Posted By Dan Greenfield on Jan 31, 2025 | 4 comments

A BIRTHDAY SALUTE to the Bard of Gotham, who’s turning 65…

By JIM BEARD

I wasn’t a Vertigo guy. I told myself I had no interest in Grant Morrison’s comic book stuff back in the day. Then they got Batman and everything changed.

Today, Morrison’s amazing Bat-run remains some of my most favorite Bat-stories of all, and they themself is in the top tier of my favorite Bat-writers.

When I look back at their run, I’m astounded at the length and breadth of it. As it was happening, I was just enjoying the stories from month to month, not adding up the years. Today, it stands as seven years of Morrison Batman tales — from 2006 to 2013 — including work on Batman, Batman and Robin, Batman Incorporated, Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne, and of course, Final Crisis.

What was it that I liked overall about what they brought to my favorite fictional character of all time? If I had to stick it in a nutshell, I’d sum it up as: Everything Counts. Morrison was rocking the idea of decades of Batman stories to pick and choose from, and having fun with all of it. I remember it feeling like a revelation at the time. “This writer gets it,” I told myself, and the work still holds up today. (And let’s not forget all the artists, like Frank Quitely, Chris Burnham, Andy Kubert, et al.)

Happy Birthday, Grant! I hope you someday return to the Bat-Universe and show ’em all how it should be done!

So, now, in no particular order, here are 13 REASONS I LOVE GRANT MORRISON’S BATMAN:

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The Alloy Batman. Yeah, so I lied. This guy’s gotta come first. I remember Grant saying in interviews back in the day that he wanted to blend all the Batmans over the past several decades into one. I loved that thought, that all the metals—Gold, Silver, and Bronze—could be heated up and forged into an alloy superhero. And the best part for me? There was some of Batman ’66 in there.

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Damian Wayne. I can’t believe I like the little dude today as much as I do. Yeah, he’s been a pistol all these years and a character a lot of you love to hate, but I’ll go on record to say that Damian is the standout creation of Grant’s from their era. For me, Damian’s the gift that keeps on giving, kind of like Guy Gardner at the peak of his popularity. Damian’s almost the complete opposite to what I normally like in a hero, but I think that’s why I dig him.

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Batman Incorporated. I clearly remember turning to the last page of 2010’s Batman and Robin #16 and nodding and saying, “Of course. Why didn’t someone think of this before?” I loved the concept and am sorry it’s kinda fallen to the wayside, though at the time it was so fun. The title itself even gave me the Batman ’66 vibe with its overheated, narrated cliffhangers.

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Bat-Grayson. Another Morrison jam that on the surface I shouldn’t have loved as much as I did. Batman is Bruce Wayne, period, but when Dick (not for the first time) took over it felt right and the Batman and Robin book with him and Damian was one that I began to look forward to each month. Flying Batmobile? Sure, why not! Helluva lot of fun.

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Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne. There’s a trend here and I’m seeing it clearly now. Morrison kept doing these things that I normally wouldn’t care for but made me care deeply about them. This book’s a great example of that. I’m not a big miniseries fan because they usually don’t carry much weight, but this one was a fascinating tour of DC Universe eras and a textbook case of Morrison showing off his intentions for the character. If you’ve never read this one, give it a look. Its connective tissue with Final Crisis and the Bat-titles of the time is also truly cool.

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Doctor Hurt. Wow. I can recall with crystal-clarity the anxiety I felt when I thought Morrison was going to reveal Hurt as the real Thomas Wayne. Anytime a writer can make you feel such dread over a villain, you know they’re creating something memorable. I also really, really loved the fact that Morrison was inspired by a nameless character in a 1950s story, and that, in the end, there are still questions over exactly who or what Hurt was.

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Bat-Mite. Our favorite other-dimensional imp (suck it, Mxyzptlk!) is another primo example of Morrison taking something we were familiar with and turning it on its big, floppy bat-ear. Who ever thought Bat-Mite could be creepy and ominous as a hallucination from Bruce’s subconscious? Taking a page from Alan Moore’s “Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?” Morrison made the Mite a memorable member of his madness.

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Zur-En-Arrh. Other writers have taken what Morrison laid down in 2006-08 (having borrowed elements from a 1958 story), and I think that speaks to the greatness of the concept, that it continues to grow. I dig the idea of Batman having a “back-up” personality, one that may be able to conquer things he couldn’t as his “normal” self—and who would ever have thought that garish costume would work in the 2000s?

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The Club of Heroes. Holy International Hall of Heroes, Batman! Boy, do I love this one. Another Morrison derivation of a 1950s story, a lot of cool characters came from this, and if I may say, one of the very best, IMO, is Jarvis Poker the British Joker, a great baddie created by Paul Cornell and Jimmy Broxton riffing on threads Morrison wove. Look that one up.

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The Club of Villains. The group-of-badguys-who-pop-up-wholecloth-out-of-nowhere is pretty much a tired trope these days (It was popularized when? The Eighties?), but Morrison did it in style during Batman R.I.P. and ended up creating an endearing clutch of criminal rascals, including my favorites Le Bossu, Swagman, and King Kraken.

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The Black Glove. What? Another Morrison villain team? Yeah, the Black Glove precedes the Club of Villains, but both were headed up by Dr. Hurt. This one was sort of the non-costumed version of the Club of Villains, but still chock full of creative personalities. Morrison is just one of these people who has a million creative ideas in their head, the kind that we lowly others may hope to come up with one small percentage of.

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The Black Casebook. Listen to my tired, old, worn-out record: I love this concept and wonder why someone didn’t think of it before Grant Morrison did. In brief, Bruce and Alfred kept a casebook full of all the weird-ass stuff Batman encountered that he could never fully explain… which basically were all the kooky 1950s/early ’60s stories. DC also did the right thing by collecting a lot of those tales in a Batman: The Black Casebook trade paperback, which not coincidentally Grant Morrison wrote the introduction for.

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The Joker. No, Morrison did not create the Joker, but for my money, he had something interesting to say with the character during their Bat-run. To my mind, less is more with the Joker, but I loved how Morrison wove him into the tapestry and allowed him the final word on ol’ Dr. Hurt. Batman belongs to the Joker, you see; no others need apply…

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MORE

— 13 COVERS: GRANT MORRISON’s BATMAN Influences. Click here.

— GRANT MORRISON: The Writer Who Saved the JUSTICE LEAGUE. Click here.

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JIM BEARD has pounded out adventure fiction since he sold a story to DC Comics in 2002. He’s gone on to write official Star Wars and Ghostbusters comics stories and contributed articles and essays to several volumes of comic book history. His prose work includes his own creations, but also licensed properties such as Planet of the Apes, X-Files, Spider-Man, Kolchak the Night Stalker and Captain Action. In addition, Jim provided regular content for Marvel.com, the official Marvel Comics website, for 17 years.

Check out his latest releases: Rising Sun Reruns, about classic Japanese shows on American TV; a Green Hornet novella How Sweet the Sting; his first epic fantasy novel The Nine Nations Book One: The Sliding World; and the most recent Batman ’66 books of essays he’s edited: Zlonk! Zok! Zowie! The Subterranean Blue Grotto Essays on Batman ’66 – Season One, Biff! Bam! Ee-Yow! The Subterranean Blue Grotto Essays on Batman ’66 – Season Two and Oooff! Boff! Splatt! The Subterranean Blue Grotto Guide to Batman ’66 – Season Three.