Batman RIP - anyone keeping up?

oxygen_old

Spoilers below.

I just listened to a podcast about Batman RIP. Sounds interesting. I might try catch up. Anyone else reading. It should like they have decided to completely deconstruct Bruce Wayne and therefore Batman. Also the link below highlights, in his insanity Batman is referencing some of the more ridiculous previous Silver Age batman stories, I wonder are they going to claim most of the sci-fi elements to batman’s history as insanity, rather than just brushing it under the carpet.

http://www.comicbycomic.com/2008/07/batman-rip-wtf.html

Bold move by DC, you would think they would just ride the films coat tails for a little bit. Marvel done it with Dare Devil, for months Mat Murdoch was the stamp of Ben Affleck. And bull’s eye gave himself a scarification tattoo on his forehead of the bull’s eye, as per the movie. And that wasnt even a good movie. TDK rocked

Fysh

I haven't been following it as such, but I've read the odd article about it. Morrison's general approach to Batman as a whole is to try and have every Batman story kept in continuity by fudging a timeline and having a lot of stuff turn out to have been batman hallucinating and what-not. Which is well and good if you have some sort of borderline fetish for the stuff that came out in the Silver Age (and let's be honest here, some of it was just plain bad) but I don't quite see why they're doing that when younger readers today who might want to jump into reading Batman after seeing the Dark Knight will, if anything, be pushed away by references to 30-year-old stories. (Although arguably that's the essence of DC's editiorial approach, so maybe they're just playing to what they perceive to be their strengths...)

oxygen_old

Fysh wrote: »

I haven't been following it as such, but I've read the odd article about it. Morrison's general approach to Batman as a whole is to try and have every Batman story kept in continuity by fudging a timeline and having a lot of stuff turn out to have been batman hallucinating and what-not. Which is well and good if you have some sort of borderline fetish for the stuff that came out in the Silver Age (and let's be honest here, some of it was just plain bad) but I don't quite see why they're doing that when younger readers today who might want to jump into reading Batman after seeing the Dark Knight will, if anything, be pushed away by references to 30-year-old stories. (Although arguably that's the essence of DC's editiorial approach, so maybe they're just playing to what they perceive to be their strengths...)

Yea, that’s what generally confuses my about graphic novels, just about the time they have millions spent on marketing via a movie release, they start some crazy assed story alienating newcomers. At first I thought this was a case of cleaning up the timeline, for a more regular batman. Alot of the stuff doesn’t sit with me in the batman universe, such as the lazaras pit etc. But already their talking about who will take over the batman mantle, nightwing, robin or hush. Why not bring ppl on board by easing them into a more solid batman story. In a year its all going to be back to normal anyways, it was after knight fall, when his broken back was magic-ed better.

For the record, my preference is hush.

Mr. K

It's a rather different approach to Marvel having Spidey's Back in Black storyline coinciding with 3's release. It could be argued that those sort of marketing stunts are just pandering to the film audiences though.

I think Nightwing is the only worthy successor to Bruce, Tim's too young, Hush and Jason are too much into the murder.

Mr Freeze

Well it better not be Jason Todd that takes up the Mantle of the Bad anyways....Hush or Nightwing would be ok!

Anyways its not going to happen in RIP anyways, Bruce will still be Batman at the end, and the Final fate of Bruce Wayne as Batman is supposed to happen in Final Crisis, as RIP happens before FC.

I can't say that i like Morrisons run on Batman, Batman & Son was ok, the Three Ghost of Batman i didnt like at all, and I dont know what to think of RIP, I think i keep reading it just to see how the crazy story turns out...

Mr. K

What makes Hush okay? He's certainly smart enough, but he's still a killer!

Mr Freeze

Well if Bruce has to go then, I think it would be interesting to see a Hush/Batman, hopefully it wouldnt be anything like Jean Paul Valley as Batman during KnightFall...

It better not be Jason Todd, cause he should never have been brought back!

I would much prefer if Bruce just stayed as Batman.

I think the stuff that is unfolding about the Waynes past in RIP is a load of **** and kinda ruins Batman for me, hopefully it all turns out to be false at the end of RIP.

Bluscreendream

Hi guys,

I've been interested in getting back into reading Batman, I haven't read Batman in about 15 years and this RIP concept really seems interesting. Does anybody know if Forbidden Planet are selling Batman RIP? Would they be expensive?

Thanks.

Mr. K

FP will have the last few issues of RIP in stock, I'd say. The collected edition isn't out for a few months though.

oxygen_old

Mr. K wrote: »

What makes Hush okay? He's certainly smart enough, but he's still a killer!

It's not ideal that he is a serial killer, Ill give you that, but getting an ideal replacement would be a bit dull. I think this would shake up the bat mantle a little.

Also, he is a surgeon, so he has the smarts to be a detective. and also he has a rivalry allready started with the Joker, and who ever takes over, the joker will need to be their main nemises.

