Batman Incorporated v2 #4 Annotations
BATMAN INCORPRATED v2 #4
Kill Box
DC Comics, December 2012, Color, 32pgs, $2.99
Written by GRANT MORRISON ; Art by CHRIS BURNHAM; Cover by CHRIS BURNHAM & NATHAN FAIRBAIRN; 1:25 Variant Cover by ANDY CLARKE & NATHAN FAIRBAIRN
BATMAN and TALIA AL GHUL continue their fight for control of their son DAMIAN – better known as ROBIN!
WINGMAN and REDBIRD descent upon GOTHAM CITY! Who are these heroes, and what is their relationship to THE DARK KNIGHT?
Commentary
An action packed showdown between Talia's League of Assassins and Bruce's Batman Incorporated in the mighty Morrison-Burnham manner, this issue also sees Wingman's big reveal (it was who you thought it was when you first read it all those months ago), and some uncomfortable truths for poor wee Damian. The art is, as ever, spectacular and the plot continues to ratchet up the tension at every turn.
Timothy Green II, currently working with Scott Lobdell on Red Hood and the Outlaws and the recently released Animal Man Annual with Jeff Lemire, pinch hit for Chris Burnham on a number of pages for this issue when it looked like the deadline was going to be tight. When #3 was delayed and #4 put back to October that gave Chris time to catch up and pencil the whole issue himself. You can see Tim's unused penciled pages here.
Annotations
Cover - Once again DC's marketing department try their best to negate any impact their covers might have by pasting a garish banner for the CW's newly-launched Arrow over the top of them. I am, however, learning to ignore them, slowly but surely.
Chris Burnham delivers an homage to Carmine Infantino's iconic pin-up from Detective Comics #352; one of the most famous of all Batman and Robin images. His Wingman strikes me as very Brian Bolland-ish, which is no bad thing at all, and the Redbird is undoubtedly all his own. The variant this month comes from Batman and Robin alumnus Andy Clarke. I like it but it is a bit generic; like it could be the cover of basically any Batman comic as long as Damian is Robin. Though how long that will be the case after this issue is anyone's guess...
Page 1 -The Monarch, across the street from Talia's secret hideaway, was the Park Row theatre Bruce Wayne and his parents were leaving when the tragedy that led to the birth of Batman occured, As per Frank Miller's extensive reworking of Batman's origin in 'Year One' and The Dark Knight Returns, the film the Wayne's were watching on that fateful night was The Mark of Zorro.
The Bible quotes referring to Leviathan come from Job 41, verse 1 ("Canst though draw..."), 7 ("Canst thou fill his skin..."), 9 ("All hope...") and 25 (When he raises humself up..."). You can read the whole thing here. Leviathan's dialogue indicates that Talia is likely a lot more unbalanced than we've previously realized. She's also still wearing the mask even though everyone knows it's her underneath it. The Heretic's comment, "I thought I was your son...", all but confims him as the clone of Damian we first glimpsed back in Batman and Robin #12
The zoom into the inky blackness of Leviathan's eye recalls a similar transition in last month's #0, originally intended to follow this issue.
Page 2 -Eagle-eyed readers might have noticed the trail of gunpowder leading from Matches' trouser leg back in issue three.
Page 3 - "Call Guinness! I just set a new record for holding breath!" The record for static apnea or, in common parlance, holding your breath, is a mind boggling 22 minutes. Up until fairly recently Guinness didn't list a record for holding your breath, as for obvious reasons this is considered pretty dangerous. The nearest equivalent was the record for free diving, measured in depth rather than time.
Page 4-5 - As the house goes up, the League of Assassins and the rest of Batman Incorporated enter the fray.
The assassin in the suit is Alpha, "master of gun-fu", who made his debut in 2003's Batgirl #35. He was created by Kelly Puckett and Damian Scott. The other two introduced on page four, and quickly dispactched at the top of page five are (I think) new. That's the Hood and Gaucho who've come to sort them out on page five. The guy with the high collar holding his head in the bottom panel is most likely sometime League-associate Dr. Tzin-Tzin, who first appeared way back in 1966's Detective Comics #354 by John Broome and Sheldon Moldoff.
