Friday 13 December 2013

A Magnificent Update

So, here we are, a new post. I don't actually have any literature reviews or opinions to give today, I just feel though I should probably update this blog more often in case people actually look at it. At least I'm honest.

Anyway, I'm moving house today, to a place where I haven't bothered to set up the Internet yet, so it could potentially slow down this recent blog momentum I built up, but then if I do write something I'll probably just go to the home of some poor friend or relative and post it there. Current schedule is roughly a Comics Snobbery one, a Discworld one, and a round-up one where I hastily review the few books I've read this year that I didn't bother reviewing. By then I might have finished reading Terry Pratchett's Dodger, which, spoiler alert, is alright. So far.

Wednesday 11 December 2013

W. Somerset Maugham- The Magician

The Magician
Vintage Classics
 W. Somerset Maugham
1908

Other Maugham Reviews- Cakes and Ale - The Magician - The Razor's Edge
  
"Yet magic is no more the art of employing consciously invisible means to produce visible effects. Will, love, and imagination are magic powers that everyone possesses; and whoever knows how to develop them to their fullest extent is a magician. Magic hs but one dogma, namely, that the seen is the measure of the unseen."

Riding a mysterious crest of enthusiasm that pushed me forward into writing four posts in about two weeks (side affects yet to be determined), I raced through my next book of choice with a velocity which I haven't experienced in some time, finishing it in about two days (not an impressive brag by any means, but for me the rigours of daily life and its distractions have increased my average reading time for each new book to roughly infinity). Partially, I must admit, this speed was down to the fact that I wrote The Darkened Wardrobe and it reminded me very precisely of just how out of control my unread book pile had become, but the absolute core reason was simply that W. Somerset Maugham's The Magician was the perfect book to capture my attention from beginning to end.

My first exposure to Maugham was through The Razor's Edge, clumsily reviewed on this blog during that curious period where the reviewer only has the context of the one book by the author to go by. It left me with certain impressions of Maugham's style and themes (some of which were even correct) and left me open to more by the author, but things didn't become clearer until reading The Magician opened things up for me. The modern copy I read opens with an author's note entitled A Fragment of Autobiography (presumably included in all new editions of the novel, as I can't imagine reading The Magician without the invaluable context given here) which lays out the obvious inspiration for this book, and in turn completely captured my attention.

Mr. Crowley
Perhaps the most famous of all of W. Somerset Maugham's work (though some might argue the case for Of Human Bondage), The Magician's notoriety exists as an alternative-classic; that is, a novel that primarily appeals to literary hipsters looking for something a little different in tone to your average Charles Dickens novel, and that's because it is decidedly both a gothic horror masterpiece and the birthplace of a very notorious character. As Maugham explains in his introduction; during his earlier years as a struggling younger author attending high societal events, he became well acquainted with a certain Mr. Aleister Crowley. Though the Wikipedia link offers far more actual information than I'm going to bother with, I'm guessing that most people reading will at least recognise the name as the most famous occultist in history. Maugham's introduction sets the scene more firmly for the transition of Aliester Crowley into Oliver Haddo, the villain of The Magician, as a fictional version of Crowley who actually possesses the knowledge of arcane, sinister magics that Crowley claimed to.

The Magician, as a novel, isn't concerned with the stark reality of Crowley's claims and styling, but instead goes about structuring the character of Oliver Haddo into a complex and cultured, if far from original, villain. As Maugham's novels often are, it is set amongst the high class cafes and homes of Paris and London, and the introduction of Haddo is based upon Maugham's encounters with Crowley. The story begins with a small group of characters encountering Haddo for the first time and reacting to his outlandish claims and appearance. Morbidly obese yet tall, handsome and compelling, Haddo regales his new acquaintances with outlandish claims about his life and beliefs, both fascinating and disgusting them in equal measure. The character of Arthur Burdon is the lead protagonist and the reader's primary identification figure, as a witty, slightly withdrawn skeptic who immediately takes a huge dislike to Haddo. Arthur's fiance, Margaret Dauncey is similarly disgusted and disbelieving, but nonetheless is drawn by Haddo's heir of mystery to indulge his stories. The overall progression of the plot from then on is fairly simple and predictable; Arthur and Haddo inevitably clash and Haddo is embarrassed, from which point the magician plans his silent revenge by using his clandestine means to take what is most valuable to Arthur.  


