Batman Incorporated #5

[superfangirl1]

In the future Gotham is taken over by people who have been exposed to Joker gas a parting gift from the Joker. They siege the city like zombies in the Walking Dead as the survivors are holed up in Arkham Asylum. Damian now as Batman is on a mission to save a little baby who may hold the answers to curing the swaths of people infected by the Joker gas.





Barbara Gordon gets infected by the Joker virus and kills the baby. She then proceeds to shoot Damian to stun him enough. So she have enough time to open the main gates of Arkham Asylum. Barbara gets brutally killed by the crowd of infected people.



Meanwhile the president of the united states with persuading from the devil (while disguised as one of his advisor), decides to nuke Gotham city hoping to sterilize and contain the virus and stop it from spreading to other cities.

Comments

[darkknightjrk]

Not just the devil--I'm pretty sure that was meant to be Dr. Hurt.

[jlbarnett]

a dream

not viewing the future after Darkseid

[darkknightjrk]

It is a possible future that Bruce apparently glimpsed when he was doing his quantum leaping back into present day.

[bewareofgeek]

Y'know, between this and Happy, I'm starting to wonder about Morrison's state of mind.

[darkknightjrk]

How so?

[bewareofgeek]

He just seems to be writing darker stories than usual. Last time I saw him like this was when he wrote THE FILTH.

[sadoeuphemist]

This is pretty whimsical compared to The Filth.

[darkknightjrk]

With Incorporated, this has been the only real "gritty" issue of it so far. Remember the rest has been over-the-top action and moments like "Bat-Cow." With Happy, it seems to me to be more of a parody of the typical Garth Ennis book. Also, don't forget that he's also writing Action Comics at the same time, which has been a blindingly optimistic book.

[bewareofgeek]

Point taken. It just felt to me like this issue dove right into the deep end of the cynic pool.

[icon_uk]

The Special thingie was fairly dark IMHO.

[darkknightjrk]

Special thingie?

[icon_uk]

The Batman Inc special, the one with Steph in it when she shouldn't technically exist, and then had the Spyder's Web thing with the rotted bodies and the drugs etc....

[aeka]

I can only hope that by this point in Damian's potential "future" that Helena had made it back to Earth-2. Everyone here was written grossly out of character, especially Barbara. On that note, I'm tired of The Killing Joke being referenced, even in this book.

[walkingthroughforest]

I disagree, they're completely in character to how Morrison's been writing the 666 future for the past 5 years.

[darkknightjrk]

Well, it has to be remembered that this is a dystopic future, where everything goes wrong. I think any OOC actions can be pinned on that.

And honestly, there are some moments in the 90s where Oracle wasn't really that far off from what we saw here. It's part of why I much prefer her the way she is now, honestly.

And it's funny, I didn't think of that as a TKJ reference until someone else mentioned it--the fact that Damian was able to walk away from had a bit to do with it. It should be mentioned that there's also a little bit of a full-circle here, since in Morrison's first issue of Batman, Jim Gordon was hit with Joker's fear toxin, but was hospitalized and when Batman came in to see him, half of his face was in a Joker rictus grin, much like Barbara here.

[filthysize]

It's interesting to me... Characters behaving OOC is usually rather the point of flashing far into the past or the future, since it's meant to show how the years have changed them, but most people curiously are more inclined to accept characters behaving differently in flashbacks than they are in flash-forwards. Like, I always think it would be funny/interesting to have a future story where we see that Oliver Queen has turned out to be an Ayn Randian conservative in his old age (which is not an unrealistic personality change), but I can definitely see some people complaining that they don't buy that Ollie would turn out that way.

[silverhammerman]

Awwww. I prefer happy futures.
Still, this is nice, it's cool to see Morrison cut loose without be beholden to any status quo.

[sadoeuphemist]

I just realized, Bruce's horrific vision of the future was seeing Damian become Batman. So in response he creates Batman Inc. to franchise out and dilute the identity before Damian can get his hands on it.

Hahahaha what a dick.

[mrstatham]

If that's all you're taking away from this, then I think you're reading it entirely wrong.

[sadoeuphemist]

No, seriously, think about it. We've been told that Batman Inc. is a direct response to the future Bruce glimpsed. An entire Bat-franchise in response to the fact that his son is going to grow up into a shitty Batman who gets Gotham destroyed. Geez, Batman, if you're so scared about how your kid's going to grow up, sit down and talk with him. Be a parent. Don't start a nation-spanning war with your ex.

[icon_uk]

He's not doing it BECAUSE Damian is a shitty Batman, he's doing it to PREVENT Damian becoming a shitty Batman. He's not fulfilling the future he saw, he's doing everything in his power to change it (Which he has started to do when someone didn't die that night), to save his son.

[sadoeuphemist]

Uh, that's what I said. His idea of saving his son from failing the Batman name involves him spreading the Batman brand worldwide, and telling his son to stay at home and sit this one out.