GIVE ME COMICS OR GIVE ME DEATH!: 2025

30 December 2025

Grant Morrison's Batman Annotations: Batman #657

The Give Me Comics or Give Me Death podcast is available from all your usual podcast providers, or see all episodes here

See the index for all entries in these Batman annotations here

***Batman & Son* Part 2: '*Wonderboys'***

The title is a play on the nickname for Robin of ‘the boy wonder’, pluralised here as we get two Robins in this story.

This fairly pedestrian issue serves primarily to introduce us to the personality of Damian, Batman’s newly revealed son. He first challenges Batman to a fight, brushes off Tim Drake (the current Robin) when introduced, and acts the spoilt brat with Alfred. When Batman is called out into Gotham’s sewers to deal with a kidnapping situation orchestrated by The Spook, Damian breaks out of Wayne Manor to ‘help’ and beheads the villain. Upon returning to the Batcave he confronts and beats up Robin, before meeting his father on a rooftop and declaring himself the new Robin.

Page 1

Panel 3 - With his bat wing shaped eyebrows, Damian seems destined for the Wayne family.

Page 2 & 3

The Batcave. Most artists with a run on Batman get to their Batcave shot. Everyone seems to give it a different look and layout, but there are usually some consistent elements such as we see here; a bat-plane, a bat-boat, and trophies from Batman’s past adventures. Given the premise of Morrison’s story is that all past continuity is canon, it’s no surprise we get some of these souvenirs:

The giant dinosaur is an animatronic construct originally from ‘Dinosaur Island’, a theme park, and first appeared in Batman #25 (1946). It often ‘comes alive’ to fight off intruders to the Batcave,

Despite coins being usually associated withe long-standing villain Two-Face, the giant penny in the Batcave is actually a memento from Batman’s encounter with the Penny Plunderer in World’s Finest Comics #30 (1947).

The huge joker playing card is, unsurprisingly, a souvenir from Batman’s run-ins with arch-nemesis the Joker. It originally appeared hung on the Joker’s wall in Detective Comics #114 (1946), in a bizarre story that revolves around acrostic poems (no, really!)

In the glass displays are costumes from two other members of Batman’s history - Mr Freeze’s helmet and, what looks like, the outfit of either the Roman themed Batman ally the Legionary (who is reintroduced in a few issues time) or Maxie Zeus the Greek mythology obsessed supervillain.

Page 6

Panel 1 - Our and Damian’s introduction to Tim Drake, the third character to take on the Robin moniker and role as Batman’s sidekick/protégé, he first appeared in 1989’s Batman #436. Drake actually worked out the true identities of Batman and Robin (Dick Grayson at the time), and was eventually picked to become Robin after the death of Jason Todd (the second Robin). More of a detective than previous Robins, he’s an obvious choice to help introduce Damian, as their personalities are almost complete opposites. It’s not long before Morrison moves Drake out of the larger story, so the spotlight can remain on Damian, however he plays a significant role in looking for Bruce Wayne after his ‘death’ - though mostly in other non-Morrison written Batman related comics.

Page 8

Panel 4 - These fancy alternative Batman costumes appear to be based on action figures - possibly from the Batman: The Animated Series line - however, despite trawling the internet I’ve been unable to definitively tie them to specific figures. Anyone who can - let me know!

Page 9

Panel 1 - “What about us?” Tim’s concern about Batman’s apparently new-found son is particularly acute because he had just been legally adopted by Bruce in Batman #654, the last issue before Morrison took over.

Page 11

Panels 3 &4 - Damian’s brattish tempter tantrum is only ended when Batman expresses anger, authority, and the codes of the martial arts. This works because that is how Damian has been raised, and is what he’s used to. However, throughout Morrison’s run Damian only begins to grow as a character and leave his horrific upbringing behind him when Batman, and the Bat-Family, being to treat him differently and show him there is an alternative to the way he was raised.

Page 12

Panel 1 - The Spook - real name Val Kaliban - is a minor, rarely seen, Batman villain who made his first appearance in Detective Comics #434 (1974). A world-class escape artist who uses those skills, along with a combination of special effects, to portray himself as a real ghost to commit crimes - predominately breaking other criminals out of prison via the underground network of tunnels that feature in this issue. Having only made half a dozen appearances since the 70s, he’s another example of Morrison digging deep into Batman’s past.

Panel 2 - “Over my dead body, Mister Mayor!” The Spook foreshadowing his own death a couple of pages later. At the time of writing he remains dead, and with his bit-part history one suspects this may will be the last we see of him.

Page 15

Panel 4 & 6 - Damian escapes the Batcave by deducing the key code from Alfred’s fingerprints, and then mimicking Tim perfectly to override the voice activated locks. We're being shown that behind the immature exterior, Damian does possess skills well beyond his years.

Page 16

Panel 6 - Confusingly, Damian now suggests he escaped his room by killing Alfred and taking the key. Alfred is later revealed to be fine, so how he got the key and how he really escaped is left unexplained.

