Batman without Grant Morrison

For some people, I guess, this isn’t a problem. They think of Grant Morrison, and they think of that crazy writer who can’t even begin to be coherent to them, the one with wild ideas (and maybe predilections) who is best avoided or ignored all together. He’s the comics master who has never quite managed to join the ranks of Frank Miller and Alan Moore, from whose generation he comes. Where Miller and Moore have numerous iconic projects to their credit that fans are able to point to, Morrison alone among the three is still incredibly active…but without the same credit line. You can say ALL STAR SUPERMAN, maybe, or THE INVISIBLES, or even point to ANIMAL MAN, DOOM PATROL, ARKHAM ASYLUM, JLA. All these are famous Grant Morrison projects, and there are others worth mentioning, too, along the same lines, but they don’t really help or hinder my point, and that would be, Morrison tends to be a little harder to grasp than Miller or Moore. He hasn’t found the project that beyond a doubt can be called a classic, someone everyone can at least claim to love. He’s the consummate and ultimate comic book writer, will perhaps one day become the patron saint or even god of that forsaken clan. He’s perhaps too good.

His most concerted effort for the last half decade has been with Batman, and perhaps, here, he might find that missing piece of the puzzle. God knows he’s been working at it. Ed Brubaker is the only other creator who has been making the same kind of effort, or at least comparable. Brubaker, of course, has been doing it with Captain America, a project I followed for a while, but Brubaker is no Grant Morrison. He has the focus, but he doesn’t, ultimately, have the inspiration. His one idea was the return of Bucky Barnes, and now that Bucky is Captain America, it’ll be anyone’s guess if the writer who ultimately succeeds him will respect anything that he’s done, sort of like Ron Marz and Kyle Rayner. I would actually argue that the longer Brubaker stays on CAPTAIN AMERICA, the more his weakens his legacy. He needs someone else to prove writing Bucky is possible. The problem with writing Captain America at all has always been that it’s difficult to prove that Cap is actually an interesting character. Interesting idea, sure, and many writers have proven that, but as a character, there just isn’t that much to work with, and Brubaker has proven that much repeatedly.

No, what Grant Morrison has done with Batman is different. The way others wrote Batman, at their best, was always in some separate, sometimes alternate, continuity. Miller achieved it with YEAR ONE and THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS, of course. Loeb did THE LONG HALLOWEEN. Moore did KILLING JOKE. Morrison himself did ARKHAM ASYLUM. But now he’s done a whole series of stories, his own “Knightfall” saga in “R.I.P.” being the most obvious of them, but he’s also taken the idea of Bruce Wayne having a son and actually made it work. Damian is like Bucky Barnes done in 3D. Lots of other writers have thrown themselves over wet sidewalks just for a chance to write Damian. Dan Jurgens wrote Damian, and Dan is the version of Alex Ross that can actually write. Morrison has advanced and articulated the continuing legacy of Batman so that he no longer seems like a static concept but something that actually seems worthy of the hype.

Recently, of course, he finished a time-spanning saga that saw Bruce Wayne come back, but in such a way that didn’t totally through away everything that had been done in his absence, expanding it and evolving Bruce one step further, and that story is only just beginning. That’s what Grant Morrison has done with Batman. He’s completely owned the concept.

The funny thing is, unlike Brubaker, he hasn’t monopolized it. This isn’t to say that other writers haven’t been allowed to write a little Captain America here and there. There was an excellent CAPTAIN AMERICA: PATRIOT from the underappreciated Karl Kesel recently, for instance, but it was a throwback tale that didn’t even involve Bucky, much less Steve Rogers (so yes, there is now a rich legacy that could really be exploited by a Mark Waid, given the right and ongoing opportunity). Geoff Johns sort of goofed in an unintentional Brubaker fashion when he was writing ACTION COMICS. He created such an expansive version of Superman that no one DC was at the time employing to write the same character and/or family could compete with him (except, of course Morrison, on ALL STAR SUPERMAN). Kurt Busiek suffered in comparison. Greg Rucka and James Robinson stumbled all over themselves trying to finish what he started. So it’s a good thing, in some sense, that Brubaker has maintained his monopoly. It preserves the mystique, in one sense, and prevents any immediate need for comparisons. But I hate to be the poor sap who follows him, unless they are equally inspired by a singular and extended vision.

It just isn’t that way with Morrison, even though it seems like, more than any other example, it really should be. Okay, it was in the beginning. I like Paul Dini, love him for helping give us the animated Batman, but his DETECTIVE COMICS could never truly compete. It wasn’t until after “R.I.P,” when Morrison opened the table to other writers, that it truly became evident, what he was doing. He literally made it possible to consider Batman, one of the most established characters in modern fiction, a tabula rasa.

Instead of detailing how exactly that evolved, let’s skip to the present. Now, as we all know, Dick Grayson took on the cowl (for the second time, after his prior attempt in “The Prodigal,” a storyline that followed the whole “Knightfall” saga), and as was nothing like Bucky becoming Captain America and staying so even after Steve Rogers returned (any scholarly account of the parallels between Brubaker and Morrison’s writing would not favor Brubaker), kept it even after Bruce Wayne returned. So currently, you can read any number of Batman books and they might star either Dick or Bruce under the cowl. The book actually called BATMAN is currently being managed by Tony Daniel, a creator who first came to prominence as an artist working alongside Morrison , but who has since taken on the dual assignment and begun writing as well. He’s one of a handful of creators capable of doing so (Phil Hester and Stuart Immonen are two others, but they rarely do both at the same time), and he’s kept the book a bestseller since beginning the effort, to some initial surprise. But the real surprise is that he’s been doing so by continuing all sorts of legacies, none of them directly related to his work with Morrison, of all things. In fact, he owes more to Jeph Loeb (continuing the Falcone saga begun in THE LONG HALLOWEEN) and drawing artistic inspiration from Frank Miller and Jim Lee. The results are nothing short of astonishing, because Daniel would otherwise be a complete unknown, and to be doing this kind of work is unbelievable, and he hasn’t, beyond sales, gotten near enough credit for it.

