SuperHeroBooks - Batman and Son
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List Price: $14.99
Our Price: $6.88
Your Save: $ 8.11 ( 54% )
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Manufacturer: DC Comics
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Average Customer Rating:   
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 741.5973
EAN: 9781401212414
ISBN: 1401212417
Label: DC Comics
Manufacturer: DC Comics
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 200
Publication Date: 2008-07-22
Publisher: DC Comics
Release Date: 2008-07-22
Studio: DC Comics
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Story of Love and Pain
Comment: The Batman has always been a study on how to interpret a superhero. Bound by his own moral code (which is really the DC comics code of "Thou Shall Not Kill"), this book sees Batman busting out and moving more into the moral ambiguity / no-man's land first seen with Frank Miller's take on the character.
Grant Morrison infuses a bit of Judge Dredd into Batman - ie. he allows a frustrated Batman to exercise his own (desperate) brand of justice, and by doing so, successfully evolves the character beyond the usual limits. But where the book needs to go is even further into the core character and his hidden feelings. Batman never really allows himself to drop too far, and maintains that macho facade - but for how long?
Andy Kubert's art is brilliant as always but the colours veer towards making the story glossy rather than dark. So the punches still feel pulled somewhat. A love triangle looms and Batman's twisted affair with Talia from the League of Assassins never quite goes where we would like it to go and really needs to be built on more. In short, BATMAN & SON provides the perfect conundrum for the ultra cool detective - but only if the authors turn on the heat.
Batman's son is quite a piece of work - and there's room for more. Not for kiddies. A promising chapter indeed.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Grant Morrison returns to the Caped Crusader
Comment: After writing Batman in JLA and the graphic novels Arkham Asylum and Gothic, Grant Morrison finally comes to the Dark Knight's regular monthly series. Although not his best work (for that, see The Invisibles, Doom Patrol, Seven Soldiers, All Star Superman......), Morrison's Batman is definitely engaging. The stellar artwork from Andy Kubert is also something to behold.
As always, Morrison opens with a bang as an impostor Batman shoots Joker in the head. From then on, Batman's life is turned upside down when Talia al Ghul, the daughter of Batman's deceased nemesis Ra's al Ghul, informs him that he is the father of her son, a rebellious and violent 13-year-old named Damian. The boy is thrust onto Batman and he proceeds to wreak havoc throughout the Batcave and seriously get on Alfred's nerves. He and Robin also strike up an instant rivalry. After a fiery confrontation in Gibraltar, Talia takes Damian back and the two disappear from Batman's life.
Morrison then takes an.... interesting break to delve into the character of the Joker, as he recuperates in Arkham Asylum. Written in prose and digitally illustrated by John van Fleet, this tale offers a revolutionary look at the Joker and his fluid sense of identity, yet still manages to fall short. I am not a fan of van Fleet's digital style and I don't think it meshes well with Morrison's prose, which I also think could be improved upon. Too much superficial musings, too little clarity.
The narrative returns to regular comic book form, as Batman and Robin investigate another impostor Batman, this one a former cop on Bane venom and Hugo Strange's monster serum. Batman has a vision of three replacement Batmen, the last covered in shadow. "The Third Man is coming," Batman is told.
The final issue in this collection shows Damian Wayne, now grown, taking over the role of Batman as he fights the Third Man in the streets of Gotham City. Damian's Batman is violent and dark (and bald), darker (and balder) than any incarnation of the Dark Knight has ever been. At the end, he kills the bad guy and averts the Apocalypse. Is this really the future of Batman?
Morrison's Batman is definitely fun to read. He's dark, as Batman should be, but not so dark that he comes across as a parody of himself. This Batman laughs from time to time, has some fun. He's not hammering "the mission" into the readers' heads ten times every page. It's fun, with enough meat to satisfy readers looking for more than flashy artwork and dynamic action sequences (of which there are plenty, one of which includes flying ninja Man-Bats. What more could you ask for?).
Customer Rating:
Summary: Bold and Daring
Comment: Grant Morrison has never been one to stick to formula, and here his vision goes wild. From the Joker being shot to a visually fantastic romp in a modern art museum, Morrison introduces concepts to the Batman mythos that have either not been seen in some time or were deemed too crazy to work. From page one, Morrison's story builds like a massive puzzle, piece by piece, and only when the whole is seen does the image line up. Batman and Son is merely Part One of the puzzle, followed by the recent Batman: The Black Glove trade, and culminates in the upcoming Batman: RIP storyline (currently underway in monthly issues). Batman and Son introduces questions, The Black Glove provides more, and thus far RIP has given vague answers. For those who like long, labyrinthine stories, this trade is an excellent opening to a puzzling narrative.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Wasted potential with non-related filler stories.
