By Grant Morrison (writer), Tony Daniel (pencils), Sandu Florea (inks), Guy Major (colors)

The Story: Lots of loose ends are tied up in this conclusion, but there’s plenty of dangling threads left open. The Joker, knowing his role has come to an end, flees the scene as Batman puts a lockdown on Arkham. Despite beating the odds, the Black Glove’s confidence is only momentarily shaken before the final sequences of the showdown take place. The final fate of Batman is revealed, and honestly, unexpected!

What’s Good? This whole story’s been about how Batman prepares himself for any situation. He’s not only a master detective, but a brilliant escape artist. The Joker, who’s tussled with Batman for decades laughs at the situation knowing that Batman will prevail. The way he plays the Black Glove for fools is hilarious, while his last hurrah in the ambulance is downright puzzling.

When Batman finally arrives on the scene he downright owns Jezebel Jet. And even though she confidently touts that her group can never be stopped or imprisoned, the humiliation and pure ownage Batman lays on her is laughably fun.

What’s Not So Good? The fate of Dr. Hurt, Batman, and Jezebel Jet are up in the air. Are they truly dead? Probably not. And who is Dr. Hurt, really? The Devil? Thomas Wayne?

Conclusion: Though there’s still some dangling threads left open this last issue does a good job of wrapping up the story. The biggest complaint people have had about this series was how absurd it is to follow in the opening chapters. Luckily, this final chapter doesn’t have many head scratching scenes or dialogue. As a whole, this isn’t an epic Batman story, by far. But it was entertaining. Killing off Batman does seem more of a stunt, however, than a necessity.

Grade: B

– J. Montes

A Second Opinion

Congratulations Grant Morrison, you’ve done nothing but state the obvious about Batman being constantly prepared, and somehow you failed to properly conclude your own arc. You gave us a character that’s as meaningless as Jeph Loeb’s Tommy Elliot/ Hush with Jezebel Jet, and you provided us your version of a Batman that many fans are going to forget. Honestly, who’s going to reminisce about the hallucinating, Batman of Nanda Parabat? I don’t even buy your portrayal of Batman as the most ready, escape artist. You’ve somehow forgotten logic; a constantly prepared Batman would not GUESS how an anticipated attack would play out. Guessing is uncertain, and being uncertain is not being prepared. Your version of Batman simply does not live up to the training he claims to have. Instead, you give us a masochistic, hallucinating, psycho-babbling, escape stuntman that happens to know everything and reveals it all in the most faux-badass manner.

Also you call this a concluding issue? A conclusion answers all the questions and satisfies all the readers. You leave many things unresolved, thus making this issue a bad “conclusion” that “leaves what’s in store.” Your Batman R.I.P. story isn’t done yet since we didn’t see Batman’s corpse. Can we expect to see what Superman and Wonder Woman were sulking about in JLA #0 in your pages of Final Crisis, not in this book– the book where you introduced this story? Yet this is supposed to be the conclusion to R.I.P. with an epilogue and all…

After reading and investing in what you’ve given us these past months in Batman, your arc doesn’t deserve the title “R.I.P.” With many questions left unanswered, and the abrupt moments and with all the sloppy explanations, Batman #681 concludes as another unimportant Batman story within the DC universe. Zur En Arrh? Zoro In Arkham? Really? Do you really want us to meditate on that after reading it backwards? I pray you don’t have Bruce Wayne lose his mind and get locked up. Ditch this piece of shit, and hope that Neil Gaiman paints us a better portrait of the Dark Knight in the way Alan Moore gave us “Whatever Happened To The Man of Tomorrow.”

Grade: C-

-Raymond Hilario

Grade

Conclusion