Subcultural engagement for the 21st Century...
Barbelith is a new kind of community (find out more)...
You can login or register.

Underground > Comic Books >

The Death of Bruce Wayne, Summer 2008.

Glenn Close But No Cigar

11:02 / 07.11.07

This week's Lying in the Gutters reports that In June/July, DC are killing off Batman. Or rather, Bruce Wayne. Robin will inherit the Batman cowl. One of the Robins anyway. Tim Drake. Jason Todd. Or possibly Red Hood. Hey, maybe Jean-Paul Valley, it has been ten years since Azrael. Either way, the book will relaunch with a nice shiny #1.

Time to speculate on:

1) How (and by who's hand) Bruce Wayne will meet his end
2) Who will be the new 'goddamned Batman'
3) When Bruce Wayne will make the inevitable return from the dead
4) Whether this will happen on Grant Morrison's watch, or whether we should imagine his Batman run as a kind of analogue to Moore's 'Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow', which is to say a last, joyful hurrah before an new era is ushered in?
5) Whether this is a response to Marvel's offing of Steve Rogers in 'Captain America'
6) Whether it is wise to bump Brucie off in the comics when he will be very much alive in the July 2008-released movie 'The Dark Knight'.
7) Whether we really have to go through this whole major-comics-property-dies-oh-no-they-didnt! rigamarole again
8) Just how much 'Krakt!' will be involved

11:11 / 07.11.07

My thoughts:

1) He won't.
2) No-one.
3) He won't have to.
4)No it won't.
5) It's not.
6)It isn't so they won't.
7)We don't.
8) None.

Glenn Close But No Cigar

11:21 / 07.11.07

Why so sceptical, Johnny?

11:30 / 07.11.07

I have secret insider information. Even more secreter and insiderer than Rich Johnston. He's not an insider, man. He's just in the lobby eating the sugared almonds. I'm in the hot tub with Dan Didio. With a waterproof laptop.

13:01 / 07.11.07

Krakt! goes the Bat-back.

Hah! goes the Joker, before breaking down into tears.

What about me! goes Batwoman, until distracted by Jason Todd and Jean-Paul Valley running off together as the new gay couple of the Bat-verse.

I'm the goddammed Batman! goes Batsy's newly-continuitied son.

Splash! goes the broke-back Bat into ye olde Lazarus Pit.

I'm the goddammed Batman! And don't swear, son. goes the real goddammed Batman.

Wuh? goes The Question.

Glenn Close But No Cigar

13:30 / 07.11.07

broke-back Bat ?

Not according to Robin.

13:45 / 07.11.07

One of the rumors I caught around the blogdome is that Morrison would update all The Big Heroes to the 5th world, leaving one of the Robins to be Batman etc. Batman, WW, Sups would be new gods or something like that.

Extremely unlikely, I agree.

Phex: Dorset Doom

14:17 / 07.11.07

Well Tim's too young and Jason's too evil, so that leaves us with Dick, who's already worn the cowl and after a lacklustre few years could really do with a shot in the arm. That is, if the DCU as we know it is even around following Final Crisis- it could be Bruce Wayne goes out in a blaze of bat-glory in the second-from-last Final Crisis book, then it's back to Bruce Wayne when the whole universe reboots.

The Natural Way

14:57 / 07.11.07

Well, according to Batman 666 it'll be Damian.

Our Lady Has Left the Building

04:59 / 08.11.07

Yeah. I suspect Batman will die of exhaustion fighting a new villain out of jail, we'll have a ten part story tussling over his corpse, Alfred will have a heart attack and, in his dream, persuade Bruce not to go to heaven. Then we'll have four Batmen, Hal will go bonkers again (yay!) and Bruce will return.

I'm more pissed off over the whole Batwoman affair.

07:05 / 08.11.07

Then we'll have four Batmen

I knew there was a reason for all of that "Three Ghosts of Batman" silliness Mozzeldun was writing.

I'm more pissed off over the whole Batwoman affair.

You're not alone there.

09:21 / 08.11.07

I'm more pissed off over the whole Batwoman affair.

You're not alone there.

