MORRISON BATM-ANNOTATIONS: BATMAN INCORPORATED PART II

[Planet Batman! ]

Batman Incorporated (Vol 1) #6 - "Nyktomorph"

• Average Joes!
• Nero Nykto, Night-Eye. Some kind of underworld consultant/PI.
• Emoticon man!
• Ellie working at Wayne Tower!
• Bat-drones from The Return are finally ready!
• Gordon deputized! We also see that city hall is still working against the Bats and Jim by proxy.
• Ellipsis storytelling! Love it! Information withheld regarding Bruce's vision of the future, the true nature of Leviathan, and who will not survive...
• Tim becomes leader of the Outsiders!
• New President of Mtamba...
• Fused with the Archivist presumably, Bruce caught glimpses of the endgame, the outline of the war against Leviathan.
• Joker in Arkham after Batman & Robin Must Die!.
• Create cloud of conspiracy to suppress any chance of exposing Bruce Wayne as Batman!
• The use of chess continues from Batman & Robin.
• Nightrunner!
• Brainwashed child murder-drones of Leviathan!
• Drugs & child trafficking: Paris/Marseille - Hong Kong - Melbourne...
• Cassandra Cain, Black-Bat!
• New Dark Ranger from Batman RIP! Swearing on the oath like Jiro and Dick Grayson!
• Batwing David Zavimbe joins up with Spidra and Traktir from The Return!
• A new Wingman given an opportunity to salvage a reputation, an identity only a mystery, someone who knows that Batman is Bruce...
• Some say Batman died and came back as some kind of God...
• Powers-That-Be, hands off of Bruce Wayne... Leviathan even controls the Average Joes!
• Nero Nykto = Dark Knight! Batman is everywhere!
• 500 Agents of Leviathan, the youngest only 18 months old...
• Virus army, terror of crime, infiltrate, contaminate, destroy...
• Leviathan spy satellite in orbit...

Batman Incorporated (Vol 1) #7 - "Medicine Soldiers"

• So fantastic. I cold have read 100 issues of these kinds of one-off Batman INC stories.
• The 'Medicine Soldiers' of the title are presumably Man-of-Bats and Little Raven, acting the roles of both Shaman (as a doctor and community leader) and Brave (as a superhero).
• "Bury my heart at Iron Knee" is a rubbish joke combining Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, Dee Brown's history of Native American's in the Old West, and a bad pun on the 'irony' of Raven Red ending up giving his dad a blood transfusion on the day he decided he'd had enough of living under his superheroic shadow.  "Iron Knee" = "irony", geddit?

Batman Incorporated (Vol 1) #8 - "Nightmares in Numberland"

• "The Transparent World"
• "Ghost in the Box"
• "Digital Justice"
• "Epilogue"
• Lambasted to oblivion, this issue was honestly not as bad as I remember. Even at his 'worst', Morrison still puts out better content than most from the big two.
• Investors come in to check out Internet 3.0, one of them turns out to be a trojan horse carrying a zombie virus to siphon the funds of the other investors.
• Oracle and Bats kick his ass.
• All of this is very much an inversion of how the Black Glove works, with the rich people instead being the targets with their sins being found out. Given our reveal it makes sense.
• They find out that the money was to be laundered in the country where Leviathan first put down roots, Mtamba!
• And Leviathan is none other than...
• JEZEBEL JET! She survived Talia's Man-Bat commandos from Batman #681!
• Also, Babs mentions getting emails from the Finishing School for Evil that Steph was assigned to in The Return. Mazes, webs, nets...

[Leviathan Rises!]

