Batman is one of the most recognized fictional characters in the world, transcending his genre and entering the realm of characters such as Sherlock Holmes, Hercules and Dracula. Batman is simply an incredible modern legend, and this year, Grant Morrison has decided to take the Caped Crusader to his limits. In Batman: RIP, the Dark Knight Detective faces not death but devastating personal attack, in an attempt to break the man beneath the cowl.
The story elements of RIP were being planted well before the actual storyline by modern master Grant Morrison. Batman finds himself under assault by an enemy known as the Black Glove. The Black Glove seems to know a great deal about Bruce Wayne, as well as his family, both costumed and civilian. The initial attack was brutal: His girlfriend kidnapped, his allies beaten or subdued, and Bruce himself driven mad by an implanted keyword and injected with mind-altering drugs. This group of elites and villains who comprise the fingers of the Black Glove seeks to bring down a good man and make him its slave, but Batman is more than just Bruce Wayne.
In the event of such an occurrence, Bruce Wayne had created a submerged personality, another Batman. This Batman in actuality is based on a Silver Age story involving an alien from the planet Zur-En-Arrh. The Batman of Zur-En-Arrh is inspired by the real Batman, and fights crime in his honor. On Zur-En-Arrh, our Batman gains powers like Superman. In RIP the suppressed persona, the Batman of Zur-En-Arrh, is an idealized Batman. This Batman is unstoppable in his pursuit of justice, a pure machine. He strikes back and annihilates those who get in the way, that is until he’s finally broken and blacks out, thanks to the Joker and the betrayal of his girlfriend Jezebel Jet. The Black Glove plans to bury the Batman and then defile his corpse.
Batman awakens from the attack and snaps out of his Zur-En-Arrh state. He strikes back at his enemies, deducing their weaknesses and motives, and defeats them all. What RIP represents is not his physical death, a question Final Crisis will answer for us, but the degradation of Batman, torn down to his base elements. Bruce Wayne may have emerged out of RIP with his life, but his spirit is left shaken.
The writer of this story, Grant Morrison, crafted this story with the intent of challenging the Dark Knight, but also of redeeming Batman’s kooky past. When the Golden Age gave way to the Silver, Batman’s adventures went from dark and street-level to space-faring science fiction. He and Robin had numerous off-beat adventures, including the Zur-En-Arrh adventure and a run-in with a sensory deprivation experiment, which is the source of the keyword that breaks his mind. Morrison masterfully weaves these fantastical tales and reconciles them with Batman’s current status quo of semi-realism. While characters like Superman and Silver Surfer are more suitable for cosmic adventures, Batman really calls Gotham his home and is defined by his role as its protector, not as a space faring adventurer or a jolly crusader, as he was portrayed in the 1960s, in comics and the popular TV series.
Grant Morrison’s Batman RIP is not currently available in a collected graphic novel, but Morrison’s prior work in the Batman series: Batman and Son, The Resurrection of Ra’s Al Ghul, and The Black Glove have been released in hardcover. Morrison also wrote the intriguing Arkham Asylum which took a look at the denizens of the infamous insane asylum. These works, and many others, are available at Midtown Comics. From Morrison’s Batman work to the Silver Age material that inspired him, Midtown Comics has numerous comic books, graphic novels and other comic paraphernalia for your entertainment. They have two prime locations in New York City, as well as a wonderful website, making them one of the premiere comic retailers in the world.
For further information please visit: Batman Comics on Midtown Comics Website.
Raphael Soohoo is an English Literature graduate of Hunter College who has read comic books studiously for many years, and is an authority on their relevance to the worldwide pop culture landscape.
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