Mercifully, the Grotesk story arc comes to an end with Batman #662. The Revolution simply hasn’t been that impressed with this story arc. It has been nothing more that pure filler. Let’s go ahead and put a bow on the Grotesk story and review Batman #662.
Creative Team
Writer: John Ostrander
Artist: Tom Mandrake
Art Rating: 5 Night Girls out of 10
Story Rating: 4 Night Girls out of 10
Overall Rating: 4.5 Night Girls out of 10
Synopsis: We begin with Gotham being paralyzed by a massive snow storm. We see Commissioner Gordon questioning Anima Franklin at the hospital where last issue’s battle took place. Bruce Wayne enters the scene and asks Gordon to stop badgering Anima. Bruce offers for Anima to stay at his penthouse while Gordon stations a couple of police outside of the building. Anima thanks Bruce for his kindness.
We cut to Bruce and Anima at the penthouse with Grotesk watching them through the skylight. Bruce asks Anima when her brother, Wayne, got a tattoo since the media said that his body could only be identified by his tattoo.
Anima then breaks down and confesses. That Wayne never had a tattoo. That the corpse that was found was of a homeless man named Henry Jones. That Wayne had borrowed money for the I-Gore and couldn’t re-pay. So, Wayne decided to fake his own death and disappear. Anima helped Wayne find Jones through the clinic where Anima works. Wayne rigged a fake lab with explosives down on the waterfront. Something went wrong and Wayne ended up being consumed by flames. Anima saw him as he ran by her on fire and jumped into the river.
Anima jumped into the water and saved her brother. Wayne was horribly disfigured and he used the I-Gore to treat himself. Bruce asked Anima why she didn’t turn Wayne over to the police. Anima responds that she owed Wayne her life. We flash back to when Wayne was 10 and Anima was 6 and their father (complete with one seriously bitchin’ fro and some beefy sideburns) was on the run from the police.
Their father pulls a gun out and says that he isn’t doing “black man’s time in a white man’s prison” The father said that he couldn’t protect the children anymore and there was only one way to save them. The father went to shoot the children when Wayne grabbed the gun and shot their father. Wayne tells Anima to tell the police that their father shot himself otherwise Wayne will go to jail. Anima swears to back up Wayne’s story.
We cut back to present time and see Grotesk coming smashing through the skylight at Bruce’s penthouse. Grotesk fires his flame gun and the blast knocks out Bruce. Grotesk grabs Anima and tells her to come with him.
We shift to Grotesk’s hideout. Anima tells Wayne to surrender to the police. Grotesk responds that he “won’t do black man’s time in a white man’s jail…or in a white man’s asylum.” (Gee, didn’t see that coming. How original.) Grotesk then tells Anima that he will give her a quick and painless death.
Batman then comes crashing onto the scene. Batman starts whipping up on Grotesk. Grotesk shoots Anima with a poison dart. Grotesk tells Batman that if Anima doesn’t get medical help she will die. That Batman must choose between saving Anima and capturing Grotesk. (Gee, didn’t we see this exact same scenario presented to Bats last issue?) Batman then runs off to get Anima medical help.
We cut to Grotesk down at the docks. He kills a guard and commandeers an old sailing ship. We cut to Batman carrying Anima through the massive snow storm that is hitting Gotham. Anima tells Batman that it is too late to save her. That Batman has to go back and stop Grotesk. With that, Anima dies in Batman’s arms.
We shift back to Grotesk making his escape in the old sailing ship. We see Batman sneaking onto the sailing ship. Batman tells Grotesk that he killed his own sister. Batman begins beating Grotesk like a rented mule. Grotesk begs for mercy. Batman says “You ask me for pity? You demand mercy? I have only Justice.”
We then see that the sailing ship has gotten in the path of a gigantic container ship. The massive container ship cannot stop in time to miss crushing the sailing ship. Batman sees the oncoming container ship and uses his Batcable to swing away from the sailing ship. Grotesk is trapped aboard the sailing ship. The giant container ship then crushes the sailing ship. Grotesk is thrown overboard and scream for help. Batman tries to save Grotesk, but Grotesk’s metal hand breaks off when Batman grabs it. Grotesk is swept under the water and disappears.
