Grant Morrison Corner: Batman and Robin Book 1: Batman Reborn (#1-6)

"Crime is doomed" - Dick Grayson

Well after all the rape in last months Alan Moore offering, it's time to delve into Grant Morrison Corner instead.  And today we find... Batman and Robin! Now this is going to get a bit complicated.  Grant Morrison had just done the acclaimed run of Batman issues "Batman R.I.P" which took Batman apart physically and mentally.  Then the Grant Morrison event series "Final Crisis" happened round about the same time, and in it Batman, exhausted from the events of R.I.P is captured by New God Granny Goodness and sent to Command D to be broken.  He escapes (because he's the Goddamn Batman) and using a Radion bullet, shoots Darkseid, but falls prey to his Omega Beams.  He is thought dead, but in fact he's been transported back in time even though a body that looks like him appears to have been left in the present.  So the Batman we are following in this series is in fact Dick Grayson who has taken up the mantle, because Gotham needs a Batman, and his Robin is Batman's son (with Talia Al Ghul), Damian Wayne.  A smug and arrogant little bugger, but endlessly entertaining in how he kicks against the rules both Batmen hold him to.  This is just prior to The New 52 2011 reboot so don't confuse it with the Batman and Robin title of The New 52 (although I believe it's a pretty good comic in its own right).  There are two arcs in this volume, on art duties are long time Morrison collaborator Frank Quitely for arc one, and Philip Tan on arc two.

BATMAN REBORN: It begins with Mr. Toad and his gang driving very fast, Toad says the pursuers would need wings to catch them, "they'd need to be Batman - and Batman's as dead as the sky is black".  Then a flying Batmobile flies up alongside the car.

Inside Damian says sniffily, "I told you so". Dick says he's sorry for doubting him and they disable Toad's car.  But it catches fire, so they clamp the Batmobile on top and fly to the river where they drop the car.  They are both waiting as Toad climbs out muttering, "Pyg better be pleased".  Batman and Robin both combo punch him and knock him out, he is carrying a bagfull of dominoes.  "What kind of drug dealer gets paid in dominoes?" muses Dick.

Mr. Toad's wild ride.

Toad wakes up to find him blindfolded and hanging from the Batmobile over what he thinks is high up.  Dick asks him what bought him to Gotham and to tell him before he loses his grip.

Toad: "I'm telling you nanti! Where's my dinari!"

Dick says that's all he needed to know and drops Toad who was actually only a foot or so above a roof.  They leave him for the GCPD to pick up.  As the Batmobile flies off, Toad yells "You wait until Pyg comes!  You'll all wish you'd never been born!"

In the Batcave Alfred asks Dick if he is having second thoughts about taking on the mantle. Dick says no, he always knew this is what he'd do.

Dick: "I just didn't want to face it.  This was my worst, worst nightmare when I was a kid".

He wonders what he is letting himself in for with Damian.  Alfred reassures him that he is difficult but under the bluster is "the inheritor of his father's courage, his determination, his desire to do what is right".  And if anyone can bring out the best in him, it's Dick.

Alfred: "Master Bruce was always proud of you sir.  I know he'd be especially proud of you now".

Later, Alfred serves supper to Dick and Damian while they are working.  Dick says Toad was speaking European circus slang.  He confesses about being Batman that he wishes "I could shake the feeling I was wearing a shroud."

Heading for GCPD.

Damian tells him that if he doesn't think he's up to it, he should make room for someone who is.  "Maybe one day" says Dick, then they fly out in the Batmobile.  Toad is in lock-up at Gotham PD, ranting about how everyone will pay when Pyg comes.  Commisioner Gorden and a couple of cops are shining the Bat signal in the sky.

The cops thinks it's useless and despite Toad's stories about seeing Batman and Robin and a flying car, Batman and Robin are gone.  "Hope springs eternal" says Gordon.  And Dick and Damian paraglide down to them.

Outside the station a car pulls up and a man with his head on fire falls out.  The cops run to help, but the man attacks them setting them on fire.  Elsewhere a man called Niko who was part of Toad's gang is hurridly packing while his daughter Sasha asks why?  Niko says he escaped from Batman today and you don't do that twice. 

Before they can make their getaway some creepily masked, silent figures push their way into the flat.  Later Niko wakes up bound to a table.  Sasha is being restrained by two more of the "Dollotrons".  Professor Pyg says he wanted Niko to be awake for his transformation, and gets out a mask, he intends to do it to Sasha next.

Pyg: "Pyg will make her perfect.  Pyg is here to make everything perfect."

The next chapter begins with Dick looking despondant back in the Batcave.  Alfred asks him what happened, and we flash back to them landing on the roof of Gotham PD.  Gordon says "been a long time.  A whole lot of rumours".  Dick says they've been upgrading their operation.  He asks if Mr. Toad is talking yet?  He comes from an "extreme" circus - "Le Cirque D'Etrange".

DickBats feels like a failure.

Then the front desk calls up to say there is trouble, and Dick and Damian run off to investigate.  One of the cops says to Gordon didn't Batman use to be taller, and doesn't he sound different now?  "Different maybe...but familiar" muses Gordon and they leave the roof.

Downstairs the flaming head man - Rex - is setting cops on fire and another car with some baddies in it pulls up.  One is a grotesquely obese man in a tutu packing a gun, the other is conjoined triplets.  Batman and Robin arrive on the scene and fighting starts.  Damian takes the triplets on first, before Batman steps in and finishes them. Damian ignores his order to stay together and goes after the fat man.

Dick is fighting Rex and calling for help from Damian, he finally manages to disable Rex temporarily with a fire extinguisher and shouts "Damian!  Where the hell are you?"  He ties up the triplets, then goes to find Damian has rammed a bucket on the fat man's head and is hitting it yelling "Explain!"  Dick pulls him away and Damian shouts at him:

Damian: "His boss is planning some kind of attack on the city.  I almost had it out of him!"

Then attention is drawn to Mr. Toad lying dead in his cell.  Gordon is most annoyed that a suspect was killed under their noses.

Damian takes on the triplets.

