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Whenever I last posted, we were discussing the events of Batman R.I.P. and how they were affecting mainstream Batman continuity and so forth. However, things have become a lot more interesting since I stopped posting two months ago for whatever reason, and I learned that there are a number of new books out that require my attention. So, I’ll continue what I was talking about– including the whole of Battle for the Cowl– and to make it nice, I’ll even briefly summarize a few of the new books that have been published since the end of that. Including, but not limited to, the main Batman book, Detective Comics, and Morrison’s new piece– Batman and Robin.

Where I last left was that Batman has just freed himself from Darkseid’s captivity and decides to haul ass to do what he can to be awesome stop the Crisis from going any further.

Final Crisis and the Death of Batman

But, as I said, he is freed, and he does what he has to do. He has to stop all of this. This goes back into Final Crisis, where Batman’s last adventure– as the book says– take place. Batman dies. We know he does, so to speak. The man named Bruce Wayne does not exist in this timeline anymore.

How he dies, however, is a bit of debate in the eyes of most people. After freeing himself, he finds Darkseid, and informs him that, prior to being captured by them all he managed to reverse engineer the bullet that Darkseid created to kill Orion. And he’s going to use it him Darkseid.

And he does.

Batman, in his very last action, shoots Darkseid with a bullet that can kill gods.

Batman. Shoots. Darkseid.

And he is hit with the Omega Sanction of Darkseid. Superman holds the husk that was the man we know as Bruce Wayne, the man called Batman, the Caped Crusader, the Dark Knight of Gotham. Such is the way he goes. It’s an amazing scene, the last panel of Final Crisis #6, seeing Bruce Wayne’s husk, costumed, held by a Superman who just pages before ripped through all the world with eyes that spewed fire and rage. Evil, perhaps, wouldn’t win.

But this isn’t about Final Crisis, this is about the fate of Bruce Wayne, isn’t it? That’s what this entire thing– what I’ve spent now over four pages talking about– is about what happens to Bruce Wayne and the repercussions of this throughout Gotham and the world.

Final Crisis #7 gives us an interesting note to see, but something that feels out of place, ruins it all a bit. At the beginning of time, we see a man, drawing the bat symbol on a rock. The man is Batman. He’s not dead… just at the beginning of time.

He might as well be dead. But Bruce Wayne is Batman, and Batman cannot die that easily.

But he is, however, gone from the world as we know it– as he knows it, and Gotham City must live on without a Batman that also resides in the body of the man named Bruce Wayne.

World Without A Batman

I’m going to talk very briefly here about what’s also called “Last Rites”. This being the Dennis O’Neil story that takes place after the events of the Final Crisis and R.I.P. and serves as a means to help connect everything that’s happened to what is going on with Gotham as a whole. Furthermore, this bridges the gap and brings us to Battle For The Cowl– which I will, obviously, be talking about later.

The story “Batman: Last Rites: The Last Days of Gotham” is a two-parter that deals, for the most part, with every other character in Gotham other than Bruce Wayne. Our main character starts off as Nightwing– The Boy Who Was Robin, etc. And he’s attempting, desperately, to hide from people like Jim Gordon the clear and obvious fact that Batman isn’t there anymore.

But it doesn’t start there. It starts with a woman on a stage being hassled by some men, just before the events of “Cataclysm” and “No Man’s Land” whenever Gotham is hit by a huge earthquake that generally makes things unpleasant for everyone for a surprisingly lengthy period of time. However, this woman on the stage escapes, and becomes “something else” as she puts it. We cut to a more recent time, the woman is wearing veils and the men from before learn she is called “The Face of Gotham” in the newspapers– an amusing notion, as the men work for Harvey Dent, the man known as Two-Face.

The woman ends up scarred.

Time flashes back to the present and she narrates the story of Nightwing coming along. All in all, these two stories are ultimately forgettable, and only really exist within the continuity as something you should read if you feel the need to have the entire story.

For the most part, the stories of Nightwing being solo within this World Without A Batman exist solely to remind everyone that Dick Grayson feels inadequate, and that he cannot really replace Bruce, which is what needs to be done. However, Batman is a force that has to exist to maintain balance within the city of Gotham.

Which is where Battle For The Cowl comes in.

