Part of me would love to do a collection of the comments made here and at other blogs regarding our departure. But that would be way too self-serving. I have been blown away by the response to the news and it’s definitely a testament to the hard work the rest of the Blog@ gang does. While a part of the original Great Curve gang, my part here at Blog@ has only been this column. It has been a fun effort for me to compile, given that the comic book industry and fanbase have a wealth of quotable people. I only hope folks enjoyed reading the quotes as much as I relished finding them.
This week saw the conclusion to Batman R.I.P., and with that an abundance of quotable material. Please don’t read this week’s quotes if you’re trying to avoid spoilers.
“Is this issue a satisfying conclusion to ‘Batman R.I.P.’? Yes, as the events of recent issues are explained and put into context more explicitly. But yet we’re left with plenty of unanswered questions about the larger picture, and the final few sequences seem too abrupt, as if we’re flashing toward too many previews of things to come even as some of the dangling threads have been left unresolved.”
Timothy Callahan
“To be fair, it’s never clear whether the Glove was speaking literally or figuratively when he pulls his ‘I am your father’ card on ol’ Bats (and yes, he literally says ‘I’m your father, Bruce’. What, doesn’t DC have an accidental cliché police patrolling their editorial department?), but in any case, it’s a little too much to buy.”
Pablo Defendini
” . . . but more than the lack of Batman ‘dying’ in any sense of the word (Because, really, like anyone really expected that seriously), it’s the lack of resolution to anything and everything that Batman RIP was about that leaves the story as such a disappointment, and the reader with such a bitter taste in their mouth.”
Graeme McMillan
“Honestly, I think we may all be figments of Grant Morrison right now . . .”
Rich
“I feel more than a little betrayed and ripped off.”
Dustin Christian
“My real question is why does there have to be another Batman when Bruce Wayne goes out of commission?”
James McClain
“I can’t say RIP the event has been all that it was hyped to be, but this comic was everything I wanted and so much more. Batman says to Nightwing: ‘You never let me down did you?’ How symbolic of this comic, eh? It’s definitely worth your time to read this comic it won’t let you down.”
Brandon Borzelli
“Was R.I.P. the most shocking Batman revelation in 70 years as DC and Grant Morrison has said? Hell no!”
Jett
“But like most of Morrison’s work I had to give a second and third read through since I probably missed something during the first read. So instead I decided to read this issue when I would have my mind most clear and read it after I finished filling my stomach with all my mom’s Thanksgiving food. Now with my stomach filled I can say that while I still have some of the same complaints that I had in my first read through I found that I actual found this issue to be a compelling read and conclusion to such a big storyline.”
Kevin
“Or maybe, like in the old third grade joke, they’re just treating their readers like idiots, promising they’ll tell us how they’ll keep us in suspense…in the next issue, of course.”
Geoff Hoppe
“The signs pointed there, but, really, Batman versus the Devil? That’s the best Morrison’s got?”
Chad Nevett
“I don’t know if I understood it, but I liked it. I just think people who don’t regularly read comics who are picking up this issue because it made the news are going to be very disappointed and confused.”
Rachelle Goguen
“A helicopter explosion/crash? Really? It’s a rather cliched ending, especially given what led up to it.”
Don MacPherson
“Well, that was a big piece of shit.”
Tim O’Neil
“Maybe Morrison just has a really weird idea of what constitutes the biggest Batman shocker in 70 years.
Or maybe he was forced to rewrite the comic.”
David Uzumeri
November 29th, 2008 at 1:30 pm
“Maybe he was forced to rewrite the comic?”
I doubt anyone would say that if this had been the ending they were hoping for. Maybe the ending just wasn’t that good.
November 29th, 2008 at 1:42 pm
I really don’t understand why so many people had such a hard time with this book. The story is about a group of a group of bored rich people called the Black Glove that go around, messing with people *because they can*. Dr. Hurt isn’t the actual devil. He’s just evil. Jesus, people, it’s called “symbolism”.
November 29th, 2008 at 2:03 pm
I think because it’s a Grant Morrison everybody expects every little thing to have some grand meaning.
It reads much better if you read it Ryan Higgins suggests. All the grand symbolism and hidden meaning as all that stuff falls into place after that.
November 29th, 2008 at 4:09 pm
Morrison can do awesome endings. Superman: Red Son (he gave Millar the ending), WE3, Animal Man, Doom Patrol, his various JLA arcs, All Star Superman, these are all very good endings that went beyond a cliched “explosion with no body found”
That’s why people are so disappointed and feel ripped off by RIP. You give one of the most iconic characters to one of the better writers of comics today, yet he provides an ending that is so stereotypical of a bad comic that it makes the whole medium look bad.
November 29th, 2008 at 5:02 pm
I really dug the thomas wayne reveal but the helicopter crash was a lil anticlimactic.
November 29th, 2008 at 6:01 pm
“Well, that was a big piece of shit.”
SImply stated by Tim O’Neill, but ultimately the best comment I’ve read about this train wreck. Thank goodness I decided to not waste my money on this arc and simply browsed it at my LCS, which has a couple of chairs near the front and allows people to sit and read.
