Batman #625 ( DC / Morrison / Daniel / Glapion)
Ra’s al Ghul successfully resurrected. The impostor Batmen running rampant through Gotham City. The cold, harsh reality of heart-breaking death. Batman has confronted all of these obstacles as the stalwart hero he is…but will the Bat be ready for the devastating crossroads ahead?
This is the final regular issue of Batman before the big summer bat-event of “Batman R.I.P”. DC has come straight out and said they are not killing Bruce Wayne in any way, but there will be big changes for Batman. My prediction, as based on reading this issue, is that Bruce has fallen completely into his Batman creation. The whole issue is a scene where Bruce and his new girlfriend are at a private dinner that gets interrupted by some lame-ass wannabe villain. But before the villain can crash the party, Bruce’s date lays everything on the table on how shallow he is that he fits the “billionaire playboy” a little too well to be believed. She sees past his aloof mockery of “Bruce Wayne” and sees a dark and disturbed individual. Later in the book she does reason out the Bruce is Batman, but not before a monologue on how Bruce Wayne is the disguise that Batman wears.
It’s a high energy book with solid writing by Grant Morrison and great art by Daniels and Glapion, but it felt that it comes up short on delivery because this isn’t really a surprise at all. Does any card carrying comic geek really think that Bruce Wayne is a stable human being? Not to mention we saw this same storyline back in the Trial of Bruce Wayne arc a few years ago where Bruce states that Batman is who really is and Dick Grayson asks” Then who’s the man who raised me?” Great moment by the way. I’m just hoping that Batman R.I.P isn’t a retread of things we’ve already read.
Grade: B
