Batman Incorporated v2 #10 Annotations

BATMAN INCORPORATED v2 #10

Gotham's Most Wanted

DC Comics, June 2013, Color, 32pgs, $2.99

Written by GRANT MORRISON ; Art by CHRIS BURNHAM, JASON MASTERS & ANDREI BRESSAN; Cover by CHRIS BURNHAM & NATHAN FAIRBAIRN; 1:25 Variant Cover by JASON MASTERS

• When only one can survive, which will it be: the man or the bat?

Annotations

Cover - The text on the cover references Batman's origin from Detective Comics #33 (reprinted in the original Batman #1) - "I shall become a creature of the night... I shall become a bat!". It's been referenced many times in Morrison's run so far.

The gatefold cover was part of a line-wide initiative by DC for all of their main line superhero titles for June 2013 initially dubbed WTF covers (until someone at DC thought better of it). All feature a surprise reveal on the cover's second hidden panel. Baffingly DC decided that their combo packs that month wouldn't have the gatefold, so the combo cover for this issue (given a purple hue rather than the red seen above) is just a picture of half of Batman's face. Prior to publication, someone suggested that the 'surprise' for this issue might have been the return of the Batman of Zen Ur Arrh, which would have been awesome. Sadly, it was not to be. Not to take anything away from Chris Burnham's usual stunning work of course; it is a great cover.

Jason Masters variant - noted at the time as having nothing to do with the issue's interior even though it was based on a long-teased plot point that had yet to be resolved - ended up being an unexpected sneak peek of the series final moments. Not that anyone would have known until after they'd read issue #13 though.

Page 1 - Like the cover text, the captions on page 1 are from Detective Comics #33.

The Suit of Sorrows first appeared in the 1992 Batman: Sword of Azrael mini-series by Denny O'Neil and Joe Quesada. It's current owner Michael Lane first appeared during Morrison and Tony Daniel's 'Three Ghosts of the Batman' storyline in 2007's Batman #665. He was initially cast as one of three crazed replacement Batmen manipulated into brutally attacking the Caped Crusader by Dr. Hurt, but was re-purposed following the conclusion of Batman R.I.P. to become the new Azrael, first in a tie-in mini-series to Tony Daniel's Battle of the Cowl (with some typically jaw-dropping Frazer Irving artwork) and from there into an 18 issue ongoing series largely written by Fabian Nicieza.

The original Azrael, Jean Paul Valley, was created by Denny O'Neil (with some help by Joe Quesada on the visual side I'm sure) with the sole purpose of replacing Bruce Wayne as Batman following his 'breaking' at the hands of Bane during the 1993 'Knightfall' storyline. Valley was a violent and unhinged maniac, very much in the Punisher mold, and was intended by O'Neil to demonstrate to 90's Comic Fan how wrong-headed the oft-requested notion of making Batman more like Wolverine or the Punisher was. After his short stint in the cape and cowl he was farmed off to his own series, the few issues of which I've seen are barely readable. The ongoing Azrael series also has the dubious distinction of spawning the worst comic I've ever read - tying in to a Grant Morrison-penned event to boot - 1998's Azrael #1,000,000. Truly a different plane of awfulness; I highly recommend not picking it up.

After a 100 issues (man the late 90's and early 00's were different times), Azrael was shot and killed in the final issue fo the series by his arch-enemy (dressed like somebody from Gwar). Though O'Neil tried his best to keep interest alive in a potential follow-up (they never! found! the body!), the property lay unused and unloved until it's relaunch in the wake of the epically pointless Battle for the Cowl. It seemed an unusual (deranged even) decision at the time for Morrison to allow his character - so intrinsically tied to the ongoing Black Glove/Dr. Hurt plotline - to be put to work toiling in the fields of inevitably short-lived tenuous Bat-spinoffs, but allow it he did. Interestingly, given where all of this has ended up, the antagonist in the Azrael: Death's Dark Knight mini was none other than Talia Al Ghul, seeking to reclaim the invincible Suit of Sorrows for Damian's use.

Lane's (actual) quotes from the Prophecies of Nostradamus match up well with the story so far - whether that's because Morrison was writing with them in mind, because they're purposefully vague and open to a wide variety of interpretations (hence their continued popularity) or because Nostradamus was a big Batman Incorporated fan isn't known, though prophecies, visions of the future and fortune telling have all played a big part in this run. Like The Joker's apophenia comments at the close of 'R.I.P.', the nod to Nostradamus is likely a tip of the hat to the internet detectives who've been attempting to divine where all of this has been going for the last 6 years. All will be revealed as we hurtle toward the conclusion...

The Joker reference from the prophecy ("The present time together with the past will be judged by the Great Joker") could be intended as a rare current Bat-continuity reference to Scott Snyder's Joker-centric 'Death of the Family' storyline, which had not-long wrapped up over in the other Batman titles when this issue came out. Of course it's equally likely that it's been plucked from Nostradamus purely because it has the word 'Joker' in it, and this is a Batman comic after all.

