BATMAN INCORPORATED #8 Preview/Discussion/EARLY SPOILER

[Aelle3]

If your looking for something a little lighter elikal, I recommend Li'l Gotham.

[AJM]

I LOVE this. It's the kind of shit that makes Morrison's comics infinitely more enjoyable.

I would normally agree, but to me this just seemed wilfully obscure. There's no other reference made to the sword in his whole run, so how else would anyone ever have noticed? Indeed nobody did until he had tell everyone himself. "I don't know if people have noticed" he said – why would they? It bears no relation to anything that comes before it; there were no clues and no foreshadowing. I was just annoyed when I read that. Although it's possible it may be explained in the final issues – after all, how did he get it?

[DeepSpaceTransmissions]

So, as Rich Johnston had asked...which issues of Batman: Shadow of the Bat featured this suit of armor & sword? I'm guessing it may be the issues/arc that included The Hood? I see this arc was was a three issue arc dealing with Bruce Wayne stories. Perhaps issue #23, "Bruce Wayne: The Curse of the Bat"?

Anyone know for certain?

The crusader's armour and sword belong to Gaweyne de Weyne from Batman: The Scottish Connection, by Alan Grant and Frank Quitely. The actual armour doesn't appear in the story though and the sword looks a little different. Grant got confused as to where it was originally published

(Spotted by @millerunc on Twitter and confirmed by Chris Burnham on the day the issue came out...)

If you Google image search "crusader sword" you'll probably see where the design of the sword itself came from


If you're interested in this kind of easter-egg stuff there's annotations for all of Batman Incorporated so far at www.deepspacetransmissions.com

[thebatlab]

I would normally agree, but to me this just seemed wilfully obscure. There's no other reference made to the sword in his whole run, so how else would anyone ever have noticed? Indeed nobody did until he had tell everyone himself. "I don't know if people have noticed" he said – why would they? It bears no relation to anything that comes before it; there were no clues and no foreshadowing. I was just annoyed when I read that. Although it's possible it may be explained in the final issues – after all, how did he get it?

But not knowing it doesn't harm the story at all, does it?

[Quinnhop]

The crusader's armour and sword belong to Gaweyne de Weyne from Batman: The Scottish Connection, by Alan Grant and Frank Quitely. The actual armour doesn't appear in the story though and the sword looks a little different. Grant got confused as to where it was originally published

(Spotted by @millerunc on Twitter and confirmed by Chris Burnham on the day the issue came out...)

If you Google image search "crusader sword" you'll probably see where the design of the sword itself came from


If you're interested in this kind of easter-egg stuff there's annotations for all of Batman Incorporated so far at www.deepspacetransmissions.com

Thanks, I love The Scottish Connection. How'd I miss that.

But not knowing it doesn't harm the story at all, does it?

Exactly!

[jgiannantoni05]

From the Huffington Post interview:

BY: Why did you feel now was the time to kill him?

GM: It's about resetting Batman's status quo. For a long time Batman's had a dead Robin in the cave and it's always been a glass case with a costume in there and it's the one Robin that Batman couldn't save and it used to be Jason, but he's come back to life but he's still got that case in the Batcave.

Interesting to me that Morrison ties, in his mind, Damian's death to giving Batman back his dead Robin ala Dark Knight Returns & pre-Todd's return. Furthering the return to the status quo thing (Grant seems to think the status quo should include a dead Robin). Grant thinks he's giving us back the dead Robin (Damian) for the one taken back to life (Jason).

Will Damian get the "good soldier" plaque in these last issues?

[jgiannantoni05]

Thanks, I love The Scottish Connection. How'd I miss that.

Quinn, I bet part of the motivation of using Sir Gaweyne de Wayne's sword was Grant simply including him in the Wayne family tree. In the B&R Vol 2 Batman vs Robin trade, in the extras, Grant seemed irked that he forgot to include Sir Gaweyne and also Lancelot Wayne. (Lancelot has not been referenced yet though, I believe)

The extras are here:
http://www.dccomics.com/blog/2010/11...n-and-robin-v2

[jtd]

The crusader's armour and sword belong to Gaweyne de Weyne from Batman: The Scottish Connection, by Alan Grant and Frank Quitely. The actual armour doesn't appear in the story though and the sword looks a little different. Grant got confused as to where it was originally published

(Spotted by @millerunc on Twitter and confirmed by Chris Burnham on the day the issue came out...)

If you Google image search "crusader sword" you'll probably see where the design of the sword itself came from


If you're interested in this kind of easter-egg stuff there's annotations for all of Batman Incorporated so far at www.deepspacetransmissions.com

Thank you for such a helpful post, DeepSpaceTransmissions! I will be reading your site.

[Conway]

I finally laid my hands on a hard copy of this. It's a 2nd edition obviously, but the big climactic scene that ends in Damian's death was a two page spread in my digital copy. Batman jumps on the Man Bat and falls down in panes of breaking glass and Damian gets impaled in the middle of those scenes. In my hard copy there is an ad for the "Injustice" figurines that breaks up the page and ruins the effect. This was an amazing scene and it's ruined by this ad. It puts the Talia page next to the death page and really messes with the flow, you have to flip the pages back and forth to make sense of what is happening to Batman.

Did anyone else notice this, or did it only happen in the 2nd printing? What was the layout guy thinking?

[Batman9]

That was not how it was on my first printing.

[wutifiwasrite]

I would normally agree, but to me this just seemed wilfully obscure. There's no other reference made to the sword in his whole run, so how else would anyone ever have noticed? Indeed nobody did until he had tell everyone himself. "I don't know if people have noticed" he said – why would they? It bears no relation to anything that comes before it; there were no clues and no foreshadowing. I was just annoyed when I read that. Although it's possible it may be explained in the final issues – after all, how did he get it?

He gets the sword from the empty suit of armor holding it in the lobby of Wayne enterprises after he throws Nightwing through the glass case. Did you read the book? Now there is a window in which another creative writer can come out of and take its history to the next level.

[wutifiwasrite]

Think just the 2nd printing... .. Slacker :). Jk