Words in Pictures — Batman #681 - Grant Morrison, Tony S. Daniel (DC...

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Batman #681 - Grant Morrison, Tony S. Daniel (DC Comics) Batman #681 was my first example of Grant Morrison’s inability to stick the landing when it comes to finishing stories. And not just because, in a story titled Batman RIP, Batman entirely fails...

Batman #681 - Grant Morrison, Tony S. Daniel (DC Comics)

Batman #681 was my first example of Grant Morrison’s inability to stick the landing when it comes to finishing stories. And not just because, in a story titled Batman RIP, Batman entirely fails to die. 

No, my greatest disappointment was this reveal. After a dozen issues building up a mystery – what is the Black Glove? – which evolved into who is Doctor Hurt?, this was the resolution. Doctor Hurt is … Mangrove Pierce! Maybe. Doctor Hurt is … Bruce Wayne’s father! Possibly. Doctor Hurt is … the Devil himself? Um?

I’ve since changed my mind about this climax, or lack of one. Partly because I’ve now read the run in its entirety (the mystery does get a solid answer, sort of, twenty issues or so down the line) and partly because I’ve somehow managed to get more pretentious in my old age, and can chin-strokingly appreciate its thematic value.

Morrison’s Batman is built on a set of contradictory but equally valid ideas, all co-existing. In its pages, Batman is, simultaneously, a bullying aristocrat taking his problems out on the poor; a miraculous saviour who has time for everyone; the inevitable product of a city as broken as Gotham; a camp crimefighter; a grizzled detective; the folly of a damaged child; an immortal concept…

It’s this superposition which defines Morrison's Batman (and Morrison’s Batman) for me, so it’s only natural that the story’s great mystery would present a series of plausible but incompatible solutions (the butler did it! it was all in his head all along! his whole history is a lie!) and then refuse to actually give the real solution.

Batman DC Comics Comics Grant Morrison Batman RIP Tony Daniel Doctor Hurt

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