Remember how Grant Morrison’s X-Men run initially seemed like a rambling set of unconnected stories, with moments of brilliance but just as many apparent non-sequiturs, only to turn out shortly before the end, as the layers of plot were peeled away, to have been an intricately-constructed masterpiece where every single little detail mattered to the overall structure?

Well, encore.

If you’re planning on reading Batman #674, it’s only fair to tell you now – before you start, go and dig out all the issues of the Morrison run to this point. Even the inconsequential ones that you can barely remember, because they felt weak and unimportant at the time (you can skip the Resurrection of Ra’s Al Ghul tie ins, but get the Club of Heroes story, not least because it was fantastic). You’re going to need them, because the “Oh, so that’s what that was all about!” moments in this issue will demand a re-read of the lot. And, in fact, when you do, you’ll find that – stripped of all the crippling delays, fill-in arcs, changes of artist and so on, the run is rather better than it’s seemed to be at any other point up until now.

Not that every part of the Bald One’s master plan is unravelled here, of course – but we’re clearly entering the endgame, setting the stage for the climactic storyline, and for that reason, all that gubbins about psychotic cops dressed up as Batman (in what was, let’s face it, quite an underwhelming story at the time) is finally given an answer. Just as many new questions are raised, of course, but even that strange standalone issue set in the future is given some vital context. As an issue in and of itself, this is solid rather than spectacular – and the story in general is still going to have to ramp up a few notches to make the run an all-time classic rather than a curiosity – but if you’ve managed to persevere up to this point, you’ll feel rewarded by the fact that those classically Morrison seeds are starting to pay off.

The last few pages of the issue offer a clear indication that something big is coming – which we kind of know already, given that the next (and last?) storyline is titled “Batman RIP”. Anyone with half a brain must suspect that it’s not going to be as straightforward as a simple killing-off (in the year The Dark Knight comes out? I think not) – but I’ve already got a half-theory, which I’ll share in this week’s Sunday Pages. Certainly, though, despite a succession of issues and stories that have seemed underwhelming in isolation, there’s every chance that this could still turn out to be an era-defining take – and it’s further proof that you simply cannot write off Grant Morrison, a man who approaches everything from angles we mere mortals didn’t even realise existed, until you’ve got the full picture in front of you.

Tags: batman, Grant Morrison
Publisher: DC