Comic review: I am a disappointed nerd

Let me warn you: this story is not only going to be a complete nerd rant but will also to contain quite a few spoilers about Grant Morrison’s recent work of “Batman R.I.P.”.

I am a huge fan of Batman. He is one of those iconic characters that has been around for almost 70 years but new artists and writers have been able to still make interesting. I mean, just look at how well “The Dark Knight” did last summer. Besides the praise, though, I was sorely disappointed with Morrison’s recent take on Batman.

Apparently, “Batman R.I.P.” has been in the works for a few years now and is meant to be the end of Batman as we know him. Basically it deals with Batman encountering the Black Glove organization, led by a mysterious Dr. Hurt, who attempts to destroy Batman both physically and mentally.

For those of you who may not know, Batman is a little paranoid, to put it lightly. According to “Batman R.I.P.,” Batman created an infallible system for himself in the case of going insane. The system was that of Batman Zur-En-Arrh, a more primitive form of Batman that would take over in case he lost his identity.

Batman Zur-En-Arrh is actually a throwback to an old Batman story, which is kind of cool, but the allusion doesn’t really go anywhere. Also, Batman dies in issue 681, but is alluded to have lived in the final panels. This crap can’t get much worse.

Throughout the story there are many allusions to Dr. Hurt actually being Thomas Wayne, Bruce Wayne’s father. At the end of the last issue, 681, in Batman’s final confrontation with Dr. Hurt, Hurt explains to Batman that he planned the murder of Martha and Bruce Wayne, but Joe Chill, the hired killer, lost his nerve, and Thomas Wayne faked his own death. This of course, and thankfully, ended up not being true. If that had been true, it would have single-handedly destroyed the past 70 years of why Bruce Wayne became Batman.

Batman’s entire motivation for deciding to fight crime, to prevent anything like that happening again, would have been destroyed. That would have been akin to somehow Uncle Ben not dying and Spiderman was just fighting crime for the hell of it. Honestly, you have no idea how ticked off I would be if that were the case.

I’m getting a little tired of all these huge, universe-changing storylines they have been tossing out in comics these days. Don’t even get me started about “Final Crisis,” in DC Comics or “Secret Invasion” in Marvel. Can’t superheroes just do what they do best, by kicking the crap out of super villains? Apparently not.

I also have to say, Morrison’s writing in this story is just, well, bad. I understand that the story deals with Batman losing his mind, but much of the time I was just confused to the point of almost giving up on the whole thing. I kept giving it a shot when the new issues came out every month, but I just became progressively more disappointed every time.

I’m a little curious to see where Batman goes from here, but whatever happens, it’s not looking good. My suggestion, if you are hankering for some Batman action, is to stick with “Batman Detective Comics,” for what little time we have left with this once great hero.

Jon Menteith is a history senior and Mustang Daily comic book reviewer.