Chris Burnham decided to make Lane a penitent - self-flagellating to punish the body for the soul's sins - following his attempt to raze Gotham to the ground in the Gotham Shall be Judged book, collecting issues #14-18 of the second Azrael series by David Hine and Cliff Richards. Hine's Bat-title work (hell, his comics work in general) is criminally underrated so it's nice to see Burnham tipping his hat here.

Page 2 - The Dark Night of the Soul by 16th Century Spanish mystic Saint John of the Cross is a poem concerning "the painful experience that people endure as they seek to grow in spiritual maturity and union with God". Though he's gone some way toward processing the manufactured tragedies inflicted on him by Dr. Hurt and company, Lane is still lost in a world of symbolism and ominous portent.

Lane's reference to his destiny - to be "The Devil's herald on Earth" - references his appearance in Batman #666.

Batman Incorporated presumably "went into liquidation" when the standard of the Bat finally fell last issue and Batman was declared an outlaw in Gotham.

Page 3 - The centerpiece of Lane's own web of imagery is a crude approximation of Andy Kubert's cover to Batman #666, showing adult Damian-of-the-future looming over a Gotham in flames. The '666' scrawl in a circle next to it (the centre of the web?) suggests the birthmark of Damian Wayne's almost-namesake, the Antichrist Damien Thorn from the movie The Omen.

Though there's very likely an element of Morrison not wanting to tread on any New 52 toes by avoiding references to Bruce's time jaunt in The Return of Bruce Wayne, framing the references in deliberately vague mysto-Jungian language ("I lay near death in a cave and I saw the end of the world at the hands of my son") gives Batman's words a doom-laden weight they might otherwise have lacked. It's almost as if the events of Final Crisis and Return... have dissolved into myth themselves; half-recalled dream memories rather than concrete events.

666 as the Number of the Beast is of course from the Biblical Book of Revalation. Lane's half-crazed Biblical studies have led him to equate the Antichrist and the Biblical sea monster Leviathan.

Page 4 - There was a lot of analysis of the chess board positions on the CBR forums, but I know Chris Burnham reached out for help on that front on Twitter so I don't think the layout of the board was intended to necessarily have a huge bearing on the story (unless Chris intended it to, in which case, sorry man!). Echoing the commentators over there though, props to Chris for making the effort to draw an actual game rather than just putting the pieces wherever. Once again the red and black, so prominent in the end of the first act of this story ('R.I.P.'), make a reappearance as we near the close of the third.

Jungfrau (from the German meaning maiden or virgin) is one of the most famous and imposing mountains in the Swiss Alps. As far as I can tell, Mendelssohn's drawing (singular) of the Jungfrau isn't actually that famous, but, in keeping with his melodramatic super-spy roots, it's a fittingly pompous line for Ra's to utter whilst wistfully staring from the battlements of his mountaintop fortress/prison. I like how Burnham duplicates the layout from the previous page to contrast one 'prison' (Lane's bare cell) with another (Ra's luxuriously appointed chamber).

Talia's veil is a lovely visual flourish, especially when coupled with the black catsuit.

Page 5 - No eyebrow's on Ra's. A Grant Morrison has mentioned more than once, the most important element of his look.

"The scapegoat of Gotham" calls back to Goatboy's initiation in the Kill Box in volume 2 issue #3.

The Dark Knight symbolically topples the Red Queen as Ra's Bond-villain laugh echoes through the castle's drafty corridors.

Page 6-7 - Sebastian Hady was the mayor of Gotham whose dalliances with the criminal fraternity were exposed in the 'Batman and Robin Must Die!' arc of Morrison's Batman and Robin. Created by Tony Daniel during his stint as writer-artist on the main Batman title, he made it across unscathed to the New 52 DC Universe thanks to Daniel's stint on the relaunched Detective Comics.

"Batman is no longer welcome in Gotham City". Picking up one of the most interesting (and poorly developed) threads of Christopher Nolan's po-faced Dark Knight movie trilogy, Morrison has Batman declared an outlaw in the wake of Leviathan's attack.

At the end of Nolan's Dark Knight it was Commissioner Gordon who smashed the Bat signal. Here, with Jim somewhat more pensive on the illegal-Bat front than his likely corrupt and Leviathan-brainwashed men, he looks on as three beat cops knock seven bells out of it.

Page 8 - Wayne Enterprises CEO Lucius Fox is another Bat-associate who made it through the New 52 largely unscathed, though given his Morgan Freeman-esque revamp back in Batman: The Return #1 it's likely that the higher-ups decided he didn't need much reworking to fall more in line with the Nolan movieverse-influenced new paradigm .

Batman and Catwoman teamed up to steal the photonic crystal from the secret lab of Shazam villain Doctor Sivana way back in Batman Incorporated v1 #1.

