Batman RIP

Batman RIP is one of the many masterpieces produced by Scottish comic writer Grant Morrison. Its widely known for what appears to be a controversial title, and does indeed lead to the ‘death’ of the caped crusader in Final Crisis for his return in The Return of Bruce Wayne.

After being drawn into the Batman fandom by the introduction of HUSH, I bought Batman RIP spontaneously, my main reason being I found it for a decent price. My second reason being I needed something light to read. I found it was more than worth the money I paid for it, but it wasn’t what I’d call a light read. Parts of it did baffle me slightly because I hadn’t equipped myself with some of the knowledge I found is explored in the tie-ins. That being said, I caught on pretty quickly and flicked through some of the tie-ins online.

Moving on to the plot, Batman RIP contains the usual elements that make up, in my opinion, a good Batman plot: Bruce Wayne, an intriguing love interest, the Joker and Arkham Asylum. Now for the more spoilerific elements; drugs, Bruce losing his mind and the predictable stab in the back. Personally I’d say the most interesting part of the plot was Bruce’s alternate Batman whose costume was made from red, yellow and purple rags. Needless to say it made a nice change to the black.

The breaking of the bat really is an interesting concept, and even though parts were reminiscent of HUSH (or at least, that’s my opinion) the story was thrilling. The art comes secondary to the epic plot, Tony Daniel’s art is wonderful and really complimented the story. The covers, by Alex Ross are just as good.

Batman RIP was defiantly worth reading and I’d recommend it to anyone who hasn’t read it yet.