Batman Incorporated v2 #6 Annotations
BATMAN INCORPORATED v2 #6
Garland Of Skulls
DC Comics, February 2013, Color, 32pgs, $2.99
Written by GRANT MORRISON ; Art by CHRIS BURNHAM; Cover by CHRIS BURNHAM & NATHAN FAIRAIRN; 1:25 Variant Cover by JUAN JOSE RYP & NATHAN FAIRBAIRN
Bat-Robots versus Man-Bat armies as Leviathan takes control of Gotham City!
Don’t miss the return of The Heretic!
Commentary
So after last issue's post-apocalyptic zombie flashforward, this month Batman Incorporated brings us a tower seige based around the Zen parable of the Ten Ox Herder pictures. Awesome. Mildly disappointing to see some fill-in pages creep in there, but they're a decent standard and don't really interrupt the flow of the story, so I'm sure we can all let it slide.
Its all really starting to build toward a conclusion now and the excitement is ramping up. Revelations! Death! Hulking Bat-brutes! This one's got it all...
Annotations
Cover -Burnham's cover is great (as always) especially with the red-white colour scheme on the Combo Pack version - and Damian peeping out from behind his hand is an especially nice touch - but wow, that Juan Jose Ryp cover is incredible. Like this issues fill-in guy Andres Guinaldo, Ryp has done lots of work for Avatar and is just starting to pick stuff up from the big two. Love the European touch he gives it, and the colours, and the type. Good work all round; that is some seriously good comics.
Page 1 - Picking up from the dramatic explosion at Leviathan's Crime Alley hidaway at the end of last issue, Bruce speeds toward the scene in what looks like (another) new Batmobile.
Three issues on from the brief exchange with Alfred about the weather ("Curious weather for this time of year, wouldn't you say?", "Changeable") it's still raining. This is still the same night as the closing scenes of issue three though, so I suppose that's to be expected. Still think there might be more to it though...
Long-suffering GCPD slob Harvey Bullock and secret Batman Inc. operative Jim Gordon (notice the pin-badge on Gordon's lapel from Batman Incorporated v1 #6) await Batman at the scene..
Page 2 - The sign on Leviathan's ruined headquarters reads St. Malphas. Malphas isn't a saint; he's one of the 72 demons listed in 17th Century grimoire the Ars Goetia, which makes up the first section of demonology compendium The Lesser Key of Solomon. Simon Hurt's goons the 99 Fiends also took their names from the 72 demons.
According to Samuel Lidell Mathers and Aleister Crowley's English translation of the Goetia -
"[Malphas] is a Mighty and Powerful President. He appears at first like a crow, but after he will put on human shape at the request of the Exorcist, and speak with a hoarse Voice. He can build houses and high towers, and can inform you of your enemies' desires and thoughts, and that which they have done. He gives good Familiars. If you make a sacrifice unto him he will receive it kindly and willingly, but he will deceive him that does it."
With its top floor destroyed by the explosion last issue, the St Malphas building is a pretty close visual analogue to the Tarot card The Tower, often symbolizing fear, ruin and catastrophe.
Gordon's colleagues' accusations - that Bruce Wayne is somehow to blame for all of this - will probably factor into the "one month later" scene that kicked off this volume of Batman Incorporated.
I don't think we've seen the Bat-robots since they dredged the Leviathan (ship) up from the murky depths in the Leviathan Strikes one-shot.
Page 3 - Sealed? Iron-plated? No problem for these guys.
Page 4 -The Zen parable of the Goatherd is more commonly known as the Ten Bulls or Ten Ox Herding Pictures (as acknowledged by Talia). Its a series of pictures that illustrate the 10 stages on the path to enightenment, often accompanied by a short poetic passage. They're not something you can really pin a specific 'meaning' on, being as they are a tool for meditating on achieving an elightened state. The first picture on the floor here is "In Search of The Bull - aimless searching, only the sound of cicadas".