Page 9 - "Not any more. Batman won't need these." With the revelation that Batman Incorporated is dissolved and the scrapping of the Ro-Bats, Morrison slowly starts to put the toys back in the box in preparation for his leaving the title.

We've seen lots of Batman exo-skeletons over the years, probably most notably in the alternate futures depicted in Miller's The Dark Knight Returns and Waid and Ross's Kingdom Come (and my personal favouite from Dave Gibbons and Andy Kubert's 'Elseworlds' tale Batman Versus Predator). Chris Burnham looks to have opted for a much more realistic design, possibly based on some of the work that agencies like DARPA are doing trying to build one of these things for real.

Page 10 - Jason Masters' fill-in art here and on the following page is an increasingly accurate match for Chris Burnham's, figure-wise. There's a bit of trademark Burnham-brutality there for you as well.

Page 11 - "I wouldn't be doing my job as the villain if I didn't issue impossible demands." Hints at the revelation coming in #13 that Talia's motives for enacting her master-plan for the total subjugation of Gotham are simultaneously much more complex and intensely personal. Talia is playing at this for reasons that, story-wise, are still unclear, but the stakes for the people on the ground remain insanely high.

According to Eliot R. Brown's Gotham City map, Coventry is a district of Gotham adjacent to Arkham Island at the north end of Midtown.

Page 12 - Andrei Bressan, this issue's second fill-in artists, is a bit more jarring style-wise against Masters and Burnham, but does a fine job nonetheless, especially on the School of Night panels on the following page. Apparently editorial asked Chris Burnham which pages he wanted to draw and which should be sent out to the fill-in guys when the deadlines bit. Burnham made a good call delegating distinct locations and/or scenes to each artist where possible, and the fill-in art in this issue works much better than the in-res fill-in from Andres Guinaldo and Bit in issue #6.

As we saw last issue, Beryl is back as the new Knight alongside sometime-beau The Ranger. They've managed to trace Jason' pee-trail all the way to the School of Night's hideout in the docks at Red Hook (named for the real-life Brookyn neighbourhood and not traditionally a part of 'comic-book' Gotham - Red Hook was first named as a Gotham district in Batman Begins)

Page 13 -Confirmation that it was Talia who brought Jason Todd back from the dead in the New 52 (probably via a Lazarus Pit), and an answer to how Talia knew so much of Bruce's plans. For once, I much prefer the New 52 explanation over the pre-reboot "alternate Earth Superboy punches reality so hard that it raises Jason from the dead, who is then promptly killed and resurrected (again)".

The first signs that despite all of their bravado and undoubted fighting prowess, there may be something going on here that's bigger than Batman, Inc.

Page 14 - Kirk Langstrom, alias Man Bat, first appeared in Frank Robbins and Neal Adams' 'Challenge of the Man-Bat' in 1970's Detective Comics #400. Also seen here is Kirk's long-suffering wife Francine.

Langstrom's low-tech Victorian lab is a fitting match to his Jeckyll & Hyde-esque experiments.

"The noose is drawing tighter Langstrom. Somebody's gonna hang." A callback to the Leviathan ritual we saw in the Kill Box house back in issue #3.

Page 15 - Incredible page from Chris Burnham here. Batman drawing his cape across his chest in panel one is likely a homage to the iconic cover of Batman #9 (probably by Fred Ray and Jerry Robinson).

The swinging silhouette is very iconic and Frank Miller-esque, but doesn't reference any of Miller's work on The Dark Knight Returns directly. Beautiful page, one of Burnham's best I think.

Page 17 - Masters picks up the pencil again for this page and the preceding one.

Talia remote-controlled Damian via an implant in his spine during the 'Batman vs. Robin' arc of Batman and Robin. It was inserted after Damian broke his back during the battle with Jason Todd in Batman and Robin #4-6. Clearly Talia has learned her lesson and implanted The Heretic right from the off.

Page 18 - Bruce in the chair meditating on the origin of Batman - 'Who he is and how he came to be' - via The Return of Bruce Wayne and Frank Miller and David Mazzuccheli's Batman: Year One.

Readying for his final assault on Wayne Tower he weaponizes the bats with Man-Bat antidote while injecting himself with Langstrom's original transformative serum.

Page 19 -The safe that Bruce escaped from back in issue #8 is still at the bottom of the pool. Nice detail!

The first sign that Talia has underestimated the lengths that Batman will go to to exact his revenge. She thinks she's done enough to guarantee his submission, Bruce has other ideas. We'll see the fallout of this in issue #13.

Page 20 - Hepped up on Man-Bat serum, wearing an ancient religious relic that amplifies the wearer's strength dependent on their mental instability, and strapped into an exo-skeleton that's disabled all of it's previous test pilots, Bruce has become a dark and terrible super-Bat, swooping in to enact a swift vengeance on Talia and her entire Leviathan ethos.

Next up, the final showdown with The Heretic!

(As usual, if you've any comments, corrections or additions please let me know!)

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