Back at the Batcave, Dick and Damian are still arguing.  He tells Damian he has to play by the rules, "step over the line and Gordon won't hesitate to hunt us down."  Damian is pissed enough he can't kill, now he has to be nice to cops too?  Dick says there is more to batman and Robin than fighting alone and thinking with your fists.  He needs to hone his detective skills and learn to obey an order.

Damian: "This pathetic impersonation of my father makes a mockery of his memory".

Dick says Damian is only ten and has a lot to learn.  Damian marches off saying "I'll find a teacher I can respect." And he departs the Batcave.

Damian rebels.

Dick asks Alfred if he was such a brat at that age.  Alfred points out he and Damian had very different upbringings.  Dick says no one believes he is Batman, it was insane to try and replace him.  He is even having trouble with the cape, the first thing he dropped when he became Nightwing.

Alfred says Dicks roots are in showbusiness, so think of Batman as a performance and "the spotlight is on you now."  Dick thanks him and leaves the Batcave as well.  While this was going on Damian tracked down Pyg's circus, but he is quickly overwhelmed by Dollotrons.  He is in big trouble and driving the new Quad-Bat, Dick comes racing to find clues as to where he is.

Dick is driving the Quad-Bat at high speed, holding Rex just above the ground and telling him to start talking which Rex does.  Dick brings him back to Gordon who isn't happy about what Dick did.  But Rex tells them Pyg is going to release a sickness in Gotham.

Pyg says... something.

Damian wakes up bound to a chair, in Pyg's circus tent lab.  He also has Sasha tied to a table.  She has a mask on but has retained her identity. Damian sneers, "So.. whose neck do I break first?"  Pyg rambles some nonsensical stuff that probably means something to Grant Morrison but which I cannot parse.

He starts up some music and begins dancing pervily round Damian who is surreptiously freeing himself.  He leaps out of the chair and takes out the Dollotrons who were about to put a face on him and he double-kicks Pyg in the face.  Dick meanwhile has encountered some Dollotrons who spit out a germ ridden phlegm to spread the sickness.

DickBats fights more Dollotrons.

Damian frees a terrified Sasha and promises not to leave her.  Pyg grabs the Dollotron who was her father, so she rams a lit bunsen burner into his chest setting him alight.  He runs away up onto the rollercoaster with Damian in hot pursuit.  Sasha screams:

Sasha: "Don't leave me in this terrible place!  Don't leave me!  You promised!"

Pyg and Damian crash into the ground and Pyg knocks him out with a stick.  He is about to start beating Damian when Dick rams him with the Quad-Bat.

Pyg begins to freak out saying "I wasn't doing anything wrong!".  Damian has recovered and the two of them fight more Dollotrons.  Dick says Damian did a good job even if he went in without doing his research first. 

Pyg's lair is burning, Damian says "There was a girl... Did... did you just save my life?"  Dick manages to retrieve a vial marked antidote from the burning lab and says to Damian no one was in there, she must have got out.

Gordon and the GCPD come to mop things up taking Pyg and the Dollotrons into custody.  Gordon says Batman has his full support, and was all this about the sordid drug trade?  Dick says Pyg invented a drug that destroyed the victim's personality and the gangs wer using it to control women.

But Pyg then realised what he had, that he could hold a whole city to random with it.  And he tosses Gordon the antidote vial.  Gordon wants to know if this is all over.  Dick doesn't think so, he found a domino which was the next in sequence after Toad's.  So who did kill Toad?

Meet The Red Hood.

The Dollotrons are being cared for in hospital, but when the masks are removed it takes the face off underneath.  Sasha finds her Dollotron father and smothers him to death.  Two security guards confront her, but someone shoots them.  It is The Red Hood.

Red Hood: "You need a friend right?  And me, I'm looking for a partner to help me wipe the vomit from Gotham once and for all.  Well?  You have anything else planned?"

And that brings the BATMAN REBORN arc to a close.

REVENGE OF THE RED HOOD: The arc begins with a supervillain called Lightning Bug being chased by Batman and Robin.  He is cornered in a dark alley where Red Hood is waiting.  Thinking he is Batman, Lightning Bug surrenders to him.  He says he needed the money for a medical treatment for a condition he has. 

"It's called dying" says Red Hood and slashes his throat.  Then he shoots him saying "Let the punishment fit the crime!" Lighning Bug is tossed burning through a wall and Red Hood leaves.  Batman and Robin find a red card at the scene and Dick says "Third time this week. Who are these people?"

Covering for Bruce's absence at a society do.

Later Dick and Damian are at a party at Wayne Tower.  Lucius Fox asks after Bruce Wayne, Dick says he's working to clear his name in his own way (during the events of Batman R.I.P lies were spread about him and his family).  Dick is then introduced to a masked crime fighter from England called Oberon Sexton, "The Gravedigger".  He says to Dick, "it seems we have a mutal interest in crime".  Then Alfred calls Dick and Damian away.

At their base, Scarlet (Sasha's new name) is regarding her mask.  She tells Red Hood she is afraid to take it off in case it rips her whole face off.  She says she can't go to the doctor because they have killed people.

Red Hood: "So keep it. It's scary, modern, edgy, whatever.  You give the brand that genuine nu-face chic those try-hard Gotham wannabes just can't muster.  They'll all be imagining the beauty beneath the creepy mask."

She asks what about him?  What's dress up all about?  What is a Red Hood?  He says it's about fighting crime at a new level but mainly "this is about the revenge of one crazy man in a mask on another crazy man in a mask".

Red Hood and "Scarlet" make plans.

Batman and Robin are waiting on a roof spying on a get together of various Gotham criminals including the Penguin.  They are talking about the Red Hood and a man in what looks like a purple KKK outfit called Mr. Santo says his boss "El Penitente" has taken and interest and is sending "Flamingo" or "the man who eats faces" to deal with him.

He goes on to say El Penitente has indentified Gotham as the "perfect testing ground for the next generation of narcotics."  One of them says the mob wants in on this and he mentions a man called "Bullet Nose" who is mostly likely already involved and should be here at this meeting.

