Reading Comics #78 "Batman R.I.P."

Grant Morrison has been writing regular installments in his Dark Knight saga since 2006.  In recent years he's successfully transformed a nebulous "son of Batman" character into the next Robin and perhaps the ultimate culmination of the Ra's al Ghul quest made famous by Christopher Nolan's films, which may be his most lasting contribution to the franchise.

Yet what most fans will probably say is Morrison's biggest story is his version of the traditional "death and return arc," last attempted with the "Knightfall" saga that was featured in Nolan's conclusion, The Dark Knight Rises.  This story involves Final Crisis, in which Batman is zapped by the omega beams of Darkseid, but is depicted in its full arc in "Batman R.I.P.," which now reads like Morrison's version of Nolan's vision.

The collection of the story includes Batman #s 676-683 as well as key material from DC Universe #0, all released the same year as Nolan's The Dark Knight, which depicted a psychological duel between Batman and the Joker, memorably portrayed by the late Heath Ledger.  Morrison had earlier made his initial mark on the franchise with Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth, which was released at the same time as Tim Burton's Batman.

"Batman R.I.P." is the conclusion of Morrison's Black Glove arc, featuring a conspiracy that attempted to reconcile the most bizarre elements of the franchise, mostly 1950s tales that heavily employed sci-fi elements into the Dark Knight's adventures.  The key piece of the puzzle is Batman's embrace of Zur-En-Arrh as a psychic defense, a fail-safe mental default state that allows Batman to still function in the case that Bruce Wayne has been compromised, originally suggested by a trip to an alien world with its own Batman.

The Black Glove is run by Doctor Hurt, who masquerades as Batman's dead father, Thomas Wayne, who has set an elaborate plot that everything but Batman believes is a paranoid delusion he refers to as the Black Casebook, a file he's kept throughout his career detailing his most bizarre experiences, Morrison's record of the tales previous creators told and he's cleverly reclaimed.  Most of "R.I.P." is Batman outsmarting even this, what's supposed to be the ultimate test, because he's prepared for everything, pushed himself to the limits of endurance, and threatened to push his closest allies away.

I say that it's Morrison's version of Nolan's films because it may help to keep one in mind while you consider the other.  Morrison famously lets his readers fill in some of the gaps he glosses over as he builds his labyrinthine epics, and his Batman tales are perhaps his most labyrinthine yet.  The "R.I.P." collection does not include sequences directly from Final Crisis, nor crucial explanatory issues later reprinted in another volume (Batman #s 701-702).

Perhaps most intriguingly, it's a Joker tale in which the Joker is not strictly the center of the story.  With Scott Snyder's "Death of the Family" bringing the character back into the spotlight, the Joker is at his most relevant since Ledger's iconic performance.  Morrison's Arkham Asylum featured a lot of Batman's foes, but central to it was the Joker assuming ringleader status and engaging the Dark Knight in a battle of wits.  "R.I.P." recasts Joker as a pawn of Doctor Hurt, and so far as Hurt is concerned, everything works out perfectly, even when Joker inevitably rebels from his role.  Morrison had done some cosmetic alterations of his own to the Joker, including etching a permanent grin on his face and leaving a bullet hole between his eyes.  In the DC Universe excerpt, Joker and Batman share another conversation.  How do you talk with someone like the Joker?  Carefully.  His words follow their own logic.  Batman's biggest challenge has always been to follow that logic.  In a sense, Morrison admits that most of Batman's experience in "R.I.P" is derived from those efforts.

Yes, it's a little curious that the writer is ending his saga with al Ghul's legacy rather than the Joker, given this. Imagine Grant Morrison telling his version of the ultimate Joker story.  It would not be hard to imagine it becoming the definitive Joker story, over and above even Alan Moore's classic Killing Joke.

And yet that's the joke of "R.I.P."  It features a villain who believes they can do what the Joker has never done.  Batman is always looking for a pattern.  He admits that he hates doing that.  He hates having to interpret psychopaths.  And yet because of the Joker, he's had to do exactly that.  And that's the thing Doctor Hurt didn't count on, even the goons that kidnap Batman directly after his apparent death.  In Nolan's Dark Knight Rises, Batman fakes his death to lead an ordinary life.  In "R.I.P.," Batman's apparent death leads to an extended absence of an entirely different kind.  Both lead to important new phases of Batman's life.  In Dark Knight Rises, it's retirement.  In Morrison's saga, it's the realization that he has always had allies.  His mission is not his own.  He is not alone.

That's Batman Incorporated, however.  We're discussing "R.I.P."  How does it still stand as the linchpin of Morrison's vision?  Can you read it in the same way you can read "Knightfall" today?  Well, even "Knightfall" requires three omnibus volumes to read the whole story.  There are three acts to follow: Bane breaking the Bat, the new Bat, and the return of the original.  "R.I.P." stands as a testament all its own.  Sure, the story doesn't end in this collection.  You would need to read at least The Return of Bruce Wayne to see where Batman went after Final Crisis, and how he came back.  The last issues in the "R.I.P." collection suggest where the story goes, and further emphasizes the conditioning that helped Batman survive Hurt.  Part of it serves as a character study that can be enjoyed outside of either "R.I.P." or Crisis, so that's something of an independent story itself.

With Nolan's Batman, the whole saga is spelled out.  In Morrison's, it helps to be a fan, but even in "R.I.P.," even if you don't know who Bat-Mite is, you will still end up appreciating that a flesh-and-blood man has gone to extraordinary lengths to achieve perfection in a quest to avenge the death of his parents and overcome every manner of obstacle set in his path.  There are certain parallels to "Knightfall" inherent in a story like this, but Morrison is uniquely qualified to fully illustrate what makes Bruce Wayne Batman, and "R.I.P." is his definitive statement.