Doesn't a good story make sense the first time? I understand what Morrison was going for, he tried to weave an intricate and original story that would reveal secrets and nuances every time you read it. But in doing so, I'll argue, Morrison became to heavy handed, and ended up destroying any chance of the book succeeding as a story that needs only to be read once. The one unarguably great thing about RIP is the art. Tony Daniel is quickly proving to be one of the best fits for Batman art-wise since maybe Jim Aparo. No disrespect to Andy Kubert, Jim Lee, or the dozens of truly fantastic artists that have drawn Batman in the past few years, but Tony Daniel's interpretation of Batman is one that immediately rings true as a classic, timeless vision of the character. Not just a shiny, polished artist's interpretation of Batman, but Batman in his very essence. For me, it visually tied into everyone from Neal Adams, to Aparo, to current day Batman artists. I, for one, hope Daniel remains on Batman for a good long while, and continues to carve out his place in Batman comic history. Overall, Batman RIP will probably become known as one of those Batman stories everyone has to read once. Either to see just how great an experiment it was, or just how big of an utter failure it proved to be. Much like Frank Miller's All Star Batman & Robin, I think it's a polarizing vision of the character that you either instinctively "get", or automatically dislike. Whichever it may prove to be for you, it will certainly prove to be a Batman story you won't soon forget.