Red Hood crashes the meeting saying he stuck a gun up each of Bullet Nose's nostrils and blew his brains out through the top of his skull.  He and Scarlet then start attacking them and Batman and Robin arrive on the scene.  Penguin begs Batman to protect him and Red Hood says to Scarlet who is filming it, "Batman shielding a known felon".  Dick recognises his voice.  "Jason?" he asks.  Red Hood ignored him shouting "Red Hood and Scarlet say 'Let the punishment fit the crime!'"

DickBats, Damian finally meet Red Hood and Scarlet.

A quick bit of background.  Red Hood is Jason Todd, the second Robin.  He wasn't very popular with readers and there was a phone in vote carried out as to whether he'd live or die in a coming storyline.  He was voted to die and the Joker beat him half to death with a crowbar before blowing him up.  He stayed dead until 2005's Infinite Crisis where Superboy punching reality caused history to change.  Jason Todd was bought back to life this time in a Lazarus pit and became Red Hood who is not afraid to use lethal force, mainly to piss off Batman.

We get a peek into Sasha/Scarlet's thoughts.  How she always sided with her father growing up, though in retrospect her mother was probably right.  She says that was what she was thinking when she suffocated her father.

Sasha: "My name is Sasha.  My face is no longer my own.  I have made something of myself.  Something new.  Something strong and unafraid.  My name is Sasha.  But not tonight.  Tonight I am Scarlet."

She and Jason argue with Dick and Damian.  Jason tells Damian, "you're only the latest in a line and don't expect job security". Penguin goes crashing through a window and uses his umbrella to land safely. 

Jason Todd is a prick.

Dick says to Jason to stop talking in slogans, he just killed their main connection to the man in Mexico they are after.  Jason says this person in Mexico won't send anyone else after this little demonstration.  Dick asks what the point of all this is.

Jason: "Batman is dead.  I'm taking this mission to the next level.  I'm doing what we should have done years ago and no ones going to stand in my way."

Irritated, Damian attacks, Jason bashes his head on the floor and tussles with Dick.  Then Scarlet gets a hold of Damian and holds a knife to his throat and threatens to cut out his brainstem.

Jason tosses a red card and says "we'll kick your ass another time" and they leave.  Dick holds Damian back, Damian recognises Scarlet as the girl from the circus he tried to save.  One of the criminals is still alive and holding a domino.  They find the Penguin down on the pavement and escort him to the police station to give his statement.

Next day the news is discussing the Red Hood's antics, Jason has leaked the footage of Dick and Damian protecting the Penguin.  Oberon Sexton is being interviewed to point out they were protecting him from two killers.  "My father made some very strange choices when it came to partners" comments Damian and a poll on the Tv shows a majority supporting Red Hood's approach.  Mr. Santo is in hospital being interviewed by Gordon but all he says is that the Flamingo is coming.

How superficial he is.

At the Red Hood's base, Jason is looking at himself in the mirror and mumbling about zits and going bald.  He tells Scarlet his grey streak is from when he crawled out of the Lazarus Pit.  Scarlet wonders if there will be repercussions for what they did tonight.  He says doesn't her generation want to stand up for something?  They are going to put every Gotham criminal in the dirt.

On a plane which has landed in Gotham, the police have been called because inside are several women dead, minus their faces.  One survived and said the man - Flamingo - skinned and ate only their faces.  Gordon reports this to Dick, who says "it looks like the Red Hood's antics attracted the wrong kind of attention".  They fly to the hospital where Jason is pouring bleach into Mr. Santo's drip bag.

Dick and Damian attack and as they fight Scarlet thinks of a way to hurt Damian, she yells he promised to save her and he freezes up.  Jason unloads his guns into the reinforced kevlar plate behind the Batman logo on Dick's chest stunning him and Scarlet knocks Damian out.

We cut to them leaving with Red Hood saying let them try to get out of that with their dignity intact.  Then he is shot.  Scarlet sees who did it and thinks back to how her uncle and father were scared of a man who had his brain cut away until he was the perfect killing machine:

Sasha: "The King of Killers.  The Ace of Assassins. On that day Flamingo became Death.  And so Death comes to Gotham."

Dick and Damian come to and discover they have been stripped naked and have a webcam pointed at them with a message from Red Hood telling the public one million calls will activate the webcam to see Batman and Robin naked.  Damian says someone might have beaten them to revenge on Jason, he heard gunshots outside.

Flamingo (cover art by Frank Quietly)

Jason is incapacitated and Flamingo is beating Scarlet with a whip.  Jason manages to get up and tells Flamingo to leave her alone, it's him he wants.  He shoots at Flamingo and hits him in the shoulder, but Flamingo just laughs. 

Dick and Damian free themselves and get dressed up, then activate the webcam and tell the viewers to "get a life!".  Damian admits he feels guilty about the girl, "that's a first" says Dick.  They discover the Red Hood HQ is a van which is why they couldn't locate it.  Dick calls Alfred and asks about Flamingo, Alfred advises him to "proceed with the utmost caution" and that he has alerted Commisioner Gordon.

Scarlet attacks desperately.

Jason and Flamingo are fighting and Flamingo shoots Jason in the leg.  Jason yells at Scarlet to "run! get out of here!"  He shouts at Flamingo:

Jason: "So shoot me!  Do it!  I'll come back!"

Then Damian appears and fires a grenade behind Flamingo and makes the un-PC comment, "I was expecting scary, not gay".  Then Dick appears from out of the smoke and attacks Flamingo.  They fight and Dick is knocked over the edge of a cliff but uses the Bat-grapple to stop his fall and climb back up.

Flamingo smashes Damian into a wall and shoots him in the back, but Scarlet jumps on his back and stabs him in the face.  He knocks her away then Jason scoops him up with a mechanical digger and dumps him along with a lot of rubble, over the cliff edge.

Dick arrives back at the top and finds Damian is paralysed from the waist down.  Jason says to him, "you see what I just did?"  Dick angrily says what he did was bring a monster to Gotham.  Jason says Dick doesn't have the stones to protect Gotham.

Dick: "Look at yourself Jason.  You're a mess.  Everything's a mess.  Stop all this and let us help you."

Jason says it is too late for him. He tried to be like Dick but the world had other plans for him.  Gordon and the cops arrive to arrest him saying Batman is allowed to operate because he stays on the right side of the law.