Batman Incorporated: Leviathan Strikes! #1 - "School of Night"

• So fun! Morrison's version of Steph is wonderful to read.
• St Hadrian's Finishing School, mercenary training ground for teenage girl assassins.
• Scorpiana was a teacher, she trained the Olympian from #4 who fought Batwoman.
• Skullgirls based on the Batwoman outfit.
• Jolisa's dad is the Highwayman, a villain of Knight & Squire IIRC.
• The Highwayman was mentioned in the back matter of the second Batman and Robin hardcover as one of the British criminals who opposed the Knight and the Squire,  We didn't get to see him in the story.  From Grant Morrison's notes - "Stand and deliver! I saw the Highwayman as a cross between Adam Ant and Russell Brand: a dashing gentleman bastard who plies his devilish trade on the motorways of Britain. He rides his big black stealth cycle alongside tourist coaches, delivery trucks and especially security vans before robbing them blind and making off with the loot."
• Who is the Headmistress? Black hair, black nails... Is she connected to Leviathan?
• Johnny Valentine = Janosz Valentin! Son of Pyg! The same mask from B&R #3?
• Mind controlled wafers, similar to the mind control spearmint ones from #7.
• Batman was the gardener!
• So St Hadrian's was independent at some point, but has become a pawn of Leviathan.
• Would have loved to see Beryl in this!
• Robbed of more Steph in the N52 goddamit!

Batman Incorporated: Leviathan Strikes! #1 - "Leviathan Strikes!"

• YOOOOOOOOOO!
• Let's do this chrono style:
• Diamond from #1, stolen from Sivana's lab, a meta-material. Photonic crystal with negative refractive index, can possibly turn one invisible. Makes sense that he had invisible sentries guarding Project X.
• Brunnian ring, design on paper Netz impostor was holding in #5: hyper-structure that can be applied to molecules to shift them into exotic matter: renewable energy source similar to Netz's Oroboro which Kate and her pops had mentioned in #4.
• Gaucho sends distress signal from freighter: The Leviathan. Bruce Dick Tim and Damian respond.
• Whole thing is a trap: Alzheimer's gas and labyrinth rooms, mental psy-op Spyral shit maneuvered by Netz. They don't remember how long they've been there, and how many times they've done the same thing over and over again...
• The doors and their corresponding colours (Black - Earth, Red - Fire, Blue - Water, Yellow - Air), come from Aleister Crowley's Golden Dawn sect's 'colouring' of the Enochian tablets, transcribed by John Dee and Edward Kelley from a 'language of the angels' in the late 16th century.  The tablets, colours and their corresponding meanings and applications in Enochian magic are extremely complicated and, in the opinion of many adepts, either incomplete or deliberately obscured so as to stop their immensely powerful magics falling into the wrong hands.
• A Batman Inc agent will die very five minutes, 20 minute countdown until 'Oroboro' detonates: a ring of meta-bombs placed around the world.
• The Netz impostor was in fact the warden of the Lighthouse prison.
• Alzheimer's gas made by Professor Pyg! Who was a Spyral Agent! I guess Netz used the gas on him, causing Lazlo to go crazy and become Prof Pyg with the Circus of Strange we saw in B&R.
• Could Lazlo have been part of the team trying to trap Netz in the Lighthouse before the Victory V's came?
• David & Desmond Zavimbe, two different dudes!
• Zavimbe related to the royal family killed by Jezebel Jet's father Jacob Nkele, who in turn was killed by his enemies and replaced by Jet. Zavimbe's secret identity is also as a playboy, but why is he wanted in Germany?
• Presumably Desmond Zavimbi, puppet 'ruler' of Mtamba is kind of like an African King Ralph; a distant relative of the royal family brought in to give a sheen of respectability to the real forces in charge (i.e. the military). There's an implication that he and David Zavimbi, alias Batwing, are playing at some kind of Man in the Iron Mask style identity-swap shenanigans.
• Great switcheroo to get him out of there, love the Mtamban heroes and would be great to see them more.
• Chris Burnham confirmed that those aren't Thunder and Lightning, but two kick-ass Mtamban heroines that we hadn't met previously named Tik and Tok.  The big guy is also a new, as yet un-named, creation.
• Batwing is about to send a message to Oracle, but he's attacked by something with Bat-wings...
• Hood uses T.H.E.Y records to send Oracle info on Spyral + the freighter Leviathan, but someone who I assume is 'Matron' mentioned in #5 betrays him to Spyral!
• The Headmistress from St Hadrian's, a part of Spyral? Does Hood know of the Headmistress?
• Batman stuck in hallucinatory delirium: Crime Alley + Wire Mommy with pearls. Batman never gets there in time...
• Nightrunner and Dark Ranger brainwashed by Alzheimer's gas, used as pawns.
• Netz's whole schtick is that of the Web archetype, the lure that traps heroes, fantastical death mazes, elaborate mind-fuckery.
• Gaucho put out the distress signal as bait! Leviathan is detonated, sinking into the ocean.
• Outsiders invade Leviathan orbital, but it's vacant except for Lord Death Man! Freed from his satellite prison and used to blow up the whole station!
• Oracle takes command of the whole thing and sends the Ro-Bats to the rescue.
• Three outlines on the floor of the room, like the three agents Batman fights in the Alzheimer's loop, like the three john does buried alive being investigated by Mr. Unknown, like the three marines killed by Johnny Valentine, like the three leviathan agents that replaced them, like the three blind kids, like the three assassins with Espartaco Extrano, like the three letters of Oroboro...
• She told me he liked puzzles...
• Netz is such a bastard: a republic serial villain letting broken Bats have a single chance to shut off the Oroboro ring of Meta-Bombs.
• Gaucho betrays Netz and gives Batman the antidote! Netz stabs him with the removable knife hilt from the Hitler cane!
• Netz hates that Kathy protected Batman's secret; he feels that Batman killed his daughter's love for him.
• Bis Das Schicksal Dich Ruft = Until Fate Calls You
• Oroboro feeds on itself, the ending is the beginning...
• Damian kills Netz!
• The Ro-bats bring Leviathan ashore.
• That has to be Kathy Kane! The Headmistress I presume? Does she run Spyral?
• Gaucho survives the stabbing!
• Netz was misdirection the whole time? A waste of resources before the final act?
• Batman's vision of the future revealed: the world in flames, two headstones, Kali the Destroyer...
• But it's not Jezebel Jet, they found her body but it was missing something...
• The eye of Spyral, the eye of the Gorgon, the Demon Star, Algol, the Demon's Head...
• Jezebel Jet's head! Missing an eye! The red phone from Batman '66!
• Space across Monarch Theater bought up, a restaurant...
• A bounty put on Damian's head! 500 million dollars!
• Leviathan is...
• TALIA AL GHUL! And Heretic's right behind her!

