With Batman R.I.P. past the halfway mark, Grant Morrison isn’t wasting any time. The question implied by the previous issue’s cliff-hanger is answered almost immediately, as Wayne talks to statues, stabs himself in the mouth and concludes that he is an inevitable result of the city he protects. Batman has gone stark, raving mad… and it doesn’t remotely matter.

The diabolical strength of mind possessed by the Zur-En-Arrh Batman is communicated cleverly, as he comes very close to breaking the fourth wall. In a scene that echoes Robin’s dismissal of his small-fry opponent in the first instalment of R.I.P., Zur-En-Arrh lambastes a captive member of the Club of Villains. Previously depicted as Batman’s ultimate foes, they are dismissed as yet more washed-up copycats, the product of an unoriginal bloating of Batman’s rogues’ gallery. Sacrificing the credibility of some of his creations is a risky move by Morrison, who also shows Robin outwitting his Club pursuers, but the pay-off is a ongoing impression that this Batman is outgrowing his own franchise, being too great a personality to be contained by the everyday crime fighting which has defined the seventy years of his existence. Having previously elevated the Joker to the ethereal spectre of death he has always threatened to become, the writer now taunts the reader by making them wait another month for the face-off between these now larger-than-fiction characters.

As a consequence of spending the previous issue in a semi-imaginary excursion through Gotham’s underbelly, this instalment sees some of the most densely packed storytelling of the arc. Commissioner Gordon’s plot thread, suggesting that Doctor Hurt is Thomas Wayne, is hastily brought to the fore. The story teases its readers over this thunderbolt, and it’s far from clear whether Alfred’s denial is a literal statement or the metaphor the villain treats it as. By planting dynamite at the foundations of the franchise, Morrison begins to make good on the R.I.P. hype of providing the definitive story in Batman’s long history. It may only occupy a few panels, but this exchange suggests that the closure provided to Bruce Wayne’s story may be far more definitive than many imaged. The only cause for concern at this point is whether the writer has allowed sufficient time to resolve all the plot threads he has circling to land, as the Club of Heroes joins Robin, Talia and Damian in waiting for their turn in the sun.

The central thesis of R.I.P. is now clear, with Morrison arguing that the concept of the Batman is either so transcendental or so close to the brink of insanity that it can survive an actual journey into madness. Dwarfing the summer’s other comics events, it’s impossible not to itch with anticipation for the next episode.