Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne #4 (of 6)

I've been enjoying this series so far, despite the fact that much of it seems to barely make sense - but I'm trusting that writer Grant Morrison will bring the whole thing together in the end.

But with this issue of Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne, he walks right up to the line where he loses me completely.

We know that Bruce is traveling through time for mysterious reasons, we know that he's leaving clues about his whereabouts for his allies in the future, and we know that he's connecting with his own distant ancestors along the way.

But here we see Batman in the wild west (or wild east, depending on where Gotham City is located in the DC Universe), tracking down some murderous outlaws who have kidnapped a woman guarding a mysterious box and if it's opened it may mean the end of the world.

To which I can only say, "Wha--?"

Confusion aside, it's a pretty standard western yarn, with the good guy tracking the bad guys, looking for revenge. Oh, and there's a special guest star, too.

The art by George Jeanty and Walden Wong is solid though not spectacular - it only suffers in comparison to the other artists who've worked on this series, or the outstanding covers by Andy Kubert.

For the series so far this issue is the weakest effort, but it's still entertaining, and there are two more issues for the creative team to make sense of it all.

Here's hoping.

Grade: B+