Batman #682 - DC

I assume since Grant Morrison is writing this book, and writing Final Crisis, that they are in some way congruent with each other. I would think there has to be some form of time-line. With that said, at the end of last issue . . when Batman went down with the flaming helicopter into the river . . . we don't know what the status of Batman or his body is. All they found was the cowl. And then we get a glimpse of Gotham about 6 months later . . and nobody has seen the Batman since. With this issue, we find out that the Darkside Club has Batman. Well . . I guess I can't say it's the club, but it is these 'gods' from Apokolips that apparently seem to be on Earth now. As we've witnessed in Final Crisis. At the end of this issue, we see that they have Batman locked up in a kind of chamber and apparently they're trying to siphon off his memories, and abilities. It looks like they're trying to funnel them into a Clay-Face type character. Basically . . they have him dreaming. He's dreaming about his life . . mostly as the Batman, but I think as he's going through these dreams and realizing that someone is trying to push him through the motions, that somehow he's altering them. It's almost like he's adjusting his memories. It looks like he's giving them information, but I don't think it's the correct information. At first the issue is confusing. Bruce is dreaming it, and that's how we're seeing it . . in fragments. It's a little difficult to get a grasp of just what's going on. But once you read through the book and know that he's dreaming . . take the time and go through it again. When you do, you'll see what I mean about Bruce changing the flow, and outcomes, in certain situations. There's 2 people working on him . . or monitoring him . . and on the next to the last page they fill us in on what's happening. " . . see how he almost detected the lump's presence in his mind? Now do you understand why his superior physical prowess, his strategic acumen and courage make him unique? These are traits we must steal, duplicate . . . and mass-produce. Perfect copies, driven by a concentrated dose of his intense emotions, his fury, his pain, his drive. With this template we will build a production line army of mindless "Batmen" to fight and pillage and die in the name of our dark empire. That will be his legacy. He'll yeild up all the secrets of his life to the lump, you'll see. And when the lup is done, we'll gut Batman for spare parts, without anasthetic, I should think. And that, Mister Simyan . . . will be that." This all appears to be taking place in some kind of warehouse thats filled with . . . cloning tubes? Could they be in one of the unused Cadmus bunkers? That's where I think I recognize these 2 from . . the various Cadmus stories that occured in the Superman and Superboy titles. So now we have 2 things to look forward to . . . or, ponder. First of all, 'how' and 'if' Batman can get out of this situation. Secondly, if Batman has realized that someone is trying to record or relive his memories, how bad can he mess up those images without them realizing that he's feeding them false information? I thought this was a fantastic issue. Over the years we've seen Batman in, literally, hundreds of death-traps, but we've never seen someone actually try to take advantage of his situation while he's in it. I thought that was a novel idea. But, you can't really expect anything less from Grant. This issue Lee Garbett does the interior art, and it was fantastic. Every panel in this book looked great. I loved the feel of the book. And don't worry, Tony Daniel hasn't gone anywhere. He does the variant cover. While Alex Ross does the main cover. I can't wait to see what happens next.