Batman by Grant Morrison Omnibus: Volume One by Grant MorrisonMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Batman by Grant Morrison Omnibus: Volume One contains Batman material from #655-658, 663-683, DC Universe #0, and 52 #30 and 47.
I originally read these stories as part of Batman & Son, Batman: The Black Glove, and Batman RIP when they were released in trade paperback. A few years ago, I purged my collection but had the lingering desire to reread these stories at some point. A deal for this omnibus and the second one fell into my lap sometime around Thanksgiving so I took the plunge.
Grant Morrison isn't my favorite comic writer. I either love what he does or don't know what the hell is going on. Fortunately, this book falls into the second category. "It all happened" is Grant Morrison's inspiration for this, something to tie together and reconcile the zany Batman stories of the 1950s and early 60s with the grim Batman of the 1980s and beyond.
Over the course of the book, Batman meets his son, fights Man-Bat ninjas, falls in love, battles a vast conspiracy, and winds up buried alive. There's a lot more than that but it's hard to sum up around 700 pages in a sentence or two.
The art is a mixed bag. Any Kubert, JH Williams, and Tony S. Daniel are great but some of the other art wasn't quite up to snuff. Damian looked ten in some cases and twenty in others. Some of the art felt like it was from 1995 rather than 2005.
On the second time through these stories, I noticed a lot of groundwork being laid early on, like the Zur-En-Arrh graffiti and mention of criminals that Batman wouldn't encounter for another year and a half. As much as I rag on modern Batman, Morrison weaves a great series of tales.
I honestly don't have a ton of gripes with this volume. The stuff with Batman on Apokalips was strange but needed because of Final Crisis. I also didn't care for Sensei being revealed as R'as Al Ghul's father. That just seemed odd to me.
Batman by Grant Morrison Omnibus: Volume One is some of the best modern Batman material out there. 4.5 out of 5 Batarangs.
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