Not the last we'll see of Jason Todd, sadly.

Damian's mother's paramedics have arrived to take him away for treatment.  As Jason is dragged away he shouts that Dick recovered "his" body, why haven't they used a Lazarus pit on him?  He says Batman is dead because Dick, "couldn't stand the fact you were always going to be in his shadow!"

A tired Dick tells Gordon they should look for Jason's partner.  Gordon says she won't go far with a face like she has.  But as Dick says it's time to go home, it's been a hell of a night, we cut to Scarlet driving the Red Hood HQ out of Gotham.  The mask peels itself off and falls away, "And Scarlet was gone".

The arc ends with El Penitente calling Oberon Sexton saying his sins have found him out and he wants him to deal with some unfinished business and a score to settle in Gotham.  Then we get a shot of Batman staggering down to where Bruce's body is being kept, for the next arc is a tie-in to the mega crossover "Blackest Night".  And that finishes the REVENGE OF THE RED HOOD arc.

Dead Bruce Wayne teasers the next volume.

This is a very enjoyable volume that doesn't require a massive amount of knowledge of what was happening during Batman's convoluted history at the time.  Knowing that stuff adds to the enjoyment, but pretty much all you need to know is conveyed in the first arc.  Dick and Damian make and enjoyable Batman and Robin, with Dick making a lighter, more falliable and more optimistic Batman than the overly grim "Bat God" that to be fair was also of Grant Morrison's making.  Batman's son as Robin could have been awful and self-indulgant but Damian is handled so well, that he was very well received by fandom.  Ironically the first attempt at a Robin with attitude was Jason Todd and well we can see how that turned out.  Given the lemons of his return, Morrison makes lemonade by contrasting his supposedly more "modern" approach with Batman's "old fashioned" values.  But crucially does retain sympathy for him in the end.  It's possible that Jason Todd as Red Hood has been as popular as he has been since, with (awful) New 52, DCYou and the DC Rebirth titles starring him mainly due to Grant Morrison's work with the chracter.  So thank you very much Grant, YOU MONSTER! Both artists do a fantastic job, portraying the kind of mad villians that could only come from Morrison's mind.  Philip Tan's work is great, but I'm a huge Frank Quitely fan and his coreography of the fight scenes especially is good stuff.  This volume gets the Batman and Robin series off to a great start and there are two more volumes before The New 52 cut it short and was rebooted into a different title, although Damian still stayed the current Robin.  Definitely worth checking out if you're a fan of how Morrison handles the Batman archetype, or if you just like good comics.

Grant Morrison Corner: We3 (#1-3)

"Home is.. run no more" - One/Bandit

It's the start of the month so it's time for more Alan Mo- No! No Alan Moore, he's in the Sin Bin for a month because of Miracleman 3.  No instead we're going to take a look in Grant Morrison Corner instead.  And today we find in there... We3.  One of his acclaimed collaborations with one of modern comic's finest artists, Frank Quitely.  Now, if you've read enough of my posts you may know I love cats and have a bit of a blind spot when it comes to them.  Like if Hitler had had a beloved cat instead of a dog I'd have mumbled something about him not being "all bad".  Fortunately Grant Morrison is not Hitler, and he loves cats.  His semi autobiographical book "Supergods" charting the history of superhero comics has some incredibly moving accounts of how much he loves his cats right down to having had them immortalised in the first US comicbook he wrote which was Animal Man ( a series that was very passionately pro-animal rights as well).  We3 is the emotionally charged story of how three family pets; a rabbit, a cat and a dog are abducted by the military and experimented on to produce three sapient creatures in power armour as weapons of the future.  This is very much a story that relies on its art to tell the story as much as it's script and Quitely is able to go wild with the panel layouts and pacing as we are taken through some thrilling and heartbreaking events.  To really hammer home the evil done to these animals, each of the three issues has as its cover a homemade lost pet notice of the type you'll see sadly affixed to lamp-posts in the usually vain hope said pet can be found and returned home.  Tears, my friends, tears were cried during the writing up of this blog post.  If it was on paper it would be soggy. 

Biff, my flerken cat.

Before we start, let me introduce you to Biff.  He's going to be eleven next month and he's the first cat I have had who has been "mine" and not the family cat.  He's a laid back, powerfully intelligent mini-tyrant who has me as his familiar.  He's also affectionate and loving and in ten years we've never spent more than a day apart.  We live together, we've moved house together, we even go on holiday together.  I love the little bastard so much.  So don't expect the bad-guys in this story to get a fair shake (not that I think Morrison and Quitely would want you too), and I hope meeting this member of my family will help you understand my reactions to this comic.  Everytime I read it, I can't help but think what it would be like if I had lost my cat to an experiment like this. And then I cry some more.  Don't think they'll be any anti-dog stuff though, I had a much loved pet dog growing up too (a sweet natured and gentle Afghan Hound) and if money and space permitted would have one in my life now as well.  In fact it's the dog in this comic that breaks my heart the most and I'll talk more about that as we come to the relevant parts.  Rabbits are nice too, although not the type of pet for me.  My first girlfriend had a house rabbit and it was pretty damn adorable.

I'll be referring to the three animals by their real names (Bandit the dog, Tinker the cat and Pirate the rabbit, all names linked by their "outsider" status) as it reads a bit better than calling them "One, Two and Three".  Also I want to keep emphasising that these are people's pets that have been turned into killing machines.  It's also interesting to note that bar the main human characters everyone else is mainly drawn with their heads and faces obscured, dehumanising them in the process, arguably this is how the three animals would see humans they aren't familiar with and also keeps our focus on their plight not the humans.

We3, Bandit, Tinker and Pirate.

The story begins with a wordless sequence as an armed gangster is blown up by the three power-armoured animals I'll be collectively referring to as "We3".  We are then introduced to the female scientist in charge of them getting reading to go to work.  We3 are being transported back to the lab in the back of a lorry.

At the lab, a US senator called Dan Washington is being shown the animal "research and development" which he has thrown his political clout behind, and its various applications.  He is shown a rat with a drill for a head being controlled by what looks like a gamepad into killing its fellow rats as a "living weapon".

