Off The Shelf Reviews: Batman Incorporated #6

In a week where everyone's talking about the Batman in Geoff Johns's Flashpoint #1, the big man behind the Batman empire, Grant Morrison, released his own Batman story in Batman Incorporated #6. This series started off strong, but recent issues have had me questioning this storyline. Which way does this issue fall? Read on to find out.....

Wow.

After reading this book, I had to flip the cover closed and make sure what book I was reading. I really enjoyed this book! This issue is completely different from the previous issues in a number of ways. Now that's both a good thing and a bad thing. It's good because it renews my faith in Morrison after a couple of weird turns recently. It's a bad thing because now I'm wondering why we had to go through those issues in the first place. They were really confusing and I'm positive their only purpose was to set up something at an unknown point way into the future. I hate issues like that, not serving much story wise but creating reads to be picked up later.

Those pet peeves aside, I still love this issue. Chris Burnham's artwork is amazing and very vivid. For a dark and gritty world such as Gotham City, his art achieves that setting yet shows off so much detail. In a place with two Batmen, you never are left wondering which one is Dick and which is Bruce. It plays in very well with Morrison's masterpiece of a story.

Speaking of the story, this issue begins to answer some of the questions that have been hanging in the air since we heard about this comic. Why is Bruce assembling an army of Batmen? Who are they fighting? Why did he reveal that Bruce Wayne is funding Batman, Inc? Won't Batman's enemies come after Bruce Wayne? We don't get all the answers we are hoping for, but we get a couple--with a sweet Batman story to boot!

CONCLUSION: Buy. Buy buy buy, and a million times over buy! This story is a prime example of what Grant Morrison is trying to accomplish since Bruce Wayne has returned. Now, I imagine every story may not be this great, but buy this issue, and if you like it, you can easily jump on board here. Or, at the very least, wait for the trades and read Morrison's story as one combined tale. Either way, it's going to be a heck of a ride.