DCU Comic Book Reviews

BATMAN #671

He Who Is Master

January 2008

Written by Grant Morrison

Pencils by Tony Daniel

Inks by Jonathan Galpion

Cover by Tony Daniel

Synopsis

[Continued from Detective Comics, issue #838]

In Nanda Parbat, Sensei is looking for the key to the temple of Rama Kushna and the Fountain of Life.  Elsewhere, Ra’s al Ghul has Damian and Tim Drake (aka Robin) held hostage.  Ra’s tells Batman to pick the one who will become his new body.  Batman has a third option:  he will take Ra’s to the Fountain of Life to restore the body he has now.  Ra’s agrees.  However, the Sensei has gotten to the Fountain of Life before them.  He is upset that Ra’s has failed repeatedly, so he kills him.  The Sensi then attacks Batman, intent on killing him as well.  The two fight and both fall into the Fountain of Life, which burns Sensei and he dies.  The Dark Knight then rises from the water, looking for Ra’s. [Continued in Robin, issue #169]

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

The fight at the end was brutal, but I loved it and I really liked this issue.  The key moment, for me, was the brief bonding moment between Ra’s and Batman, who are bonded by much more than hero and villain:  they are family, both with blood ties to Damian.  It adds an interesting dynamic to an already interesting relationship and I hope Morrison continues to explore this after this crossover is finished. 

In my review of the last issue of Batman, I commented how it seemed weird that in the story of the resurrection of Ra’s al Ghul, the actual resurrection occurred off-panel, before the prelude to the story actually begun.  And now, in this issue, the titular character to be resurrected has just been killed (again).  Well, I think so.  As I mention below, the art was a little difficult to follow, so I am not sure if the next to final scene is showing Ra’s soul being shifted to a young monk or not.  I would guess so, it makes the most sense, but it was not clear how it was done.  Whatever happened there at the end, it doesn’t really matter, because ultimately this issue took the storyline down a path I was not expecting and certainly at a pace that I was not expecting. This is a good thing.  The first two parts in Nightwing and Robin were slow and seemed to be treading water; the next two, including this one, have picked up the pace considerably.  I suspect the next two parts will slow down the story (as we follow Robin and Nightwing in events concurrent with Batman and Ra’s in Nanda Parbat), but I guess that’s the price to pay in a crossover like this. 

I had a difficult time following the fight scenes.  Looking at some of the scenes again, it seems like Daniel is drawing every other panel.  For instance, we see Batman get hit in the arm on the bottom of page 9 just as he throws a batarang.  Then the next panel shows Merlyn fleeing, his hand clutching his throat.  The missing panel?  Merlyn reaching for another arrow as the batarang hits him.  Granted, I could figure out what happened, but the panel layout is choppy.  There are other such moments (how does Sensi take away Batman’s eyes, unless the blow to the back of the head did it?) and takes away from the reading of the book. 

One interesting touch:  the Sensei refers to Ra’s daughters, as in plural, as in both of them.  In this book and the crossover, only Talia has been seen.  Nyssa was killed off-panel during the missing year, as revealed in Robin, issue #148.  Both Talia and Nyssa were responsible for Ra’s death in the first place (Death And The Maidens), so I must give credit to whomever made sure to make that statement plural.