The female scientist is introduced as Roseanne Berry as the senator is shown We3.  Apparently she has a hard time dealing with "mere humans" and prefers to spend time with the animals.  Bandit is designated the "tank", Tinker the "lethal stealth machine" and Pirate for the delivery of mines and poison gas.

Bandit speaks.

The senator is told that if anyone attempts to remove the animals from their armour it will self destruct.  The senator then says "Hello boy" to Bandit, who replies:

Bandit: "I.M. Gud.  R. U. Gud. 2? 'Mr Wah-shing-ton'"

Washington is surprised by this but he is reasurred that We3 only kill "enemies of our nation."  Bandit cocks his head and says "Gud dog. Is Gud dog?"  The cat, Tinker is less agreeable:

Tinker: "Mmmmen stink!  Bossss stink! Hungry!"

The senator leaves with the head scientist following.  The head scientist tells Dr. Berry and the other sympathetic scientist, Dr. Trendle that We3 are going to be decommisioned (ie: killed).  Dr. Berry says she can't believe it, that the project represents years of her life.  The head of the project insinuates she'll be fired as well. 

Dr. Roseanne Berry.

As he departs with Dr. Trendle in tow he says that Dan Washington will be "warming seats in the Oval office" soon and talking about animals used for warfare.  It's time they concentrated on animals bred for such a purpose (rather than the household pets We3 originally were).  Regarding We3 and Dr. Berry he says to Trendle, "what kind of lunatic teaches a killing machine to talk?"

Then we get an astonishing sequence of eighteen panel pages as Berry releases the locks on We3.  Trendle comforts her as We3 realise they can leave, she asks them to kill her and that she "deserves it" but they run past her and exit the lab to freedom.

Freedom! Now what?

Once they realise what has happened, Trendle is on the phone reassuring the project chief that this can't be traced back to the senator.  They can't survive more than a few days without their medication, but they are armed and trained to kill:

Trendle: "They are instinctual, amoral.  They lack the fear of death that sets limits on human behaviour.  That's our only problem sir... they won't go down without a fight."

Meanwhile We3 are deciding what to do next.  Pirate asks Bandit where they should go.  Bandit says "home" although Tinker is unwilling to follow but decides to anyway.

One of the lost pet covers.

Trendle is still on the phone, stressing that Bandit alone is armed with surface to air missles and that their senses are different, "much faster than any human.  They experience time and motion differently."  He gets off the phone and says to Dr. Berry that they don't understand the danger:

Trendle: "Those poor men.  See what you've done?  Oh those poor men."

Then in an amazing double page spread we see We3 destroying the squad of soldiers send to pacify them.  Trendle is back on the phone saying "I did try to tell you."  He'll try and find another way to to stop We3.  He says to himself, "humans shouldn't be dying.  That was the point.  The whole point of my work".

We3 destroy some soldiers.

We3 meanwhile are on a railway bridge.  Bandit and Tinker get into a tussle because Tinker says "is no home."  Pirate plays the peacemaker, then Bandit detects the weaponised rats who have been set on them and they massacre them.  Then a train suddenly hits them and they blow the bridge to smithereens sending the train wreckage into the river below.

We3 drop down and Bandit drags the driver onto the shore saying "gud dog. Help man."  Then We3 leave, the "camera" pulls back to show the man is dead and missing below the waist.  And if any moment speaks to the perversion of a dogs natural instincts by the scientists who made him into a weapon it's this.  Heartbreaking stuff.

Poor Pirate.

Later that night Pirate goes and sits in the middle of the road, it is hungry and needs to be fixed and seems to think any human can help.  A man and his son get out of their truck to investigate and the man points a shotgun at Pirate, when Pirate comes towards them he fires, hitting Pirate in the head.  In a rage Bandit flies at the man and kills him.  When he realises what he has done, he sits and repeats the words "bad dog" over and over sadly.  As Terry Pratchett wrote in Men At Arms, the words "Bad dog" are the most powerful ones you can ever say to a dog.

Bandit, full of regret.

Back at the lab, the project chief says the boy was found in the woods close by and We3 are now within a few miles of a major population centre.  They load a mysterious weapon onto a lorry and tell Dr. Berry she is going to act as a "lure", much to her distress.

The final issue begins with a hobo going into an abandoned building out of the rain.  We3 are sheltering there as well.  Pirate is still alive, just about.  The man is shocked at what he sees, "what kinda sicko penned you all up in there?"  He decides he needs liquor and tools, We3 are sick and need their medicine, Bandit pleads with the man:

Bandit: "Sick. Bad sick. Help find home. Boss."

The hobo tells them to wait and he'll see what he can do.  "Is gud man" Bandit reassures the others.

Hark! A vagrant.

The man bumps into the soldiers amassing nearby but says he hasn't seen them. Dr. Berry is told to lure them into position.  This "farce" is being spun as a field test to Senator Washington.  Ominously we are shown a controller and told, "animal weapon four engaged". 

Pirate goes wandering off despite Bandit's pleading for it to stay.  Then something large and vicious runs at them.

Bandit: "Afraid smell!  Big afraid big! 3! Run! 3!"

The creature, "Four", is a specially raised mastiff in black power-armour.  Pirate runs at it and attacks and the mastiff kills Pirate.  Oh, poor, poor Pirate, so gentle and undeserving of death.  Dr. Berry goes out and Bandit comes over to her looking heartbroken.

Wow, this room is so dusty all of a sudden *sniffle*

Let's look at that image for a moment.  It's just perfect.  Unlike cats who are sociopaths (and it's darkly amusing that it's the cat the project chief seems to fear the most), dogs genuinely seem to feel guilt and sadness for both their wrongdoings and for bad things that happen to them.  What Quitely has captured so amazingly well is the look Bandit is giving Dr. Berry here.  Anyone who ever had a dog they had to yell at for some reason will recognise that look as their dog comes and puts their head sadly in your lap and stares soulfully up at you silently begging for forgiveness and affection.  Oh it's heartbreaking here and if Quitely doesn't have a dog himself, he's spent long enough around one to be able to nail that expression dead on. Magnifcent art.