Earlier on I described The Magician as a gothic horror, and it is that in every regard. Maugham's prose style is lavishly detailed in provoking the tone from every line, very positively reminiscent of Victorian English authors like Dickens, but with an extra emphasis on promoting mystery and suspense. I actually feel somewhat silly even attempting to review the talent of an author like Maugham, since he's so clearly an absolute master of the English language, able to construct a sentence with a natural talent few others can hope to match. There's a great sense of adventure that comes with the supernatural elements of this book, combining with the idea of a somewhat heroic protagonist like Arthur to make this reader immediately and favourably compare this with the most famous of all the gothic masterpieces, Bram Stoker's Dracula. Perhaps a lazy example, but Maugham's Oliver Haddo has the same undeniable charismatic personality as Stoker's vampire, to the extent where he leaps off the page as the constant star. It would be easy to predict dozens of re imaginations of Haddo, though the only one I know of is Alan Moore's usage of the character as a primary villain in his literary-obsessed comic book series The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (at some point to be a focus of my Comics Snobbery posts). Also, without giving too much away as regards to the plot, there are elements of the story very much routed in the other gothic horror classic Frankenstein, but with a hint of HP Lovecraft mixed in too.

While I hate to try and criticise a work like this, if I must then it has to be on the same grounds that Aliester Crowley himself critiqued it under (in an article in Vanity Fair circa 1908), it's simply not very original; nothing particularly unique occurs in the plot or with the characters. This didn't bother me one bit, as it's clear from the introduction, the blurb, and the opening chapters that this is a stylistic piece of genre fiction merely concerned with doing what it does as well as possible. Maugham's crafting of the environment is sublime, and once the plot and characters have been established within the gothic horror genre it allows the author to present his own themes and motifs also prevalent in his other works. Maugham focusses on love, obsession, and the thin line separating the two. As in Dracula it is the fear of loss and helplessness in relation to the fate of a loved one that pushes through the tension and sadness surrounding the somewhat unbelievable, almost pulp-fiction like plot. Arthur is a simple protagonist designed to transmit the easily identifiable fear of helplessly losing a loved one to the reader, and then to show the clenched-fist, gritted-teeth, do-what-has-to-be-done English gentleman style response. It is glorious stuff, five star genre fiction that I would mark as an essential read to anyone with an interest in this style of dark, supernatural-based story, particularly as an example of a classical style addressing a subject that's sure to be immediately recognizable to a modern reader thanks to the deluge of similar supernatural stories of today.

Monday 9 December 2013

Terry Pratchett's Discworld 16- Soul Music

Soul Music
Corgi Press
Terry Pratchett
1994


"But most people are rather stupid and waste their lives. Have you not seen that? Have you not looked down from the horse at a city and thought how much it resembled an ant heap, full of blind creatures who think their mundane little world is real? You see the lighted windows and what you want to think is that there must be many interesting stories behind them, but what you know is that really there are just dull, dull souls, mere consumers of food, who think their instincts are emotions and their tiny lives of more account than a whisper of wind."
"No. No, I've never thought like that."
"You may find that it helps."


I'm very fond of romanticising the early to mid nineties period of Terry Pratchett's long fantasy satire series as his golden period, and Soul Music has a great deal to do with that, even though it's not one of my favourite Discworld books. The sixteenth book in the series, it follows on from the essential, five star classic Men At Arms, where Pratchett dramatically changed the landscape of Ankh-Morpork, largest city on the Disc by establishing that the City Watch had expanded enough to get a grip on the rampant crime and corruption previously keeping the city in a state of dangerous chaos. Not only was it a landmark title in regards to the shape of this ever-growing fictional universe, but it also followed on from Small Gods in somewhat mastering the satirical elements of the series' tone, putting it to the forefront of the story without being overwhelmed by the power of the fantasy element of the Disc, as earlier novels ocassionaly did. 

