Countdown to Christmas Day 11: Chris Burnham's Batwing

Our 12th Day of Christmas countdown is here.

It's getting to be that time of the year, here at the Flying Batmobile Ranch.  The holidays are coming and with it, the wish list of kick ass Batman toys that never got made.  We all loved that Grant Morrison's BATMAN INC so much, the boys hunkered down and made up a bunch of the figures that got lost on the way to the toy shelf, like El Gaucho or the super-cool Batman of Japan by that talented kid Chris Burnham.

This year, they decided to make Chris' character, "Batwing, the Batman of Africa".  The best part of Batwing is that he originally appeared in a great 70's classic BATMAN story, "THE BATMAN NOBODY KNOWS" (BATMAN #250).

Bruce Wayne takes a couple of Gotham kids out camping (don't ask) and they all sit around the campfire, telling tall tales of what they think the Batman really is.  This guy is right on target:

BATMAN #250

Grant Morrison liked that Dick Giordano artwork so much, he had Chris mix it into the BATMAN INC story and boom:

BATWING

Now we're talking.  Chris certainly took most of the design from this one page and integrated it into the armored Bat-suit the character wore:

"Muhammad Ali, Jim Brown, Shaft, and Super-Fly all rolled into one!"

"Sweet Christmas!"

Batman, Inc

Countdown Day 10 is here.

Black Bat Power and Bat Girl-o-rama!

All the boys here at the Flying B Ranch sure do love that Grant Morrison's BATMAN INC. This holiday season, everyone gathered round for a reading of his latest chapter BATMAN INC LEVIATHAN STRIKES! On the top of everyone's toy wish list?

More BATMAN, INC. figures.

Black Bat is the Hong Kong representative of Batman, Inc. Cassandra Cain was the third Batgirl and was trained as a ninja assassin. Her all-black costume had a distinctive bat-outline symbol. Artist Chris Burnham kept the majority of the costume, added a smaller mask, hand wraps, and had a tattered cape that he wanted to invoke "smoke ... a cross between Ragman and Spawn's cape".

Black Bat has made a few appearances in the recent Bat-Universe and most artists are giving her a full gold batsymbol on her chest. I think Burnham's choice is much more evocative of her original costume and less generic. We had a fun time shredding vinyl to create the tattered cape.

"Black Bat" was a pulp character that was published contemporaneously with Bat-Man and there was litigation pending, if not for the efforts of Bat-Man editor Whitney Ellsworth. Following the circular metaphors of Morrison's story, the name has now come full circle to DC COMICS.

DC has had four batgirls over a period of sixty years. With their recent character shuffling, the newest, Batgirl IV may have been lost to posterity. Thankfully, she makes a brilliant appearance in this most recent chapter of BATMAN INC, fighting off a ninja all-girl death squad school, led by Madonna, Lady Gaga, Rihanna, and Katy Perry.

Bottom line, we need more BATMAN, INC. comicbooks and more BATMAN, INC. figures. Pronto, Hoss!

WILL DC Comics publish the end of BATMAN, INC?

WHICH member of BATMAN, INC will we make next?

CAN Mattel beat us to the punch?

Tune in next month,

Same Bat time,

Same Bat Blog!