What the fuck did I just read?

Seriously, with this internet 3.0 shit again?

The only other issue of Morrison’s ginormous Batman run thus far that I’ve felt this way about was Vol.1 #8, which also felt the need to try and make “internet 3.0” a cool thing. Well, this story is better than the last… but how much and does it really matter if it is just a polished turd? Read on and find out in the full Batman Incorporated #11 review!

(UPDATE: I feel like an idiot – but just now, on my second read-through, I realized Grant Morrison didn’t write this issue! I cannot believe I didn’t realize this before writing the review here. Everything I said still stands as far as the quality of the issue goes, but good god, Burnham – what the fuck is going on at DC?)

This will not take long.

Morrison sure has some balls. We left the last issues with a man-bat infused Batman speeding towards the final confrontation with Talia and… well we don’t see any of that at all this issue. We’re instead presented with an “interlude”.

Why? I have no earthly idea, hopefully Morrison has a clever way to tie all this internet 3.0 wackiness into the plot in some meaningful way, but coming this late in the run I’m not really hopeful.

This is a wacky story about Batman of Japan fighting deformed super soldiers and a woman with robot tiger heads for hands trying to win back Leviathan’s affections. Yep, it is as ridiculous as it sounds.

While I’m all for ridiculousness it just feels kind of pointless here. It’s all wacky silver age stuff, shrink rays and laser tiger heads, etc. but to break the flow of the main story line’s hurtling plot at this point is a damn dirty trick. Everything that we’ve been wrapped up in comes to a screeching halt and instead we get a one and done that feels really unfulfilling, pointless and hokey. It comes off as something that Morrison never got around to publishing as a Future Shock when he was in his twenties or something.

Perhaps I’m missing something here but the usual Morrison joy ride of bombast left me feeling annoyed and nothing more. I don’t care about these cyber ninja chicks or ‘Lady Tiger Fist’ in the slightest.

The story is quick and moves at a punchy clip, yet I still feel burdened with having to slough my way through all the pages. The spark is not there and without it I finally understand what people must usually feel like when they complain about these little quirks in Morrison’s work. For the first time it didn’t work for me.

Perhaps it is due to the intensity that has been ratcheted up throughout the run, but to be unceremoniously pulled away from the main plot is quite possibly coloring my entire opinion on this issue in a most negative light. To bring all the boiling momentum to such an abrupt dead stop as this juncture is tantamount to a ‘writing cardinal sin’ for me… .. but once it’s all over and I re-read the entirety of the Morrison run again, we’ll see if I feel any different. For now though, this is a disappointment, and deserves a finish such as this: