Medicine Soldiers

[arbre_rieur]

Four pages from BATMAN INCORPORATED 7...



That night, Raven finally has enough and calls it quits.



A closer look at that sign, for the`curious:





By the time the two reach Man-of-Bats, he's been stabbed, but he's still alive.



As it turns out, Raven was wearing the bulletproof "ghost shirt" underneath, so he's fine, and Man-of-Bats survives, too.

Comments

[darkblade]

Rather impressed by this issue but I am not looking forward to the digital based next issue.

[drmcninja]

Batman on a budget. I really, really, like that scene there. That just gets to me somehow.

[drmcninja]

Same. Saw Tron. Loved it. Don't think Batman is necessary.

[aaron_bourque]

I love it when Batman's impressed with someone's work.

Aaron "The Mad Whitaker" Bourque; needs to be more of that, less "THIS IS MY CITY!!! RARGH!"

[star_of_airdrie]

completely agree! It's almost OOC for Bruce!Batman to be so impressed...

[drakyndra]

"Nothing important will ever happen here". And then later he talks about wanting to fight giant robots.

I am vaguely reminded of FLCL.

[aaron_bourque]

Argh, no it isn't! People just forgot! Before the 90s, Batman was capable of actual human reactions and stuff! Argh.

[shadowpsykie]

what does it for me is Batman's genuine smile :D

[star_of_airdrie]

the 80's? I believe I was under a table in Smokey Joe's for most of the 80's...

[cypherfdp]

Batman Vs. TRON

[thehefner]

That last Tron bit is a typical example of something that's always annoyed the hell out of me about Morrison's Batman work. He throws in dialogue that would be better suited to big, grand, clean, fun comics akin to Batman: The Brave and the Bold, but he does it in stories which are set in the regular DCU where a character can be lying in the street, stabbed in the gut and coughing up blood. It's always felt jarring and annoying to me. Anyone else feel the same way?

[miramira]

I dunno about in general, but that teaser definitely felt like a really jarring throwback to the old '60s TV show compared to everything else.

[thehefner]

I suppose I specifically mean less of that (although that's definitely what I see here) and more like people speaking in grand, sweeping, very-comic-book-like proclamations rather than actual people in a story.

[jlbarnett]

the Leviathan plot just reads to me as something out of Final Crisis that got pushed aside. I could do without it.

[mas]

Is it jarring for anyone else how it goes from "Batman on a budget" to BaTron?

[darkknightjrk]

Well, it seems like we have a difference of opinion--there are few things in this world I think wouldn't be vastly approved if you put Batman in it.

[xammax]

Thats what I love. Big goofy ideas in world where bad things happen. My problem with the "clean" comics is I never feel real emotion or need. My problem with gritty is they gave up ideas and fighting the good fight. Its why I love Morrison, crazy ideas and fighting the good fight, in an actual fight.

[darkknightjrk]

That's been there for a while now, really--ever since Morrison got on the Batman title, I would say.

[darkknightjrk]

THIS. The fact that he mixes the grandiose and the real so well is part of what I love about Morrison's work.

[drmcninja]

I agree, but I also think it helps the comic. Is his talent kind of wasted here? Yes. But his dialogue helps even out what could be a much darker story. It doesn't feel out of place, and just adds some levity to scenes so they can balance out the heaviness. Marvel should do more like that.

[drmcninja]

Didn't even think of it that way. "Batman on a budget. The concept works. Guess you don't need millions. Oh, is that the time? Sorry, I have to go back to and inside of my future internet to solve a problem with my super high-tech Tron suit and computer genius friend."

[darkknightjrk]

I think that last panel is sort-of Morrison's cheat to have something like those melodramatic covers back in the 70s and such.

And personally, I think the grand dialogue and ideas mixed in with real character, emotion, and consequences is sort-of like peanut butter and jelly--two great things that mix well together, especially for stuff like super-hero comics.

[darkknightjrk]

Well, there is a bit of that mind control/slavery stuff that has a lot in common with Final Crisis, but in The Return, where Leviathan was first introduced, the script session we see has Morrison say that Leviathan is sort-of his way of giving Batman his own version of Cobra to fight.

[darkknightjrk]

"Hey, the concept works, you guys do great with it...but I like using my money to fight crime. So sue me. *kanye shrug*"

[darkknightjrk]

I really love this--I remember really liking what little we saw of Man of Bats and Raven Red back during The Black Glove, but it was great giving them more of a focus.

The "Batman on a budget" stuff, seeing MOB and Raven interacting with their community was really sweet, especially when their people fought Black Elk down when MOB was in trouble. I also loved their relationship in general--it's sort-of like a more grounded version of Bruce's relationship with Dick when he was Raven's age, and they just had some great interaction (I had to laugh a bit when Bill was chastising Raven about not putting enough pressure on his wound in the middle of saying what he might have thought was his final words. If they announced an on-going about these two, I would buy it instantly.

One thing I did find funny...so, we find out that they operate on an Indian reservation in South Dakota. ...Sort-of makes me want to see them cross-over and fight this guy: