Batman #676 (R.I.P.)

I jumped back onto "Batman" at the beginning of "The Resurrection of Ra's Al Ghul" story and was quickly disappointed. I have never really read a lot of Grant Morrision and was told he's the best. Well, that little story did not live up to the hype. I have never been a huge Batman fan. I generally like him better when he's playing off of the other DC heroes. However, my son wanted to keep getting the Batman Family of books ("Batman", "Detective Comics", "Robin", & "Nightwing"). While the latter three books have kept my interest, I have been somewhat confused by Morrison's "Batman". Having not read the entire Morrison run, I'm probably coming into the party too late. I was hoping that with the "Batman R.I.P." story that Morrison would welcome new readers by making this issue new reader friendly.

Art Rating: 2.5 out of 4
Story Rating: 4 out of 4
Overall Rating: 3.5 out of 4

I was truly impressed with this issue. From the first page through the end, Morrison kept the pace up and the plot points coming. Morrison has truly take the Joker to a dark place and it is interesting to see this insane take on the character. The reader gets to get into Bruce Wayne/Batman's head a bit in this issue and Morrison shows that he is very much a conflicted character. Tony Daniel's art is good but it just doesn't scream "Top Tier Book!". He does a fine job of putting Morrison's plot to page and his Joker looks very insane. The true star of this issue is Morrison's writing. He has me looking forward to how this story plays out.