Thursday, May 20, 2010

BATMAN: THE RETURN OF BRUCE WAYNE #1


They got stuck in time on Lost two years ago and Captain America went through the same thing last year. It's Bruce Wayne's turn. This reminds me of when Antz and A Bug's Life both came out around the same time. I think Armageddon and Deep Impact came out close to each other, too. I guess it's not really being ripped off here, because the idea of someone being lost in the time stream has been done before (H.G. Wells' The Time Machine was probably the first piece to tackle the idea). Writer Grant Morrison is known for writing comics as if they're pieces of a puzzle. His stuff is often more confusing and obtuse than entertaining. I think Batman: R.I.P. would have been unreadable if not for Tony Daniel's awesome visuals. And Morrison's new book, Batman & Robin, faltered once Frank Quitely quit drawing the interiors. This book apparently is six parts and has six different artists. It doesn't help that this is the caveman issue. From what I've heard, Batman also ends up a pirate and stuck in the puritan/witch hunt era. Those issues are probably going to be a lot more fun, as this issue is a disaster. I didn't read Final Crisis, but he wasn't killed off at the end of it (nor was he killed in the storyline titled Batman: R.I.P.), he was sent into the time stream so that DC can sell a new Batman comic (there are now four monthly Batman books out there that I know of). Bruce Wayne amongst cavemen is just silly. It doesn't work at all. Even the spectacular art by Karl Story can't save it (and the art is incredible in the first three pages then slowly gets worse). Superman showing up and “missing” Batman is just the icing on the stupidity cake. Seriously, how long do we have to wait until they put Geoff Johns on one of the Bat books? * (out of ****)

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