Also just reading wikipedia, the fac that he now

He is now identical to Bruce Wane,after performing surgery on himself(which is pushing it a bit far. )

Mr Freeze

Apparently the Heart of Hush storyline that is running in Detective Comics at the moment is meant to be excellant...

Its an RIP tie in, set before RIP events.

The recent issue of RIP wasnt up too much in my opinion, the next issue better be a damn good ending to it and tie it all up...

Fysh

CKWPORT wrote: »

the next issue better be a damn good ending to it and tie it all up...

Grant Morrison on writing duties pretty much axes any chance you've got of that happening...he's great at coming up with concepts and ideas, and can do some character stuff well, but his stories almost always end weakly...

Mr Freeze

I've noticed that alrite....

You might disagree, but the sooner he is off Batman the better IMHO.

I think he is totally over rated

Fysh

I don't usually follow Batman but I had a look at #666 because of all the hype around it and thought that as a relatively standalone issue it was quite nice. Then I heard about his plan to make all Batman stories work as part of one big continuity....

Mr Freeze

ya, as a standalone it woulda been ok!

From reading the DC Batman forums, fans seems to be evenly split between loving Morrisons run or hating it...

I don't mind the idea of Bruce not being Batman for a while, but not the crap morrison is at by rewriting his entire back story as we know it...

I think it will get retconned at some stage...

Mr Freeze

After reading Heart of Hush, so far, i dont think he will be taking the mantle of the bat...Spoiler below:

After making himself look like Bruce Wayne, he is probably gonna dress up like Batman in the next issue to get close to Alfred, Robin and Nightwing to kill them, he mightn't be a contender for the batman position at all

:Keith:

Personally, I'm liking Batman RIP but it's suffering from classic "Get Nightwing out of the way. It's a Batman crossover" itis if you get me. Really hoping its not going to end with the Black Glove being who I think it is.

Mr Freeze

And who do you think it is?

GenghisCon

Fysh wrote: »

Grant Morrison on writing duties pretty much axes any chance you've got of that happening...he's great at coming up with concepts and ideas, and can do some character stuff well, but his stories almost always end weakly...

Indeedy. Which is probably why Ive enjoyed the lead up to RIP (#666, three batmen and all that) more so than RIP itself. Do far Ive only been following the main Batman line. Is Detective worth following? Also read all star superman if you want real Morrison quality. Personally I think he must have hypnotized Dan Didio, seems Morrison is propping DC single handedly.

Mr Freeze

GenghisCon wrote: »

Indeedy. Which is probably why Ive enjoyed the lead up to RIP (#666, three batmen and all that) more so than RIP itself. Do far Ive only been following the main Batman line. Is Detective worth following? Also read all star superman if you want real Morrison quality. Personally I think he must have hypnotized Dan Didio, seems Morrison is propping DC single handedly.

The current detective storyline is worth following, i think its better than RIP. I dont think RIP is that good, and i dont like Morrison, i just want to see how it ends.

:Keith:

CKWPORT wrote: »

And who do you think it is?

Maybe I should have phrased what I said better but I'm thinking Jezebel Jet is going to be majorly involved with the Black Glove.

niall mc cann

:Keith: wrote: »

Maybe I should have phrased what I said better but I'm thinking Jezebel Jet is going to be majorly involved with the Black Glove.

I'd say that's a safe bet too, even just judging by the name.

One theory I've heard on the net that I thought kind of made sense was that

Joe Chill is The Black Glove...

Based on Morrison's insistance that the character's been around from the start, and Morrison's peculiar choice to reinvent Chill as a wealthy businessman and crime figure, it does kind of make sense.

Mr Freeze

niall mc cann wrote: »

I'd say that's a safe bet too, even just judging by the name.

One theory I've heard on the net that I thought kind of made sense was that

Joe Chill is The Black Glove...

Based on Morrison's insistance that the character's been around from the start, and Morrison's peculiar choice to reinvent Chill as a wealthy businessman and crime figure, it does kind of make sense.

Thats possible, we were lead to believe that Joe Chill shot himself when he realised that he created Batman, he was never actually shown dead, not that he'd stay dead anyways, it is the DCU after all

oxygen_old

Hear the latest, their canceling the Robin, Nightwing and Birds of Prey publications. Wonder what the idea is here, are they actually going to stick to this story line. This might just be a cancellation and reprint under a new name. Still big enough move tho.

Fysh

I saw that reported recently alright. Makes for interesting reading when you bear in mind that:

a) Chuck Dixon originally wrote all three series, and
b) Chuck Dixon recently had a falling-out with DC that led to him being given the boot at fairly short notice

The suggestion has been tossed around that Dixon resigned in protest at the conclusion of Batman: R.I.P. and whatever changes it brings about...

That being said, I honestly can't see DC completely cancelling a title that sells 50,000 issues or thereabouts on a regular basis. Heck, all three of them appear to be above the immediate cancellation threshold, although I could be wrong. (See here for a bit more info on this, incidentally).

JangoFett

Robin and Nightwing, those titles will be relaunched, well, Robin will anyway, we know RObin will be around after its done but there's speculation over who Robin will be...Tim or Damian?