Reunions Can Be Murder

I had a nasty realization this past week — I wasn’t currently reading any comics by Grant Morrison, who’s my favorite writer out there right now. Clearly, this dire situation must be remedied! So I ran out and grabbed the first Morrison comic I could find.

Batman #667

This issue has its roots back in the 1950s, when Batman’s writers came up with some stories about the “Batmen of All Nations,” a bunch of guys who were inspired by Batman to become crimefighters. Now, Batman and Robin have decided to attend one of the group’s periodic get-togethers. The years haven’t been entirely kind to the group — the Legionary has gotten fat and lazy, the Wingman is a self-centered prat, the Ranger has jumped onto the “dark hero” bandwagon, the Musketeer went a bit crazy, and Man-of-Bats is a bit of drinker. Others seem to be okay — the Knight and Squire are doing great, the Ranger is still fighting the fight, though he’s gotten a heavily armored costume, and the Gaucho has developed into a very well-respected hero in his native Argentina. But there’s an assassin stalking the group, and he plans on wiping them all out…

Verdict: Thumbs up. Seeing the old Batmen of All Nations again is a nice retro thrill, even as drastically as most of them have changed. Looks like a pretty good mystery/thriller shaping up, too. Hopefully, Batman will catch the assassin before too many of the other heroes die — DC’s stories always seem to be way too America-centric, and it’d be nice to see a few international characters being used in stories as something other than murder victims…