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Thursday, July 7, 2011

Batman: The Black Glove

Batman: The Black GloveBatman: The Black Glove by Grant Morrison

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


The reason most people grow out of reading superhero comics is that nothing ever changes for long. Inevitably, everything eventually returns to the status quo. Enter Grant Morrison.

I've been a fan of Grant Morrison's work for quite some time. From Animal Man to The Doom Patrol to the Invisibles to Marvel Boy. His appeal for me is the same as Roger Zelazny's: he has so many ideas flying off the page at the same time. I started picking up Batman because I had a hunch Morrison would shake things up. In his first few issues, he had Batman's illegitimate son turn up and had an army of ninjas injected with the Man-Bat serum. That's what led me to continue reading, which brings us to The Black Glove.

The Black Glove starts with Batman meeting a group called the International League of Hero on a reclusive billionaire's private island. From what I gather, the League first made its appearance in a Batman story in 50's. Anyway, one member of the League isn't what he appears to be and starts killing the other members in a pretty good story.

The second story involves someone Batman trained as possible replacement going haywire and nearly killing Batman. Batman hallucinates/has flashbacks of an ritual he went through in the Himalayas as well as an isolation experiment he took part in. Eventually Batman recovers and things get settled.

The third story does little more than set up the next arc, Batman RIP. Bruce Wayne and his love interest, Jezebel Jet, are attacked by terrorists and Jet discovers Bruce is Batman in the process.

The common thread of these three stories is the Black Glove, a secret organization that has its sights set on taking down Batman. I won't go into how they are involved so as not to spoil the story. Needless to say, they are a foe unlike any Batman has faced.

To sum up, if you're a fan of Batman movies, you'll like this. Morrison's Batman is the most like the movie Batman than any other writer's depiction.



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