In these stories from the 1950s and 1960s, The Caped Crusader becomes the super-powered hero of the distant Planet X and an unintelligent creature who threatens Gotham City. He also meets the Club of Heroes, the Batmen of All Nations and the interdimensional imp known as Bat-Mite, as well as witnessing the seeming death of Robin.
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18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Inspiration for Batman R.I.P.,
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This review is from: Batman: The Black Casebook (Paperback)
I hated Grant Morrison's Final Crisis. So why am I mentioning that in a review of Batman's Black Casebook? Because the one thing Morrison did right in Final Crisis was base it on Jack Kirby's Fourth World and the more you know about Kirby's works the more you know that Morrison did his homework. One thing that really caught my attention was the amount of material Morrison culled from The Forever People, a very short lived series from the early 70's that few comic fans have ever read or possibly even heard of. Unfortunately the plot of Final Crisis was an incoherent mess. By contrast I loved Batman R.I.P. including the Black Glove. I had this suspicion that Morrison was using old Batman stories to develop the tale in particular the Batmen of all Nations but I also had this feeling that the Doctor Hurt/isolation chamber story and the Batman of Zur-En-Arrh were drawn from somewhere. The Black Casebook contains all these stories that inspired Grant Morrison in the Black Glove/R.I.P. storyline.
It's clear that Grant Morrison is more that just a comic writer; he is a student of the genre with a real passion for its rich history. He reminds me a bit of Roy Thomas although Thomas was even more of ravenous devourer of arcane comic book. The stories vary in how much they can be considered inspirational. The characters of Wingman and Man-Of-Bats each have a story in the casebook but they just sort of get thrown into the Batmen of all Nations. Two of the stories Morrison even admits to having never read and they only got included because he thought the covers looked trippy. On the other side of the coin the story with Dr. Hurt (who, in the original story is never referred to by name) and the one with Batman of Zur-En-Arrh were clearly huge influences. All of the stories are from the 1950's and early 1960's, a very lighthearted era for DC Comics when just about anything could happen. Morrison mentions that this era is despised by Batman fans for putting the character into such ridiculous situations but I find the stories quite enjoyable particularly since the writers were given so much leeway to flex their creativity. What Morrison did with R.I.P. was to integrate the most absurd stories of the 1950's into Batman's established canon. He did this by referencing a rather obscure villain named Doctor Milo who waged a brief psychological attack on Batman. Morrison's logic is that the more esoteric Batman stories were lingering after effects of some of the hallucinatory assaults Batman had endured. I find that to be a very cool way of tying these classic stories in with the modern dark and serious stories. If these stories were not tied into Morrison's R.I.P. storyline I would still enjoy them because they are just a load of fun. I doubt we will ever see these kinds of inventive, wild tales unbound by rules of continuity and let me add that Sheldon Moldoff's artwork is brilliant. Morrison may consider the 1950's to be a reviled era but not in my book and with just a little creativity he managed to pull these stories back into the Batman history. This doesn't make up for the train wreck called Final Crisis but I really appreciate the effort. It may be overly generous but I'm giving this one a perfect score because I really enjoyed it tremendously.
14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Delightful Bat-collection for all ages,
By
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Batman: The Black Casebook (Paperback)
"Batman: The Black Casebook" is a collection of Batman tales that inspired and served as a foundation for writer Grant Morrison's controversial "R.I.P." epic. Derived from apparently the most reviled era in Batman history, the 1950s to early 1960s, these stories nonetheless are charmers that will appeal to young fans of Cartoon Network's "Batman: Brave & the Bold."
Discerning adults will also find some treasures here, particularly the oft-reprinted (and understandably so) "Robin Dies at Dawn," in which Batman faces his greatest fear, and "Am I Really Batman?" in which the Caped Crusader awakens in an asylum and questions his sanity. I wish DC would dip more into this well for such treats. Most of all, "Batman: The Black Casebook" is another chance to appreciate the genius of writer Bill Finger, who penned most of these tales and whose imagination seemed limitless.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A book full of creativity,
By Reinold F. (Perú) - See all my reviews
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Batman: The Black Casebook (Paperback)
This is a beautiful book. Several stories were more complex than I expected and the majority are good stories.
This softcover has more or less the same type of paper like the original comics of those years. It's a good point cause the creators worked with that paper in mind. Probably put those images in the current paper could see a bit strange and very different with the brilliant colors. There is an introduction by Morrison and it helps to understand its role to create Batman RIP: -Covers that drew the attention of Morrison, he says that didn't read it. They are just two, one of them, "The Batman Creature!", is really good (But those covers aren't in the book!!!). -Ideas or characters that drew the attention of Morrison. For example the first one, "A partner for Batman" introduce a Wingman. Also these are just a few, stories perhaps not very important itself but with details that after Morrison use. -Stories importants to build RIP. Fortunately they are more and have a great dose of creativity. They tells about the confidence, the cordure, the mind attack, and other features that someone can see en Batman RIP. The bad: the lack of the original covers.
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