Dr. Berry: "The name on your collar was 'Bandit'.  U. R. Bandit".

Bandit versus "Four".

She finally realises what an appalling, dreadful thing she has done to them and that it requires a sacrifice to save them. She then uses her body to block the sniper shots and as she is killed she yells, "Run Bandit! Run far!"  We then see an enraged Bandit take on the mastiff, bellowing "BAD! DOG!" at it.  The project chief seems to think the mastiff will deal with Bandit easily, but Trendle isn't so sure:

Trendle: "Doctor Berry, she... she was very gifted, you understand.  She taught the animals to work as a team".

And Tinker attacks.  Despite having argued and disagreed with Bandit every step of the way, she is still part of the team and will gladly put herself in danger to save him.  It's a real "fuck yeah!" moment despite the awfulness that has led up to it.

Cat attack!

Between them, "Four", Bandit and Tinker crash through a wall and onto a road.  The bloodied and now pain-crazed mastiff, it's eyes torn out by Tinker, goes to attack a police officer who has got in the way but Bandit protects the policeman and the project chief remotely shuts the mastiff down causing its head to explode with the codeword "Fido".  I feel bad for the mastiff, but there was no saving him, he was We3 without the love and care their former lives and Dr. Berry had given them.

Bandit and Tinker escape via the sewer and make their way back to where the hobo was.  Soldiers are watching the building and inside Bandit, after another argument, suddenly yanks Tinker out of her armour and makes a getaway with her via another sewer grate.  The armour's self destruct sequence kicks in and explodes taking out the soldiers as it does so.

We cut to an exhausted Bandit now also out of his armour lying down, Tinker catches a mouse and brings it to him for him to eat (oh God, my heart... it hurts. That's the point I am usually inelegantly blubbering by when I reread this story). 

Bandit: "Is where B 'Bandit'? Is. Is where?"

Tinker: "Is home."

Which is the first time Tinker has countenenced the concept of "home" fully having been at odds with Bandit over it for the whole story beforehand.  Tinker says it while looking at the hobo who has found them. 

*incoherent sobbing noises*

The story ends with Dr. Trendle reading a newspaper article about senator Washington being "sunk" by what appears to be his testimony regarding the deaths around the escape of We3.  He was part of a terrible experiment but at least he's helped force it out in the open so it (hopefully) can't happen again.  He is returning to the court building and sitting on the steps is the hobo with Tinker and Bandit. Realising what the animals are, he asks the hobo if they need special care?

Hobo: "Just love and attention. And a few scraps of food never hurt. They bring me luck."

Trendle hands over several hundred dollars to him and climbs the steps back to the court, leaving a surprised hobo in his wake as Tinker and Bandit sit happily on and next to him.  The end.

Run no more.

Truly this is a wonderful piece of work.  It is an artist and writer in absolute lock-step with page and panel layouts used to incredible effect, a lot of them are double page spreads which I can't really show you properly.  Summarising it doesn't really do it justice, I urge you to seek it out and read it yourselves.  If you have a pet it will feel like a knife to the heart and although Bandit and Tinker get a happy ending, seeing how their natures have either been perverted (in the case of Bandit and Pirate) or exaggerated (in the case of Tinker) by the scientists just breaks the heart.  The fact that the animals are show to be sapient but are are still going to be discarded once they have served their purpose shows how monstrous the experiment involving them was.  Indeed although Dr.Berry is shown as full of regret at what she has done and sacrifices herself to save them, she still was responsible for them and in unleashing them on the world got many people with families killed in the process in trying to assuage her guilty conscience, but what else could she do when the "decommission" order came? 

Morrison is making a point, fairly bluntly about how he feels regarding animal experimentation, but the comic doesn't come off as preachy it simply shows us what he feels would be the end result of treating animals as weapons.  And it's testiment to how skewed the priorities of the scientists are that the fact the animals are able to talk - an amazing breakthrough in itself - is not seen as worthy of further research, it's just their use as weapons they care about.  Frank Quitely's art is what elevates the material into something truly special though.  The extras show his prototype sketches and it seems he had a pretty free hand in designing the look of the three power-armoured animals. The script is remarkably unsentimental in fact, it's the addition of the art that adds the wrenching quality of the animal's various interactions, which of course was Morrison's intent when choosing Quitely to work with on the project. At only three issues it might seem like a poor investment, but the story is exactly as long at it needs to be and I would rank it very highly in the canon of Grant Morrison's work. Very highly indeed. In fact going through it in detail for this post has made me realise it's now my favourite Morrison work. Higher even than my previous favourite of his, "Seven Soldiers Of Victory". It has no potentially alienating meta-commentary, it's Morrison writing purely from the heart and with Frank Quitely in total synchronicity they have created something comics as a whole can be proud to have as part of them. It really is that good.

JLA: Earth 2

 "What have I done..? Why do I always fail?" - Luthor

Let's talk about the DC comics multiverse.  Before 1985 there existed in DC's continuity a multitude of parallel Earths that had grown up to explain discrepencies between storylines as well as incorporate things that DC didn't want in their regular continuity.  These multiple Earths had numbers, the main DCverse being Earth 1 which had the current set of heroes and stories taking place.  Earth 2 which had the original Golden Age heroes living on it and who had been allowed to grow older and form relationships, for example Superman and Lois Lane were married on this Earth as were Batman and Catwoman.  Earth 3 had villainous versions of our heroes, instead of the Justice League there was the Crime Syndicate of America.  Other Earth's formed the home of characters DC had bought from other companies, so Earth 4, for example, was the home of the Charlton comics heroes. Earth-S, the home of the Fawcett Captain Marvel characters.  And so on.  By the early 80's it was felt this multiverse had become confusing both to readers and to the comic creators themselves.  A huge event series then took place called Crisis Of Infinite Earths that finished with only one Earth left with various heroes either gone completely or retconned into the single Earth's new history.