Comment: I've grown reluctantly accustomed to different authors/artists coming up with material that contradicts previous works. I decided that, despite my personal feeling that Batman's son by Ra's al Ghul's daughter, Talia to be the one depicted in Alex Ross' superb "Kingdom Come." Nonetheless, I gave this alternate version a go.
First niggle of annoyance - the kid, around 10, is named Damien. How original is that? Somehow I don't see Talia, who is so busy running her father's League of Assasins to the point where Damian himself says she has no time to rear a child, having the time to see any of the "Omen" movies. The name 'Damien' has because synonomous with an evil child.
He isn't necessarily evil, but he HAS been reared by various teachers in the League of Assasins and become a bit to much of a handful for his mother to deal with, so she dumps the kid on Batman. Second niggle of annoyance - here and there have been conflicting storylines regarding Batman and Talia. There are ones that have them being lovers, even married at one point. Rather than rolling with that, suddenly there's Batman stating he'd been drugged up to be part of a genetic manipulation program that has resulted in Damien. Eugenics, anyone?
Not to give away too many spoilers, I will say what was essentially on the books back cover - the kid is hellbent on removing Alfred and Robin (Tim Drake who has officially been adopted by Bruce Wayne... I don't know if this is solely in this story because I haven't been keeping up on the monthly comics). Damien particularly has it in for Tim, feeling that his adoption status usurps his own birthright and inheritance.
Though you want more of this entire story line, however, and this is why I give it three stars as opposed to the five I would have given if the storyline stayed on track. I guess the 'Batman and Son' individual comic books simply did not have issues to justify a graphic novel. While it is mentioned on the back cover that there is a special Joker-based story...
Well, there was, mostly prose with random artwork here and there in the margins. The back cover fails to mention that, now halfway through the book, there is now going to be several more Batman tales not in anyway related to Damien (save for a one-panel nightmare Batman has).
The last story of this, "Filler, we need filler!" graphic novel actually DOES have Damien grown up in the future and being the new Batman, which is NOT a pleasant place. His form of crimefighting, though he tries to hold back partly in rebellion towards his mother and partly because he promised his father to not kill anyone. He can't always honor that promise.
Again, not being on the monthly issue circuit, there are many things in there that are shown but not explained making me at least go, "What? What happened here and how?" What's more is they seem to have blended Frank Miller's Robin from Dark Knight with Commisioner Gordon's wheelchair bound daughter. All in all, grown up Damien resembles something more like "Hitman," including the shaved head.
The first part of the novel is worth it in my opinion, but discovering that only about a third of "Batman and Son" is devoted to Batman and Damien really, really annoyed the hell out of me. I felt ripped off by false advertising. Having picked this up in a bookstore, the only thing I had to go on was the misleading description on the back cover. Unforgivable in my honor system, where an ommission is right up there with an outright lie.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Poor Showing for a Great Idea
Comment: The premise is a good one and one that inevitably had to be written about. The execution is so-so both from a writing standpoint and an artistic one. The piece as a whole seems rushed or at the very least subordinate to the deadline and required more cultivation for such an exciting idea. Andy Kuberts work though solid, dynamic and professional is not inspiring and lacks something. Morrisons writing seems like there was a bullet point list that needed checking off and little care was taken for connecting those bullet points. I also didn't care for the shoehorned story in the middle that seems completely out of place. I don't recommend paying full price or purchasing at all.
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Editorial Reviews:
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Comic legends Grant Morrison (ALL STAR SUPERMAN, SEVEN SOLDIERS) and Andy Kubert (Ultimate X-Men, 1602) join forces to bring you an unforgettable tale of the Dark Knight. After Batman faces down an army of winged horrors in a no-holds barred, bone-crunching superbrawl among the treasures of London's Pop Art Museum, Batman receives the greatest shock of his life when he discovers that he has a son. Sparks fly when the new addition to the Bat-family is introduced to Batman's adopted son, Robin, the Boy Wonder. Which one will be chosen to carry on the legacy as Gotham's protector?
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