The Death of Batman (?!?!?)

[Rorschach II]

Author: Chris Clow
Thursday, August 29, 2007
They'd never do it. He's one of the "Big Three" -- perhaps THE biggest.
He's their biggest seller.
He transcends the medium of comics and the genre of the superhero.
They'd never do it…
…would they?
If any event could shake the foundation of the comics industry as we know it, that event would be the downfall of The Dark Knight.
The demise of the World's Greatest Detective.
The death of Batman.
There are rumblings that FINAL CRISIS, written by current Batman scribe Grant Morrison, will feature Batman's ultimate demise. "But they'd never do it! That'd be stupid!"
Well, luckily for all of you, I'm a huge nerd. If you don't read a book in the DCU, chances are that I do. And the sad fact is that many books, including BATMAN itself, have hinted at the death of The Dark Knight.

Let's work backwards from the most recent one, shall we? In this regard, the first omen was BATMAN #666. If you read Batman comics, then I'm sure you're familiar with this issue. It was set in the future, where Batman's son Damian has taken up his father's mantle. Take a close look at the first few pages that detail this Batman's origin. If you'll notice Damian mourning over his dead father's bloodied body, you'll see that he's wearing a very similar Robin variant costume that he wore at the end of the penultimate issue of BATMAN AND SON. You know, after he trashed Tim Drake in the Batcave?
Going off of this, we can infer that due to Damian's age, which is not too far off from where he is right now, that in this version, Batman's death is in the near future. I didn't see an "Elseworlds" tag at the beginning of this issue, did you? That's what scares me.
The next most recent one would be the ALL FLASH #1 special, which heralded the return of Wally West into the mantle of The Scarlet Speedster. At the very end, it gives a preview of what the future holds in The Flash's world, and one of his children has one of the Flash costume rings in his hands. But when he activates it, a Flash costume doesn't come out: a Batman costume does.
Another prospect vying for the Mantle of the Bat?
Then of course, if you can remember back, there was a story in TEEN TITANS called "Titans Tomorrow." It took place in a future ten years from now, where the Teen Titans got to meet future versions of themselves. Tim Drake had since taken up the mantle of the Bat and replaced the destroyed remains of Arkham Asylum with a graveyard containing all of the regular Batman rogues. Tim as Batman had become brutal. A sadist. A murderer. And when the subject came up of how he turned this way, Batman-Tim said to Robin-Tim, "You don't understand yet. So many heroes fell during it all. During the Crisis." Infinite Crisis already happened, and there's a Final one still on the horizon. Could the Crisis that the future Batman is referring to be the one that hits shelves next May?
And, the final one (which may be the biggest) was in [COLOR=lightsteelblue ! important][COLOR=lightsteelblue ! important]JUSTICE [COLOR=lightsteelblue ! important]LEAGUE[/COLOR][/COLOR][/COLOR] OF AMERICA #0. This issue jumped around time freely, and one scene settled above Crime Alley in Gotham City. Superman was sitting there, in his current costume, and was joined by [COLOR=lightsteelblue ! important][COLOR=lightsteelblue ! important]Wonder [COLOR=lightsteelblue ! important]Woman[/COLOR][/COLOR][/COLOR], also in her current costume. "How'd he go down?" The Amazon asked the Man of Steel. "Fighting." He said. Wonder Woman then smiled.
Am I being like one of those damned Wikipedia editors and digging way too deep at something that isn't there? Maybe.
And in this case, I hope so.
JETT'S TAKE: If DC kills off the Bruce Wayne Batman, I will NEVER buy another comic book from that company again.

Chris Clow is a student at Whatcom Community College where he is studying film, and is also an actor/writer for a

Discuss.

 

[Eros]

they killed superman, killing batman would be no surprise.

 

[Spike_x1]

Screw that.

 

[SouLeSS]

Doesn't matter, he'd be back within two years.

 

[sandwraith]

God I hope not. Its been majorly hinted in books like Countdown (the Last Supper analogue) but I don't want it to happen. He's like the only human hero on the DC roster who hasn't died even once nor has he ever gone rogue.

yeah he has had his emo periods like when he created Brother Eye and the Tower of Babel contingencies but ***k, after Identity Crisis, those actions were justified. Honestly, writers think they can make big money by seeing Batman victimized. People don't buy Batman to see who will take on the Mantle of the Bat. Everyone knows that there is only ONE BATMAN and we read Batman and Detective to see him beat insurmountable odds to see justice done. A Catwoman/Poison Ivy/Talia fling is nice once in a while but when I read Batman I want to see him beat the bad guys and protect the people, not plotting to stab his fellow Superheroes in the back or dishing out 'Hard Justice' like Damian (Punk) and Jason (even bigger ***** punk).

Just for the record, I hated #666. Pointless, Damian glorifying issue.

 

[Paradoxium]

Superboy Prime's punch will run through the ripples of time and retcon this inevitably

 

[DoomJester]

I've heard similar rumors, but I highly doubt that they'd kill Batman... Grant really enjoys Batman, and the thing from JLA 0 was actually referring to DKR, as Meltzer considers DKR cannon. Batman 666 seems a bit out of place because Morrison had planned for that to be part of a story line that he planned to do-- Batman was supposed to be having a dream about Damien, and there would've been other dreams he had as well, all relating to the Black Case Book and the shooting of the Joker when the arc first began, but something happened and that got shot to hell. Now we get a crossover event.

