Broken Frontier

Batman has gone high-tech! When a demonstration of WayneTech's Internet 3.0 virtual reality world goes astray, Bruce Wayne must be saved by the digital dynamic duo of…. Batman and Batgirl? Can Barbara Gordon rise to the occasion to be the hero of a new domain, or will she forego the computer world for the night skies of Gotham?

This issue ends up being one of the biggest disappointments in Grant Morrison's Batman run. Admittedly, parts of it are out of Morrison's hands. The previous issue ended with Oracle calling Batman saying there's trouble in Internet 3.0. Gelling with Batman's mission for Barbara announced in Batman: The Return, alongside the cover of a previous issue of Batman Incorporated featuring a technologically flying Batgirl, and the concept was clear: Morrison was going to keep Barbara Gordon fighting crime digital, but no longer as just techno-jock Oracle, but as a digital superhero known as Batgirl. It was the best of both worlds: Barbara Gordon gets upgraded for the world of iPads and Androids and World of Warcraft, shrugging off the fact that Google has made much of her Oracle persona redundant and non-superheroic. At the same time, he keeps a character known for being a realistic disabled character and keeps her realistically disabled. She can fly off and fight crime in the Internet, but she's still bound by the wheelchair. This issue keeps that concept going, with Barbara not even being seen in person; all interaction of hers is digital.

These factors all should not matter for a single issue. When viewed, script-wise in a vacuum, this book is enjoyable. It has standard levels of Grant Morrison insanity, it has a solid beginning, middle, and end (with revelations that impact the larger run it's in). There are some puns thrown in for video game effect which make me wonder if Grant's ever played a modern video game, but those come with the territory. It's what you expect from Batman Incorporated: some levity, some darkness, and a decent story you can read in one sitting and get everything out of… except this time, it hurts to look at.

Visually, this book is a mess. Beyond an amazing cover featuring a wire framed model of Batman investigating a circuit-board stylized chalk outline, the inside book falls for a problem that other creators have tried, even with Batman. What looks good on the computer screen doesn't always look great on the printed page. Computer graphics should remain on the computer screen, and while the benefits of pencil work, inking, coloring, and such on a computer are one thing, modeling and designing on a computer require real skill to reach a level where it can replace or supplant a hand-drawn artist's work. Another issue is depth; a good artist knows to put more detail up close and omit details farther away. Since there's computer modeling at work, the same stuff in the background has as much detail as it does in the foreground (a brick in a wall, for example, is the same brick up close as it is far away). Without a visual blurring, such as in video games when the program only renders items in the distance as low-resolution to save processing power and look more realistic, it's all in your face with detail.

This doesn't mean the book couldn't look amazing. Put it on an iPad and allow readers to move around in the panels? Reduce the contrast to actually see what's going on? The framing's not bad, but the stark white/black/red is too cluttered at times. It's a shame to a see book that has the potential to be a forerunner of the digital era to be held back by so much failed concepts and antiquated dialogue.

On September 7th, it remains to be seen if Barbara will retain her digital persona, but it looks like it'll be shadowed by her cape flying high over the skyline of Gotham. If this was to be the face of Morrison's Batgirl, maybe it's best for Barbara to walk around in the night.