Warren Ellis is squarely on the record as being an aesthetic enemy of the comic-book heroes he calls "Underwear Perverts" — i.e., Batman, Superman, etc. But when I dropped by my comics store this afternoon, the proprietor had a new book for me, "Planetary/Batman," a perfect-bound, $5.95 Batman comic by Warren Ellis.
The book is a solid kick in the testicles of the Underwear Pervert genre. A cadre of tough-guy comic book characters come to Gotham to arrest a dangerous pan-dimensional lunatic, and find themselves being shuffled through many dimensions — and many alternate versions of The Bat Man.
Ellis's repeated digs at Batman are anything but loving: they're vicious, clear-eyed and unforgiving indictments of the character and all he represents. By the time I was done, I wanted to jump up and applaud.
