2. Negative Fan Reaction/The Fulfilled Premise
But before I close out, let's talk about the negative fan reaction to this book. Batman RIP is a challenging read. It's one of the reasons why it's such a great Batman book because it has so many layers and interpretations, not to mention ingenious storytelling methods and an enormous amount of imaginative scenes and ideas all thrown in and mixed together by a genius writer at the top of his artform. But it's not a standalone book. You need to have read Batman and Son and The Black Glove before coming to RIP to get the most out of it. If you read this as a standalone book - and its not really meant to be read as such - then you're going to be confused, and I think some people read it this way and their confusion manifested in anger. That said, I'm sure there were more than a few who had read the preceding two volumes before RIP and still didn't like it, which is fine. It is a demanding read and Morrison's books have, more than many others, shown how comic books, particularly superhero comic books, can be as intellectual and complex as any contemporary novel. To this end, the stories are unlike other Batman books and tend not to follow a linear plot or an obvious message, and this can bother some people who prefer to have stories spelt out to them. They'd rather not engage with a story beyond what's written on the page whereas Morrison is wilfully asking the reader to meet him halfway with some of his books, Batman RIP being one of them. It's also important to note that Batman RIP is Morrison taking Batman apart at the psychological level which is reflected in the fractured and nonlinear storytelling. You have to fill in some of the scenes in between the panels yourself. Maybe, bizarrely, some readers felt cheated because they expected Batman to die FOR REAL and only saw an ambiguous explosion followed by some issues that clearly showed him alive. In a book called Batman: RIP, it's kind of reasonable to expect the death of Batman but it'd only get explained away in a later storyline - do you really think Batman will die? Of course not. He's too popular. He's the world's most popular superhero. He'll outlive me, he'll outlive you, he'll always be around - Batman will never die, even in a book purportedly about his death. But what is death if not transformation - and doesn't Batman transform in this book? Of course, there are some people who simply don't like Morrison's writing style, full stop, and that's why they don't think much of RIP, or any of his books like the Invisibles or All Star Superman, and that's fine too (but they're wrong, Grant Morrison is amazing!).