Mindless Ones

PAGE 1

This is just perversion pure and simple. Morrison understands the best villains should be perverts, and while, yes, dodgy, perverts are people too, and we’re all perverts, etc., i wouldn’t have it any other way. That whispered ‘yes’ is gold. This thomas has waited his entire life to see his wife and child slaughtered in front of him – it’s the fulfillment of a dream, why he got married and had a kid in the first place – and now he’s off to have the biggest orgy ever while shouting ‘WHAT HAVE THEY DONE TO YOU? INNOCENCE!’

PAGE 2

Morrison does another terse origin story here, a la ASS, aided and abetted by the brilliant Frazer Irving: bat concentrate, only the most important elements shown – a child prancing gaily outside a movie theatre, a mugger (who for my money looks somewhat temporally dislocated – part Victorian, part modern: mugger eternal), death and a rich woman laid out on the pavement, pearls and blood. The dominoes at the top of the page seem to suggest the inexorability of this sequence of events, and lend the rest of story the air of destiny. This is bat history in the making, people.

Now that we’re all gathered around the eerie neon pink radiance of this issue and i’ve got your attention, I’d like to clear up some confusion about Zur En Arrh with a bit of fanwank. It seems appropriate given that we’re returning to Zorro in Arkham territory here. One of the things that caused a great deal of head scratching at the time was the why Hurt and Batman should both hone in on it for their hedonic reprogramming – bit of a coincidence some thought. But my answer to that is simple. We know from his conversation with evil monk that Bruce sensed the Zur En Arrh hypnotic trigger’s presence and wanted to know what to do should his mind be attacked directly, and it’s only a short hop, skip and jump to infer that he, consciously or otherwise, probably grokked the shape of the thing and this fed into his eventual response. there, easy.

PAGE 3

I like that the now we’re out of mythic time, the eternal events of Batman’s origin, Chill is revealed as just some junkie street person. It grounds us again. Aaah, but this poses the question, is this wank fantasy or reality? I don’t know, you have to perform some funny narrative tilt-a-whirls in order to collapse this stuff into canon. I’m going with fantasy – the pictorial substitution of thought balloons, derangement so advanced it appears supernatural*. But we are dealing with the time stream over there in ROBW, aren’t we? Questions… I think it might be better to simply proceed apace with the perversion thing, because whatever’s going on here, it’s definitely that.

And what to say about the bacchanal panel? The infernal theme continues; Hurt as the devil in miniature with his minions cavorting in the libidinous red hell-light about him – Pyg taking a trip to the despair pit over there in the corner, Bruce in his bat mask waiting in the wings, danse macabre partner deluxe. In Hurt’s topsy turvy 666 world matter triumphs over spirit, the animal over the human… champagne over holy water.

Sounds cool.

I like that his quiff changes sides as Thomas transitions into Hurt. From the Right hand path to the left. From darkness to light, via hairstyle. You know, I’ve never picked up on the Doctor Wayne/Doctor Hurt thing – and neither has the rest of TEH INTERNET by the look of it – but of course it makes perfect sense. The good philanthropic Doctor and his dark shadow, the Doctor of pain. This interests me because, to psychologise the supernatural for a tick, Bruce’s Mother and Father have remained a sacred space for seventy years or so now, a deep site, once you peel away all the adoration,duty and reverence, of Bruce’s unaddressed rage. This arc is about ‘How dare they fucking well leave me? How dare he leave me there in that alley, the man who was supposed to be my protector?’ (the same, btw, could apply at this point to Dick) It *hurts* to look at these things, but it’s necessary in order to heal.

Moving on… Because I’m a racist I think all baddies should have inscrutable, dwarfish, Japanese manservants.

The press panels are a good way of addressing the many !!??s that at this stage in the game must be flooding readers’ minds and reassuring them that ‘all your questions shall be answered shortly.’ I like the breakneck pace of these opening pages, actually. We’re not being given a chance to catch our breath, just as Dick and Damian (BTW, internet, get the spelling right!) aren’t. The dominoes are tumbling towards the finish line, gathering speed in the gathering dusk, and there’s nothing anyone can do to stop them. This is the world turned on its head, and before you can ask ‘how’ or ‘why?’, you take a bullet to the head.

* See Morrison’s original B&R interviews

Zom: Perversion, you say? This is the ultimate geek perversion, the perversion of the sacred bat-myth. This is worse than naughty universe touching, this is naughty universe murder. Hurt’s origin and Bruce’s can’t co-exist (there’s a sense in which they can’t co-exist even if there is something multiversal going on here) – one must triumph, and one must die in a dark alleyway. Trust Morrison to assault the fictional fabric of Batman.