Battle For The Cowl

The current pieces of the puzzle fall into place in two arcs: Battle For The Cowl and Batman Reborn. Battle For The Cowl tells us who will be the new Batman. There are a number of side stories, including one that introduces a new Azrael, one involving Oracle and Calculator, and a number of one-shots about various people within Gotham coming to an understanding that the man who was Batman isn’t there anymore.

The first of the Batmans who will be battling is an armored, rather Knightfall Batman combined with something that reminds me of the Third Batman from Morrison’s Batman #666. He’s a killer, unlike the others, and seems to view things in a much more morally polar way than Bruce or the others. He’s violent.

We also learn rather quickly that it’s Jason Todd, who was Robin, who was The Red Hood, who was Nightwing for a time. Todd, sadly, has never really come into his own as a character, leeching off of former identities and names that are not being used by people. But that’s partially the fault of the editorial staff, who thought it would be cool to bring him back from the dead to fuck with Bruce during “Hush” and, subsequently “Under The Hood”.

This incarnation of Batman, Batman-Todd, is essentially everything that Bruce wasn’t. He maintained fear in a manner very similar to how he ran things within Under The Hood. In that he blew shit up and took down everyone he could.

Tim Drake, shaken by everything, also decides to adopt a Batman uniform, actually using an older model looking more like the 70s costume as opposed to Todd’s custom costume.

Drake-Batman and Todd-Batman duke it out and Drake is left impaled and dying as Todd goes to get Dick Grayson and have him understand what must be done.

As this goes on, Grayson is left dealing, still, with the numerous problems that he’s got to deal with as Batman is gone. Including attempting to maintain order in the city when people like Black Mask (who was supposed to be dead) show up and start taking control of the Gotham underground crime. Grayson also attempts to enlist the help of the Outsiders, Catwoman, and a number of other people who have gone into the realm of legitimate business while things fall apart around them.

It should be noted, of course, that all through this time, The Joker hasn’t been seen.

Grayson and Todd-Batman end up fighting, starting off in Todd’s elaborate underground Bat-Cave where the cowl of Drake’s Batsuit is set up on some wood in a rather dramatic way. Drake, though, has escaped and is busy trying to make his way back to safety. Of course, he doesn’t make it right away, and ends up going through a bit of problems before he winds up managing to make out.

Grayson and Todd-Batman fight, trading the ideas that Todd has some issues with Batman and everything. Ultimately, Todd is knocked down into a chasm of sorts, but points out to Grayson that he isn’t going to die. Which leads me to wonder where he’s going.

Grayson, reluctantly, picks up the mantle. With Damien Wayne, he is The Batman, and Damien is his Robin.

Outside of this story, as I said, there are a number of other stories. However, they aren’t central to understanding THIS story by any means. The Oracle’s story deals mostly with Oracle attempting to determine what Calculator is doing with the Anti-Life Equation and why he’s killing various people in an attempt to harness it.

The Azrael story deals with, well, a new Azrael. Talia Al Ghul has some armor, and swords, and Azrael gets them in the end. Of the stories, while I still liked this one, I thought this was probably the weakest of the bunch.

There are also a bunch of one-shots dealing with things ranging from the criminals of the city attempting to distribute power in a way that only they can– violently– while at the same time every still tries to come to terms with Batman being gone… for a while.

The arc of “Battle for the Cowl” begins with two “Gotham Gazette” issues. One is subtitled “Batman Dead” and the other “Batman Alive”. Both involve Vicki Vale and her splendor as she tries to get information, meet up with Bruce, and so on. In the end, though, she manages to put a few things to together and it’s shown that she’s figured out that Tim is a Robin, now Red Robin, and that Dick and Damien are Batman and Robin.

It was a good enough arc to transition into the new Batman stories. I would have like something longer, and a little more fleshed out, though.

Batman Reborn

Batman Reborn is the name of the “Event” that is taking place within the Batman/Gotham City books. The books in continuity, that I’ve read and know are out, are as follows: Batman, Detective Comics, Streets of Gotham, Red Robin, Gotham City Sirens, The Outsiders, and Batman & Robin. Batman now officially has more books than The X-Men, I believe. And he’s dead. Sort of.

Because all of these books are either in the middle of new story arcs, or completely new books, I can’t actually summarize what’s going on. However, I’ll give a brief rundown of some of the things that these are entailing, in cause you decide to swallow your pride and read them.