We shift to Bruce and Alfred attending Anima Franklin’s funeral. Bruce tells Alfred that the police never found Grotesk’s body. That Grotesk must have drowned and the river carried his body out to sea.
We then see Grotesk frozen in a block of ice at the river’s edge just outside of Gotham. End of issue.
Comments
The Good: Batman #662 was a rather unimpressive read and an appropriately uninteresting ending to a terribly pedestrian story arc. However, I must follow The Revolution’s Rule of Positivity and find something about this issue that I enjoyed. Let’s see, we did get plenty of action. Even if the fight’s were decidedly one-sided. Poor Grotesk just got whipped each and every time he locked horns with Batman.
And I absolutely loved Batman’s response to Grotesk’s request for mercy. Batman’s responds would have made Clint Eastwood’s Dirty Harry proud. Batman has ice in his veins as he tells Grotesk that all he has for him is Justice. Bad-ass. Ostrander captured in this scene exactly why I love Batman.
The Bad: I found this entire Grotesk story arc to be terribly formulaic. This story arc had a real “paint by numbers” feel to it. Absolutely everything turn of events was completely predictable.
Once again, Ostrander delivered the tired and hackneyed scene where the villain forces the hero to choose between saving the woman or capturing the villain. And to make matters worse, this is the exact same situation that Ostrander presented the reader when Batman and Grotesk brawled in the Opera House. It is one thing to present a hackneyed and worn out formula like that one time, but to do it in back to back issues is a stunning lack of creativity.
Also, ever single time that the Batman and Grotesk locked horns the meeting unfolded in the exact same manner every time. Batman would whip up on Grotesk in a one-sided fight. Grotesk would then force Batman to choose between stopping him or saving an innocent bystander (Batman #659) or a woman in peril (Batman #661 and Batman #662). A little variety would have been appreciated. It was so painfully obvious and predictable what was going to happen whenever Batman and Grotesk fought each other.
The dialogue was stale. Grotesk spoke in the same stereotypical voice of your average insane criminal. Batman didn’t display much personality during this story arc other than his one bad-ass retort to Grotesk in the end of this issue.
This story arc lacked any real direction or purpose. Each issue just continually re-hashed the same tired dialogue over and over. We figured out who Grotesk was and his motivation for his crimes in the first two issues of this story arc. The last two issues of this story arc have consisted of re-hashing the same boring dialogue and serving up the same formulaic meetings between Batman and Grotesk. This story lacked any suspense or intensity. At no point did this story arc hook the reader.
And the ending was so predictable. You knew that Grotesk didn’t die in the explosion. And sure enough, like a cheesy 1980’s horror movie, we see that the villain is indeed still alive. Great. Grotesk is one villain that I really hope never makes an encore appearance in Batman.
Ostrander failed to do anything in this issue to make me like Grotesk’s character. Leading into Batman #662, I found Grotesk to be a horribly boring and uninteresting villain. And nothing in this issue changed my opinion of Grotesk. And we all know that if a story arc sports a weak villain, then there is very little chance of that story arc being particularly interesting.
I also thought the entire dialogue by Grotesk’s father was pretty stereotypical and unoriginal. However, the “black man’s time in a white man’s prison” dialogue was at least understandable coming from the father who was an uneducated criminal and the scene appeared to take place in the 1970’s.
However, having Grotesk spit out the same line was go way too predictable and generic. I know the son ending up like the father angle that Ostrander was going for. I just wasn’t impressed with how he pulled it off.
Plus, his father’s quote that Grotesk mimicked just seemed goofy sounding in 2007. After all, America isn’t black and white anymore. You have my people who are going to probably be the majority in another thirty years. And you have an ever growing Asian and Middle Eastern population. Comic book writers need to evolve and abandon the antiquated black/white view of America.
Mandrake’s artwork was average. I liked it better than last issue, but I’m still not a big fan of his style of art.
Overall: Batman #662 was an unimpressive end to a generic filler story arc. The Grotesk story arc seemed like nothing more than a waste of time. At least Morrison and Kubert return with Batman #663. It will be nice to get a good read from Batman once again.