Page 6 - Yep, that's definitely Tzin-Tzin. The guy with the forehead tattoo and the rifle up on the balcony culd be a guy called Wam Wam from Chuck Dixon and Scott McDaniel's Richard Dragon revival, but I'll concede that's a bit of a long shot. Gaucho leaps off his bike to tackle Razorburn and Hook, both members of The Seven Men of Death, an elite group within the League who played a minor role in the 'Resurrection of Ra's Al Ghul' crossover. Hook has been around a while - created by Jack Miller and Neal Adams he made his first appearance in the Deadman strip in Starnge Adventures #210 from 1968. He was the assassin that killed trapeze artist Boston Brand, leading inadvertantly to Deadman's creation. Razorburn first appeared during the 'Resurrection' crossover, specifically in Batman #670 by Grant Morrison and Tony Daniel. Fellow Man of Death Maduvu is the guy in the foreground with the big fingers. He, like Razorburn, first appeared in Batman #670.
Love the motion blur on the arrow in panel six.
More assassins in the mix in the final panel. From left to right we have The Hood (dislodging the chandelier with an expertly aimed arrow); Hook, Gaucho and Razorburn; Detonator, Maduvu and Whip, along with their unamed compatriot from the Seven Men of Death, whose membership is completed by Shellcase at the bottom of the stairs. Detonator, Whip, Shellcase and the assassin with no name all made their debut in Batman #670.
Page 7 - A very Batman-esque complaint from The Hood there, grouching about teamwork when they've just effortlessly taken down seven of the world's finest assasins.
Merlyn the Archer, probably the most prominent member of the League of Assassins over the years, was created by Mike Friedrich, Dick Dillin and Neal Adams and first appeared in Justice League of America #94 in 1971. He's since gone on to appear in the Justice League Unlimited cartoon, the Green Arrow short that was included with the Superman/Batman: Apocalypse DVD, and in the first episode of the new Arrow TV show, as well as maintaining a constant comics presence over the last 40 years. He's most commonly protrayed as one of the best archers in the DC Universe, usually in second place behind Green Arrow.
Page 8 - Following on from issue three's cliffhanger, Damian has dispatched the dogs with little fuss. Incidentally, the exterior of the Kill Box house is based on The Breakers, a Rhode Island stately home built by Cornelius Vanderbilt in the late nineteenth century. Chris Burnham asked whether anyone could identify it on Twitter last week, and I finally managed to guess one of these little Easter egss without needing somebody to almost guess it first, millions of clues from Chris or thousands of Google man-hours.
Page 9 - "He shoots! He-- SKKAHH" That would be 'He shoots! He scores!!!", a popular football (soccer) commentary catchphrase over here in the UK. I'm sure you probably have it in the States as well, for basketball or something like that.
Fairly sure all of the assassins on this page are Chris Burnham originals. The guy with the X-brace on his face calls to mind Jackal from Fist of the North Star, whose special helmet stops his head from exploding, memorably and incomprehensibly played by the late great Chris Penn in the American live-action movie version, . Thanks to Chris Burnham for pointing out there's also a faceless and non-copyright infringing take on Kenshiro from Fist in amongst the pack.
The Hood is using the two broken halves of the bow as makeshift Escrima sticks. Another example of the attention to detail Burnham gives the fight choreography in this issue, and indeed in his whole run on the title.
Page 10 - Enter the mysterious Wingman. The guy in the hockey mask is Sportsmaster, an enemy of the original Green Lantern who first appeared way back in 1947 in All-American Comics #85. He was created by John Broome and Irwin Haasen, but appears here in his redesigned costume from the recent Young Justice cartoon. Again, I think the big guy is a Burnham original, though with his mace hand and chain vest he's reminiscent of some of Mike Grell's Warlord costume designs.
Conveying story elements via the fight choreography, Wingman is clearly a highly trained fighter whose methods are somewhat more... brutal than the Dark Knight's, and someone who revels in that brutality. The fact that he doesn't know Damian is there makes his bravado showing in front of Merlyn all the more unbalanced. What was he planning on doing? Catching the arrow?
Page 11 - We last saw the Turnip Twins at Three-Eyed Jacks in issue three. Batman seems to have given them a pretty good going over since then.
Page 13 -The guy in the devil mask looks really familiar, but I can't place him. The other fella less so. They're not, as far as I can tell, member of the League from days gone by and are most likely yet more Burnham original designs.
The high conept behind the story, "Batman Incorporated versus thirty of the world's greatest assassins. In a confined space." Great stuff.
