Batman: The Black Glove

Mysterious Batman impostors begin to appear on the streets of Gotham. One of these impostors begins to kill cops, working his way towards Police Comissioner Jim Gordon as he tells his tale and waits for his prize: the life of the Dark Knight, in exchange for the lives of the precinct cops. After being capture and subsequently tortured by one of the impostors, Batman falls into a coma and his mind flashes back to a defining adventure in the life of young Bruce Wayne...the hunt for his parents' killer!

When comics' writer Grant Morrison assumed authorship of the Dark Knight's legends in 2006, he stated in a Newsarama interview (which I can no longer access from their site, sadly) that he "wanted to see a psychologically 'healthier' Batman... [one that] combines the cynic, the scholar, the daredevil, the businessman, the superhero, the wit, the lateral thinker, the aristocrat." Batman: The Black Glove occurs midway through the run in which he accomplished that and much more. His approach to the character, that has undergone serious deconstruction throughout the eighties and nineties, is to reconstruct him; bringing to light Batman's best parts, while reconciling his paradoxical contradictions.

The subtlety is breathtaking for anyone familiar with the 70-plus year history of the character. Morrison seamlessly invokes the "Batman fighting space aliens" stories of Batman in the fifties alongside the "Bruce Wayne as corporate philanthropist and socialite" elements of the Steve Englehart-Marshall Rogers era of the seventies. By faithfully restoring characters like Talia and Man-Bat into the modern age with powerful reverence for the source material, Morrison navigates the cul-de-sacs of our scrutiny and effortlessly appeases our demands for stories that fit within our (often over-zealous) need for logical continuity and "realism". This is what good comic writing produces: building new stories from antecedent, rather than ignoring them or worse, defaming them.

Perhaps the highest credit of Morrison's venerated run must be paid to the marriage of his words with the artwork of J.H. Williams III in the first half of the book. Williams is perhaps the best talent for evoking the emotional content of the Black Glove storyline. His work is as strong as anything he's done before (i.e. Alan Moore's Promethea), and it's unfortunately all the stronger against the less powerful work in the second half of the book, by artist Tony S. Daniel. This is not to say that Daniel isn't good. His work has come a long way since his early-nineties' X-Force run for Marvel, and it's in tight form here, but it brings the esoteric storylines back down to an almost procedural level, as if Darren Aronofsky's Requiem for a Dream had been directed as a televised episode of Law & Order, rather than for the cinema; both are enjoyable, but the approach does not necessarily best fit the other's intended audience. Regardless, Daniel does perform competently and it is not his skill that compromises the effect of his contribution, only that his work seems miscast against the complexity of the writing.

It's difficult to effectively review a book which sits in the middle of a series' storyline on its own merits but, nevertheless, even if you don't pick up the rest of his run (Batman and Son, Batman: The Resurrection of Ra's Al Ghul, and the final chapter, Batman R.I.P.) you still won't be disappointed by this peek at Grant Morrison's rich approach to one of comics' most enduring legends. Batman: The Black Glove is self-contained enough to be appreciated at face value by most casual readers, while giving Batman enthusiasts the concentration and depth of ideas we should be demanding from the entire comics' media, not just the superhero genre.

Here we go with the second volume of Morrison's excellent run on Batman, the first of which was Batman and Son. To follow up the great Andy Kubert artwork from that collection, the first three issues included here in The Black Glove have outstanding illustrations by JH Williams III. I will never forget receiving this book from Amazon and perusing the first few pages. I was absolutely blown away by the art, and felt exactly the same way a few weeks back when I read it for the second time. This is a book I am glad to have on my bookshelf so I can grab it at will and peek through the gorgeous pages whenever I want.

The stories contained herein deepen the plot begun in Batman and Son and conluded in the next installment, Batman R.I.P. We begin to see the mystery deepen and learn a bit more about the Black Glove. As mentioned in my review of Batman and Son, I highly recommend readers to purchase all three volumes to fully appreciate the story. None of them are expensive and the entire collection is the only way to fully appreciate the excellent story Morrison develops.

The book's main feature is its beautiful artwork. The story begins with a hoaxy murder mystery sentiment, but Batman's growing conflict with the villain eventually makes the story much more interesting. Both this work and it sequel suffer from some disorientation. That is, at times, its hard to keep up with all the various perspectives and scenes show to the reader.

Obviously, you have to read this to keep up with the Batman story. Nothing particularly great about the story. Art is good. The same holds true for the entire sequence (Batman and Son, Rise of Ra's Al Ghul, The Black Glove, and RIP).

It does not rise to the level of Miller's the Dark Knight or Year One. It is not as good of a mystery as The Long Halloween. But, probably on par with things like the Bruce Wayne: Fugitive series.

Like I said, you have to read it, but don't expect anything exceptional.

I would have to agree with the other reviewers where there are times where it seems I was missing something important, that there was some secondary plot hidden in the artwork or hinted at with character expression that I was not able to digest on the first reading. However it is more likely that this is just standard Morrison style of leaving the reader wanting, and the hints and allusions being more obvious than they first appear.

That is part of the fun with reading a Morrison book, what is this great big mystery he alludes to, suddenly it becomes so obvious that the reader realizes they spent too much time over analyzing subtle points, and not enough time just enjoying the ride.

D.C. Smartly pairs up Morrison with excellent artists and the results are a high quality GN that will satisfy, but not shock and surprise like some of the more recent revelations in the D.C. universe. But with this book and some of the others Morrison has recently penned, the foundation has been laid, and it is solid.