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** spoiler alert ** A First Reads Giveaway Review

I really enjoyed what Morrison did with some of his other titles, especially New X-Men, but I must admit that with this Batman edition I was a bit lost during most of my time reading. Basically Batman goes up against some sort of conspiracy in the form of three Batmans (Batmen?) who seem to have been created as part of some elaborate plot to destroy Batman. Given that this leads to hallucinations and death and rebirth and things of that nature, it all gets a little confusing, especially for one who hasn't read a lot of Batman. But I'll break it down.

The volume starts with the worst part, a very bad story where Batman learns he has a son. So this was a bad plot device when Star Trek TNG did it to Worf and it's even worse here, because the idea that Batman, as "the world's greatest detective" would let this happen and then not know about it for over a decade is just wrong. And, go figure, the son is annoying and homicidal. Just bad stuff. After that there is a short story featuring the Joker, which is better, and other than one part where part of me believes a few paragraphs weren't printed it was easy enough to follow and interesting enough. Next came more battles with the fake Batmans, during which Batman is badly injured. Really I was surprised how often Batman got beat the crap out of in this book, and yet not killed. I doesn't make a lot of sense that these Batmen are out of punish Batman but not to kill him, as they squander the opportunity twice.

The best section of the volume comes with a murder mystery on a stormy island with the international league of heroes, who are basically the batmen of many countries. That part of the story I really enjoyed, and the art there was especially fitting and contrasted the golden age roots of the story with very modern, very realistic panels, playing with page layout and the like. Really, the volume is quite well drawn (with the strange exception of the short story). But yes, then the story returns to the imposter Batmen, kills Batman, brings him back to life, and gets its big reveals out of the way. Not the worst bunch of stories, and I can see the motif of the multiple Batmen, that there is something there, but really this is more setup to another story, to Batman RIP that follows. So while the volume staggers along, it has its moments and merits a 2/5.