PAGE 4

‘Right now Doctor Wayne just wants to go home.’

You see? He’s at your doorstep already. I told you. When it happens, it happens fast.

What a panel.

It seems to say, ‘linger on the reality of this for a few seconds more before I march in and fucking END YOU.’

PAGE 5

If the first twelve issues of Morrison’s run have been about pitting Dick against his opposites, then this one is about pitting him against Batman’s. These are the guy’s THE Batman, not Dick Grayson, has to contend with, the Jokers and Doctor hurts. Will Grayson survive this black and red world? And if he does can he triumph? Or will it be Bruce? I think a lot of people will feel cheated if he doesn’t pull it out somehow, but hasn’t this whole thing been about how there’s only one Batman? Perhaps, time jaunting being what it is, this is all part of a plan devised by Bruce and Dick. Perhaps they’ve already established contact. After all, Dick does seem very certain Hurt is ‘finished’.

And was that Dick speaking? I only heard BATMAN.

And Damian? He knows he’s indestructible. There will be much bone smashing in a few seconds time.

PAGE 6

BLAM.

We don’t see blood though, do we?

I think the Comics Alliance boys are spot on with this one.

And about the 99 Fiends.

Zom: That they’re the Miagani? Makes sense to me. Ready made Bat-army, just like Miller’s Mutants, waiting in the wings.

PAGE 7

Wow. Just look at that city. Look at Damian striding through the cop cars towards the hotel (an image which now graces my desktop). This is what computer generated art should look like.

Did you catch the cop blowing his nose?

Look at the Joker, the only thing in that room: ‘Hello again [reader/little Bruce].’

Hello.

PAGES 8 and 9

‘Robin. Pay attention.’

It’s getting serious. no more zombies or henchmen, you’re in the room with the Joker now. You have to pay attention to stay alive. Dick knows this. Damien doesn’t.

Yet.

Irving really sells us on the white-eyed intensity of Dick’s magic eye, magic mushroom scouring stare here. He’s drinking in the whole scene, stilling his mind and not missing a beat.

Over to Dr. Wolper:

‘Batman’s Psychotic sublimative/psycho erotic behaviour pattern is like a net. Weak egoed neurotics…are drawn into corresponding intersticing patterns. You might say Batman commits these crimes using his so called villains as proxys.’

Whether he intends it or not – I’m guessing not – Miller puts forward a compelling case here, one that Nolan nods to via the idea of escalation and Morrison runs with all the way through his run, although his Joker is only weak egoed in the sense that he doesn’t have a permanent sense of self, turning what in Wolper’s eyes is a weakness into something far weirder and frightening. We’ve touched on the ways in which Batman completes Joker before, so I won’t bore you all with it again here, but needless to say then, they’re inextricably bound up with each other, and the Joker’s memeplex-cycles are closely attuned to whatever happens to the Caped Crusader, and then the rest of Gotham is forced to follow suit. Batman starts out all dark and so does his nemesis, he acquires a Robin and lightens up and it comes pop crime time (the Riddler may be the ur-pop crime criminal, permanently at home, indeed unable to convincingly move on from that environment, but the Joker had his joker-sled first), Robin becomes a troubled adolescent and Batman a beleaguered Dad and out come the crowbars, Batman approaches death and the Clown at Midnight is born, Batman dies…etc.

No one’s stopped to ask what would happen to Batman without the Joker, though. Would he hang up his cape?

I really like the slippery atmosphere here, though. It’s impossible, although urgent, to get a handle on what’s really going on. Can we trust the Joker? What he says is all too plausible, it makes too much sense. Of course he wants to help Dick because he wants Bruce back, he wants the status quo to resume…. But I’m sure he wants some bloody carnage too. And he wants something else.

But more on that later.

PAGE 10

More horror movie stuff. But if the previous pages were Lynch mixed with Argento, this is much more in the vein of theatrical British horrality plays like Theatre of Blood. The black and white wind up teeth are a great touch. D’you think they’re rigged to start chattering upon the coffin’s disinterment, or are they some kind of weird impossible plastic bugs, eating away at the bodies for months? Whatever, I like the idea that their laughter is absolutely deafening.

The Joker without Batman seems to be attempting to fill his boots by exacting karmic revenge on wrongdoers (particularly wrongdoers of Batman), but he doesn’t draw distinctions between the killer and the crimefighter, becoming both in his enemy’s absence. Sane? Not so much.

I have to say, I still don’t understand how killing members of the Black Glove starts a chain reaction that leads to the events here. Surely Hurt was always intending to return to Gotham? But maybe Grant will get around to explaining this later.

PAGE 11

‘To think I shook hands with this filth.’

