Batman 655

Grant Morrison and Andy Kubert on Batman. Grant Morrison and Andy Kubert on Batman! That's pretty much been the advertising campaign for the last few months. Now that Morrison is under exclusive contract with DC, his name has been splashed across as many books as possible, whether it's "based on concepts developed by," "co-written" or the gold standard "written by," Grant has gone from the weird Scottish bald guy who practices something called "Chaos Magic" and wrote all those bizarre works like The Invisibles, Seaguy, and the masterful Doom Patrol to "The Man Who Will Save The DC Universe."

It would be a great story, if it were true. If, as Morrison's recent interview with Deepak Chopra had mentioned, Grant was really sent from God, the future, or whatever, to "give humanity the new cave paintings," then hell yeah, that would be great.

Morrison has made a pretty good name for himself in the last few years. He jumps back and forth between two worlds--the one where he's an acid-laced weirdo, writing comics full of new-age spirituality mixed with pacifist renewals of late 60's culture, comics so full of hyperbole and gutter violence that they often only reach readers in love with Morrison himself; and the other world, the underwear and spandex set, where Morrison "re-invents" superhero comics. It's how he's paid the rent for years. Whenever a major comic goes stale, like the Justice League in the late 90's or the X-Men in 2001, Morrison is brought in to restore it them to their former glory. The thing is that "former glory" doesn't mean the same thing to everyone--in these cases it just meant to get back to the point where comic buyers walk out of stores with a copy of X-Men in their pocket. Whether what Morrison wrote was factored into the future of the storyline was totally unimportant--which is why X-Men has once again returned to the bottom of the barrel, starting over yet again, and why Joss Whedon has been permitted to ride slipshod over the stories Morrison wrote. And the Justice League? Hell, they just cancelled that. (It will be restarted under different ownership, again, in the hands of a celebrity writer, in the coming months.) Either way, none of Morrison's status quo changes end up adopted by his follow-up writers, most of whom are the same individuals who ruined sales in the first place.

Naysayers may cry out to Grant Morrison's current series All Star Superman as evidence that proof that Morrison is pulling it off, but hard evidence says otherwise. All Star, while being one of the best comics published in the last twenty years has still failed to crack the market that DC Comics was hoping for.  According to a recent editorial in The Comics Journal, "1/5 of one percent of the American public" buys comic books. Morrison claims to want to change that. DC claims to want him to do it.  But it's the same guys in the comics store every week, and it's the same characters they're buying. All Star Superman may have won an Eisner last week, and it may have outsold everything else on the shelves, but if that hasn't changed the basic problem. Comics are the black sheep, and Grant Morrison is still another shepherd, regardless of his talent.

Batman 655 takes off like a shot, mainly because it takes off with a shot.  The first few pages read like they hyperbolic tabloids that comics use to steal their plots from back in the 30's--COMMISSIONER GORDON POISONED! and CRAZED BATMAN SHOOTS JOKER! It's a set-up, yes, and it's an overused setup at that, but its entertaining enough that complaints come later. The remainder of the issue is classic Morrison, with dry wit and nefarious foreboding splashed across every line of dialogue and Andy Kubert showcasing some of the finest super-hero art of recent memory. Last year's terrible Ultimate Iron Man mini-series was incapable of giving Kubert anything worthwhile to do, and that wasted time is more than made up for here. The plot follows the basic method of sending Bruce away to "relax" only to have him end up embroiled in some type of criminal scheme that "only" Batman can solve, but after 70 years, one should stop expecting Batman comics to end up anywhere near innovative. Batman 655 an excellent example of how good a superhero comic can be--it's got a timeless beauty to it, and a well-done story to boot. It's just too bad that means it will get filed as a waste of time for 99.5% of the American population.

-Tucker Stone, 2006

Comments

[Nina]

1/5 of one percent, huh? Can that really be true? If there's one thing that I've become aware of from being exposed to the world of comics is how much of an influence comic books have had on various writers, actors, screenwriters....John Johnson. I mean, everytime I turn around now I'm hearing about the influence of comic books. So, is it really, really, REALLY 1/5 of one percent? Or is that simply the only portion of HONEST comic book readers?
And also -- Grant Morrison resembles Ben Kingsley.

[TFO]

The number 1/5 comes from actual sales vs. population, so yes. However, the 1/5 percent number is based on those who purchase their comics from direct distribution centers, i.e. comic stores, so the amount of people who buy trades and graphic novels at Barnes and Noble are not included.

[Matt Hartwick]

The Graphic Novel section in Barnes and Noble will never be counted for anything, unless they do something about it: 1.) Give it its own division, AWAY from the science fiction books to which it bears almost no relation, away.
2.) You want to keep the Manga section? You want to keep the Manga section.
3.) Make it so that Manga doesn't doesn't comprise 80% of total product space; it's disgusting.
4.) EXPAND. Try carrying some titles that don't have covers with bright CAD colors and glittering chromium logos. Don't! Don't you dare say "Shi."

I think it was in an article from the same Comic-Con day that quoted an imprint publisher saying that the Graphic Novel section of the bookstore was no longer "the ghetto" that it has been in the past. I disagree with this man for a couple of reasons, the most important being that his statement is such a ridiculous and provable lie.