Alfred projects the Bat-signal on to the smoke surrounding the Kill Box. Make no mistake, Batman Incorporated are in control.
Page 14 - That's Nightwing, Knight and Red Robin smashing through the window, with Dick and Tim sporting their New 52 duds. Around the table from left to right are Professor Ojo, created by Ric Estrada and Denny O'Neill he first appeared in 1977's Richard Dragon, Kung-Fu Fighter #16, like Sportsmaster a few pages back he's sporting his Young Justice redesign here; Shrike, who was created by Chuck Dixon and Scott McDaniel - building on a character from Dixon's earlier Robin: Year One alongside Scott Beatty, Javier Pulido and Marcos Martin - who first appeared in Nightwing Secret Files & Origins #1; and Mad Dog, who first appeared in 2005's Batgirl #67 by Andersen Gabrych and Ale Garza. The guy with the ponytail is Iron Aron Aromowitz, another assassin from Lady Shiva's Circle of Six who first appeared in 2004's Richard Dragon #1 by Chuck Dixon and Scott McDaniel.
Tim's faceplanting Kitty Kumbata, a mentally unstable mistress of the martial arts (aren't they all around here?) who, like Wam Wam, also first appeared in Chuck Dixon and Scott McDaniel's Richard Dragon, specifically issue #1 from 2004.
Page 15 - A nice POV shot of The Knight punching out Mad Dog in the dark, before what is unquestionably the best panel The Outsiders' Freight Train has ever appeared in. The casket on the stage in panel 3 presumably holds the body of Joe Grimm. This is supposed to be a wake remember?
Gaucho doesn't let a minor inconvenience like an arrow through his wrist stop him from knocking seven bells out of G.I. Joe's Storm Shadow and his twin brother.
Page 16 - Five hundred ninja Man-Bats?! 'Langstrom variant' is a reference to Kirk Langstrom, the original Man Bat from 1970's Detective Comics #400.
The Bowery is a downmarket district of Gotham City. Park Row, alias Crime Alley, is one of its landmarks. Damian would be familiar with the voice from his encounter with the Red Hood alongside Dick in Batman and Robin #4-6 by Morrison and Philip Tan.
Page 17 - Typically excellent page layout by Burnham for one of the issue's big 'moments', with a nice vibrating effect in panel one. Presumably Batwing's after the blood to affect some sort of cure?
Page 18-19 - I don't really understand what poor Goatboy's trying to achieve by taking Lux captive. He clearly didn't kill Robin and admits as much on the next page. Surely he knows he's better of with Batman than the League? Clearly not, and things don't end well for him. Or Lux for that matter, though at least she gets the Betaferon Z she asked Bats for in issue three.
Page 20 - So that's what happens when you put Batman Incorporated up against 30 of the world's greatest assassins in an enclosed space...
Why is Talia so keen for Bruce to spill the beans as far as Wingman's identity goes? Is it because Jason symbolizes so much that Damian is not allowed to be? A murderer; a self-righteous vigilante who answers to no authority but his own? In a sense it's more meta than that as well - Jason represents how little any of it 'matters'. Even if Talia and her cadre of elite assassins succeeded in killing Damian, why not just bring him back via the Lazarus Pit? He's the example that makes a mockery of all of the lessons Bruce is trying to teach Damian, and a living if somewhat more moderate embodiment of his mother and grandfather's ideals.
Page 21 - ...Though of course he's also, in the end, one of the good guys and another one of 'the family'. He's Damian grown up, a walking contradiction; venal and bloodthirsty, yet ultimately noble and just. Of course, that they're so similar is probably why Damian hates him so much...
The big reveal, as seems to be usually the case with Morrison, was always the most obvious answer all along and still somehow comes as a surprise. I hope the way this plays out pays not even a smidgeon of lip service to the excerable Red Hood and the Outlaws...
Damian's face in that last panel. Awww, bless...
Page 22 -So, this is all revenge for Damian's decision to leave his mother after she grew him a new spine back in Batman and Robin. And Bruce thinks that Damian returning to Talia and the League (or what's left of it after this issue) will stop the madness? I wish I could share his optimism...
Like the last panel says, next up is a return to the future Damian-as-Batman world we first saw in Batman #666. As for this month, any comments, corrections or additions welcome, please do get in touch.
