http://www.dccomics.com/dcu/Well for those that don’t know the character of Batman met with his apparent demise in Grant Morrison’s epic Series “Final Crisis” in issue 6 last month. Blasted into a charred corpse by Darkseid’s Omega Sanction beam the Batman is hurled into a series of gruesome alternate lives, one after another, each one worse than the last. This is an obvious analogy for Hell, and without question leaves an opening for the characters eventual return.
In the meantime epic Novelist, Screen Writer, and former DC, and Marvel writer Neil Gaiman has made time after his recent success with Beowulf, and Coraline to come back to write a 2 part eulogy for fellow Vertigo Alumni Grant Morrison’s run on Batman. Entitled “Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?” Neil’s 1st issue is brilliant as we see the apparent ghost of Batman watching a strange Funeral of sorts for himself. A mysterious female figure appears to be accompanying Batman as he witnesses this Funeral.
Interestingly enough some of Batman’s 1st words are “am I dreaming?” which is a blatant nod to Neil’s Legendary 75 issue run on Sandman throughout the 90’s. As the funeral goes on we see various multiple incarnations of the characters surrounding Batman’s casket including Animated Joker, and Harley, 1940’s style Joker, and Catwoman, along with Dark Knight Returns Green Arrow (Oliver) amongst others. As Batman and the woman continue to watch the spectators one by one tell different bizarre tales of how Batman died. As Batman observes each story he continuously insists to the mysterious woman he is with that these are not events that he remembers, or understands.
At the end of part one Batman asks the female “are you Death?” to witch she replies “that’s silly do you really think Death is an actual person?” Again an obvious nod to Sandman. She continues to tell Batman “Just watch”, and that wraps up Part One of the story. To be continued in March as we patiently await “Whatever happened to the Caped Crusader” Part 2. Interestingly enough the title itself is a tribute to Watchmen, and Swamp Thing Writer Alan Moore’s 1980’s classic “Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow” Which was an imaginary farewell to Superman who had been erased from time and replaced with the current version of Superman (or so they said)
This was a great 1st part to the story, and an interesting reprise form Grant Morrison ‘s ”Rest in Peace” run on Batman. While Morrison, and Gaiman are very similar writers, and both were responsible for making Vertigo a legendary name in fandom. Grant’s writing is a little less poetic, and at times reads like reading Stereo instructions while Tripping on Acid. Neil is much more subtle, and takes his time to deliver his message, while Grant feels like he’s racing to the finish line while throwing every possible tripped out concept out along the way. Grant reads an Aphex Twin song, while Neil is much more laid back, and articulated like a Sisters of Mercy track. However I’m a fan of both, and Morrison’s runs on Animal Man, and JLA are some of my favorite reads of all time.
Fun fact: Grant recently admitted that during their heyday at Vertigo he noticed that Neil began dressing, and looking more like his character “The Sandman” and was “getting” (as he put it) a lot of attractive Gothic women. Grant admitted to competing with Neil by trying to look like his respective character “Spider Jerusalem” from the “Invisibles” and shaved his head and started wearing all black. Grant went on to add that the experiment was a success, so to speak.
DT and I are so Ying/Yang this is definately my McFarlane vs Lee writing wise
