The Stories That Informed ‘Batman R.I.P.’

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8 Responses

  1. RD Francis says:

    NOTE: I believe the Ten-Eyed Man also appeared in MAN-BAT v. 1 #1, from the mid-70s.

  2. John Wells says:

    It was MAN-BAT #2, actually, but, yep, he did appear there–and die. And ten years later, he was revived just long enough to be killed AGAIN in a bit in CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS #12 where he wasn't even identified by name.

  3. Shane Kelly says:

    Well done, and well researched. You drew up a tremendous time line there. There are a lot of folks who could use this column on other boards (ahem, newsarama) because they simply don't believe that Morrison loves the character of Batman, and feel he's sabotaged the title.

  4. Scott says:

    Fantastic article – I would have appreciated Morrison's Batman a lot more had I read this (still liked his take on Bats though) If the editors at DC had been doing their jobs properly shouldn't there have been some footnotes 'see Batman#120 – ED' – you don't see that in comics much these days

  5. Scottc142 says:

    An amazing bit of research. This article is a must read for any fan of the Morrison run. Having read the run up through #682 (thanks to the well done GNs- Batman and and Son and The Black Glove) several times I think this is GM's best work yet. Given the layered complexity and dark tone, multiple readings are required to fully appreciate what GM has done with Batman. Your article clearly illustrates how much GM respects the Batman legacy. Hopefully the comics community will realize what's been accomplished here and embrace the GM storyline as canon. Factoring in Tony Daniel's art, the #655 to 682 run is a post-modern, gothic masterpiece that parallels the Dark Knight film at a clean right angle.

  6. Anonymous says:

    Wow, great work. Morrison's Batman is definitely a complex piece and this article helps make some light of it.

  7. Anonymous says:

    I agree, immensely helpful. Even as a pretty die-hard Batman fan, I think I'd only known a small fraction of these references. I'm not 100% sure, but I think some of the early parts of Morrison's run also refer to Legends of the Dark Knight runs, like the drug-induced Batman being a reference to Venom, the future, demonic Batman possibly a reference to Morrison's own Gothic. The gun-wielding Batman made me immediately think of Batman: Year Two, which was more explicitly referenced with the Joe Chill story. Not surprising, considering the use of the same writer's Son of the Demon…

  8. John Hartnett says:

    a fine piece of scholarship and research. I've read most of the referenced stories, and most of those when they were first published (yes, I'm older than dirt). It was great to see all of these, as you say, "goofy", but still resonant, stories marshaled to help explain Morrison's fine meta-story. Thanks very much!