Semi-Strong Batch: Batman Incorporated #3 Review
Well, that wasn’t so bad, was it? Well, it wasn’t so bad in relation to the July shootings that led to Batman Incorporated #3 being delayed for a month. From a storytelling standpoint, it’s another matter, but I’ll get back to that.
Batman Incorporated #3 has a lot going for it, and that is a surprising thing for a guy who hasn’t been digging Grant Morrison’s Batman stories to say. Morrison delivers us a 70s style detective story, with Batman spending a large part of the issue undercover – Batman doesn’t appear in full costume in a single panel of this issue – trying to root out Leviathan and Talia Al Ghul. It’s not a perfect issue, but it’s generally a refreshing throwback to Neal Adams / Dennis O’Neil stories from the 70s, with the weirdness for the sake of weirdness that Morrison can’t seem to help himself from chucking into his Batman stories dialed back to a dull roar. Not no roar, but it’s subdued enough for me to alternate between hoping Morrison might be mellowing, and suspecting that his mescaline dealer coughed up a weak batch.
With that said, this issue suffers from a few storytelling problems, and requires a few voluntary leaps in logic if you want to truly enjoy it… which means that the “weak batch” theory is getting more of a foothold with me.
Batman spends most of this issue undercover as his old organized crime alter ego Matches Malone, who we haven’t really seen since before the New 52 reboot. If you’re an old school Batman fan going back to the 70s the way I am, you have fond memories of Matches, and Morrison clearly feels the same way. Morrison has Batman play Matches to the hilt, and the snappy, hipster patter he writes for Matches is a pure, 1970s joy to read. There’s a panel where Matches is confronting two goons, and the combination of his exhortation, “Back off, muchachos, you’re tangling with a master of karate,” and artist Chris Burnham’s use of angle and pose to make Matches look like he dropped off Neal Adams pen, brought me right back to the Batman comics of my childhood. I’ve complained before about Morrison being beholden to ephemera from Batman’s history, and his portrayal of Matches is really no different. However, Matches is a larger part of that Batman ephemera, and his use feels appropriate for the story, so it worked very well for me… so long Morrison doesn’t get cute with the 70s references and throw The Ten-Eyed Man at Batman.
There are some problems with this issue, and sadly, Matches Malone is one of them, in the sense that I find it impossible to believe that Talia Al Ghul doesn’t know that Batman is actually Matches. There are at least two stories from the Dennis O’Neil era where Batman and Talia and / or Ra’s Al Ghul cross paths, and besides: Talia knows that Bruce Wayne is Batman, and she bore his fucking child; do you really think that she’s going to be fooled by a fake 70s porno moustache? As cool as it is to see Matches again, I have trouble believing that Batman would make the misstep of using the identity to take Talia on. Batman is a billionaire; one would think he’d be careful and spring for a fake beard and a different wig, and come up with a different name for the project. I propose Dick Biggens. But I digress.
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