Batman, Inc. #3 - Mobile Edition

DC Comics
Batman, Inc. #3
By Dan Horn
March 10, 2011 - 12:58

DC Comics
Writer(s): Grant Morrison
Penciller(s): Yanick Paquette and Pere Perez
Inker(s): Michel Lacombe and Pere Perez
Colourist(s): Nathan Fairbairn
Letterer(s): Patrick Brosseau
Cover Artist(s): JH Williams and Yanick Paquette with Michel Lacombe and Nathan Fairbairn
$2.99 US

Few writers have known success as Grant Morrison does, and with that success Morrison can give you some head-scratching yarns that most other scribes wouldn't be able to get past their scrupulous editors. Batman, Inc. is a signature Morrison book, and delightfully so. It's uncanny how Morrison can weave his strangeness into even the most mainstream of comic book heroes. Sure, there were a few weird missteps along the way during Morrison's Batman run, but overall my experiences with his Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson have been rewarding, and Batman, Inc. has so far been pure eccentric fun.

Issue #3 lands the reader in Argentina with Batman and the Argentinean hero El Gaucho following the trail of three missing children. But it's not a Grant Morrison story if that's the only thing going on. The plot is as dense as a coastal mangrove forest and just as miry. Morrison heaps on the intrigue and continues to allude to a larger picture, some sort of ultimate battle Batman will soon be faced with that is spurning him onward in his quest to establish an international league of Batmen.

The issue plays out like a campy Bond film, complete with murderous temptresses dancing the Tango of Death while discussing the "spice of life", extracting information from a talking parrot, scorpion bombs, and insidious time sensitive traps. It's all really fantastic and beautifully done, though I'm sure certain people will be annoyed to no end by the fact that they or their children might have to read a comic with several captions in Spanish, but hopefully that is only a small minority of the readership.

Grant Morrison continues to dazzle. It's true that even his worst work is interesting, but this is one his best Batman stories yet.

Rating: 9/10