Saturday, July 31, 2010

Batman: the Return of Bruce Wayne #4 - DC

I really hate to complain about a Batman book, but . . I didn't really like this one. That, or I just didn't get it. I'm not sure what it was. It might have been the way the story was set up, or . . it might have been the dialogue. But there was just something about it that just seemed . . 'off'. Basically, Batman has ended up in the Wild West. Or, well . . the wild west of Gotham. Also Vandal Savage is here. I think he's starting to recognize this 'bat-themed' character as someone he's faced before . . in the past. Anyways, Bruce doesn't really talk to any one, and he seems to be after a specific family. A family that's been tasked with keeping the secret of the 'bat-people'. They have some kind of secret box, that can only be opened with a special code. Any other attempt to open it with completely destroy the contents of whatever is inside of it. When Batman comes to this family's home, they immediately recognize him for who he is, so . . they get the box. They open it, and Batman sees what's inside, but we don't know what it is . . yet. There's also a doctor that's helping Vandal try to torture the information out of this family . . a Dr Thomas. Although at one point it seems that he's an Indian. So I'm not sure what that's all about. At first I thought it was one of the Waynes from the past, but . . I don't think it was connected to that. Although we do see the Waynes beginning to build the manor. And he talks about the special garden that he's going to build because of the 'bat-people', and the box that reminded him of a casket. I think he's calling it a 'death-garden'. But again, if he wasn't the guy with Vandal then how did he see the box? I don't know, there's just a couple of things that happened during this issue that aren't really explained very well. Anyways, at the end of this issue Batman is shot by Jonah Hex, but then he disappears. That's when he's transported farther into the future . . our past. He ends up wandering the streets of Gotham in what looks like the 50's or 60's. He's wounded and very disoriented. Anyways, overall I liked the book. As I do with any Batman book. But . . I just wasn't all that thrilled with it. It just seems like this stop along Bruce's bus-tour of the DC Universe could've been a little more impactful. But then again . . maybe it was. We just don't know it yet. Since we don't know what was actually in the box. As usual, this book is brought to us by Grant Morrison. Georges Jeanty and Walden Wong do the art for this issue. There's only 2 issues left, so . . I would imagine that the story will move along pretty rapidly in those issues. And then we'll have the return of the king. 'The King is dead. Long live the King.'

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