Collecting issues #655-#658 and #663-#666 of Batman.

Grant Morrison's run on Batman begins here, with a series of issues that sees the Dark Knight deal with the Joker, a trio of replacement Batmen, and a young boy who claims to be his son.

The first four issues collected here see Batman confronted by his apparent son and heir, Damien, the result of Bruce Wayne's tryst with Talia in Mike Barr and Jerry Bingham's Son of the Demon graphic novel. This proves to be only the first of many attempts by Morrison to revisit old out-of-continuity stories and pull them back into the "official" Bat-mythos. Sadly, it's not one of the most successful.

Damien is an irritating character who doesn't feel at home in the Batman universe. In order for his story to work, Morrison is forced to weaken Batman and Robin as characters. To this end, Batman--the supposedly accomplish tactician--is ambushed and beaten in combat by a group of monstrous ninja Man-Bats, who capture him and lead him to Talia. He then agrees to take Damien back to his home for no apparent reason, and Damien proceeds to crack Batman's home security systems and beat up Alfred and Robin before murdering one of Gotham's few remaining bad guys.

Yet, despite the boy's indiscretions, Batman still agrees to take Damien on as an apprentice--taking him to Gibraltar to battle side-by-side against Talia in the weak finale. It feels as though Morrison was enjoying writing the character so much that he disregarded consistent characterisation in order to move his plot along.

It also seems clear that Damien's death--the one development that could have brought some balance and resonance to the story--was avoided (or at least postponed) so that Morrison could play with the character again at a later date. Sadly, this approach makes for a hollow story with very little in the way of character or plot development.

That said, these first four issues do possess some redeeming qualities. It's nice to see Morrison give Bruce Wayne some attention, and I enjoyed the idea that Batman might benefit from spending a little more time as the playboy billionaire.

The rapport between Batman, Robin, and Alfred is captured well, and there are some moments of real innovation in the script, too. For instance, the fight scene at a Pop Art exhibition, whilst a little overplayed, is an inventive and enjoyable sequence.

Additionally, Andy Kubert's art is also impressive--taking cues from Jim Lee and Neal Adams in places, but making the character his own to an extent.

After this first arc, there's a more experimental issue that sees Morrison redefine the Joker via an illustrated prose short story, which is hit-and-miss. However, it provides a fresh take on the Joker that may well become more significant as Morrison's run progresses.

Morrison's writing creates a convincing sense of insanity for the Joker with some suitably unhinged non-sequiturs and stream-of-consciousness narration, but some of the text feels a little clunky and forced.

Unfortunately, John Van Fleet's artwork for this section is a little uneven, too--feeling atmospheric and chilling in places, but coming off as flat and textureless in others. His style is reminiscent of a videogame cutscene. Whilst he obviously has a good grasp of textures and form, his images lack dynamism and fail to tell the story visually in the way that good sequential art should.

A brief two-issue story then sees Batman battle a monstrous, Bane-esque imitator--the second "replacement Batman"--as Morrison begins to move pieces of his grand plan for the book into place a little more overtly. These two issues contain a couple of impressive fight sequences, as well as a neat central idea that suggests that the more fantastical stories in Batman's publishing history could have been hallucinations of the crime-fighter's fevered imagination.

Finally, issue #666 sees Damien return as a possible Batman of the future who does battle with a demonic Batman imitator (the third "ghost of Batman"). It's an issue that provides an enjoyable story in its own right whilst also tossing out numerous possible clues as to where Morrison is headed with the book.

Overall, this is a fairly enjoyable collection of stories that aren't flawless but that contain enough in the way of original, novel, and unusual ideas that it's possible to forgive their weaknesses. It doesn't hurt that most of them feature great art from Kubert, who seems to understand the tone that Morrison is aiming for.

The artist evokes the feel of older Batman stories with some of his visuals whilst never feeling like an imitator, and he laces his work with some sly details (such as the "Zur En Arrh" graffiti) that play into the larger mystery that Morrison is weaving for the book.

I also have to commend DC for collecting a substantial eight issues in their first collected edition of Morrison's run, rather than releasing a TPB of just the first four issues in order to squeeze more money out of their readers--although they released it first as this more expensive hardcover, with the softcover finally coming out this coming July 9 (2008).

The eight issues of Grant Morrison's Batman collected here are undoubtedly more effective in the overall scheme of Morrison's run than they are as individual stories in their own right. Taken as parts of a greater whole, they get a lot of the groundwork for Morrison's "replacement Batman" storyline out of the way, and they are worthy of examination for the subtle links between them that play into the writer's bigger picture.

However, if you buy this collection with the expectation of it being a wholly satisfying self-contained story, you might be slightly disappointed, as there's a strong sense that this is just the beginning of Morrison's plan for the book. For those of us who are enjoying his run, though, this volume is well worth a look--especially in light of the developments of more recent issues.

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