BATMAN #672

Space Medicine

February 2008

Written by Grant Morrison

Pencils by Tony Daniel

Inks by Jonathan Galpion

Cover by Tony Daniel

Synopsis

A man dressed in the Batman costume enters the Gotham police station looking for Commissioner Van because the “Sleeper awoke.”  Commissioner Gordon tells him that Vane doesn’t work for the police anymore.  The fake Batman then shoots Commissioner Gordon and takes him to the rooftop.  Elsewhere, Bruce Wayne and Jezebel Jet’s romance has been making the tabloid news.  They are in the middle of skydiving when the Bat-signal appears in the sky.  Bruce tells Alfred to make excuses as he changes into Batman.  On the rooftop, he finds the fake Batman with Gordon.  In the fight, Gordon is shot again and Batman is shot in the heart.  Just as he goes into cardiac arrest, he writes “Zur En Arrh.”  Just then, Bat-Mite appears and says, “Now you’re in trouble, Bruce.”

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

Free of the constraint of writing part whatever of the Ra’s al Ghul crossover story, Morrison returns to telling the crazy, wild, and hyperkinetic stories he is noted for.  Damn if I didn’t quite get what was going on in this issue (what is the deal with Bat-Mite or the text Batman wrote), but I was fascinated by all of it and can’t wait to read more, if only so it can start to make sense.  I think part of the problem stems from the fact that this issue picks up on threads from the very beginning of Morrison’s run, which started way back in the fall of 2006.  Some 18 months, two non-related Morrison stories, a few stories written by others later, and we are back to the beginning, in a sense.  Hopefully this time, Morrison will be able to tell his story without interruptions, either due to artist delays or crossover stories. 

The fake Batman in this issue is supposedly the third Batman.  Based on the clues given (he used to be a former policeman), it seemed like this Batman was the one shown on the very first panel of Morrison’s very first Batman book.  The second Batman (Muller) was shown here and I remember him as the one that resembled Bane.  I am unsure about Branca.  Maybe he was the one in that very first issue.  I don’t know.  I am probably missing something, but I haven’t had the chance to go back and re-read Morrison’s to reacquaint myself with the story. 

Nice homage to Frank Miller’s Dark Knight Returns.  The first is the full page splash and the second is the bullet shot to the heart.  Both are completely and utterly useless, but it was still a nice little touch.

If I weren’t so lazy (and extremely busy that I can’t really spare about ten minutes or so), I would go back to the One Year Later stories and see if there is mention of Gordon’s predecessor.  For some time, Gordon was not part of the Gotham Police force; this was only changed when DC did the One Year Later leap.  Basically, Gordon became commissioner sometime during the missing year chronicled in the 52 series. 

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