Batman Incorporated #5 Annotations
BATMAN INCORPORATED #5Masterspy
DC Comics, May 2011, Color, 32pgs, $2.99
Written by GRANT MORRISON ; Art by YANICK PAQUETTE & MICHEL LACOMBE; Cover by J.H. WILLIAMS III; 1:25 Variant cover by YANICK PAQUETTE & MICHAEL LACOMBE
Batman's Argentinean adventure concludes as The Dark Knight and Gaucho fight to the death to save the lives of countless innocents. Meanwhile, England's other Batman, The Hood, stumbles across a monstrous conspiracy – can Batman and his international allies stop a plot that threatens to transform the whole world?
Commentary
Another typically excellent issue of Batman, Inc, managing to cram more action and intrigue into twenty two pages than most comics can manage in six months. Morrison drip feeds us more on Dr. Dedalus' devious plot, though the throughline of what is actually happenng is far from clear.
Towards the end of the the issue we learn that the 'Netz' imprisoned on the island is an imposter and his carer is one of a team of Marines sent to extract the secrets of Oroboros from him... Except the Marines were all killed en route and replaced by a Leviathan agent... Except Leviathan has already extracted Netz from the island and replaced him with a blind and confused doppleganger... And then Netz or Leviathan or the doppleganger poisons the Marine/Leviathan agent just as the heroes think they've saved the day. Hardly the most straightforward of plans but I'm sure it'll all become clear... eventually.
It'll be intersting to see what effect (if any) this weeks death of Osama Bin Laden has on Morrison's direction for the series. Leviathan is a pretty straightforward DC Universe analogue of Al-Qaeda, and it would be pretty easy to make a case for the whole of Morrison's Batman arc being a political parable where Batman represents the U.S.A. and their sometimes narrow outlook on global relations, realizing he really needs the help of his international allies in order to take down the big bad. Of course, in the real world, things are rarely that straightforward, and the American's have seemingly just disposed of their international public enemy number one single-handedly.
We'll find out soon enough. Like Morrison's sometimes terminally late runs on Batman and Batman and Robin, the solicits are working overtime to get Batman Inc. back on schedule and there's plenty of Morrison Batman goodness to look forward to over the next few months. Onwards and upwards!
Annotations
Cover - The top of half of the (regular) cover is the flag of the Falkland Islands, a British territory off the coast of Argentina and the setting for this issue. Yes, that is a sheep cunningly concealed beneath the Batman Incorporated logo. 'Desire The Right' is the island's motto.
Over on Yanick Paquette's variant you can see Jose Luis Borges in the top left, the Argentinian magical realist writer who was name checked in issue 3, along with the Sol de Mayo, as featured on the Argentinian flag, a representation of the Incan sun god Inti. Not sure about the statue as yet but I'm working on it...
Page 1 - Picking up where we left off last time as the police arrive to pick up the pieces at the House of Gold, while Batman and Gaucho interrogate El Sombrero.
Page 2 - ...and we're straight into a flashback, learning a little more about the mysterious Otto Netz (aka Dr. Dedalus) and the nature of Oroboros, firstly with Adolph Hitler in Netz's lab. The 'shining thread through the labyrinth of history' is a reference to the Cretan legend of Theseus and the Minotaur, when Theseus escaped from the maze built by the master engineer Daedalus by following a golden thread given to him by Ariadne. The circled areas on the map behind Netz are all in the region of England's big mystical sites; Glastonbury, Stonehenge, Solsbury Hill etc.
As everybody who's seen an Indiana Jones film knows, Hitler was into his mysticism in a big way and spent a large amount of Reichsmarks on trying to track down artifacts such as the fabled Spear of Destiny and the gateway to the underground kingdom of Thule. I'm pretty sure the foregrounding of the cane being a gift from Hitler is going to pay off importance wise later in the run.
Netz's exposition continues through the years as we follow him to an unknown Celtic tomb and his capture by the Allies. He seems to be holding a representation of Oroboros in his hand here. Then on to some sort of bizarre monologue delivered to an audience of military men and scientists where he details his betrayal of the British and subsequent installation as head of UNCLE... sorry, Spyder, a swinging 60's superspy network we first encountered in issue 3.
Page 3 - Netz pulls an Ozymandias, only relating the master plan after its been instigated. Of course just a few panels later we'll realize this is just the circular ramblings of a confused old man... Another bit of Moore baiting meta-text?
The red backgrounds serve to muddy the waters even more here as to what's actually going on in Netz's overarching scheme . When does the last panel, with the reveal of the drawing of Oroboros intended for Kathy Kane, actually occur?
Netz's plot is that of a nihilistic madman, the destruction of civilization itself. See also Darksied in Final Crisis and Davros in Russell T. Davies' Doctor Who.
The daughter he refers to here is Kathy Webb aka Kathy Kane aka the original Batwoman, as seen last issue.
And to take us into the double pager we have a couple of narrative captions from...
Page 4-5 - The Hood! "England's other Batman" (presumably as opposed to the Knight) was created by Alan Grant and Bret Blevins and first appeared in 1992's Shadow of the Bat #21, appearing through #23 of that title in a tie-in to the seemingly endless Knightfall storyline. Batman meets The Hood, a modern day Robin Hood who looks alarmingly similar to the second Azrael from fifteen years in the future, whilst searching for Tim Drake's father and a physiotherapist named Shondra Kinsolving. Hijinks ensue and Bruce's broken back gets miraculously healed. As far as I can tell, the Hood hasn't made any appearances (before this issue) since then.
