Unbeatable Comics: Batman Incorporated #2

writer: Grant Morrison
artist: Chris Burnham

The thrust of Batman Incorporated in both of its incarnations has been that Grant Morrison would finally conclude his run on the Dark Knight, and reveal who Leviathan was.  In the first volume, there was a lot of exploring the reach of Leviathan.  In the second volume, we learn who Leviathan is in the first issue, and so in this effort, Morrison gets to explain why exactly Talia Head, the daughter of Ra's al Ghul and mother of Damian, the current Robin and son of Batman, took on this identity and decided once and for all to deal with the problem of her ex-lover.

I've heard the issue described as an unnecessary wikipedia retread, basically a lot of information fans already knew.  If that's what it actually was, I doubt Morrison would have written it.  Instead, it's a character study, something Morrison doesn't ordinarily do, at least not outright, and so it's interesting to read strictly in that regard.  Talia's mother has usually been glossed over, because her father is one of Batman's most infamous foes, and how can you compete with that?  Here we get an idea of the impact of being separated from her mother has on Talia, and being considered a pawn by her father, never being good enough, the product of the parenting skills that say simply getting everything you ask for is good enough.  She's perhaps turned into a version of Batman whose parents weren't killed when he was a child, only one of them, and the surviving one shaped her into a weapon he had no idea what to do with.  Most writers have neglected Talia as much as her father.  Until the romantic liaison with Batman and the conception of Damian, she was superfluous, and continued to be until Morrison brought Damian back.

Now we see that Talia may truly be the biggest threat Batman has ever faced, a product of a continuing legacy and a writer who knows what to do with it, and that's why an issue like this is necessary, to explain all of this, and to move past it, so Morrison can continue with the story he's really working on, much as he has dipped back into the R.I.P./Final Crisis timeline a few times to fill in some gaps.  This is exactly like that, except in the middle of the story he's telling.  It's a crucial issue to Morrison's entire tenure with Batman.