Batman Incorporated (Vol 2) #0 - "Brand Building"

• Flashback to Batman #669!
• The Window! The Bell! The Bat! Absolutely love this page.
• The first truth of Batman! First presented in ROBW #6, now used here as an anchor for Batman Inc. Hopefully the New 52 won't derail this bad boy too much.
• The Well, the Cave, the Omega Sanction, and the Vision!
• We align the well Bruce fell into as a child, the Thogal cave of Nanda Parbat, the cave of Anthro from ROBW and Final Crisis, and the resurrection before fighting Hurt as one primer; fragments conjoined to form this warning.
• Bruce pitches Batman Inc to the Wayne Board post B&R #16.
• The snake Treadwell finally gets his comeuppance!
• Batman recruits Knight and Squire as some of the first in Batman Inc. This takes place right after The Return.
• Johnny Riley, the new Dark Ranger! Knight tests him out for Batman fitness check!
• Bruce and Damian recruit Ravil, Batman of Russia! He dies in the first issue of N52 Batman & Robin unfortunately.
• Musketeer passes on the mantle of Batman France to Nightrunner! He's also making a movie about the events of the Club of Heroes arc and Batman RIP into a movie called The Black Glove Strikes!
• Apparently the OG Dark Ranger didn't bring Johnny to the island because he was afraid he would steal his thunder! That's why you got merc'd mate! Riley's the real deal!
• Man-of-Bats and Raven Red unveil new Bat-Turbines to power air conditioning for the whole Lakota reservation!
• Jiro is back! Batman Japan! He had team ups with the Super Young Team! And is going to bag Lolita Canary? He's also recruited now that his probationary period is up.
• Gaucho survives! Flashback to #3, #4, #5, and even #6 before he fights the cultists in one single panel! He's also sold on the Batman Inc chicks from V2#1.
• Dark Ranger and Bats innovate the double punch into double throw!
• Johnny and Beryl ship...