Page 18

Panel 1 - More mementos in the Batcave. On the left is the Robin outfit worn by Jason Todd, the second Robin who was murdered by the Joker. Next to it is the proto-Batman costume worn by Bruce’s father to a fancy dress party in Detective Comics #235 (as discussed here), and soon to be worn by Dr Hurt in Batman R.I.P.

Page 21

Panel 5 - ‘There’s a new Robin now’. Not only does this panel herald Damian as the new Robin, but Tim’s removal from the role and adoption of the Red Robin moniker after Batman’s disappearance. More tragically, in taking Jason Todd’s costume, Damian has damned himself to the same fate as it's previous wearer - death.

24 November 2025

Doomsday Clock - Geoff Johns & Gary Frank

The Give Me Comics or Give Me Death podcast is available from all your usual podcast providers, or see all episodes here

Doomsday Clock #1-12 (2017-2019)

Published by DC Comics

Written by Geoff Johns

Art by Gary Frank

Lettering by Rob Leigh

Colouring Brad Anderson

Unlike some I have no particular quibble with taking Alan Moore & Dave Gibbon's seminal comic Watchmen and using those characters to tell new stories. The original stands on its own merits and always will. Indeed, the recent-ish Rorschach comic and the critically acclaimed Watchmen TV series suggest that sealing the original off from any further works would only deny us some expertly crafted additions to the canon. Is it snobbish, or perhaps gatekeeping, to expect Watchmen art to be held to a higher standard though? Is the original held in such holy reverence that to besmirch the Watchmen name is tantamount to heresy? Or can we put these characters alongside all the other pop culture icons and accept that they are simply tools to be used and that the resulting quality may be good, bad, or indifferent, just as with, say, any Batman or Spider-Man comic, regardless of the origins or high watermarks of the past?

I ask these questions because Doomsday Clock, the somewhat controversial DC Comics series that brings together the Watchmen characters and those of the regular 'DC Universe' is, to be blunt, not very good. However, in many ways it's the very reverence for the original that is at the heart of its flaws (something it shares with Zack Snyder's film adaptation of Watchmen).

Writer Geoff Johns has essentially produced a re-make of the original Watchmen, complete with almost identical plot, characters, page layout, and narrative techniques. It's along the lines of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, simultaneously a re-telling of the previous story and yet a sequel at the same time. Now, that alone doesn't necessarily dictate quality, but it does beg the question of 'what's the point?'

Johns does an incredible trick of presenting a plot that is incredibly complicated yet also almost entirely absent. The crux of the story is that after the ending of the original Watchmen series Dr Manhattan has left that world/universe/reality [delete as per your preferred comic book jargon term] and found himself in the DC Universe of Superman, Batman, and the myriad thousands of other super powered characters. In his absence the ruse of Ozymandias has been revealed, and the Watchmen world has descended into nuclear Armageddon that the ruse was supposed to prevent in the first place. Ozymandias and a handful of other characters, including a new Rorschach, also cross over to the DC Universe to find Dr Manhattan and convince him to return and - somehow - save their world.

Against the backdrop of this simple premise are numerous sub-plots, many of which don't seem particularly relevant or don't go anywhere, and seem to exist simply as an excuse to bring in as many DC heroes and villains as possible into the story. Generally however, the idea is that there is an international super-powers arms race that seems destined to end in global war and destruction - can this be averted as the clock to disaster ticks down? These super powered threats take the place of the military nuclear arsenals in the original Watchmen, but the story and effects are essentially the same. There is a 'revelation' that many of these super powered heroes and villains were created by the US government triggering their latent 'metagene'. I'm not a regular DC reader so I don't know if this is an established fact that the readers already knew, but the characters did not. I suspect no, as its presented as a major shift in the background of the DC universe - it essentially retcons almost everyone's secret origin story, and I'm not particular sure it was necessary.

Throw in a movie star that Dr Manhattan befriends, who's last film serves as a story-within-a-story foreshadowing the main narrative's conclusion - yes, very much in the way that the 'Tales of the Black Freighter' did in Watchmen - and a nation offering refuge to the now publicly demonised costumed crime fighters (and criminals) that takes up a lot of the story but doesn't really go anywhere, and a skulking-in-the-shadows Lex Luthor who, other than providing some handy exposition at the end, doesn't achieve any of the scene stealing promises his story seems to be building towards, and it all becomes a bit overcooked.

Perhaps most baffling is the inclusion of two characters that are brought over from the Watchmen universe - Marionette and The Mime. Petty criminals in fancy costumes (one of whom has super-powers, even though one of the key aspects of Watchmen is that Dr Manhattan was the sole super-powered being). It's not that they are irrelevant to the plot, but their role in it is so minor that it's just confusing as to why so much time is spent focusing on them. That's not to say it's all bad - perhaps the best bit of the whole story is the chapter that focuses on their 'origin' - it's just that it doesn't really tie in to the main narrative at all.

