Broken Frontier

What’s that in the sky? Is it a bird, a plane, Superman; no... it’s... the... Batmobile?

God love Grant Morrison.  You have to, as after the mess that was Final Crisis and the full speed ahead derailment known as "Batman R.I.P.", he just gets right up on the saddle.  He probably can’t help it, this is the guy who wrote Animal Man and All-Star Superman, after all.

Dick has a bit of a youthful feel here.  Like maybe Batman’s death took a couple of years off the guy.  He is not exuberant, he mentions that wearing the cowl is the equivalent of a shroud, but this is not the guy that was at the end of Nightwing.  Well, maybe the guy that was in Titans.  Anyhow, his take on Batman is not any more edgy, not in a real sense, it just feels edgier.  Maybe the fear that the criminals allow to creep into their Adam’s apple is leaping off the page, but for a moment, I thought Dick was going to drop Toad to his death.

Then there is Damian.  He is still a spoiled, obnoxiously egotistical little brat.  However, it would appear he is some kind of wunderkind.  He makes the Batmobile fly!  It comes soaring out of the air shooting missiles and then seems to pick up a bad guy’s car like it is some kind of industrial magnet crane!  Gadgets.  That used to be a Bat-mainstay, but had fallen to the wayside for melodrama and those famous detective skills of late.

Then there are the villains.  The Toad?  He looks like he came out of Wind in the Willows.  And he is driving the car like it is a Disney ride too! 

And all of this is in the first four pages.

Then comes Pyg.  Yeah, brace yourself, this might be the most creepy villain since Simone introduced us to her little friend Junior.  I mean this guy gives me the willies.

It is a little hard to tell exactly what is going on with the story.  There is not a whole lot past exposition here.  There is an odd payment and the obvious concern from the police that Batman is dead and gone and the reciprocal glee from the criminal community.  Given time, it is possible that Morrison can let this ball unravel as well, but this debut issue is smoke gushing, guns blazing, BATMOBILE FLYING fun!  That is an element that has been missing from the core Bat books for some time.  Sure, Batman Confidential had its moments and then some guy named Kevin Smith decided to have a little bit of perverse fun with the Joker, but excitement was long gone from the franchise.

To go along with some keen character moments and a script full of explosions and the like, Quitely steps up to the plate.  This is not the bright and beautiful Metropolis of All-Star Superman, this is Gotham.  This is dark corners and gritty crime.  This is the realm of the insane criminal masterminds and it is all reflected in the people and the streets.  To contrast this is the sleekness of the new Batwheels.  There is an edge to its lines, it stands out. 

The artist also puts his touches to paracapes and Batsignals.  The action is crisp and almost bursts off the page in your face.  The layouts help, as they are as dynamic as the hoops that the creative team puts this new Dynamic Duo through.  As perfect as the action sequences are, so too is Pyg creepy - you can almost feel Malcom McDowell smiling behind the mask in his bloody apron.  Shivers, I tell you, shivers.

This is the big popcorn book that we are promised every year and never quite get.  This is the new Star Trek, Die Hard, The Matrix, etc... it may not be perfect, groundbreaking or thought provoking, but damn, it’s a lot of fun.  And did I mention it already?  The Batmobile flies!!!