'Matron' is most likely a reference to The Avengers' (as in Steed and Mrs. Peel) Mother, Steed's wheelchair-bound superior during the Tara King era, via the Carry On films (Kenneth Williams' "Ooh, matron!" is a catchphrase in common parlance over here). T.H.E.Y. are presumably an anologue of the same ill defined government agency that employed Steed, Mrs Peel and all the others in the TV show.
Morrison's canny ear for dialogue tells us all we need to know about the Hood in five narative capions and four word balloons. He's got a sense of humour, but he can give Batman a run for his money in the ridiculous detective skillz stakes.
Page 6 - Batwoman and her dad, the military man backing her up, appeared last issue. Colonel Kane's, "What is he, Benny Hill? Monty Python?" presumably gives you Americans some handy pointers to The Hood's Britishy personality... At least Morrison's caricature Britain references all the cool stuff though (The Avengers, The Prisoner, James Bond), unlike Paul Cornell's hit and miss Knight and Squire mini.
The George Cross is the highest decoration (or medal) that can be awarded to a civilian in the United Kingdom, a non-military equivalent of the Victoria Cross for Gallantry.
Page 7 - We've seen the blue scorpions a few times now, the exploding robot familiars of the villianess Scorpiana.
The UK and Argentina did actually go to war over the Falklands in the early eighties and tensions still run high over the subject between the two countries. You wouldn't guess it from this issue but there is more to the Islands than a bunch of rocks and a lighthouse. Not much, mind...
Page 8 - ...And the Bat-cavalry arrive, following the trail of Scorpiana across the Atlantic and soundly trumping the big entrance The Hood got back on the double page splash.
Page 9 - Batwoman teamed up with Dick Grayson in the Blackest Knight arc of Batman and Robin. Her only meeting with Bruce, which she's referencing here, was when he saved her from being sacrificed by the Religion of Crime way back in 52.
The Hood goes for a bit of good old fashioned red-top British racism, straight from the front pages of The Sun. As we've already mentioned, the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands remains a political hot potato, Top points for the Zardoz line though. Zardoz, a viewing experience like no other, stars Sean Connery wearing a red nappy and sporting Gauho's moustache. Essential.
Page 10 - Scorpiana, in a costume seemingly designed to be drawn by Yanick Paquette, though in keeping with his J.H. Williams III-inspired approach throughout Batman, Inc. so far, Paquette seems to be channeling Tony Daniel for her fight scene over the next couple of pages.
Page 11-12 - One of the hallmarks of Morrison's Batman run so far is the meticulously choreographed fight scenes and this one is no exception. Good work Paquette!
Page 13 - The girl in the (Kathy Kane) Batwoman costume from issue three is revealed as an (unwilling?) agent of Scorpiana. Like the off-panel tragedy surrounding the Black Glove movie, the implied story behind the gymnast's kidnap and subsequent conditioning Patty Hearst style makes you wish Morrison would slow down and actually write a few of these tales rather than tossing them off in a couple of panels.
PSYOPS is military shorthand for psychological warfare.
Page 14 - The fake (?) Netz calls Batman 'The Time Voyager', possibly foreshadowing some sort of slight return for the whole death/return storyline. Why Bruce's presence would be preceded by snow, I don't know.
The Iron Lady was killed (deactivated? rendered inert?) back in the opening pages of issue 3. Presumably her body has been here since they trapped Netz in the lighthouse. Batwoman's "How many twists and turns can one case take?" seems especially on point given Batman's wrap up speech in a couple of pages.
Page 15 - Presumably the orderly, revealed as an agent of Leviathan, is referring to the beginning of Batman's descent into Dedalus' plans as the 'Maze of Death' rather than the lighthouse itself. Not much of a maze if that's the case...
The weapon that was left behind and converted into the meta-bomb is Mister Albion's Hammer of Wayland Smith from the opening sequence of issue 3. For all of the orderly's "Nothing can release the clamp" talk, Batman takes it out pretty easily with a couple of missiles from the Batplane.
Page 16-17 - "With a dream of my mind devouring itself", like Ouroboros, the snake eating its own tail. The Hood finally gets a good reason to be in the story with a infiltration/double agent plotline that presumably we'll pick up next issue.
Page 18-19 - Gaucho's tacit involvement in Kathy Kane's mysterious death is revealed as merely driving her to her 'last job' rather than, say, pulling the trigger or failing to save her or anything important like that. Still, Batman manages to use his guilt to recruit him into Batman Incorporated..
Batman's "... It makes so much sense it hurts" alludes to all the Jungian dream symbolism in the story; the lighthouse, the three blind children, spiral stairs and, cannily on Morrison's part, the archetypal heroes themselves. All the 'clues', as it were, point to Dedalus as a mad old man with Alzheimer's trapped in the maze of his mind. You can't pull that shit on Batman though. He'll see through you like cellophane. And as Superman Beyond taught us, this is a comic book after all and it should always be 'To Be Continued...'. Dedalus is gone, deep in to the bowels of Leviathan (at this point in the story seemingly a group, an individual and a place).
Our first proper glimpse of Leviathan, he seems to be some sort of dessicated corpse in desert gear. More to come from him I'm sure.
Page 20-22 - The first appearance of the hotly debated Batman of Africa. Lots of people lighting up the internet saying what a disgrace it is that Africa only gets one Batman when England's got two, France has one etc. etc. Not much to say about his debut so far. Probably see how this one turns out in a couple of weeks time...
All comments and corrections welcome! Thanks for reading!