Soul Music, then, if not my favourite book (for reasons I'll get to) was another step forward for Pratchett's writing as a whole in seamlessly combining its satirical elements, on the very recognizable topic of rock and roll, with a high fantasy back story somewhat reliant on previous Discworld mythology. In Soul Music, Death returns as the lead attraction, alongside his granddaughter Susan Sto Helit, and unassuming aspiring musician Imp Y Celyn, who has traveled to Ankh-Morpork to seek fame and fortune. When his beloved harp is destroyed, Imp replaces it with a guitar bought from a suspiciously mysterious little shop, and with new-found band mates takes the Disc by storm through their new yet primal genre; music with rocks in.

Within merely days, The Band with Rocks In have been powered by the supernatural guitar to heights eclipsing Beatlemania, causing the citizens of the city to go crazier than usual in their obsession with this strange new sound. Susan Sto Helit, meanwhile, an incredibly intense and unwavering boarding school girl from the nearby city of Quirm, is initially distracted by her own problems. Death, the grim reaper, is in absentia, mourning the deaths of his adopted daughter Ysabell and his former protege Mort, generally wondering what the point of it all is. As a result, the curious narrative path of destiny means that Susan has started to inherit the powers of death, including walking through walls and the ability to speak in capital letters. Taking on Death's duties, Susan becomes aware of Imp Y Celyn when scheduled to attend his demise and usher him into the beyond. Instead, Imp is saved by the spirit incumbent in his guitar, and his very soul is possessed by the spirit of music with rocks in, and things really go awry.

Pratchett's loving satire to rock music is one of the most recognizable of all of his subjects, parodying and punning on numerous famous bands and figures from Buddy Holly to The Sex Pistols, all the while developing the narrative based on both real rock history (similar to Moving Pictures and the film industry) and the mythological legends surrounding. Pratchett plays on the readers' expectation of events thrown in the mix with some of his most carefully crafted mythology in the style of HP Lovecraft meets Neil Gaiman. His mythology surrounding Death isn't too complicated, but exudes an evocative tone that's helped make the character perhaps his most popular. Pratchett's achievement in blending very human, very cultural, and very funny satire on an instantly recognizable subject with the po-faced complex genre requirements of high fantasy is, to my knowledge, uniquely brilliant. 

So with that said, why is it not one of my favourite Discworld books? In certain ways it has everything. Unfortunately my problem is chiefly with one of the main characters; Susan. She is, in many ways, a powerful, independent female archetype, far more capable in the face of almost certain peril than, say Mort was in his eponymously titled book. But she's also not very likable, armed with a flat, straight-(wo)man act personality that stands in contrast to the magnetic oddness of Death himself. As a result, she is the least memorable part of the book for me despite being its lead heroine, and as a reader's viewpoint of sorts was just too bland and uninspiring. Thankfully there's a very varied supply of supporting characters, many of them reoccurring from previous novels to help prop things up and to continue Pratchett's careful but bombastic development of his fictional universe as a detailed and complicated place. Probably a great place to start if you're interested in the series but don't know where to begin.

Saturday 7 December 2013

L-Space- The Darkened Wardrobe

L-Space- The Darkened Wardrobe

Way back in March of this year I created a post entitled The Glass Cabinet, which listed each book on my unread pile. I find it hard not to buy books, especially because I very much enjoy going in to certain charity bookshops and looking for interesting, cheap stuff. My favourite being the many Oxfam Bookshops you get across Britain (and possibly further, I don't know), since they always have the widest selection and have greater standards for second hand books than most. They cost a little more than other shops, but it's worth it, especially for the constant stream of well-kept classics and modern classics that I can't resist buying.