But honestly, if Batman were to die, I'd have no reason to read any new DC comics. Not to punish DC, but because I really don't read DC for anything else but Batman.

 

[Roughneck]

Who would take over?

Dick, Jason or Tim?

Dick wouldn't want to.....Tim is still too young.....Jason Todd becomes the Bat

 

[Rorschach II]

Who would take over?

Dick, Jason or Tim?

Dick wouldn't want to.....Tim is still too young.....Jason Todd becomes the Bat

Jason was/is a supervillain for ****'s sake, he can't be Batman. Tim has the brains but not the brawn, and he and Damian are both way too young.

Dick probably wouldn't WANT to become Batman, but would definitely feel obligated to. He did it in Prodigal practically as a favor to Bruce when he was alive and well, why wouldn't he do it to keep Bruce's mission alive?

 

[BrianWilly]

...You guys know that you are getting worked up over completely baseless speculation from a random blogger or something written almost two months ago, right? The guy even says outright on the site that it's just an opinion piece.

 

[Harlekin]

Anyone who actually takes Batman #666 as reference material is high on crack.

 

[Mladen]

Hopefully Superboy will punch something and make everything all right.

 

[Kenda Man]

I heard a dip in the Lazarus Pit can do wonders for a dead Bruce Wayne.

 

[Darthphere]

Anyone who actually takes Batman #666 as reference material is high on crack.

It's fitting since Morrison is, high on crack.

 

[Doc Destruction]

Jason won't - he's about to become Red Robin anyway.

 

[Doc Destruction]

It's fitting since Morrison is, high on crack.

point - Darth.

 

[yenaled]

A Batman is going to die rumour...

Is it that time again already?

 

[DoomJester]

Anyone who actually takes Batman #666 as reference material is high on crack.

I enjoyed the story, people have always played around with Batman being an apparently dark character, Morrison made him a truly dark character.

But like I said before, this was supposed to be some sort of transcendent dream Batman was having that would revolve around the Black Case book. There was supposed to be a "past" and a "present" issue as well revolving similarly strange fantasies about Batman. Unfortunately, we only got that issue so it seems wildly out of place; but it was probably the best issue of Morrison's run.

 

[Miss Webb]

It's fitting since Morrison is, high on crack.

Well, his stories are certainly all over the place. I think some people are just trying to 'test it out' and see how it feels to kill the Bat. But everyone knows it wouldn't stick. You could do a what if, or alternate universe thing (which already has Jason as the Bat anyway). But its been done.

Course, you could always have Bats and Ras battle and fall into a Lazarus pit together. That would be a heck of a storyline.

 

[Fledermaus]

Course, you could always have Bats and Ras battle and fall into a Lazarus pit together. That would be a heck of a storyline.

That's been done too.

Here's the bottom line, IMO. DC isn't going to kill Batman anytime soon. They have the start of a very successful Batman film franchise. It would be the height of stupidity to kill Batman now. That's not to say that DC doesn't make stupid moves, but they do like money.

 

[Arkady Rossovich]

That makes sence.Even if there was no films,the very idea of Batman being dead would anger fans.I could imagine a boycot.

 

[Red]

Will this happen before or after Wonder Woman comes out of the closet?

 

[SouLeSS]

That makes sence.Even if there was no films,the very idea of Batman being dead would anger fans.I could imagine a boycot.

Yeah, because that's exactly what happened with Superman dying.

You know. "The Death Of Superman", the greatest selling TBP of all time?

You guys wouldn't boycot and you know it. You'd buy every issue and be amazed at it, but then you'd gripe and moan and ***** about every little mundane detail, and not enjoy it overall for what it is.

It's like Civil War, or Sinestro Corps. Sure theres a lot of stupid **** in there, and mischaracterizations, and stuff that appears out of the blue as a duex ex machina, but they're still damned good stories.

The same can be said if there was a run where Batman died.

It could be one of the best Batman stories ever told. All his Rogues get fed up with constantly being beaten, so they all make a group, and start targeting other heroes. Like Freeze, Bane, and Joker go after Nightwing and capture him, another couple go after Robin, then they call out Batman, during which they brutally torture Dick/Tim and it should show it. Like it should literally show Dick being all tied up and his face all bruised and bloody and he's saying on camera "Batman, you know it's a trap, blah blah blah" then Joker comes up on him, slaps him across the face, tells him to shut up, and breaks his arm right on the spot. Then you know, Batman comes in and tries to save the day, and eventually does, but gets killed in the process.

Seriously, tell me you wouldn't read that if you're already reading DC and you'd "boycott DC forever" with a straight and honest face. And you know what else? It would boost their sales tremendously. Look at Captain America. No one thought he would EVER be killed a few years ago, then Civil War, and his #25 issue sold like crazy, and this following arc is, according to most "The best story being told by Marvel, almost the best story being told out of both Marvel/DC right now" and definatly one of the best "Captain America" stories ever.

/rant

 

[Anubis]

God I hope not. Its been majorly hinted in books like Countdown (the Last Supper analogue) but I don't want it to happen. He's like the only human hero on the DC roster who hasn't died even once nor has he ever gone rogue.

He died twice. Earth 2 Bat's died,(which would be Golden Age Bats) and the current Batman died along with the rest of the JLA in Obsidian Age.

 

[sethcohen]

id rather see bruce age and retire to and advisory role, but im all for a legacy batman (that would make sense, unlike batzrael), such as dick or tim... no damien... no terry mcguiness... but if they kill him off and go in that route and he stays dead i wouldnt be upset...