Grant Morrison - the writer of this graphic novel - was not a fan of this reductionism. As he wrote in his book Supergods:

"There were complaints that the parallel-worlds system was too hard to understand, when if fact it was systematic, logical, and incredibly easy to navigate, particularly for young minds that were made for this kind of categorisation of facts and figures"

 He first took potshots at Crisis On Infinite Earth's in his acclaimed run on Animal Man, the titular hero actually met many of the heroes who had been erased from existence (before meeting Morrison himself, it was very meta).  When Morrison was put in charge of the new Justice League of America reboot in the late 90's he decided he wanted to use the idea of the evil JLA again, but as Earth 3 no longer existed he was forced to get creative.  And so JLA: Earth 2 deals with an "anti-matter" opposite universe that coincidentally has all the characters from Earth 3 living on it, including the Crime Syndicate of Amerika (spelt deliberately with a "k") a gang of super-villains opposed only by the saintly Lex Luthor.

Superwoman, Ultraman, Owlman, Power Ring and Johnny Quick

Morrison had fought hard to get the classic line-up of the JLA back into the book, it consisted of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Flash, Martian Manhunter and Aquaman.  The Crime Syndicate had versions of all of them bar Martian Manhunter and Aquaman. Hopefully the JLA need no introduction but you might not be familiar with the Crime Syndicate so their here's a quick guide to them.

Ultraman is Superman's counterpart.  Instead of the benevolent alien who came to Earth as a child, Ultraman is a human astronaught - Clark Kent - who was given "Anti-Kryptonite" powers by aliens and depends upon it for his powers.  He is a tyrant and a murderer and watches over Earth from the CSA base in Earth orbit, frying dissenters with his heat vision.  Batman's counterpart is Owlman, Thomas Wayne Jr. who was Bruce Waynes older brother in several different continuities.  He enchanced his intellect with a drug and carries on an affair with Supwerwoman, who is Wonder Woman's counterpart, Lois Lane!  She is an Amazon who killed all the other Amazons then took the name Lois Lane, her lasso releases people inhibitions.  Green Lantern is represented by Power Ring, instead of being an human who was granted his ring by an alien police force, Power Ring gained his ring from a being called Volthoom, who still exists in the ring and makes inane observations all the time.  Finally there is the Flash's counterpart, Johnny Quick who instead of being natrually fast like the Flash, has to use a drug called "Speed Juice" to reach hyper-speeds.

Before I begin, I have to fangirl a little about the Frank Quitely's art. This year 2000 project is an early collaboration of him and Morrison, the pair going on to work on the likes of the critically acclaimed All-Star Superman, We3, The New X-men and Batman.  His fine detailed line-work and solid understanding of anatomy, layouts and action scenes, especially when coupled with a great colourist, make his art downright gorgeous to look at as it is here.  I definitely rank his as one of the greatest comicbook artists working in the industry right now.  Anyway, with that said, lets look at JLA Earth 2 proper.

The good Luthor

The story begins with Ultraman, Superwoman and Owlman discussing the escape of "him".  Back on the normal Earth, Luthor appears out of thin air to a shocked pair of people.

Luthor: "I've just reversed across the matter/antimatter membrane and this is my reception?   I am Luthor.  Now.. where can I find the super-people around here?"

The action cuts to the JLA dealing qwith a crashing, fragmented aeroplane. When they bring the pieces back down to Earth they make an eerie discovery.  Benedict Arnold is on their money, not George Washington (I think the joke here is that Arnold is considered one of the very worst US presidents in the normal world), their hearts are on the right side of their chests and the markings on the plane are not anything that they recognise.

The JLA drop by for a chat.

At Lex Corp building, the new Lex Luthor has locked up this worlds one and decides to divert cash from the armaments devision to Greenpeace and gives all employees a 20% raise.  Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern and Martian Manhunter appear at the office window.  Martian Manhunter notes his unsual DNA and locked off thoughts.  Luthor reveals that he comes from a anti-matter universe and accepts their invitation to come to JLA headquarters.

On the anti-matter Earth, Ultraman has dropped tonnes of fake money onto the city to ruin the economy.  His slave Braniac says they have only had partial success in tracing Luthor's exhaust fumes.  Down below, a man loses his rag:

Man: "..Not real! It's crap! It's just more crap from the sky! From Ultraman!  I can't take anymore of this!  I can't take anymore of them looking down at us as though we're --"

And Ultraman fries him into a steaming puddle with his heat vision.

Don't piss off Ultraman

Braniac tells Ultraman he has verified the existence of a matter universe, the matter cannon that Lex used allowed for matter and anti-matter to be able to coexist.  Ultraman calles a meeting of the Crime Syndicate.

On the JLA moonbase, Luthor fills them in on the background of the CSA, he wants their help defeating them and bringing and end to their tyranny.

Batman: "I say no. I'm sorry but this world has it's own troubles. We're not some kind of inter-dimensional police force."

Luthor pleads that they give him 48 hours to change everything.  The JLA dicuss it and decide to help, with Martian Manhunter and Aquaman staying behind to look after their Earth.  In Luthor's spaceship he says he settled on the name "Earth 2" for the JLA's world then they cross the dimensional barrier to the anti-matter universe.

Owlman and Superwoman play a dangerous game

On the anti-matter Earth, a policeman is trying to apprehend Owlman, saying he doesn't work with him or "Boss Gordon".  Owlman blasts his way out and is picked up by Superwoman.  They share a kiss on top of a building then go on to the CSA headquarters.

At the meeting of the CSA they discuss the implications of Luthor's disappearence and the existence of a matter universe.  Ultraman sees it as another world to conquer and they raise their glasses to it.  After the meeting, Ultraman (qwho sees Superwoman as his) warns Owlman:

Ultraman: "One of these days you'll go too far, Owlman.  And you wont come back"

Owlman: "Sure. Until then, I have the negatives remember?"

Ultraman: "One day."

A meeting of the CSA

Back with the JLA, they are incognito in the city, dismayed at it's grimmness and the viciousness of the people.  Batman goes to the police station and talks with the man who qwas trying to arrest Owlman earlier.  He turns out to be Thomas Wayne senior, in this reality his wife and Bruce died, placing him and Thomas Wayne Junior - Owlman- at odds.  Batman tells him to be ready for the cessation of the rule of the CSA.  Back wqith Wonder WQoman, Batman confides some fears he has:

Batman: "If this world and the Crime Syndicate's are opposites in every way... How will what we do here be reflected back home?"

