BATMAN: THE RETURN OF BRUCE WAYNE #3 Author: Chris Clow
June 28, 2010
OFFICIAL SYNOPSIS: The most anticipated series of 2010 is here! Superstar writer Grant Morrison tackles his most ambitious project to date with THE RETURN OF BRUCE WAYNE, a special six-part series that chronicles the return of the original man behind Batman's cape and cowl! Featuring the dynamic artwork of YANICK PAQUETTE!
Pirates.
Many good stories have come from the premise of pirates, and many bad stories have as well. I'm sure that, either on a playground of seven year olds or in a comic book store with adults, or even at a drunken party or a locker room, someone has asked the question…
"Who would win? A Pirate or Batman?"
Grant Morrison moves in on the third issue of THE RETURN OF BRUCE WAYNE to try and at least partially answer that question for us. The issue picks up quite literally on the heels of the end of the second issue, where Bruce Wayne is confronted by the notorious Edward Thatch, known in the annals of history as Blackbeard. A pirate that in his lifetime, was known to have operated around the West Indies of the Caribbean, and the eastern coast of the American colonies in the early 18th century. Through actual history, Morrison found his "in" on bringing Bruce Wayne face-to-face with pirates, given Gotham's place DC's Earth on the east coast United States. And for those wondering how Batman would greet such an infamous pirate, you have your answer on page 4 when he plants a head-butt square in the middle of his face.
We also see that the haze of his amnesia is clearing, as Bruce begins to recall what brought him tumbling through time: The Omega Sanction. We see the events of FINAL CRISIS #6 once more with Bruce telling himself to "Remember..."
Morrison also manages to reintroduce a classic DC character, The Black Pirate, back into the minds of DC readers with Bruce Wayne and his "Bat-Skills" heavily influencing how the early vigilante would operate. The best part about the way that these sequences are written is that you don't have to know anything about The Black Pirate, it's just a cool plot device. But if you DO know, it makes it a bit more rewarding.
We also see progress in the present-day DCU in regards to the heroes putting together the pieces to zero in on Bruce's position in time, including the recovery of a very important article of clothing by Tim Drake, along with Dick and Damian locating the scene of Darkseid's attempt at hijacking Bruce's mind. The pieces of Batman's disappearance are starting to fall into place quite heavily, and it's getting more and more apparent that the DCU won't be without the one true Dark Knight for much longer.
Yanick Paquette's pencils bring a style of clean lines along with gritty environmental detail to give this issue a rather appropriate swashbuckling feel. His shadow work is great, especially in the moments where Bruce uses the darkness to his advantage in the last few pages. Out of the three released issues, this one feels the most like a Batman book largely because of the artwork, I really enjoyed it.
This series continues to provide the unorthodox fun, mystery, suspense, and Bruce-Wayne-bad-assery that has become it's staple, and I'm really enjoying where it's going, especially knowing that the end of it means the return of Batman to the DCU-proper. Morrison is really digging into the meat of what it means for Bruce Wayne to be Batman, and how that role isthe most natural to him, regardless of where (and when) he is. Next issue we get to see Bruce tangle with the DCU's most notorious Western bounty hunter.
Can't wait to see how it goes.
GRADE: B
Longtime Batman/DCU fan and BOF'er Chris Clow is a student at Western Washington University
He reviews comics, covers conventions, and is a BOF podcast "Roundtabler."
He's also an employee at Bellingham, Washington's oldest and best comic book store, The Comics Place.