Talia and Bruce's plot and counter-plot seems to reduce down now to Talia ritually murdering Batman, recalling once again The Wicker Man and the more recent Kill List, directed by Ben Wheatley (and highly recommended despite the super-generic title).
Talia's use of the goat rather than the traditional ox or bull is presumably in homage to the various goat lore we've seen in the issues running up to this - Gotham as Home of Goats, Professor Pyg's "The goat is in his house", Goaboy, Leviathan's use of the Sigil of Baphomet, etc.
The second picture, leading Batman deeper into Talia's lair, "Discovery of the footprints - a path to follow". The goatherd (Batman?) pursues the goat (Talia/Leviathan?), up the mountain of Enlightenment (the interior of St. Malphas).
"Can't we just have a conversation like normal people?" LOL.
Page 5 - Yikes... things don't look good for what's left of The Outsiders. From left to right here we have Batman Incorporated operatives Freight Train, Looker and Halo partially buried under the rubble, Batwing, and The Knight and Squire.
The third picture, "Perceiving the Bull - only it's rear and not it's head."
"I give the guns and slogans to chant..." Talia's speech over the next couple of pages is some great dialogue from Morrison.
Page 6 - Ascending the tower, in the time-honoured tradition of Bruce Lee's Game of Death, and the recent The Raid: Redemption and Judge Dredd movies. Burnham's staging of the action scenes, especially this first panel reveal looking down on Batman, is impeccable as always. The little bat-winged stun grenades are another nice touch.
Page 7 - Picture number four in the sequence - "Catching the Bull (or goat...) - a great struggle, the bull repeatedly escapes, discipline required"
Page 8 - Back to the Batcave (and back to white gutters) with, from left to right, Red Robin Tim Drake, ex-Robin Jason Todd in his Wingman guise, Bat-Cow, Nightwing and Damian Wayne (who sensibly keeps his various costumes on a clothes rack rather than suspended inside a glass case). Dick calling out Jason on his ""Batman is dead" crap" is a reference to Morrison and Philip Tan's 'Revenge of the Red Hood' arc from Batman and Robin #4-6. Someone on the CBR forums highlighted it as a clear call-back to Tony Daniel's Battle For The Cowl mini-series (where Jason Todd wears a costume very similar to Michael Lane, the original 'Third Ghost'), but I'd be very surpirsed to see any elements of that story have a bearing on what's going on in this title.
Tim is as dutiful and work-focused as ever...
That's Damian's dog Titus entering from stage left with Alfred. He first appeared in issue #2 of the New 52 Batman and Robin title by Pete Tomasi and Patrick Gleason. Titus is a modern spin on Ace the Bat Hound, a staple of the Bat-family from his first appearance in 1955's Batman #92 through Julius Schwartz's 1964 'New Look' relaunch of the title. Ace was created by Bill Finger and Sheldon Moldoff.
Grant Morrison recently expressed his horror in an interview that Damian had been given a dog in the New 52 continuity, confirming that he'd been working toward introducing Alfred the cat all along. Alfred first appeared (fully grown) alongside future Damian in Batman #666.
Page 9 -Aww, bless.
Page 10-11 - The photos fixed to the dummies faces are some of the ordinary folk of Gotham that we've already seen join the ranks of Leviathan. We saw the lady in the glasses in panel 1 'recruited' in the first few pages of Batman Incorporated v2 #3, alongside the judge (on the dummy above and to the left) and the police detective (the first of the inset panels). The whole set-up - ticking clocks, spider webs, mysterious smoke, is eerily reminiscent of Batman's final confrontation with Otto Netz in Batman: Leviathan Strikes! The speed at which Leviathan can set up and move out of headquarters was also referenced in the space station segment of that issue.
"It smells of the desert by moonlight". As we saw back in issue #2 the big romantic moment for Batman and Talia came during the swordfight with dad from Batman #244, in the desert, by moonlight. At the end of that story, Talia gave Batman the antidote to a scorpion sting via a kiss.
