Back In The Shadows: Batman Incorporated #3 Delayed

So now it’s a comic book story: DC Comics and the Batman editorial team have decided to delay this week’s scheduled release of Batman Incorporated #3 due to “content that may be perceived as insensitive in light of recent events.”

Wow, that content must be a pisser. Let’s see what the original issue’s solicitation says about it:

BATMAN, INCORPORATED #3
Written by GRANT MORRISON
Art and cover by CHRIS BURNHAM
Variant cover by JAY FABOK
1:100 B&W Variant cover by CHRIS BURNHAM
On sale JULY 25 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
Combo Pack Edition: $3.99
Retailers: This issue will ship with three covers. Please see the order form for more information.
• The DC COMIC – THE NEW 52 debut of…MATCHES MALONE??
• BATMAN is hot on the trail of whoever is trying to kill DAMIAN – and he’s not going to like what he finds!

Okay, with an appearance by Batman’s undercover alter ego Matches Malone, this seems like it’s going to be an organized crime story… which at face value seems pretty innocuous compared to the theater shootings, but on one hand, one could argue that, for the next couple of weeks, any Batman story with a shooting might touch a nerve. Further, since the story is about someone trying to kill Damian Wayne – a ten-year-old kid – seeing a gun on him in the context of the theater shootings might be a little sensitive, whether or not the ten-year-old kid in question is a trained ninja assassin.

Of course, being comics, there’s the question as to whether the book is actually late, and the “recent events” aren’t Morrison being missing on a mesa somewhere gobbling peyote. What say you, Batman Incorporated artist Chris Burnham?

Batman Inc #3 is going to be delayed a month due to some grim imagery that would seem wholly inappropriate given the Aurora killings.

— Chris Burnham (@TheBurnham) July 24, 2012

The book printed on time. I’m looking at a copy on my desk right now. This isn’t a scheduling excuse, we’re trying to do the right thing.

— Chris Burnham (@TheBurnham) July 24, 2012

It’s not just a Batman comic with guns in it. There’s a specific scene that made DC & the whole Bat-team say “Yikes.” Too close for comfort.

— Chris Burnham (@TheBurnham) July 24, 2012

On one hand, I want to throw my hands in the air and shriek, “Wusses!” Acting like Batman Incorporated, or any other comics, are in any way responsible for the events in Aurora, or that comics have something to be ashamed of because of it, feels like a penance that the industry doesn’t owe. Batman didn’t make that scumbag do what he did, he did it on his own.

On the other hand, in autumn of 2005, I was a disc jockey at a rock radio station in Boston. And I was pulling an airshift a couple of days after Hurricane Katrina hit… and Led Zeppelin’s When The Levee Breaks came up on my playlist… and I said, “Yeeeahhhh, maybe I wanna play Kashmir instead.”

I guess sometimes it’s better to err on the side of caution and considered good taste. At the very least, we should get two issues of Batman Incorporated next month.