Is Morrison's DC stuff self-contained?

[LightningRunner]

Here's my situation: I'm starting to feel out of the loop and I want to buy the back issues of Batman: RIP and Final Crisis, so as to catch up.

Here's my question: If I just buy the monthly Batman and Final Crisis issues, will I get a coherent story, or will I need to buy the tie-in issues for either storyline (i.e. the Detective Comics and Final Crisis: Requiem issues)?

Unrelated note: Is Mark Waid's Brave and the Bold any good?

[Scrubz]

Morrison's work is essentially self contained, the only tie-in with Final Crisis that Morrison penned is the Superman Beyond. The R.I.P tie-ins aren't really tie-ins at all.

Waid's writing in Brave and the Bold is good, but Perez and Ordway's archaic artwork is definitely a negative in my opinion. Every facial expression is mouth agape or an "oh" face.

[Chemical King]

Here's my situation: I'm starting to feel out of the loop and I want to buy the back issues of Batman: RIP and Final Crisis, so as to catch up.

Here's my question: If I just buy the monthly Batman and Final Crisis issues, will I get a coherent story, or will I need to buy the tie-in issues for either storyline (i.e. the Detective Comics and Final Crisis: Requiem issues)?

Unrelated note: Is Mark Waid's Brave and the Bold any good?

Final Crisis is supposed to be self-contained, but Morrisons cryptic way of writing makes me constantly feel that I have been missing something.

On Brave and the Bold, I stopped buying it after the second storyline. I only bought it because of Perez, who quit after #10. For me, the series was mostly about throwing as many obscure characters into the story as possible. The story did certainly not thrive on this, it might be a party for a DC librarian who actually knows all these characters, for me it got more and more of a nuisance.

The first storyline was kind of cool at the beginning when Green Lantern and Supergirl went into space. The Legion of Superheroes appearance already was sub-par. And then it went even further downhill.

Perez inker was certainly not the best as well....

[4thHorseman]

Batman RIP is essentially contained. The other books have the banner, but in Nightwing and Detective, they maybe mention the events happening in one sentence which gives it the banner. Robin is close to a tie-in to show what he's doing during this time, but it isn't necessary (in fact, I would stick with what Grant is doing with Robin for the story in Batman)

Final Crisis is self contained also. It's nice to have some idea of all the characters, but I think Grant does an alright job explaining who they are if your unfamiliar with them. Most of the mini's and one-shots are not needed. The Legion story, Revelations, Rogues Revenge, etc are also self contained story's that branch off of Final Crisis, but are self-contained in their own manner. They just kind of show what else is happening alongside of Final Crisis itself. I'm not sure where the one-shots Submit and Resist are going to be exactly, but so far the only "tie-ins" that seem relevant would be the Superman Beyond (2 issues) showing what Superman does after his appearance in FC3. Again, probably not needed too much, just runs alongside of the events happening to get a broader scope.

[earl]

I've been reading Batman the whole time and to be honest, I think jumping in on the Batman RIP issues is probably not the best way to read the book. Grant Morrison has ties in the RIP storyline that run back through all of his run to be honest. I don't think the crossovers are that big a deal, but reading the previous Morrison Batman stories I think would improve your enjoyment of the storyline. The Resurrection of Ra's al Ghul is the lone exception, as it really wasn't that great and does not seem to have much to do at all with what is going on. This does not seem to be the case for the "Island of Mister Mayhew" or "Three Ghosts of Batman" story lines which came earlier in Morrison's run and are very tied to what is going on RIP.

Either way, you can read all of this stuff and you most likely still won't know what is exactly going on until Morrison plays out his hand. I can say this will read way different down the line for whoever reads the story in trade than month to month.

The Robin crossovers are showing what he is doing off panel from the Morrison book. The Nightwing crossovers are a bit weird, as going from the last issue, they seem to take place after RIP. The Detective story seems so far kind of unrelated other than Batman is having a pretty tough run of things.


Final Crisis has a bunch of characters you might or might not know, but I think it is somewhat self contained, but it has a way different feel for a big super hero book as most of the action happens off panel. Personally, I have loved it so far, but there are a whole lot of people who think it is absolute confusing junk. Like RIP though, if you have read at least Morrison's 7 Soldiers book and some of his other work, there are some interesting ties (especially the Mister Miracle issues from 7 Soldiers).


I thought Mark Waid's Brave and the Bold stories were really all over the place. He kind of threw in everything and the kitchen sink which to me didn't really work. There was tons of characters coming in left and right but not a whole lot of interesting plot. It wasn't the worse comics I have read, but I probably won't revisit them soon either. The later two parter with Green Arrow and Deadman then Nightwing and Hawkman was OK, but I thought the others were too all over the place.

This is not the case with Final Crisis or RIP for me, I've kind of enjoyed going back and re-reading those issues to see if there are other easter eggs I missed.

[carabas]

The way I see it, Batman: R.I.P. is not self contained, but Morrison's Batman run is (Resurection ofRa's Al Ghul editorially mandated bollocks aside).

It's like his New X-Men run, which was one self-contained 42-issue story, split up in several arcs.

[Chemical King]

Final Crisis is self contained also. It's nice to have some idea of all the characters, but I think Grant does an alright job explaining who they are if your unfamiliar with them.

That's funny, I am getting this constant feeling that Morrison can't be bothered with explaining anything - he just keeps on throwing in hardly known characters and lets us wonder if this is just a cameo of if this might be important...

I guess some people would call it "challenging the reader", but I feel it's just getting on my nerves...

[Kelson]

That's funny, I am getting this constant feeling that Morrison can't be bothered with explaining anything - he just keeps on throwing in hardly known characters and lets us wonder if this is just a cameo of if this might be important...

I guess some people would call it "challenging the reader", but I feel it's just getting on my nerves...

Eh, I had no idea who Dan Turpin and Sonny Sumo were, and didn't care. They might as well have been new characters.

Generally speaking, the reason for a specific character to show up (rather than a new character) is either made clear on the page or only matters if you're doing literary analysis.

[Lukecash]

Here's my situation: I'm starting to feel out of the loop and I want to buy the back issues of Batman: RIP and Final Crisis, so as to catch up.

Here's my question: If I just buy the monthly Batman and Final Crisis issues, will I get a coherent story, or will I need to buy the tie-in issues for either storyline (i.e. the Detective Comics and Final Crisis: Requiem issues)?

Unrelated note: Is Mark Waid's Brave and the Bold any good?

It's Grant Morrison, you will never get a coherent story.:biggrin:

Waids Brave and the Bold is 90's old school writing with silver age trappings. Not bad, actually...but strictly for DC fanatics.

[zomg]

The way I see it, Batman: R.I.P. is not self contained, but Morrison's Batman run is (Resurection ofRa's Al Ghul editorially mandated bollocks aside).

It's like his New X-Men run, which was one self-contained 42-issue story, split up in several arcs.
This.
Although I like to say that technically speaking Morrison's Batman run starts in 52 (the two/three issues that has Batman). :p