Is the Morrison run better without the Resurrection of Ra's Al Ghul Crossover?

[Spork]

Since the Morrison run is on sale on Comixology now I'm going to get it but it's been a while since I read it just wondering if it is a better read without the crossover as some seem to think (Possibly DC themselves too, as they have now combined Batman and Son and The Black Glove into one trade, skipping the Resurrection completely).

[t hedge coke]

Some think so.

They're wrong.

More seriously, I think while Resurrection, itself, is clunky, the story fits in with what Morrison's doing otherwise so much, especially when we get back to Talia in a big way later and the more we discover about immortals and possessions, Resurrection of Ra's becomes a more and more valuable component.

[Batarang]

------Spoiler------


Ra's Al Ghul's dad was a bad idea if you ask me xD It's kind of below awarage compared to Morrison's run...

I like Paul Dini... He did an amazing Job with hush character, Heart Of Hush is one of my favorite Batman stories but Resuraction of Ra's Al Ghul kind of didn't live up to its predecessor which was Death and Maiden Story... (it's increadible) in my opinion. I wish it did live up that though... that would be perfect oroboro lol

[t hedge coke]

Ra's Al Ghul's dad was a bad idea if you ask me

I like Neal Adams' version from Odyssey better. The dynamic was cooler and smarter.

[Batarang]

I like Neal Adams' version from Odyssey better. The dynamic was cooler and smarter.

I like Neal Adams's art, i have the trade but couldn't get to it yet.

[JBatmanFan05]

When Grant agreed to contribute to Resurrection (something he probably very easily could have turned down), he adopted it as part of his run. So I'm gonna go with Grant on this and say any reading of his run is more complete reading it.

When I custom bound the Morrison run, I included Resurrection, including the Tec 840 Epilogue that didn't even make it into the trade.

[Spork]

Thanks for the thoughts everyone, went ahead and got the Resurrection too, about to start reading it now as I've just finished Batman #666, forgot how great that issue was. Hopefully i'll be able to follow Final Crisis better this time around, that's the one part where I really got lost last time.

[JBatmanFan05]

Thanks for the thoughts everyone, went ahead and got the Resurrection too, about to start reading it now as I've just finished Batman #666, forgot how great that issue was. Hopefully i'll be able to follow Final Crisis better this time around, that's the one part where I really got lost last time.

Final Crisis is really part of Morrison's Batman run too. I bound that in my Morrison run Batman bind. Final Crisis should be read after RIP with 682 & 683 integrated into FC as the FC new edition Absolute & softcover have it.

http://www.newsarama.com/2053-grant-...ew-part-1.html

Morrison: "To get the full Final Crisis experience as the author intended it, the reading order is as follows:

FINAL CRISIS # 1- 3

SUPERMAN BEYOND # 1- 2

SUBMIT

FINAL CRISIS # 4 – 5

BATMAN #682 – 683

FINAL CRISIS # 6 – 7"

DC did this order in the Absolute and new edition softcover (which has the same contents as the Absolute).



If there's anything irking about Morrison is that you maybe don't know what is and isn't part of his run until the dust settles and its over. And you can't just go by what DC does and doesn't include. I love Grant, but he could do a little more to explain to readers what is and is not part of what.

[Spork]

Thanks for that reading order, will read in that order this time. Last time i read batman #682 & #683 first, then Final Crisis #1-3, Beyond & Submit, Final Crisis #4-7. I think I will enjoy this read more, when I first read it a few years ago i didn't know much about DC characters outside of the Batman characters so I was a bit lost but I'm a bit more caught up now. Looking forward to reading Batman #700 - #702 again too, loved those issues.

[Kingcrimsonprog]

It'd be nice to get a numbered, identical spined, boxset called 'Batman & Damian Saga by Grant Morrison' or something with everything in exactly the right order.

[JBatmanFan05]

It'd be nice to get a numbered, identical spined, boxset called 'Batman & Damian Saga by Grant Morrison' or something with everything in exactly the right order.

The problem is that I severely doubt you'll ever see a complete properly ordered set. That's why I custom bound the tpbs together, because I realized how unlikely it is.