So, there's been one and a half issues of one Batwoman book written and drawn, and now there's another four issues completed by an entirely different creative team, and not any of it's coming out within the next half year? Did I miss an interim try, or is my count accurate?

The undead clone of Alan Moore's ghost is going to be able to legally fit Batwoman into a League follow-up before there's an actual Batwoman title on the shelves.

Phex: Dorset Doom

09:46 / 08.11.07

And all because of 'negative press attention'. That is, the mainstream press pointing out that Batwoman is a lesbian. Because nothing hurts sales more than attractive lesbians.

11:04 / 08.11.07

All this Batwoman talk is off topic, but it does seem rather comment worthy.

I may be wrong but I would've thought most comics featuring Batwoman find their way into the hands of greying grownups rather than oh-my-God-the-children, which points to a rather strange situation where DC are being influenced by public misperception rather than market reality.

Perhaps we need to get a thread.

23:54 / 08.11.07

i don't think this dying thing will happen simply because it would coincide with the new movie. and just now that Bruce was enjoying a second playboy moment in his life.

a new #1? fine, always a good selling point. but no Bruce Wayne? i don't think so... as Batman is Master of Timing.

00:55 / 09.11.07

Reading a Morrison's JLA issue, Metron was saying the time of those Gods were soon to pass and that he found the planet that craddle the new ones (you assume he was talking of the League). Considering Morrison has a hand on the company's editorial direction, and seeing the death of the New Gods (and how that plot feels kinda "editorial mandate for redesign DC and next 'mega-evens'"), it seems more and more to me that Valerie D'Orazio's ("Occasional Superheroine") theory that they're stepping up (and "leaving their post to x") could be what's going on and what we might be seeing in Final Crisis.

But at the same time, feels totally off. Batman as a God? People still mostly like him for the way his manly boots scrapes on asphalts of dark dirty (nasty!) alleys behind dirty (nasty!) bad boys, it's more likely for All Star Batman's Bruce to become official than something cosmic scifi. Someone to take his post? Death? Gone missing or any variation of that? During film period? Very unlikely. They even re-made the joker's past to fit the scars in his mouth.

05:40 / 09.11.07

Does seem like a silly idea. If they do it, I'm wondering if it would be in the pages of Final Crisis, death-of-Supergirl style, or as a separate event, with multiple spin-off mini-series? The promo image for Final Crisis over on the FC wikipedia page features the text: "Heroes Die. Legends Live Forever."

Morrison does touch on death, resurrection, and Nanda Parbat in the current Batman, however it's all in the context of Ra's al Ghul.

09:14 / 09.11.07

it's more likely for All Star Batman's Bruce to become official than something cosmic scifi

You think there's any chance of ASS Bats becoming official DCU continuity? I sure don't.

09:38 / 09.11.07

I don't know, I feel more and more that behind every "its maniac crazy fucked-up energy" comment I see on a blog, each time is a little bit less without any sense of irony or any sort of distancing, and little by little with a more straight face or using the "fucked up raving mad" almost as a new version of the "it's satire!" that ASS Bat would get. Instead of "Miller=crazy=creepy=DoNotWant", I sense smells of "Miller=crazy=cool=wild".

I think I get that mostly after seeing some forums (mostly portuguese ones) where people think Watchmen, Dark Knight, Sin City and 300 are TOTALLY PROOFZ DAT COMIX R LITERATURAL, SIRIUZ N STUFF.

It's absurd, yes. But I do feel people would go for that far more easily than a cosmic big mega BatGod thingy (or any scifi closet Bats).

11:21 / 09.11.07

Well, I'm not sure it's an either/or situation, but even if it was Miller's take is all about Miller, it's not really a replicable product. And, well, if you're going to take the millerisms out of the equation and just crib the continuity, what's the fucking point?

I dunno, I'm really not sure where to begin with this idea, zip, it just seems completely wrongheaded to me for all kinds of reasons.

11:40 / 09.11.07

Well yeah I can't see it happening, but I could see it easier than Cosmic/scifi Bat or dead-during-movie-months. As absurd as it sounds, it seems less absurd.

11:51 / 09.11.07

Ah, right, I see.

I don't know that bat-god is so unlikely, given that whoever takes up the mantle subsequently is likely to be all about the dirt and the grime and the street.