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Shannon's Reviews > Batman: R.I.P.
Batman: R.I.P.
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Shannon's review
bookshelves: graphic-novels, action, books-reviewed, fantasy-scifi, special-graphic-novels, my-very-best-reads
Jun 26, 2012
bookshelves: graphic-novels, action, books-reviewed, fantasy-scifi, special-graphic-novels, my-very-best-reads
This was one of the most divisive Batman graphic novels in several years. A fair number of purists hate it and others absolutely love it.
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Batman falls in love so much that he reveals his identity to Jezebel Jet (hmm, does the Biblical reference give anything away?) which worries many of the people around him. But the real story is Batman having his mind invaded and the fact that our oh so paranoid detective predicted something like this and set up safeguards. Will those safeguards work? Appearances by The Club of Villains as well as Bat-Mite and The Joker. Expect a nightmarish landscape as Batman's mind is invaded.
[image error]
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What I found out after reading this graphic novel was that there were three stories before this one that should be read (it doesn't say on this volume about previous volumes). In order they are: “Batman: Batman and Son�, “Batman: The Resurrection of Ra's Al Ghul� and “Batman: Black Glove�. A fifth follow up covers the whole JLA team and was titled “Final Crisis�.
The overall tale was done by Grant Morrison, who loves to do his funky, psychedelic setups and some might argue he overdid it or that it's too confusing. I read Morrison's Batman Arkham Asylum before this one and found it to be overly confusing at times as well.
[image error]
Regardless, this might be a graphic novel you'll need to go through more than once to fully appreciate. I prefer it over “Arkham Asylum� which focused too much on the mad dreams. That said, on a second and even third reading I appreciated the graphic novel more. A bit of Wiki on historical Batman references didn't hurt either.
Tony S Daniel in the main artist. I'd say the artwork is a slight notch up from “Arkham Asylum� which was too psychedelic at times for my tastes.
Morrison mines the little bits of Batman history especially from the Silver Age yet he doesn't follow the true threads of those pieces so purists will be angered. Once more as a warning a lot of the “clever Morrison� moments may be lost to more casual readers or people who don't spend the time doing some research and then reading it again.
ARTWORK PRESENTATION: B plus to A minus; CHARACTERS/DIALOGUE: B plus; STORY/PLOTTING: B (for those who didn't read the previous graphic novels & Morrison's style can be confusing to some); NIGHTMARISH LANDSCAPING FOCUSES: A minus; OVERALL GRADE: B plus (higher if you read the previous graphic novels); WHEN READ: end of June to mid July 2012.
(view spoiler)
[image error]
Batman falls in love so much that he reveals his identity to Jezebel Jet (hmm, does the Biblical reference give anything away?) which worries many of the people around him. But the real story is Batman having his mind invaded and the fact that our oh so paranoid detective predicted something like this and set up safeguards. Will those safeguards work? Appearances by The Club of Villains as well as Bat-Mite and The Joker. Expect a nightmarish landscape as Batman's mind is invaded.
[image error]
[image error]
What I found out after reading this graphic novel was that there were three stories before this one that should be read (it doesn't say on this volume about previous volumes). In order they are: “Batman: Batman and Son�, “Batman: The Resurrection of Ra's Al Ghul� and “Batman: Black Glove�. A fifth follow up covers the whole JLA team and was titled “Final Crisis�.
The overall tale was done by Grant Morrison, who loves to do his funky, psychedelic setups and some might argue he overdid it or that it's too confusing. I read Morrison's Batman Arkham Asylum before this one and found it to be overly confusing at times as well.
[image error]
Regardless, this might be a graphic novel you'll need to go through more than once to fully appreciate. I prefer it over “Arkham Asylum� which focused too much on the mad dreams. That said, on a second and even third reading I appreciated the graphic novel more. A bit of Wiki on historical Batman references didn't hurt either.
Tony S Daniel in the main artist. I'd say the artwork is a slight notch up from “Arkham Asylum� which was too psychedelic at times for my tastes.
Morrison mines the little bits of Batman history especially from the Silver Age yet he doesn't follow the true threads of those pieces so purists will be angered. Once more as a warning a lot of the “clever Morrison� moments may be lost to more casual readers or people who don't spend the time doing some research and then reading it again.
ARTWORK PRESENTATION: B plus to A minus; CHARACTERS/DIALOGUE: B plus; STORY/PLOTTING: B (for those who didn't read the previous graphic novels & Morrison's style can be confusing to some); NIGHTMARISH LANDSCAPING FOCUSES: A minus; OVERALL GRADE: B plus (higher if you read the previous graphic novels); WHEN READ: end of June to mid July 2012.
(view spoiler)
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Reading Progress
June 26, 2012
–
Started Reading
June 26, 2012
– Shelved
July 2, 2012
– Shelved as:
graphic-novels
July 10, 2012
–
Finished Reading
April 20, 2013
– Shelved as:
my-very-best-reads
April 20, 2013
– Shelved as:
action
April 20, 2013
– Shelved as:
books-reviewed
April 20, 2013
– Shelved as:
fantasy-scifi
April 20, 2013
– Shelved as:
special-graphic-novels
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Tiara
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rated it 3 stars
Feb 27, 2013 03:09PM
Great review. I read this a while back, but I'd read most of the comics leading up to this point including the tie-ins (my favorite being Robin's tie-in stories that explain Batman's quest to understand madness). I only rated this 3 stars, even though I loved so much about it, especially the Jack Torrance-like Joker who always proves, if nothing else, that he's that one uncontrollable variable. But the whole thing with Dr. Hurt's identity just bothered me enough to take a little steam out of the story for me. I felt everything had mostly fell into place nicely before that, and I would've rated it much higher if not for that one thing.
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There was a period in which GR didn't give me notifications so things got missed and I'm seeing this as of today.Thanks for the compliment. Morrison is an acquired taste.
Give it a go, Mike.
Awesome review Shannon!
StoryTellerShannon wrote: "Thanks. :)"You're welcome!
It is super-helpful to read that there were three stories that came before this one. I was wondering why I was so helplessly lost. Information like that would be useful in the title (Part 4), opening page, author foreword or at least somewhere on dust jacket. Thanks!
I agree with you on most points but I didn't like the graphic novel when I finished it. The thing is I actually thought the "Zur-En-Arrh" suit was pretty cool. The graphic novel's biggest problem is that some of it's hallucinations are intriguing, but they are not well guided at all. It angers me. Bruce spoke of how his life was between dream and reality sometimes. That's cool and all. However the hallucinations were not guided with narration which could've helped the story succeed, for example: "This... this might be real. This is a dream. I'm hallucinating. Oh." After some explanation like that, we could be left on our own to decide. I also hated that League of Villains. None of the characters guided by Dr. Hurt contained a touch of originality or interest. I was not the worst thing I've ever read, but I won't pick it up again.
I found it incredibly jumpy and hard to understand what was really going on. Four stars.
