Batman #664

DC Comics

Writer: Grant Morrison

Penciler: Andy Kubert

Inker: Jesse Delperdang

Doesn't Bruce Wayne have ENOUGH lunch money?

Batman’s back in Gotham city investigating a series of murders the G.C.P.D. is involved in. There’s a nasty looking fellow in a Mexican wrestler mask who reeks of “alpha male hormone,” and is a lousy host. Learn how to throw a party, jerk.

The Obligatory Warning: #664 contains an image of corpses lying gruesomely about a room (is there any other way?). So…PG-13ish, on the darker side.

I think there’s a gene in the Kubert family that makes all its members masters of layout. Andy Kubert’s layouts are an organic part of the plot (as they should be), and he almost outdoes Adam (the other) Kubert’s current virtuoso layouts in Action Comics. Regardless how many bullets are fired or kicks are thrown, great action scenes depend heavily on how the panels are arranged. Kubert adds to this knowledge a rare precision that makes #664 exhibit-A in “how to draw a comic book.”

Grant Morrison almost makes up for dressing the X-Men like Andrew Dice Clay. Like Kubert’s pencils, there isn’t a single detail out of place. Morrison has a rare talent for making necessary exposition as interesting as his clever dialogue, and there’s a lot of that. As #663 demonstrated, the action isn’t all Kubert’s doing: Morrison deserves equal (maybe more) credit for giving Bruce Wayne physical rage so focused it’s like sunbeams focused under a magnifying glass.

A complaint: a story about corrupt cops covering up murdered prostitutes in a seedy warehouse? It smells pretty heavily of The Hard Goodbye. The image of Batman beating up a police officer on the cover makes it even more Miller-esque. Not that that’s a bad thing, but when you consider this issue along with the style of #663, Morrison is taking some pretty direct cues from another Batman interpreter.

Worth the money? Yes. Good fights and good writing.