At least 3 barriers to complete properly ordered set:
1) You'd have to include all of Final Crisis to include 682 & 683 where Grant said they belong
2) Subpar or not, it'd have to include all of the Resurrection of Ra's Al Ghul
3) I think Morrison wanted B&R and ROBW interwoven together in terms of reading order, along with 700-702....and I bet DC won't realize or accept that

[Rakzo]

It's the worst part of Morrison's run (as well as of many of the other titles involved).

It suffered from poor pacing, weak execution, dull moments and worst of all, it was simply pretty boring as a whole.

[K. Jones]

I was thinking of this the other day, as a matter of fact.

Once Incorporated Part I ends it's clear that Resurrection is suddenly far more important than a lot of people gave it credit for. But it's still a very odd case, more in the vein of the less cohesive stuff that feeds into the run itself, kind of like Fifty-Two did. For starters, Morrison's two issues are odd compared to the other seven Dini, Milligan and Nicieza issues. Odd in that he focuses on really odd angles. He focuses on the spiritualist stuff that ties back into the notion of demonic possession and feeds into his Doctor Hurt story. He focuses on the three insect girls from the original Poison Ivy story who he thought were great (and who semi/sorta feed into Scorpiana, somewhat. If you take the tack that the three freelance Pop Diva professors at St. Hadrian's were the insect girls, they're essentially peers of Scorpiana and possible graduates of the Kane school of femme fatales.)

Anyway, Milligan and Dini concoct the Suit of Sorrows armor and that detours to the very symbiotic and quite good Hine/Nicieza Azrael run (Frazer Irving draws Lane vs. Talia al Ghul and the Seven Men of Death!) before it dovetails back into Incorporated Part II for the big finale. Nightwing finally enters the ongoing Morrison Batman run after his absence since Dark Knight Down (from here on, instead of treading water with bad stories, Tomasi's endrun runs parallel to Grant's run, prepares Nightwing for his eventual Batman role, and foreshadows the HELL out of Leviathan.) Side note; Hine & Nicieza have the best ideas for companion material to go along with the new Gotham status quo.

It's not that good, but it's surprisingly important in the scheme of things. But the two Morrison chapters themselves are pretty interesting, and better than the rest of the chapters. Although Dini's epilogue (first issue of Dini's run with Dustin Nguyen's art!) where Ra's comes to Gotham to show off and Bruce dopes him and locks him in Arkham is pretty awesome. (Another story beat Tomasi's Free Fall storyline picks up.) Dini's chapters are ... okay. Not his best stuff. The Nightwing chapters are so-so (nice art). The Robin chapters, probably because of the art, are definitely the weak link.

One thing I will say is that it's timing wasn't that good. I prefer a reading order that places it AFTER the Third Batman three-parter, so that Lane's GCPD attack is part of the "three ghosts of Batman" storyline (making that more of a nine-parter.) That's the way it's collected in trades, anyway, and that's the way I read it. It does have to occur prior to The Fiend With Nine Eyes (essentially the R.I.P. prelude, anyway) because in "Fiend", Merlyn is now in Talia's employ, and that happened at the end of Resurrection.

So; Dark Knight Down, Revelations, Batman & Son, Three Ghosts, Club of Heroes, Third Batman, Resurrection, Nine Eyes, R.I.P., Last Rites (and of course R.I.P. has those extra couple pages from DC Universe Zero.)

I think somewhere out there, there's a cut of Resurrection that's looked back on more favorably, perhaps with a singular, stronger art vision. You know, like if Chris Burnham had drawn the whole story. But that's what always happens in a four-writer crossover with four artists in four books.

[K. Jones]

Final Crisis is really part of Morrison's Batman run too. I bound that in my Morrison run Batman bind. Final Crisis should be read after RIP with 682 & 683 integrated into FC as the FC new edition Absolute & softcover have it.

I know FC is part of the run and I'm always down for a re-read of FC, so I always include it in run re-reads, but I do rather like that R.I.P. The Missing Chapter kind of makes it so you don't actually have to read all of FC if you don't want to.

[Flash Gordon]

I like Neal Adams' version from Odyssey better. The dynamic was cooler and smarter.

Dude I LOVED Odyssey. I thought I was the only one who remembered it.