Grant Morrison’s run on Batman and Robin might be one of the most exciting things I’ve read all decade in any format. The inversions of the Batman type are obvious: A Batman who is learning and a Robin who thinks he’s learned everything, a Batman who has some distance from himself and a Robin, who when waking up from being kidnapped says “So, whose neck do I break first?”

A few quick sentences of catch-up might be useful. Bruce Wayne disappeared (after popping a super-powered cap in Darkseid), and his protege, Nightwing, has taken over the mantle of Batman. Robin – not believing that Bruce Wayne is really dead – is off to find clues to Bruce’s location; and Bruce Wayne’s precocious test-tube baby, raised by the League Of Assassins, is the new Robin.

Confused? Good.

Batman and Robin #4 re-introduces the merry-go-round of anti-criminal vigilantism by people not authorized by Batman to the Batman universe. This time, it’s Red Hood and Scarlet (an almost victim of brainwashing by Professor Pyg) who team up to murder criminals before Batman and Robin can arrest them.

Alright, you say. Murderous vigilantism is pretty well explored ground in Batman, that being one of the central themes of the setting. What’s new?

What’s new is that Red Hood and Scarlet are doing what anyone wearing the Batman cowl never did, which is public relations. They have Twitter accounts. They’re uploading videos to YouTube. They’re working on a press release.

And here’s the thing: This isn’t a gimmick or a lame attempt to keep an iconic character “current.” What’s special about this is that Mr. Morrison isn’t simply taking Batman into the 21st century kicking and screaming, but instead challenging the implicit assumption of readers that you’d like and support Batman if you were in Gotham City.

To the public, Batman is a vigilante of few words, absolute focus and an aversion to public reflection. Inside of Gotham City you can count on one hand the people that have ever heard Batman talk about himself, James Gordon included. He beats up some thugs, leaving them strewn over the city tied upside down for the police to find and disappears. Batman is unreachable except by Bat Signal.

Batman doesn’t have a tip line, an email address or cell phone number. Not to belabor the point, but in the time it’s taken you to read this far in the review, how many people have you instant messaged or texted? Would you trust a “hero” that only came out at night, committed the equivalent of police brutality as routinely as shaving (if not more often) and was unaccountable to any human institution?

(I’ll note here that the Justice League is an alien institution. Green Lantern, Batman and Flash are the only humans in there, Superman and the Martian Manhunter are illegal aliens, Wonder Woman is an Amazonian goddess and Hawkgirl is from Thamascara. And even then, Batman’s just a part-timer.)

Morrison’s keeping readers honest.  I’m used to having the view of the players in public and in private (Ed Brubaker’s excellent Gotham Central notwithstanding), of course whichever iteration of Batman has my support. But what if you didn’t? Red Hood and Scarlet are offering the public what they want in terms of superheroes. Flashiness, a feel good ethical code and communication. That’s the juxtaposition you can do quite a bit with as an author.

That’s the direction I see the comic going in.

The story isn’t that Dick Grayson and Damian Wayne are inheriting different costumes, but an entirely different Gotham City and they’re learning as much about that as they are about each other.

(We can talk about Marvel eventually.)