Batman Incorporated vol. 1: Demon Star
I said over a year ago that the finale of Grant Morrison’s “Batman” run was shaping up to be nothing less than awesome, and this latest/new/unrebooted volume of “Batman, Incorporated” goes a long way towards proving that. With the mastermind behind the globe-spanning criminal organization known as Leviathan revealed to be Talia Al’Ghul, the true nature of this conflict stands revealed. Vindictive at Batman’s rejection of her offer of a family with their son Damian, she sets out to infiltrate every aspect of Gotham and reduce his city to ash. The Dark Knight, however, has plans of his own and an army of followers to see them fulfilled.
Things don’t get off to the greatest start with the first issue, which is mainly expository recap to re-introduce the most notable members of “Batman, Incorporated” than to advance the plot. It does feature some typically striking art from Frazer Irving to make it go down a bit better. From there, things take off with the title’s first proper issue and the return of Chris Burnham on art. Morrison and his collaborator set a blistering pace as a slaughterhouse raid by Batman and Robin ties in with Leviathan’s further infiltration of Gotham’s criminal underworld and the revelation that there’s a half-billion-dollar bounty on the Boy Wonder.
The intensity ratchets up from here, even with another issue of flashback to detail Talia’s history and motives, with things only growing more intense as the volume goes on. Rather than have Leviathan constantly overwhelm Batman and his crew, Morrison has the character keeping pace with all of their moves and being one step ahead of them in the most critical moments. It’s thrilling to see the momentum shift back and forth between the good guys and bad guys as the balance continuously shifts from page-to-page.
It may sound crazy, and sometimes things are moving too fast to give members of the supporting cast and the villains their due, but Morrison ploughs through all this with the intensity of a man following his plan to the bitter end. With Burnham, he also has an artistic collaborator who is able to not just meet all of his demands, but to do so in a timely manner. Minus the Irving-illustrated zero issue, Burnham provides the art for every issue here with only a four-page fill-in being necessary in the last issue. To the credit of Andres Guinaldo who provides it — artistic consistency is maintained.
As this is the penultimate volume in Morrison’s run, it’s certainly not a place for the uninitiated to start. Yes, there’s an inviting “vol. 1” attached to this, but new readers will likely only become increasingly lost in the story as it keeps referencing events in past volumes. That’s a good thing as far as those of us who have been following this run from the very beginning are concerned. Things that the writer has been setting up for some time are finally paying off — most satisfying here is the sequence bringing us back to Damian as Future Batman Who Has Sold His Soul To The Devil. Initially, I thought that those sequences from earlier in Morrison’s run were just tossed-off bits of fun madness. We find out here that this isn’t the case and that they herald nothing but tragedy for Damian.
In short, “Demon Star” is a fantastic beginning of the end for what is looking increasingly like the best “Batman” run in recent memory. That the final volume is set to drop at the end of the year seems like a painfully long time to wait, but I know that it’ll be worth it once I have it in my hands.