Anyway, the last time I did this it was called The Glass Cabinet because I kept my unread pile in a nice glass cabinet which lit up and had lots of classy glass shelves. Since then I moved house, and sadly don't have said cabinet anymore. Instead, I have the less fancy, but much moodier and mysterious darkened wardrobe, so that's what it's called. Also, I'm probably moving house again in about a week, so six months down the line I'll do this with a different name. Finally, a fair few of these books were on the last list, but some of the books on the last one got dumped because I changed my mind about reading them, or started and quickly gave up in disgust. Cormac McCarthy fans, you may fall out with me when you hear that I dumped the entire Border Trilogy, because I am not a fan. And now, we shall begin;

Terry Pratchett- Dodger, Discworld- Raising Steam & The Long Earth (with Stephen Baxter)
Dodger was on the last list, I'll get around to that at some point, but I wasn't a fan of Pratchett's last non-Discworld novel, Nation, so I'm not excited. Raising Steam, meanwhile, as the latest Discworld book, is something I'm very much looking forward to. The Long Earth is a curious one, as it was written in conjunction with science fiction author Stephen Baxter as the start of a long series, and is based on a short story included in Pratchett's collection of fiction miscellany in A Blink of the Screen.

Haruki Murakami- Dance, Dance, Dance
Aside from Hear the Wind Sing and Pinball, 1973, which are Murakami's first two novels and have yet to be reprinted in English (meaning the few older copies available on ebay and the like are extortionately priced, so I'm patiently hoping for a reprint)  Dance, Dance, Dance is the final Murakami book available to me. I'm putting it off like Desmond Hulme did with A Tale of Two Cities in Lost. Thankfully though, Murakami's latest book should be translated into English next year.

Jay Rubin- Haruki Murakami and the Music of Words
Longtime Haruki Murakami translator Jay Rubin writes a book of literary analysis on the work of the Japanese author. There's almost no way I'm not going to enjoy this.

Anthony Storr- The Dynamics of Creation
J.A.C. Brown
- Techniques of Persuasion
Both are Pelican non fiction paperbacks that were in the cabinet, and both are essentially about writing techniques, literary theory, that sort of thing. I'm hoping they're good, but both could easily be dumped after a few unsatisfying pages.

W. Somerset Maugham- Cake and Ale & The Magician
Another two books that've been on the pile for six months, but I've just started reading The Magician and I'm very excited about it, having learned more about the character of Oliver Haddo and the real life acquaintanceship of W. Somerset Maugham and Alistair Crowley.

Sam Kean- The Disappearing SpoonAlex Boese- Elephants on Acid and other Bizarre Experiments 
John D. Barrow- The Book of Universes
My interest in casual science books shows no sign of waning, with The Book of Universes added to this list of stuff that will hopefully make me feel like I've learned something, even if I can't exactly tell you what. Also in this vein...

Richard Dawkins- The Ancestor's Tale: A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Life
Steven Pinker- How the Mind Works
... two books by two masters of the pop. science genre. The Ancestor's Tale is, as is obvious with Dawkins, about evolution and is worryingly long. Pinker, meanwhile, wrote The Language Instinct, and How the Mind Works looks like an equally interesting look at the human psyche.

Russel Hoban- Amaryllis Night and Day
As I wrote last time, I have no memory of buying this book, nor can I quite figure out why I did. It is very short though, so maybe I'll pick it up soon just to figure out what the hell is going on.

George R. R. Martin- A Dance with Dragons- Book 2- After the Feast
I will definitely read this at some point, but I've also been considering donating my Song of Ice and Fire books to someone else before I move house. It's not that I totally hate them, it's just that I don't like them enough to justify them visually dominating my book collection with their flashy thick spines. Unfortunately the only person I've found who wants them is my fiance, who I'm moving in with, so that probably doesn't help.
Hunter S. Thompson- Hell's Angels & Generation of Swine: Tales of Shame and Degredation in the 80's
I've wanted to read Hell's Angels for years and years but never got around to it. Generation of Swine is a collection of articles in the same manner as The Great Shark Hunt: Strange Tales from a Strange Time. One day I will have read every Thompson book. Probably in sixty years or so.

Carlos Castaneda- The Eagle's Gift & A Separate Reality
Initially bought on impulse ages ago, further research shows me that I really need to read a copy of The Teachings of Don Juan before I read these later books in the series.

