Comments on: Everyone's a Critic: What we talk about when we talk about Batman R.I.P.

By: david b conway

david b conway — Mon, 18 May 2009 03:29:33 +0000

just to grant morsion my name is david b conway , and i just herd that you what to kill of batman and bruce wayne all yogether , and i think that you are making a big misstake just to that grain , just because we the fans , we do,t know just what happed to bruce wayne parents as munch as bruce wayne does not know him selfs yet just be before batman dies just at the end and that does not make snices to me at all , and i feel like dcau should have shown about the operation black glove episodes as well and specialy with the final crisis episode just for the justice league the final days as well and just when batman had a horse trainsportaion just after batmans gave was gone . love david

By: Elena

Elena — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 22:02:47 +0000

I read Batman R.I.P. like other comics, and found it utterly confusing. I'm all for subtle details that payoff later, but I'm not sure if I can read Batman R.I.P. again and search for all the things I missed. There were things I loved about it: the Joker, the Alfred/Martha/Thomas Wayne almost-scandal, the way the kids banded together, Batman's probe into himself. I appreciate crazy story lines, but it verged so much into the insane I got lost. And I've been reading Batman since the late 90's. Never missed an issue.
(What was up with that lump? The Batman clones? Was that an alternate reality or some fake-out? I was expecting something more like Bruce Wayne: Murder?, psychological like that...)

By: sgt rawk

sgt rawk — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 13:29:48 +0000

Realistically, though, what more can be said of Batman? I first stopped reading Batman in the 80's, during the Nocturna storyline (hey, when's SHE coming back?) and picked it up again around Dark Knight Returns. I dropped it shortly after, kept up with Nightwing and enjoyed Bats in various OTHER DC books but not really his own. The 90's were not kind to Batman. I picked up the earthquake storyline in trade and enjoyed it but I only liked Batman in specials, not his own books. (Same with Superman as well.) I'm inclined to say they're BOTH right - maybe this wasn't the time to let Grant Morrison play in the Batman sandbox with any and all crazy toys he can find ( Batman on dope? It HAPPENED, dear reader!) But comics are all about cliff-hangers and if Grant Fucking Morrison wants to tell a Batman, I say let him and sort it out later, on the merits of the story. DC has TONS of archive material they can package to support The Movie, not to mention other specials (which is where Bats excells, outside the chains of Regular Monthly Continuity.) Let The Creator Create. I didn't like either of Chris Nolan's movies, either. The Joker sounded like Daffy Duck and the Bat-Voice was Bat-stupid.

By: Natural

Natural — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 11:27:35 +0000

I think you are thinking like sukrat, but I think you should cover the other side of the topic in the post too...

By: Shaun

Shaun — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 19:33:38 +0000

Carroll said: " It’s hard to find a balance between accessibility and complex, interesting storytelling. I’m sure DC and Morrison alienate many readers, including many Wednesday regulars..." That's what happened to me. Batman Begins brought me back to reading comics after about a decade away. TDK probably should've brought in a ton of new readers (and, to be fair, I'm sure it did bring in at least a few), but if you wanted to jump right into what was happening with Batman after seeing TDK? Good luck. I gave Morrison a fair shot because he was the guy who wrote Arkham Asylum and the Gothic arc in the late, great Legends of the Dark Knight. I can't remember if All Star Supes had started by the time he took over Batman or not (it was plenty long ago), but he'd built up enough good will with me. Sadly, he squandered pretty much all of it with his Batman run (My favorite story in Batman the past few years was "Grotesk," written by someone else as a fill-in for Morrison). I found Morrison's writing exhausting, often confusing, and not terribly exciting. I'd also had it with the concept of trying to revive all these goofy Silver Age notions in a modern setting. Before RIP even rolled around, I'd quit. I stuck with Dini, because he always brings the goods, but I was through with Batman proper. Now I've dropped 'Tec as well, since I'm not interested in Bruce being MIA yet again. Anyhow, for the new reader who wanted more after TDK, what could you give them. The Joker GN, certainly, but mostly it was giving them the old chestnuts: Dark Knight Returns, Year One, Killing Joke, Long Halloween, and (yes) Morrison's Arkham Asylum. All that stuff still ranks among my favorites too, but DC just isn't putting out stuff of that quality anymore. A shame, really.

By: Patrick A. Reed

Patrick A. Reed — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 16:29:17 +0000

Nice Carver ref. in the post title.

By: Carroll

Carroll — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 15:56:40 +0000

I personally have not read Batman R.I.P. (besides the first issue) simply because I know how Morrison works and his stuff is more accessible in collections. (Really, can you honestly tell me reading Final Crisis months apart makes any sense at all? But it does when you read them all together in one sitting.) Does this make it less accessible to fans? Depends on the fans...casual, just-came-from-Dark-Knight fans: yes. Wednesday regulars? It's all part of the fun.

It's hard to find a balance between accessibility and complex, interesting storytelling. I'm sure DC and Morrison alienate many readers, including many Wednesday regulars, but the fact is Batman R.I.P. has been a complete sell-out (in a good way). It will also most likely be a perennial seller in collection form. And really, doesn't come down to sales in the end?