I don’t buy the “it’s symbolism” talk… Morrison’s entire Bat-run has led up to this and THIS is all it ends up being? A group of bored rich people doing all this simply because they can? It hardly explains all the nonsense that went on. Well, here’s a bored reader who’s loved Batman most of his life and doesn’t understand what the point of any this was. I enjoyed the Heart of Hush story over in ‘Tec (Dini >Morrison), but I’m now done with Batman until DC gets Bruce back in the cowl, where he belongs.
It wasn’t that long ago that DC had a year without Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman. Now they’re basically taking the characters away AGAIN? I’d ask why I should possibly be interested in any of this, but I already know that I’m not. The Superman books are headed towards a similar mess, so now I’m down to just Green Lantern/GL Corps in my DC reading. I guess I’m glad to be saving the money, but it’s amazing how many DC books I’ve dropped in just the past year. Because I can.
Wait, I’m still getting All Star Batman & Robin too (when it actually comes out). Yeah, it’s a pretty stupid book. But I think, in its own silly, absurd way, it’s a lot more entertaining than Morrison’s Bat-run has been.
November 29th, 2008 at 9:16 pm
To be fair, I sort of flitted away from the rewrite option since I said that, and I’ve heard on halfway decent authority that this was Morrison’s original ending, so. I’m just hoping the next two issues provide something more.
I agree that the issue is totally straightforward, and I probably would have loved it without a doubt if I hadn’t been sitting there at NYCC while Morrison goaded me on to figure out the “obvious” and “shocking” answer to his wicked detective story. Completely divorced from that context, this book kicked ass.
November 30th, 2008 at 12:42 am
I was disappointed at the lack of a clear reveal as to the identity of “The Black Glove” but the rest of the issue, as well as most of Morrison’s run was a great, entertaining read.
November 30th, 2008 at 12:35 pm
Huh. Until I hit the intrawebs last night, I had no idea that RIP was being followed so closely by so many. I guess I should have known; a “Batman dies” story is always going to draw a crowd. As for the reactions themselves, well… I can’t say I’m surprised by them. I’d been selling this run short myself, all two-plus years of it, right up til my second read of the finale. Then all the pieces fell into place and I felt like an idiot for not seeing what was going on long before now. Some argue that having to read something twice means the writing is poor. I’d argue, instead, that if I’d paid proper attention the first time through (which I didn’t), I’d have picked up on it. If I have any criticism on that front, it might be that the story took so long to unfold in real time that too many important details slipped my mind. This isn’t a criticism of the book’s lateness, mind you. It’s just a danger of reading and writing stories that are serialized over the course of many months.
I don’t get the criticisms that the villain’s identity wasn’t revealed. The Black Glove was the Devil. Or, rather, it was Bruce Wayne’s Personal Satan, the evil within him that was scared out by the Batman. The Bat-Tulpa, if you will. I also don’t think that’s a lame reveal at all. It’s an idea that comes directly from the kind of Asian mysticism that Denny O’Neil added to the character in the 70s, and speaks to what the Batman was intended to do from the outset: terrify evil.
November 30th, 2008 at 1:46 pm
I don’t think the hype did much to service the story when all’s said and done. I had to give it a second and third pass too but I always do with Morrison and the way he lays down subtext. Hope he stays on the book for another year or two.
November 30th, 2008 at 2:45 pm
Some might be reading this incorrectly. I see a lot of comments made by people who are disappointed because this was intended to be an epic climax to Morrison’s run on BATMAN, but I’ve also seen interviews with the man himself at SDCC where he claims to be writing the series indefinitely. Which is it?
If Morrison has bigger plans, then you have to take this with a grain of salt. I look back at some of the smaller stories in his X-MEN run and feel underwhelmed but if you look at how they all weave together into this giant tapestry… the story of Sublime and its interaction with mutant evolution… it’s really, really brilliant.
Similarly, I think this might just be the end of an act for Batman. This being billed as the Batman Event to End All Batman Events was a possible misstep on the part of DC Comics marketing.
On the other hand, I heard there is tumult in the DC editorial offices and that Grant will be departing BATMAN sooner than expected.
What is the official story? Is it at all possible that this isn’t the final statement on the character by Morrison, just the conclusion of a specific storyarc?
November 30th, 2008 at 7:46 pm
Never ever fall for the hype!The story and the writer have been hyped up so much that the story was bound to fail.
The funny thing is Batman never need any of this.He’s been the 1# Superhero for a while,he’s been kicking ass for years now,lame characters and comics like Captian America are the ones who needed the shot in the arm that Burbaker gave it.
November 30th, 2008 at 10:35 pm
Just reread Morrison’s whole Batman run today (except for the resurrection of ras arc). Before I did I read some of the older Batman stuff GM based his story on; ‘Robin Dies at Dawn’ and ‘The Club of Heroes’ and the stuff from 52 about the Thogal.
Without all the interruptions and scheduling snaffs or ridiculous hype; this is a really great Batman mystery.
December 5th, 2008 at 1:32 am
A week later, I daresay that Grant Morrison and Dan Didio have pulled off a masterful feat: we all bit on #681, but there was so much more story left in #682.
Everything makes sense, much is revealed, and many of the fears voiced on messageboards since “Batman RIP” was announced are proved to be unfounded.
It looks like Grant Morrison learned a little bit from the death of Superman over a decade ago. Today, I’m left with a completely different perspective on the whole storyline and a greater appreciation for Morrison’s reverence for the entire Batman mythos, similar to his work with All-Star Superman.
In a completely metatextual way, of course.
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