As for your answer to Curt’s question, yes, there is absolutely a bigger story here. I recall Morrison’s run on NEW X-MEN… each arc in and of itself was enjoyable and offered its own tale but, after the entire run was available in TPB format, I went through all of it over the course of a weekend, marathon-style, and all of a sudden it blew my mind in a way that it hadn’t before. The little elments that had leaked out piecemeal kind of coalesced into this bigger, richer tapestry. The entire story was of the war of species and how “Sublime” had been the mutant’s greatest enemy from the start. It was, essentially, a story of the true nature of evolution itself which, despite being what the X-Men are supposed to be about ANYWAY, is surprisingly heady for a Marvel comic.

I love that “big picture” strategy and I’m expecting that from Morrison’s work on the Batman books. When it’s over and we link all of these little stories and fragments of stories together, I think we’re going to stand back and see a larger statement. The concept of Batman’s mythology being part of the lifespan of a single character… the legitimization of multiple Batmen… all these little notions will kind of come together and THAT, I believe, will be greater than the sum of the parts.

Curt, you wouldn’t get anything approaching the full effect without building some history with the characters and plot lines in play, but I urge you to give it a try. Morrison’s work on Batman has, by turns, been wonderfully strange and lynchian, with the last arc being particularly on the money. No-one else in the DC or Marvel stable is capable of writing comics like these, and with Batman and Robin Morrison has had the artistic back-up to make good on his ideas.

Batman and Son

[Batman: The Resurrection of Ra's al Ghul--not at all necessary as it's a crossover Morrison seems to have been roped into and has mattered not a bit to the rest of what he's done--he contributed I think two issues to it]

Batman: The Black Glove

Batman R.I.P.

Final Crisis

Batman and Robin: Batman Reborn

Batman and Robin: Batman vs. Robin

Batman, Inc.

The last four aren’t available in collected editions yet–hell, the last one hasn’t even come out serially at all yet–but there you have it, based on everything that’s currently either come out or been announced.

But Batman and Robin itself ought to be pretty easy to catch up with as there are only the fourteen issues, the first 6 of which are collected in Batman and Robin Vol. 1: Batman Reborn, and the next six of which will be collected in Batman and Robin Vol. 2: Batman vs. Robin, which I think comes out in late October or November.

As for this issue, it’s part two of a three issue arc.

I hope that helps!