It’s the only way he falls under the shadow of Grant Morrison, because otherwise, Tony Daniel has proven beyond a doubt that he’s as much a part of Batman’s continuing legend as Morrison, as crazy as that might sound. But you should be reading his BATMAN. Your future self will thank you.

Dini, by the way, is also still working on Batman, this time in BATMAN: STREETS OF GOTHAM, where he’s been continuing the legacy of Hush, along with Dustin Nguyen. It’s more work that deserves more recognition.

There’s also Scott Snyder, who burst onto the scene with the high profile AMERICAN VAMPIRE, but who recently inherited DETECTIVE COMICS. His first few issues prove that Dick Grayson is not as difficult a character to write as some writers have sometimes suggested. As a fan of Grayson and the Robin legacy in general, I couldn’t be more happy.

That’s some evidence, anyway, that there really is life for Batman outside of Grant Morrison. But yeah, Grant Morrison rocks.

Here’re some quick takes on comics from the period that inspired this week’s column:

BATMAN #705 (DC)
The Tony Daniel effort that introduced the Riddler’s daughter, Enigma, but also features other Daniel originals Peacock and I-Ching. Peacock’s characterization of Dick Grayson’s Batman is priceless.

AVENGERS: THE CHILDREN’S CRUSADE #4 (of 9) (Marvel)
I don’t really get why fans no longer seem to care about the Young Avengers, especially now that Allan Heinberg and Jimmy Cheung have finally returned to them. Heinberg gets to write the sequel to HOUSE OF M, and nobody cares? That’s what all that undiluted Bendis will get you.

WHAT IF? #200 (Marvel)
I’m a DC partisan if there ever was one. It’s not as if I haven’t given Marvel a lot of chances over the past five years, but the House of Ideas keeps finding ways to bungle them. Ironically, I have never really gotten into this particular idea, so I was happy to at least help celebrate this milestone. Poor Sentry finally gets to prove that he was at least a powerful character, if not a compelling one.

RED: EYES ONLY (WildStorm)
Cully Hamner throws his hat into the writer/artist arena with this prequel to the project he originally began with Warren Ellis, a little treat for those like me who loved the movie.

GREEN ARROW #7 (DC)
Okay, I may actually believe the hype surrounding J.T. Krul now. This comic was pretty awesome, and is exactly the kind of story Oliver Queen should be starring in. If Green Arrow is to walk around with a conceit like that, he might as well stumble into whole scenarios that can really exploit it, and having a whole forest and even one or two new supporting characters (who aren’t just sidekicks and/or love interests) is pretty awesome.

DETECTIVE COMICS #871-872 (DC)
Did a little creative catching up here, the first two Scott Snyder issues, where he syncs up with Dick Grayson and finds a unique way to explore the legacy of Batman’s war on crime to boot. Also features a Commissioner Gordon backup.

SUPERMAN/BATMAN #79 (DC)
Chris Roberson conjures some good juju by revisiting DC One Million, a Grant Morrison concept that I particularly enjoyed.

AZRAEL #15-16 (DC)
The “Killer of Saints” arc made this book immortal last year. Here, David Hine rounds out some of that story in anticipation of the upcoming cancellation. It’s too bad, but at least now there’s a useful legacy for the Azrael concept.

WEIRD WORLDS #1 (DC)
DC has been trying to do books with its space heroes for a while now, perhaps because Marvel has developed something of a cult around theirs. Well, this book actually has Lobo, so this time it will probably be worth sticking around for. Also, Kevin Maguire gives us Tanga, who looks like another troublemaker worth a thing or two.

STEEL #1 (DC)
I don’t know what DC has planned otherwise with “Reign of Doomsday,” but this appears to be the death of John Henry Irons, and I for one mourn the guy. This is a pretty worthy tribute to some of his forgotten history, making me wish all the more that he would’ve been a little more loved by fans, so there would be more stories to treasure.

STARMAN/CONGORILLA #1 (DC)
James Robinson, I don’t really know what he’s been doing in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA, because I haven’t been reading. CRY FOR JUSTICE was a classic (until it turned into a vehicle to help relaunch Green Arrow, which in itself turned out to be a pretty good thing), and with the right characters, Robinson is golden (ah, no pun intended). Word is he’s working on another project that might be more up his alley. This one was like a cross between James Robinson “good” and James Robinson “meh.”

OZMA OF OZ #3 (of 8) (Marvel)
Love, love, love Shanower and Young on these adaptations.

IRREDEEMABLE # 21 (Boom!)
I like reading this book, but I can’t help but wonder if it wouldn’t be a little better a little more compressed. Still, consistently pretty interesting.

BRIGHTEST DAY # 17 (DC)
Somebody called this, and other weekly(ish) books that DC has done ADD comics. I would counter that anyone who can’t follow them suffers from their own attention disorders.