Superman says he has never seen such misery and hatred that lives here.  Now Green Lantern creates a huge pair of hands and clasps them round the CSA's moonbase.  Trapping all bar Superwoman, who is currently in a store room in the Daily Planet, tormenting Jimmy Olsen.  She flies to the flying fortress and is confronted by Luthor and the JLA.  Wonder Woman knocks her out and they use the teleporter to send her to the main CSA base and have her trapped as well.  Wonder Woman then makes a global broadcast:

Green Lantern traps the CSA

Wonder Woman: "We've learned that yours is a world crushed by tyranny, paralysed by crime.  Crippled by corruption to the highest level. We've heard the call and the Super Syndicate is no more. Look up again.  The skies are safe and we're here to set you free."

The JLA set about improving things, including feeding the starving populace of a war ravaged Britain who have never recovered from being beaten in 1776 when they tried to gain independence from the USA.

Batman helps Thomas Wayne Snr. clear out the corrupt cops and they arrest Boss Gordon who they had cornered in City Hall.

The villianess Boss Gordon is arrested by Thomas Wayne Snr.

Thomas Wayne: "I'm putting a wall round this city; making it  self sufficient, strong and clean. And anyone who doesn't like it gets a bullet in the face."

Back on the CSA base, Owlman tells them there is no need to try and escape, the scales will balance.  And as he says that, they all shift dimensions to the JLA's matter Earth.  Luthor confirms it, and the JLA tell him they'll have to leave and go deal with them as the CSA starts to run riot on their world.

Ultraman: "There is justice after all.  A whole new world stretched out and screaming.  Start with terror.  Always soften them up with fear."

Martain Manhunter beats down Ultraman

Aquaman and Martian Manhunter arrive on the scene.  Aquaman takes down Power Ring while Martian Manhunter defeats Ultraman.  He's is weakened because the anti-kryptonite that is the source of his power is in another dimension.  Superwoman flirts with Martian Manhunter, but he smacks her down.  Owlman is kneeling by the grave of Thomas and Martha Wayne.  He tells Johnny Quick to deliver a message to the others:

Owlman: "Tell them we've been duped.  We've been sent to the one place we can't succeed either.  Tell them nothing means anything.  He's dead.  There's no one left to hurt."

Back in the anti-matter Earth, Flash is using his speed energy to power up the reversal engine so they can get back.  He and Luthor realise the aeroplane switch might have been someone testing the technology in secret.  Not Ultraman as he doesn't understand how the cyclotron works.  Luthor suddenly realise that only leaves Brainiac, as Brainiac informs him this is the case.

Brainiac wanted the CSA neutralised to end his slavery.  He transmits himself into every circuit in the Flying Fortress.  He has softened the membrane betqween the two worlds and aims to collide the pair of them.  On the surface of the anti-matter world Batman says they must stop trying to change things, that they have been played.

Wonder Woman: "We failed them. We failed Luthor."

Batman: "Only because our methods can't succeed on this world.  It's a law of nature.  Everything we do is ordained to fail.  Even good deeds go bad here."

The twqo Earth's on a collisions course

On the Flying Fortress Luthor asks Brainiac why he is doing this.  Brainiac want's to create a massive amount of energy converting everyone on both worlds into it when he crashes the two Earths into each other.  Superman goes to attack Brainiac, but realises he can't kill him when he discovers Brainiac is part organic.

Brainiac: "I am monitoring all your efforts to prevent my upgrade.  The equation is simple.  Here 'evil' wins."

Superman agrees, but says Brainiacs plan didn't account for the JLA doing something deliberately "bad", like walking away in a time of crisis.  They can't defeat Brainiac but they know someone who can, and with a final burst of speed energy from the Flash, the JLA and CSA swap places, and Ultraman has no compunctions about disabling Brainiac.

Ultraman takes out Brainiac

The JLA watch as the anti-matter Earth phases back into it's own universe.  They start repairing the damage done to Washington and ponder Luthor's fate.  One man, always doomed to fail.  Batman wonders if contact with their other selves has changed the CSA at all.

It seems not.  The CSA are back taking bribes from the President, they've obliterated London and Gotham is now a police state.   Superwoman and Owlman ponder their other selves.

Superwoman: "I keep thing about them.  Why do they do it?  What do they get? I don't understand what..."

Owlman: "I keep thinking about you.  He can't always be watching."

They kiss, and a bolt of Ultraman's heat visions lances down, killing a cat that was in the tree above. "Missed" grins Owlman.  The book ends with Ultraman aboard the Flying Fortress, watching over the world always.

Ultraman is watching you

JLA Earth 2 is a hugely enjoyable book.  It's always great seeing the classic League line-up in action and having the CSA come from an anti-matter world rather than a parallel world was a very creative way of getting around the lack of a multiverse in DC at the time.  It also plays up the "everything is opposite" angle better than if it was just another parallel world.  Winning by doing nothing feels like an element of Grant Morrison's spirituality creeping into the narrative, but it works well, so no complaints there (It's also reminiscent of the solution to the plot of the 1980 Doctor Who serial Warrior's Gate, Grant being a huge nerd about these things and a "out" Doctor Who fan, might have been influenced by it without realising). The dark mirror that our heroes have to deal with is compelling and it's interesting to note that Owlman, like his good counterpart is the one that points out the futility of their actions and seems to be the most clued into what's going on. 

Interestingly, the CSA here, who all pretty much hate each other, strongly remind me of the spoof JLA of Garth Ennis's misantrhopic super-hero series, The Boys.  I'd be curious to knoqw if this comic qwas an influence or if it's just a coincidence they both give off the same vibe. I can't praise Frank Quitely's art highly enough, drawing definite versions of all the charaters. DC comics has actually gone back to a limited version of the multiverse that came about with it's 2011 "New 52" relaunch.  The Crime Syndicate of America are back as the Earth 3 counterparts of The Justice League, with all five members shown here, plus a few new faces.  I think for many people though, the depiction of them in JLA Earth 2 will remain the definitive one for a long time to come.