Toby Young- The Sound of No Hands Clapping
The sequel to the moderately entertaining memoirs How to Lose Friends and Alienate People. I don't expect it to blow me away, but it should be fun enough.
 
Euripedes
- Madea and Other Plays
 Jean-Dominique Bauby- The Diving-Bell & The Butterfly
R.K. Narayan- The Guide
Gore Vidal- The Messiah
Various random world classics I've picked up here and there, none I'm dying to read right now but nonetheless I should get something positive out of all of them.

Johan Goethe- Faust
Horace Walpole- The Castle of Otranto and The Mysterious Mother
I reread Marlow's Dr. Faustus recently, but I'm leaving a gap before starting Goethe's version of the tale. Sticking with gothic fiction, The Castle of Otranto is something I read at university as an example of the first ever Gothic horror fiction, and it's completely mental. The edition I bought contained the play The Mysterious Mother and I'm hoping that it's just as mad.

Phillip Pullman- Grimm Fairy Tales
Though I didn't enjoy Pullman's retelling of the new testament, this retelling of the brothers' Grimm promises to be much, much better. 

Charles Bukowski- Ham on Rye & Woman
As with Hunter S. Thompson, I want to complete Bukowski's entire bibliography one day, hopefully before Skynet takes over the world.

Michael Bollen- Earth Inc.
Mark Gatiss- The Vesuvius Club/The Devil in Anger
Two fairly random comedy novels by British authors that I picked up because they look like fun. I can't remember the last time I found a satirical British author that I really enjoyed, so hopefully one of these authors will remind of the likes of Terry Pratchett or Douglas Adams, not much to ask there. Gatiss seemingly has the better pedigree, but Bollen's Earth Inc. has a wonderful-looking dystopian advertising future tone going for it.

Jack Kerouac- On the Road
Ken Kessey- One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Truman Capote- In Cold Blood
Edward Abbey- The Monkey Wrench Gang
Jay McInerney- Bright Lights, Big City
I'm really pleased with my line-up of 20th century US classics, a genre that I enjoy ninety nine times out of a hundred. I read On the Road years ago and promptly forgot most of it, while In Cold Blood is my second Capote after the absolutely brilliant Breakfast at Tiffany's. The other three are American classics that I'm very much looking forward to reading. 

Jon Ronson- The Men Who Stare At Goats
Stephen Fry- Moab is My Washpot
Two more bits of non-fiction picked up on reputation. The Men Who Stare At Goats should be quick, amusing reading, while Fry's autobiography is something I've meant to pick up for some time. Supposedly both brilliantly witty and despairingly depressing.

George Orwell- Homage to Catalonia
Oscar Wilde- Complete Shorter Fiction
Having completed Orwell's novel bibliography (does that phrase make sense? Ah well...) with Burmese Days, I still want to reread Homage to Catalonia because I feel I didn't give it a fair chance the first time around; reading it too quickly with not enough attention paid. Oscar Wilde, meanwhile, I actually find hit or miss, but I'm a literary snob and he's probably the king of the literary snob's bookshelf fillers.

Jose Luis Borges- Doctor Brodie's Report
Ryu Murakami- Piercing
Mikhail Bulgakov- The Master and Margarita
Some wordwide literature here. Borges is someone I want to explore further, Ryu Murakami is a guy who I read one good book by five years ago and forgot about for some reason, and Bulgakov is my latest attempt to get into Russian literature, having failed to enjoy Dostoyevsky on first try.
 
Paul Auster- Moon Palace & The Book of Illusions
My second favourite contemporary author behind Haruki Murakami, I've been saving the work of Paul Auster over the years but I'm getting closer and closer to the end of his bibliography. 

Neil Gaiman- The Absolute Sandman Vol. 4 & Signal To Noise
Last but not least, my unread comics. 

Oh my god, this list is ridiculously long. I really need to get a move on reading this crap, and not adding to it. In the meantime, I really should write the next Discworld review after this, and I've got about three or four more Comics Snobbery columns to write. Also I want to do an L-Space column on the three or four books I read over the past year and didn't write full reviews for. Anyway, to the publish button!