As the story reaches its conclusion we see that it is ultimately there to provide DC with yet another opportunity to retcon some stories, bring back others, and generally offer some kind of 'in-universe' explanation as to how these characters have been around for decades (in real time) yet haven't aged a day. This obsession with timelines and multiverses seems to be the go-to subject for any major project at DC, and they weren't letting the Watchmen characters escape without being part of it.

Now, Geoff Johns is not a bad writer. In fact he pulls off some entertaining scenes with aplomb, and his dialogue is in general spot on - even if a lot of it is replicating that of Rorschach and Dr Manhattan in as faithful Alan Moore style as possible. It's also to his credit that he takes what was becoming unwieldy mess and delivers a reasonably good final chapter to answer a lot of the key questions raised along the way - though leaving many others hanging. He even manages to channel his inner Grant Morrison and deliver some meta-textual Superman hero worship.

Where Doomsday Clock really does deliver is in the art of Gary Frank (illustrator) and Brad Anderson (colours). Plaudits too to the letterer Rob Leigh (ably imitating the original Watchmen lettering) and the Amie Brockway-Metcalf for the 'back matter design' (i.e. the newspapers clippings, etc, that end each story just like, yes, Watchmen).

The page layouts are on the whole tied to the 9-panel grid of the original Watchmen, though they thankfully deviate from that on regular occasions. This puts a huge amount of storytelling onus on Frank's artwork - he has to use what's in the panels, rather than the shape, size and arrangement of them, to help control pacing, atmosphere and emotion. It is here that his wonderful facial expressions and body language come into their own. However, I was most impressed by his use of close-ups and 'dead panels' (those where nothing of particular note is happening, such as a silent face or a shot of a city skyline) to really tell the story within the confines of the strict grid system.

Ultimately Doomsday Clock feels like a missed opportunity. The idea of bringing together characters from these two universes is ripe with opportunity - not least because the characters of Watchmen were based on old Charlton Comics characters that are now part of the DC universe - a fact that that is subtly alluded to here, but never taken any further. However, the story is hamstrung from the beginning by trying to re-tell the original story, even telling it in the same format, but in a new setting. When it belatedly breaks away from this somewhat towards the end it is only to familiar ground of multiple universes and continuity corrections. Ironically, given the infinite time and space that becomes the focus of the story, its horizons are all too narrow.

1 November 2025

Podast: Image Comics: the Greats

Available from all your usual podcast providers, or listen here:

It's all well and good talking about comics, but they are obviously a visual medium - pretty pictures! Therefore, to accompany each episode, we also do a little blog post with some images and other extras to give you some context as to what on earth we're talking about!

In the final episode of this 9 part dive into the Image comics, Mike and Lee explore their favourite Image titles.

And, as usual, we hear what they've read recently and invite another addition to the Museum.

GMCOGMD will be back for series 3 when Mike and Lee have decided what they'd like to talk about.

What Have We Been Reading Recently?

The Book of Human Insects (1971)

By Osamu Tezuka

Published in English by Vertical Inc

Image Comics: The Road to Independence

Written by George Khoury

Published by TwoMorrows Publishing

Image Comics: the Greats

The Weatherman (2019-2024)

Written by Jody Leheup

Art by Nathan Fox

Colours by Dave Stewart

Southern Bastards (2014-2018)

Written by Jason Aaron

Art by Jason Latour

Letters by Jared K Fletcher

Gideon Falls (2018-2020)

Written by Jeff Lemire

Art by Andrea Sorrentino

Colours by Dave Stewart

Letters by Steve Wands

Lazarus (2013 - Ongoing)

Written by Greg Rucka

Art by Michael Lark

Colours by Santi Arcas

Letters by Jody Wynne & Simon Bowland

Criminal (2006 - Ongoing)

Written by Ed Brubaker

Art by Sean Phillips

Colours by Val Staples, Elizabeth Breitweiser, and Jacob Phillips

22 October 2025

Podcast: Image Comics: Silvestri, Valentino and Larsen

Available from all your usual podcast providers, or listen here:

Mike and Lee's check off the remaining Image founders: towering Marc Silvestri, adequate Jim Valentino and dynamic Erik Larsen

GMCOGMD is an Icecream House Production, presented by Mike Bradbury and Lee Scott

What Have We Been Reading Recently?

Homesick Pilots: Volume 1 (2021)

Published by Image Comics

Written by Dan Watters

Art by Caspar Wijngaard

Letters by Aditya Bidikar

Ghost Rider/Captain America: Fear (1992)

Published by Marvel Comics

Written by Howard Mackie

Pencils by Lee Weeks

Inks by Al Williamson

Colours by Gregory Wright

Letters by Michael Heisler

Mark Silvestri

Jim Valentino

Erik Larsen

Whilce Portacio

11 October 2025

Podcast: Image Comics: The Big Dog - Jim Lee

Available from all your usual podcast providers, or listen here:

Mike and Lee's exploration of Image has reached Jim Lee - the business savvy, superstar of comic books. The ultimate triple threat, Jim achieved legend status at Marvel, Image and DC - but does his business acumen lack the romance of other Image founders?

GMCOGMD is an Icecream House Production, presented by Mike Bradbury and Lee Scott