Dorkgasm Gonzo Is God

Damaged Goods
By
Michael C. Riedlinger
Editor-In-Chief

            Grant Morrison is perhaps one of the most interesting writers to take on the Batman mythos in the modern era since Frank Miller used the Caped Crusader to prove graphic novels were more than just a child’s medium in The Dark Knight Returns. This latest effort, Batman: R.I.P., delves into the realm of psychology to explore what makes a person who they are. More importantly, Morrison tells an intriguing story while doing it, and we reap the benefits.

            R.I.P. collects eight issues of DC Comics Batman title into one hardcover volume. Though originally presented as a crossover event wherein readers would have to purchase several titles to get the full story, the installments by Morrison cover the main body of the work and present a coherent tale on their own. In this case, it is a new criminal organization calling itself The Black Glove, which sets out to destroy Batman from the inside out. The leader of this group, who goes by Dr. Hurt, implants a post-hypnotic suggestion in Batman that, when activated, essentially causes amnesia. If Batman is relived of the anger and memories that his fueled his revenge-seeking behaviors against crime, Hurt hypothesizes, there’s a good chance that the man behind the mask will succumb to the basest of human vices as a coping mechanism. It begs us to ask ourselves if we would still be who we are if we suddenly forgot all of the pain in our lives. This is a gamble, and the villain knows it, so he plans to also destroy everything Bruce Wayne holds dear in Batman’s absence.

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            What Dr. Hurt and The Black Glove do not count on, however, is Bruce Wayne’s dabbling with Eastern mysticism. Over the years, Batman writers have escalated Bruce Wayne’s training to include superior mental faculties to match his physical abilities. Grant Morrison is in his element here, and plays with the idea of thögal as a preventative measure for just such an occurrence. Thögal is a meditative state that he describes as a rehearsal for death while living, and Morrison equates one’s loss of a lifetime worth of memories to a kind of personality death. Bruce Wayne uses this training to activate “The Batman of Zur-En-Arrh”, a sort of split personality that is solely powered by Wayne’s rage and search for vengeance. Needless to say, this leads Dr. Hurt to discover that he is way out of his league. Hurt’s plans to have the Joker kill Dick Grayson blow up in his face, and before the end, all of Arkham seems to be coming down around him and the rest of the villains.

            Thögal, by the way, is a legitimate Buddhist practice, and that alone gives us reason to question everything Grant Morrison and Tony Daniel put on the page. Dr. Hurt might be the Devil, Bat-Mite could really be just part of Bruce Wayne’s imagination, and its anyone’s guess (until the ending at least) what Zur-En-Arrh means. Grant Morrison forces us to put our critical skills to the test, and lazy readers will be totally lost by this book. That said, there isn’t exactly a profound point to this Batman story, and it certainly isn't Arkham Asylum. Yes, it forces the reader to ask questions that a normal story in this series might not, but in the end, Batman is Batman, the Joker is the Joker, and the heroes win the day. Batman doesn’t even die in this volume (for that one needs to read Final Crisis, also by Morrison), and some readers may feel let down by that in a sense. Overall, this is the kind of work that may appeal to long-time fans and heavy readers, but the casual connoisseur won’t get much out of this book.

Final Verdict (out of 5):