Tuesday 3 December 2013

Comics Snobbery II- Grant Morrison's Batman

Comics Snobbery II- 
Grant Morrison's Batman
Cover by Frank Quietly
 Comics Snobbery I- Judge Dredd

Despite the (hopefully) tongue in cheek title of this blogging miniseries, in hindsight my love for Judge Dredd comics isn't really that objectional in terms of snobbery. After all, classic Judge Dredd strips aren't nearly as widely read as most mainstream comics and sit nicely in the fantastically niche genre of classic British science fiction. Put another way, logging on to a comics forum and unabashedly proclaiming your love for classic Dredd isn't going to seem annoying to anyone, even in an environment where usually anyone will argue about anything for any reason. The subject of today's meandering ramblings, however, could start a mass fanboy fight in an empty room, in a vacuum in space. And I love it to death.

For those of you who don't keep up with comics, you still might have heard of Grant Morrison. The Glaswegian native began his career as a comics writer in the 1980's, making his name with various strips in UK comics including 2000AD and Marvel Comics' then fairly separate UK publishing house. Following the success of several UK authors across the pond (most notably Alan Moore), DC Comics reached out to Morrison, and so began a long-term association that led to Morrison's ascension to superstar status, thanks to DC universe comics like Animal Man, Arkham Asylum, his long run on JLA, All Star Superman, and the unique The Invisibles for DC's Vertigo imprint (more of which may be written about at a later date on this old blog). By 2006, the man could simply do whatever he wanted, such was his selling power and reputation. What he wanted was Batman, and lo, Batman issue #655 heralded the start of a near seven-year run with the character that, to me, stands as the definitive version.

Morrison's take on Batman is actually fairly simple to sum up, but is absolutely laden with intricate details that are going to make it annoyingly hard to sum up. For a start, the full run on the series takes in about six differently-titled comics across the seven year period; the long-running Batman comics from the aforementioned issue #655 to #702, Batman & Robin #01-16, Final Crisis #01-07, The Return of Bruce Wayne #01-07, Batman Incorporated v1 #01-08 and Batman Incorporated v2 (don't ask...) #01-13, with a few other single issue specials that vary in importance. Thankfully this madness is much easier to follow in the collected formats, which is what I've been doing for a while now, all in very nice looking and well-constructed deluxe hardback editions that, thanks to Amazon, were well-priced. 

With that out of the way, the essential motif of Morrison's exploration of the character of Batman was to progressively develop, change, and explore him through reinventing both classic and obscure Batman concepts and stories from past years (a lot from the apparently acid-infested 1950's) to create a fresh, progressive take on the Bat. The first, and most important feature is the introduction of Damian Wayne; the eight-year-old, league of assasains-trained son of Bruce and Talia al Ghul,, thrust into an unsuspecting Bruce Wayne's life to throw his whole world upside down. The second is the introduction of the mysterious criminal organisation known as the Black Glove, led by Dr. Simon Hurt; a cold, incredibly black and unnerving association of newly created villains determined to break the Bat. The majority of the Batman comic run is comprised of the escalating war on Batman, in which The Joker plays an integral part too. The art for the Batman books is mostly by Tony Daniel, who does a stereotypical 'serious' dark comic style that DC loves, which is fine but uninspiring.

Cover by Andy Kubert

After that came Final Crisis. Truth be told, Final Crisis isn't essential for someone only interested in Batman, since he only plays a small, but very important part. It's a big DC Universe wide crossover starring Superman et al battling an invasion of alien gods in the very essence of humanity. I'm not going to attempt to go into any more detail because it's massively complicated. A lot of people don't like it as a comic, and I can kind of see why because it's simply not possible to fully grasp the intricacies through a single reading. Or five of them. If you're me, anyway. Anyway, the wide-screen super-heroics of Final Crisis lead to the Batman and Robin series, and the Return of Bruce Wayne series.