Batman is no longer the main continuity book. It starts after Battle for the Cowl, but not entirely before Dick assumes the Batman title. It establishes the period of mourning just before the mantle is assumed, and the new base for Batman. At the end of the first issue of this return, though, Dick as assumed the mantle and the new status quo of sorts has been established.

Judd Winnick’s take on Grayson in this is certainly something I’ll be keeping an eye on. I thought he handled Jason Todd about as well as could be expected, considering the rather unfortunate creation of the story.

As this isn’t the main continuity though, some people make be wont to skip this for a general dislike of Winnick.

Detective Comics is now focused on Batwoman, the redhead from 52 that showed up and was in a relationship with Renee Montoya before she became the new Question. Each issue of Detective Comics now, it should be noted, also features a Question story, as a kind of double feature.

The art from it takes something to get used to, though it is something to behold, and is something that is both rather beautiful and haunting in the current arc. The artist seems fond of splash pages, and the surreal nature of the current arc (another Alice In Wonderland-themed character) makes it perfect.

I’ve always been partial to Detective Comics and I hope it stays high quality with this new character.

The Question side stories are kind of interesting. I’m curious to see where they’re going to take the new character, and I like some of the new additions they’ve made to her since 52. I haven’t really kept up with Montoya, though, so I’m not feeling like I should read more of her stuff.

Batman: Streets of Gotham follows the new Batman and Robin team on a level that is more “street”-oriented than that of the other relevant books, being told from a different angle of storytelling than the typical Batman books. As Batman is no longer the Genius Ninja Detective that he once was, it makes sense, I feel, to have the book set up in a way that best describes that.

This book, like Detective Comics, features an additional story. Only this one is of Manhunter. Who I’m unfamiliar with and generally uninterested in. You may like the story, but I’ve no interest in it and won’t likely keep up with it.

Red Robin deals with the story of Tim Drake, now calling himself Tim Wayne, out and about in places that aren’t America in an effort to both find himself and find evidence that Bruce Wayne is alive– something that he believes wholeheartedly.

I am utterly fascinated by this story. Seeing Tim willingly and knowingly separate himself from the rest of the Bat-Family, trying to find out who he is now that there’s a new Robin, and Batman, and everything else going on the world is something that I think will be very compelling for some time. Tim’s feeling of isolation has driven the current arc in the few issues that are out. The feeling that the Bat-Family has turned on him and so on, and he is completely alone.

Plus the use of “Red Robin” an homage to “Kingdom Come” is a nice touch.

Gotham City Sirens is a story about Poison Ivy, Harley Quinn, and Catwoman living together and having pillow fights try to figure out Batman’s identity while simultaneously dealing with Thomas Elliot still looking like Bruce Wayne in a time when Bruce is dead. Paul Dini seems to have a mancrush on Hush. I’ll reserve judgement on this book after this first arc with Bruce Hush is done, but right now there really isn’t a lot happening.

As far as The Outsiders goes… well… I never really read that to begin with, so I don’t think I’m qualified to talk about that one. If you read the book before Batman RIP, I assume it’s not going to be that much different.

Batman & Robin is the main continuation of the story, written by the Mad Genius Grant Morrison as a direct continuation of his run on Batman and the events of Final Crisis and so on. It deals entirely with the new team, but from what I read, it’s on a much less emotional level that the Winnick run on Batman. If you aren’t a fan of Morrison, I’d suggest leaving this out of your readings simply because you know you’ll hate it on principle.

There’s supposed to be a new Batgirl coming out soon, in addition to an Azrael book. However, they weren’t out while I was writing this, so I couldn’t really give my first impressions of them.

Conclusion

Batman is dead. But not really. Bruce is going through the Omega Sanction and dealing with that while everyone tries to adjust to a new world. It’s an interesting collection of stories so far, some weaker than others, but that’s how it goes. At the same time, I’m genuinely curious to see how long this is going to last, and I can only hope that Bruce’s eventual resurrection doesn’t undermine the number of stories that have come out recently, and will continue to come out in time.

Ultimately, it’s up to you to decide if you want to boycott DC or whatever, but I think you should at least give these things a try, since it’s significantly more interesting, thus far, than both Knightfall and the Death and Return of Superman.