The fifth picture - "Taming the Bull - less straying, less discipline, bull becomes gentle and obedient"
"Belladonna" is from the Italian, meaning "beautiful woman".
As Batman tries to get out of the tea room, all of the clocks strike 10:47 - the time Bruce's parents were killed. Most often used as a device to open the Batcave (via an old grandfather clock), the '10:47' thing appears to have originated fairly recently in the first part of Denny O'Neil and Trevor Von Eeden's 'Venom' from 1991's Legends of the Dark Knight #16. It was referenced in the 'Batman and Robin Must Die!' arc of Morrison's Batman and Robin, and again just last year (and inexplicably amended to 10:48) in Pete Tomasi and Patrick Gleason's Batman and Robin v2 #1. Thanks to Chris Burnham for the heads up on that one!
Page 12 -The Ninja Man-Bats are projecting the sixth picture in the sequence onto the side of St. Malphas - "Riding the Bull Home - great joy." Is Talia the Herder and Batman the Ox/Bull/Goat?
Bat-Robots versus Ninja Man-Bats, as promised in the solicit. Cool.
Page 13 - The first of 4 fill-in pages by Andres Guinaldo and Bit. Guinaldo's Batman looks to be heavily influenced by the movie Bats from Christopher Nolan Dark Knight trilogy. In keeping with Burnham's previous pages, the gutters shift from black to whiite as we move backwards and forwards between St. Malphas and the Batcave.
Page 14 -Oroboro as a power source was something that was hinted at in volume one, though its similarly ill-defined here.
The seventh picture - "The Bull Transcended - once home, the bull is forgotten, discipline's whip is idle; stillness"
"The 21st century will belong to me." 'Tomorrow Belongs To Me' from the musical Cabaret has previously been referenced in Morrison's The Invisibles and JLA.
Looks like Gotham's going to hell in a hand basket while Talia puts Bruce through his paces.
Page 15 - More echoes of Netz - dummies and disembodied voices.
Behind the Talia dummy, an empty circle - picture number eight - "Both Bull and Self Transcended - all forgotten and empty"
Page 17 - Picture number nine - "Reaching the Source - unconcerned with or without; the sound of cicadas"
Brrr. that's some pretty evil shit Talia's got going on there. The Heretic stands poised,
Page 18 - Morrison pulls the rug out from under us. Just as we're fearing for Beryl's life...
Page 19 - ...he goes and kills Cyril! Can't believe it!
Chris Burnham was born to draw this stuff. And by 'stuff' I mean upsetting violence. Bit of the old 'injury to eye' motif there.
Page 20 - Interesting theory on the CBR boards that The Heretic is Damian-Bats from #666 somehow summoned back through time by Talia. Remember when we first saw The Heretic in Batman: The Return there was a hint that he seemed to know something about the future? (Incidentally what happened to Traktir and Spidra from Return?). I'm not sure I buy it as a likely turn for the story to take but its interesting nontheless.
Page 21 - The old Burt Ward fist punch there. Good work old chum!
The final picture in the sequence - "Return to Society - crowded marketplace; spreading enlightenment by mingling with humankind"
Page 22 - Batman returns to society via the shattered window, eight storeys up, as a gang of mind-controlled feral children assault the massed forces of the GCPD. Right at the beginning of the issue we saw that the ruined building bore a close resemblance to the Tarot card of The Tower. Bruce's pose in the bottom centre shard maps pretty closely onto the falling man from the Rider-Waite version. Thanks to Dave Fyans on Twitter for pointing me in the right direction on that one!
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Whew, that is some good comics. As always please do send any comments, corrections or additions my way. If you feel like you'd like to know more about what the Ten Oxherder pictures actually mean in relation to this story why not head on over to Retcon Punch who have a very interesting reading of it. That's all from me for now though; see you in the funny papers...
