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Grant Morrison is a crazy genius, keyword "crazy." I read Batman R.I.P., The Black Glove, and Final Crisis before this and that was very stupid on my part. Morrison is highly self-referential, so you should start with Batman and Son and go from there. That's what I'm doing now and it's making way more sense.

So there's a lot going on in this particular edition, which collects Batman and Son, The Black Glove, and Issue 666 which is a great What If with Damian as Batman (among other extras). Before I get into the particulars, I really enjoyed Batman and Son. While Damian is a little shit and almost irredeemable as a character, he and Bruce probably have the most complex relationship of all Batman and Robins, and being the only Robin that breaks the cardinal rule of no killing, that's a major x factor.

Okay, so what's going on? A lot, let me tell you. I'll try to hit the major points... Commissioner Jim Gordon has been poisoned by Joker, Batman impersonators are running rampant, and everyone is telling the jaded Batman he needs to be Bruce Wayne for a while. Enter Damian, the Man Bat army, and various kidnapping plots by Talia Al Ghul. Damian trains and lives with Bats for a while but it's clearly a poor fit. Tim Drake especially feels out of place. Alfred can't deal with it. Meanwhile seeds of The Black Glove are being sown and Bats really seems to suffer a crisis of identity with a son showing up out of nowhere. And the book ends with Talia and Damian disappearing, Bats digging deeper into the Bat impersonator mystery (which is continued in The Black Glove, and this is where Bat Mite shows up and shit begins to go full Morrison), and Bats is becoming more involved with Jezabel Jet (I don't love her but it is what it is). The artwork is great from Andy Kubert, J.H. Williams III, and Tony S. Daniel (depending on the book), and is downright astounding in some splash pages. That was the hard and fast summary. There's a ton of story vacuum sealed into each chapter, and that gives you an idea of just what's showing on the surface.

Morrison is like a flaming torch juggler in this book, balancing several plot lines at once with flashbacks and future hints of what's to come. Notice the Zur En Arrh graffiti sprayed throughout. I can see, having started at the beginning, just how masterful these story arcs can be if read slowly and carefully. I skimmed The Black Glove, so next up is Batman R.I.P. (again). Let's do this.