The Batman and Robin collections are my absolute favourites. The key premise is that, due to the events of Final Crisis, Bruce Wayne is missing presumed dead. Taking his place in a more seemless and natural transition than I could ever have hoped for is Dick Grayson; aka Nightwing, aka the first Robin. On a fanboy note, Dick Grayson has always been one of my favourite characters as a guy who's as important to the foundations of DC Comics as Batman and Superman. Since jettisoning the Robin suit for his own identity he's naturally struggled to remain popular in the comics mainstream, but Morrison writes him perfectly. The key to the set-up, though, is Damian Wayne as Grayons's Robin, forming a new dynamic duo that are a joy to read. Fighting against the forces of Dr. Hurt and the Black Glove still, this is like a window into an alternative world where comics characters do age and progress, all the while furthering the long-term arc of just who exactly Simon Hurt is. The artist for this comic rotates with each story arc, and altogether comprises of Frank Quietly (who is absolutely amazing), Philip Tan, Cameron Stewart. Andy Clarke and Frazer Irving. From artist to artist, this book constantly looks fantastic. 

The Return of Bruce Wayne, meanwhile, is the six issue miniseries that tells the reader what Bruce Wayne has been up to since the events of Final Crisis, and his apparent death at the hands of Darkseid, the alien god of evil. Of course Bruce isn't dead, he's merely been thrown backwards in time and given a nasty case of amnesia. Like much of Morrison's run, the real theme of this book is showing just how capable Bruce Wayne is of defeating evil and the extraordinary resourcefulness propping up his superheroism. The first issue shows caveman Bruce Wayne, but each one propels him further through time, brilliantly giving us pirate Batman and cowboy Batman, amongst others. The overall plot becomes clearer towards the end of the series as it starts to explain the true danger caused by Darkseid, and the relation of all of this to Simon Hurt. I'm not giving anything away here, but there's a very circular, compact nature to the story that amazed me more and more further into it. The end of this series links up with Morrison's latter issues of Batman and Robin, finishing off certain key elements and clearing things up for Morrison's final part of his Batman odyssey.

Art by JG Jones
That comes in the form of Batman Incorporated, which is basically exactly as it sounds; the now-returned Bruce Wayne, now sharing the Batman mantle with Dick Grayson, begins to put together an international Batman-themed crime fighting force comprising of local vigilantes inspired by his work. The purpose; to fight the mysterious crime group known as Leviathon, who have been quietly attempting to lower a noose over the Bat's head without him noticing. Without giving too much away, this story comes full circle in relation to the origins of Damian Wayne, as Morrison closes up his arc and prepares to leave Batman for good. Unfortunately, the final run of Batman Incorporated (which, due to reasons I do not want to discuss, comes in two individual 'volumes', where the latter suffers from awkward DC editorial interference that ruins it as a continuity piece) is the weakest part of Morrison's whole run. After Simon Hurt's fate was resolved and explained in Batman and Robin, things loose a little oomph as the Leviathon group just don't offer the same intrigue as the Black Glove. Also I'd grown incredibly attached to Dick Grayson as Batman, and found it disappointing that the Dick & Damian partnership ended before its time. I could happily have read those two as Batman and Robin forever.

Okay, that was a much longer summation of Grant Morrison's run with Batman than I intended, but somehow I feel I barely scratched the surface. The bottom line is that it was the most progressive, interesting and traditional use of the franchise that I've ever seen, and everything else in comparison just seems bland and uninspired- including Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy. I highly recommend it to anyone looking for comics to really make you think, that stand out as legitimate literature rather than just overblown genre fiction. Unfortunately the reoccurring nature of the comics industry actively seeks to stamp out progression with its long-standing classic character, so inevitably most of the cool ideas, themes and plots that Morrison came up with were never going to fully stick, but on the other hand I have to give props to DC comics for allowing him to run for so long, so powerfully with such an important money spinner of theirs. I had a whale of a time; my mind was truly blown away by the imagination of the author and the talented artists portraying his directions, where somehow they managed to create a Batman that was both perfectly definitive and derivative at the same time.