LEVIATHAN

Ostensibly “Batman, Incorporated” issues #9 and #10, “Batman, Incorporated: Leviathan Strikes!” #1 ends the first ‘season’ of the title and sets the stage for next year’s return and conclusion to Grant Morrison’s tenure on the Batbooks. The wait for this comic may have been long, but with Cameron Stewart and Chris Burnham providing the art, it was well worth it. Morrison delivers both an entertaining ‘done in one’ style adventure spotlighting Stephanie Brown and an ambitious issue that pushes the story about as far as it can go before it breaks. It ends with the big reveal of who is behind Leviathan, the criminal organization that Batman has created Batman, Incorporated to fight. It’s the sort of issue that arrives just in time to remind critics that, maybe, they left “Batman, Incorporated” off their top ten of 2011 lists and that, obviously, was a mistake. The opening story calls back to early issues of “Batman, Incorporated” with Stephanie Brown enrolled at a private school in Engl