The Outhouse - The Greatest Comic Book Forum

by **Victorian Squid** » Fri Jul 09, 2010 8:14 pm

John Snow wrote:Post hate here pls, it's what all the cool brit teens are doing today.

It's just another reason, like your SOD, that I don't envy you one bit.

by **Victorian Squid** » Fri Jul 09, 2010 9:47 pm

Batman & Robin #13

I've read the first half of Morrison's B&R run so far, and was planning on reading this arc when it's released in tpb but since I've loosely followed spoilers and flipped through the occasional floppy recently I figured it was no big deal to switch gears and buy this issue. Maybe I'd be hooked and return to buying the single issues.

It's a fairly entertaining comic on its own, but people who say it's not like R.I.P. can argue that all day long and I'll still have some of the same concerns when reading Batman & Robin as I did when R.I.P. was about halfway through and I started to get this little worry in the back of my head that all the little tantalizing clues weren't really going to add up to much more than window dressing, or story dressing if you will.

I just finished re-reading The Invisibles for the second or third time for no real reason other than I was rummaging through some stuff in storage and they turned up. One of the best things about that book was the way a lot of the little details or subplots came together later or in the end, and made the over-all story richer--the clues added up to something. Something still open to a lot of interpretation on the reader's part but not the garbled mess of pointless clues and dodges that R.I.P. was at the end. I suppose you could argue that The Invisibles is a long run of comics, and Morrison's run on Batman-Final Crisis-Return of Bruce Wayne-Batman & Robin may all add up to a complete story in the end--maybe so, but R.I.P. was still not a satisfying piece of it.

The point in the issue where Dick is stating "Fact 1: Dominoes. Informally known as bones." makes me worry there's some half-baked detective work going on. It sounds like Adam West should be wearing the cowl in this scene. But, if Dick's got everything all figured out since he was 12, he wouldn't be getting shot, at least so it appears, in the future several pages earlier. Needs a large exit wound though, or I figure this is just more theatrics.

I admit I'm intrigued by the return of Dr Hurt, since not giving the reader anything coherent in the slightest regarding this character was one of R.I.P.'s weaknesses. I still don't get him, but the alternate scenes of the Wayne's after seeing Zorro are pretty compelling. Seems as though this may tie into Return of Bruce Wayne maybe, so it gives me hope this may all make some sense in the end.

The pages with Damian and The Joker were the best part of this issue, Frazer Irving's art really pulls off the scene. I like his take on B&R even though the lack of background detail occasionally annoyed me. More often than not the background tones and hues were deftly handled, but I still like to see where people are at once in a while.

After reading this issue a few times, all I can say about the chance of me buying #14 is, it's possible.

7

by **chap22** » Fri Jul 09, 2010 10:44 pm

Sire wrote:the issue or the entire run on Batman and Robin is awful?

both.

by **GLX** » Sat Jul 10, 2010 12:19 am

Moonshine drinker wrote:both.

I'm not surprised that you feel that way.

by **Starlord** » Sat Jul 10, 2010 12:39 am

GLX wrote:In my opinion, for a comic to be given a 0, it must be horrible on every conceivable level. Would you place an issue of Chuck Austen's X-Men work over this comic?

Honestly? Yeah, I would. I'd also put Grayson's run on Nightwing before this book. And I haven't hated everything Morrison has done since Final Crisis. In fact as much as I despised that series, I enjoyed it better than pretty much anything he has done in the Bat Universe. Not that there haven't been single issues that I came away more impressed than I expected to, but overall I think this is the worse writer to have ever written Batman.

Not only that, but he has made the character of Damien the suckiest Robin ever. For all of those who thought Jason Todd was bad, Grant has just taken the same basic comcept and amplified it. Damien is NOT a hero, nor should he be walking around with them. The crowbar scene with The Joker is proof positive of that. Sure, it's cool irony for whatever you want to call it, but it just makes him less of a likeable human being than I already thought was possible.

I realize I'm in the one percentile and there will always be two sides of the Grant Morrison argument. I'll never say that I hate the man's writing on a whole... I don't. There's quite a few things that I have really enjoyed and actually put his Animal Man run in my top 10 picks for Bubba's next list, but for me personally, he's taken my all time favorite comic mythos and turned it into a huge joke.

I'm really sorry guys. I was trying to be humerous in this weeks review because I get so personally frustrated at trying to find a nice or gentle of way of trying to say what I really wanted to say in two words: Worthless Shit. Personally I would have found that rude and offensive, so I tried to put a dark comic spin on it.

I applaud all of you that do like him. I'm not a very bright man, nor have I ever claimed to be, so that is probably my problem with what he's doing here. If that's it, I can accept that. Grant's Batman is just not for me.

by **guitarsmashley** » Sat Jul 10, 2010 12:42 am

I'm upset that Starlord didn't want a handjob.

by **GLX** » Sat Jul 10, 2010 12:42 am

starlord wrote:Honestly? Yeah, I would.

I'm just gonna agree to disagree.

by **Starlord** » Sat Jul 10, 2010 12:50 am

guitarsmashley wrote:I'm upset that Starlord didn't want a handjob.

When did I turn that down?

by **guitarsmashley** » Sat Jul 10, 2010 12:53 am

starlord wrote::smt107 When did I turn that down?

starlord wrote:Okay, but I'll take it for all of us. I'm just that kind of friend.

guitarsmashley wrote:You'll say anything to get me in your pants.

doombug wrote:I'm kind of surprised to see Star react that way.

guitarsmashley wrote:me too. He needs a hand job.

by **Starlord** » Sat Jul 10, 2010 12:56 am

YES! Yes I need a handjob. God it's been years since I've actually just had a handjob. That sounds like a lot of fun.

(not including that solo stuff that I tend to do at noon, five, eight, and midnight)

by **guitarsmashley** » Sat Jul 10, 2010 12:57 am

starlord wrote:YES! Yes I need a handjob. God it's been years since I've actually just had a handjob. That sounds like a lot of fun.

(not including that solo stuff that I tend to do at noon, five, eight, and midnight)

Why don't our loved ones realize that sometimes a good old hand job is all we want?