What have I missed in the last year?

Gotham Underground is quite a unique title, in my personal opinion. It's mainly about, as the title suggests, Batman trying to pin his way into Gotham's criminal fraternity through the Penguin's gang, as Matches Malone. It features alot of guest stars, both on the villain and heroes circuit, without even having Batman in it (He's never seen, aside from one cover). It's also only three or four issues in, so it's pretty easy to catch up with.

I'd say check that out, along with Paul Dini's early run last year in Detective Comics, starting with issue 821. The run consists of alot of one-shot stories that are pretty high on the quality scale. But it sort of... well, doesn't turn out that great when the title starts tying into Countdown, and Morrison's Ressurection Of Ra's Al Ghul arc.

As far as major events go, I'll leave that to someone else. Not that it's hard to summarize by length... it's just crazy as hell, given Morrison's flair for the unusual.

 

Woah, I swear I posted a reply to this, yet there it is, not there!

Ditto with the above, Morrison has doing a big run and basically did another origin for The Joker which was a facsimile of all the previous stories I gather.

Dinni is in the middle of an incredible run on Detective with one-shot stories, no-one has anything but good words for his run, alas he is being slightly stilted by the Crisis run in I feel.

Oh, and Frank Miller is currently re-inventing the 'god-damn' Batman as something we've never really seen before in All-Star!

 

Gotham Underground definitely.

Morrison doesn't write Confidential.

 

I got the distinct flavour that Morrison did the new Joker origin. Did I not get that right?

 

^ lol i love how straight forward this above guy is! awesome.

And thanks for helping me out i'm going to be getting some of these!

 

There was a new Joker origin in 664-667 ish I think.

Anyone else confirm/deny this?

 

you mean that prose story?

it was 663. Not really an origin of the Joker himself. It's basically the Joker, after getting shot in the face in 655, deciding what new personality he wants to adopt, be it traditional joker, campy joker, or uber-psychotic Joker, which he ultimately picks.

So it's really an origin of new uber-psychotic Joker....or something like that. Where i enjoyed the issue, i don't have the patience to re-read it for details. Someone feel free to correct, if i'm wrong.

 

More than likely. It's an 8 or 9 part miniseries, so once it's ran it's course, I fully expect a TPB by the end of the year.

That was a mistake on the poster's part, I believe. He might have been referring to the first arc of Batman: Confedential, in which The Joker is a mercenary or something on the hunt for Batman, but gets sliced across the face by a Batarang, giving him his grin and supposedly turning him insane.

From what I've heard, it's not that great. The art itself has turned me off of it, so I can't speak on it's quality from a personal view. Just saying what I've heard.

Basically, since his body was burned in Death And The Maidens, he had to be ressurected through rituals that involved transplanting his mind into other hosts. He spent a great deal of the arc going from one body to another.

 

hey where is your sig from ^ ??

 

Yeah sorry, that was my mistake, I read a thing and it said a thing, and long story short, I thought there was a whole new origin!

 

So maybe this is a good place to ask the question, what was "Chapter 7: Bethlehem" in the Batman & Son TPB all about? It just came out of nowhere and ends with no explanation at all!

 

Why? Are you allergic to awesome?

 

He must be.

It's the goddamn Batman, I mean... Come on!

 

as far as the "Batman" title goes, you havent really missed much. Morrison started bringing in this concept about these Bat-rogues running around Gotham which is pretty interesting but he keeps jumping around to different plots in between and personally its really annoying. he also did a story with Batman/Robin going to a meeting with these other heroes that were influenced by Batman from way back in the silver age. then they were all being killed off and they needed to find out who was behind it, but it wasnt that good. So now i think hes coming back to the bat-rogues (again) and hopefully it will pick up.

personally i've been more interested in Superman/Batman lately. Burnett did this story with the New Gods. its wasnt groundbreaking or anything but i enjoyed it alot and there was this sexual tension between Batman and Orion's wife that i thought brilliant.

 

I always enjoy Batman/Superman titles, there's a lot to work with.

These Bat-Rogues sound interesting, what was the basic idea behind it?

 

basically there are three bat-wannabe's in gotham dealing out there own brand of justice. one was a cop-he shot the Joker in the face. then he fought a Bat-Bane (thats really what he looked like) who was beating up on hookers. now i believe hes searching for a third one. before the story switched to that "Batmen around the world" story he was getting into his psyche talking about them as inner demons brought to life- something along those lines; its been a long time since i read them.

but again its an interesting idea, i just wish Morrison would focus on it instead of jumping plots.

 

Hmmm, that really does sound interesting actually, and influenced by TDK I guess. I might look out for them. Morrison has a tendency to flit in his writing though.

 

The stories featuring the three batmen are really the best of Grant's run. Batman 672 was fantastic but this weeks issue shows Grant at his best, its starting to bring loose ends together. Also Chapter 7: Bethlehem will fit in soon.

 

Hmmm... Do you think this will come together in TPB form?

I'm already way behind and have a slight OCD about Batman, I like reading arcs in one big go. Much the reason that I enjoy Dinni's run, it's all one shot.

 

no not exactly. that last page was just to throw you off. the next issue explains it.

 

Is the next issue any good at all? I want to get it, as it's an interesting premise, but I won't be able to until the weekend.

 

yea its pretty interesting. its Morrison so it might take you a while to figure out whats happening. (plus it helps to remember what happened in the previous issue)