Batman Incorporated #13

[flint_marko]

 

Comments

[goggle_kid]

So right after DC Comics essentially destroys decades of it's own history, Grant Morrison brings back a character only hard-line Batman fans will remember while referencing a story from the 70s.

I honestly wonder if he's been quietly trying to subvert and take down Didio's reign from within...

[bardbrain]

Shh... She doesn't exist.

And the implication going back to Zur-En-Arrh's reveal is that continuity is basically all drug induced Orwellian brainwashing anyway.

Kathy it would seem runs around neutralizing people to keep what they know in check.

I'm half surprised she didn't fake Damian's death. Damian "loses" his father to live inbetween the panels of continuity as the Batman nobody remembers. Throw Cass and Steph in there too. And the original Alfred.

Just a wicked Orwellian black ops conspiracy agency of the dead and the forgotten.

Continuity is basically all the Hand from the filth. Maybe they wear white camouflage suits so nobody can see them tinkering in the bleed between panels.

[sadoeuphemist]

Hahahaha this rules. Batman's a big dumb posturing idiot who got his son killed and managed to learn nothing from the experience, and the only reason he's still around is because these people he once inspired keep pulling his ass out of the fire.

I mean, Morrison was right, I do hate this because it's rubbing it in my face that a Kathy Kane, Agent of SPYRAL comic will never exist, but my god this is the perfect ending to his run.

Fuck Batman, y'all.

[polly1788]

glad i skipped this

[s0mnambulance]

I haven't bought a comic in two years, and I haven't posted here in more than three, but--

I love this run. The whole thing. R.I.P. is still for me the zenith, but the subtext and multiple elements that make up Batman: Inc. , and that's not even getting into the stories themselves of the great artists Morrison has worked with for this run.

Once I get a job? Back to comics. To hell with the price point. Too bad I haven't been following this properly since the end of Batman & Robin.

[icon_uk]

If this is what it took to get you back and posting, more power to it! :)

[jaybee3]

Well that was anti-climatic. Deus Ex Machine ending? Our hero in the end doing nothing (what is this, Superman and the New Krypton saga) and a character who literally doesn't exist elsewhere in the DCU and then goes back to not existing ending it all.

[katya]

This book had its moments, initially, but overall I thought it was weird, hard to follow, and the art was terrible. I picked it up intitially because I enjoyed the previous Batman Inc. story, but dropped it at issue #6 and then sold all the issues I'd bought a few weeks later.

These pages make me super pleased I made that choice. I regret nothing.

[fungo_squiggly]

Batman telling the Bat-Cow to shut up is awesome.

[glprime]

Agreed.

[kenn_el]

I thought it was awesome. Kathy always deserved better than O'Neil gave her, and seeing her legacy flourishing in the pages of Batwoman and now this warms my cold little heart.

[protogarrett]

...?

So Kathy Kane isn't Batwoman anymore?


What?

[auggie18]

I think Kate and Kathy are supposed to be different people now thanks to this. Or something.


Yeah, I don't know.

[zechs80]

I love Morrison. Utterly defiant to the bitter end that EVERYTHING is in continuity. The only sad losses are Cass, Steph, and Gordon having be forced to say, "ZERO YEAR".

Other than that, I enjoyed this crazy wild ride.

[goggle_kid]

Telling Grant Morrison that something isn't continuity is sort of like telling The Hulk not to smash something. He'll find a way.

[thatnickguy]

Question. Has this Kathy Kane appeared at all throughout the story? Or is this the first time she's ever appeared? Because if it's the latter, I'll be using this as the perfect example of a deus ex machina when friends or people online keep wrongly using the term to describe endings.

[kd_the_movie]

Nah earlier in the Batman Inc. arc (like nearly 3 years ago i think) Morrison retconned her origin as an agent of SPYRAL whose original mission was to discover Bruce's identity.

[crinos]

Why is there a cow in the batcave?

[arilou_skiff]

A better question is why there aren't more cows in the Batcave.

[maxisanacorn]

I really liked the slow build-up of Kathy's return. It was hinted with the faux Kathy Batwoman that Kate went up against; the new origin story, her being Bruce's non-relational aunt who later dates him...it was all really clever reinterpretation of her original "I really wanna be with Batman" motive making her that secret agent. I thought it was really neat.

I'm pretty sure it was implied she was the first Batwoman along with Bat-Girl because her Spyral school-girl agents wear a variation of her Batwoman costume and she really did don the costume, but she wasn't Batwoman for long and most of her and Bruce's adventures were like most of the Silver-Age stuff according to Morrison; hallucinations from a drug induced state that affected them and Dick and I think even Betty/Bette.

I feel that whole arc though was messed up quite a bit by the removal of Steph going by Steph's hand in dismantling one of their training schools. You also had that cool Jason Todd being kidnapped by her girl agents which was fun too, I feel there was probably more to that than they ended up doing.

I feel the reboot and Morrison's likely distain for it certainly colored the second volume of this series which wasn't as good as the first in terms of pacing and story-telling imo.

I would have LOVED her to have had two schoolgirls right next to her right there wearing the skull masks and their hair be Steph and Cass's "I don't exist" it would have been a pretty awesome art jab, considering Morrison actually LIKED Steph and Cass. The Death of Knight and Squire becoming the New Knight was a bit...odd since it never went anywhere but giving her a new mantle.