Now I haven’t got a scanner, but if you cast your mind back to Revenge of Red Hood you might remember the funny look on Gordon’s face after shaking hands with ‘Sexton’. This isn’t in my mind, it’s there on the page. I hope it wasn’t intentional and that Tan’s picture simply intuited the evil emanating from the character. On a related note, is it just me, or are Sexton’s cheekbones very prominent under his mask all the way through the Batman vs Robin arc? The suggestion of a rictus smile?

PAGES 12 and 13

Matt Seneca take it away.

And the ‘I’ll call you Commissioner Gordon..’ line’s much blogged about already, although I should nod to its goodness here too. It would be like calling your Dad by his first name or something. Total weirdness. The little boyish half smile with which Dick accompanies the dialogue really sells it. I wonder if, by this point, Gordon knows this is the first Robin he’s sharing bat-train space with. He’s a good cop, he probably does.

PAGES 14, 15, 16 and 17

‘An event that’s sure to have serious symbolic value for the kind of crazy people we’re dealing with.’

Yeah, the Miagani.

Anyway, I like the idea that El Penitente is the mask Hurt adopts after every massive crime spree. He’s a deeply religious man, it seems, our Hurt. Just like the Devil to use God’s own rules against him.

‘His biggest joke would be for get us all to take him seriously.’

Morrison really does like to fuck around with reader expectation, doesn’t he? He really does write for the internet. On that note, I think this can only be levelled as a criticism of his work in that it’s potentially alienating for new readers – otherwise it’s kind of fine. Most hardcore comic fans are on the internet all the time digging through this stuff, so I think it’s justifiable given the times we’re living through.

Zom: Writing for the Internet or just writing for fans who are following closely? I don’t see much that’s Internet community specific about that line of dialogue, even if Morrison does occasionally talk about that stuff. He’s always loaded his writing with tricksiness and symbolism (or “hyperlinks” if you’re feeling like a wanker), so I’m not sure there’s too much substance to that kind of talk.

‘He could kill him!’

We all know straight away this line is going to be qualified to Gordon as referring to Damian. It’s there to ratchet up the drama. Cliched but cool.

PAGES 18, 19 and 20

This is what it’s really about. The Joker doesn’t care about Dick, it’s Damian he wants, because Damian is Bruce. And although most of the internet seems to be of the opinion that this is a sudden realisation on the Joker’s part after Damian calls him on his bullshit, I say he knew all along and that this is the reason he wants Damian there, alone, in that room, so they can play out their eternal dynamic. The Joker’s ‘You sound just like him…’ isn’t an exclamation of shocked surprise, it’s him revealing his true colours after all that faux weeping and pleading. This is the Joker he’s trying to hide every time Damian steps into the room. Look at that face, that evil bloody face, and tell me that’s not lurking behind everything else all the time.

And of course it always begins with violence.

Morrison cues us for this very neatly by setting up a scene almost identical to one in the movie. He even has Damian reproduce some of the Joker’s dialogue from the script, or a close approximation. And of course it all plays out like it did before, but this time it’s Robin kicking the crap out of the Joker in the interrogation room, with a crowbar no less! There’s something very satisfying about this. I’m sure Damien’s getting off on the righteous poetic justice too. You hard little bastard.

We needed to see this, didn’t we? It’s horribly violent, yes, but it had to be. There’s a brutal glee to it, shared by the reader and successive generations of Robins.

One thing though. We have to follow the thing to it’s conclusion. Things didn’t end well for Batman in the film, and I expect them to go very badly for Robin here.

Obviously the Joker’s got to get his S&M kicks first however.

P.S. I don’t know how intellectual vanity fits with Morrison’s conception of the Joker, but somehow it feels right that there are strange attractors around which his personalities accrete. Only Batman could reduce Joker the way Damian does. He’ll do fine, DC editorial. Let him become the superhero he was always meant to be. This is probably the last vestige of childhood before he really sorts it out. He has to go there. This demon needs slaying… and Damian needs to learn not to underestimate it too.

PAGES 21, 22, 23 and 24

And the better batmobile is down!

That really is symbolic, isn’t it? This is the end of the road for Dick and Damian. Their cool, new and improved, youthful take just received a catastrophic systems fail to the head. Novelty and youth are just another thing for baddies on this scale to trample. You can’t stay a kid forever.

BTW, the mobile’s voice is the one from the movie.

Even if they are a little extraneous and only included because COOL! YEAH!, it’s nice to see the return of the dollotrons and Pyg.

And one more thing before I go, why has that member of the 99 Fiends/Miagani/the Prodigy got a dark knight tattooed on his head?

Eh?

EEEEEEHHHHHH?