Catwoman's more or less removal from the INC network was a big loss too. I loved that Japan adventure.

Talia's extremely meta points about Batman and more or less editorial when it comes to Batman is very valid, I find it so true. There is no finality and growth it just keeps circling and circling and Batman will never really win or truly loose against his iconic adversaries because Editorial says so. I really like this, though it did position Talia in such a bad place.

[s0mnambulance]

Yep. You nailed my favorite thing about this in your last paragraph, something I was having trouble putting into words myself. Morrison's backhanded surrender to the editorial policies that to some extent ruined the Batman saga he's been proudly working on for...what, seven years?...show how flawed the book became because of those policies, but also make the story even better for that added layer.

If comics are republished the way "serious" books of literature are now in the future, this issue will have a considerable footnote or introductory essay. You almost need it to get the Kathy Kane thing. Very cool stuff.

[biod]

I think we've all learned something today:
"Never trust a senile nazi".

[star_of_airdrie]

I believe that's deduced from never trust any Nazi.

Sadly, she won't be able to learn from the experience however.

[kingofmadcows]

So basically, they made Talia into a more sadistic and vengeful Joker. This is pretty much what the final confrontation between the Joker and Batman would look like. The Joker would go kill and torture a ton of people just to piss Batman off, then he'd laugh at Batman for being an idiot and indulging in his game. Although the Joker will probably also throw in a few jokes about how Batman is still a 10 year old boy at heart crying out for mommy and daddy, playing dress up in the vain hopes of trying to impress them even though he probably barely remembers what they're really like.

[chrisdv]

"I'd laugh if it wasn't so pathetic.

Oh, I'll laugh anyway. AHAHAHAHAHA!!!"

[chrisdv]

Moo.

You tell 'im, Batcow!

[kd_the_movie]

i did like the fact that it was Jason who is there with Bruce at the end.

[icon_uk]

I have yet to be able to compute how DCnU Bruce reconciles with the consistently lethal activities of Jason Todd.

[icon_uk]

So Talia uses Time Lord tech? Her signal device looks a LOT like the telepathic mesage cube used by the Doctor's old pal, the Corsair.

[akodo_rokku]

She was a VERY naughty girl.

[theflames]

Ohh, the art is terrible.

Kathy Kane introduction would've been much nicer with some good art, I'm interested to see what the writers do with her.

[shadowpsykie]

never ever ever liked quietly... he ruined new x-men for me... they all look so... pinched and constipated....

[aeka]

I honestly didn't care for this issue since the finale was already predictable given the premise for the entire book. It was pretty much over for Talia the moment Grant had her kill her own son. The fact that this was a lazy ending to an already lazy story arc didn't even faze me in the slightest.

[jaybee3]

I think Morrison actually killing Talia (though we all know she'll be back with Lazarus Pits and all) is actually him admitting (even if its all meta) that he took her too far into complete over the top evil for her to survive the story with some kind of Joker immunity.

[kd_the_movie]

how can you guys not like Chris Burnhams art? Its fantastic. Its Quietly by way of Ed Mcguinness which is what makes it bearable to me.....

[theflames]

Look at his illustration of Kathy Kane, 4th scan, first panel. It looks terrible.

At least Quietly has a lock on making his poses correct in anatomy and aesthetics.

[his_spiffynesss]

So what is this SPYRAL group? With Kathy Kane's declaration of her non-existence, I'm wondering if they are like a black ops version of the Exiles

[bardbrain]

They're a secret agency she's a member of. It turned out her whole career as Batwoman was a cover for her secret agent business with Spyral, trying to get close to Batman... And the Batwoman uniform was a standard SPYRAL field agent uniform with a different mask.

She "doesn't exist" in the way the Men in Black don't exist. Brainwashing and drugs. Which is also how Morrison explains the Silver Age Batman stories involving aliens, including a semi-famous one Kathy was involved in.

There's a potential thread there that the various reboots aren't actually caused by time travel or whatever but are just SPYRAL brainwashing people.

[turtlefu]

Now that the whole saga is over, I think it deserves a re-read, from start to finish, with notes and annotations ahoy!

It's probably one of those things that requires a long, unbroken read of the whole thing to make it comprehensible, much like Seven Soldiers and Grant's other work.

I can't wait for the inevitable "annotated Morrison Batman" books.

[s0mnambulance]

Hey! I just made a similar point in a reply to a previous comment--about the inevitable annotated Morrison's Batman.

I'm loved how many layers there have been to this. Even when it flounders from editorial policies (which will be necessary annotations for this issue--whew boy), there's a passion for the form that oozes from each page. Morrison does his damn best to merge popular entertainment with art. I got mad respect for that.

[applemagpie]

You know, this might have been more compelling outside of the context of the new 52, but within in it I'm just getting a big feeling of meh. Just another grimdark and pointless ending, not to mention more hero angst and superhero story 'subversion'.
I enjoyed RIP and most of Morrison's other writing for Batman, but I'm glad he's finally off of Batman. So, so glad.

Also the art isn't bad, but it just isn't pleasant to look at. Like at all. Everything just looks... spongy