THE DAY BATMAN DIED

I'm perfectly willing to admit that this has nothing to do with movies, but seeing how The Dark Knight seems to be the movie of 2008, this may be of some interest to movie fans.

While Batman fans are still having high hopes for the movie to get awards recognition, the character faced his last case—for now, this is comics, after all—within the pages of DC Comics.

That's right, today saw DC's latest mega-event Final Crisis release its issue #6 on book stands. This penultimate issue finally depicts the Caped Crusader's much-hyped death.

Just as The Dark Knight's marketing was at its peak, DC announced that fans would see the end of Bruce Wayne as Batman in a storyline called Batman R.I.P. Many accused the story of being a gimmick to draw in the Dark Knight crowd, speculating that DC wouldn't actually kill Batman. When asked about it in interviews, writer Grant Morrison claimed that he wasn't interested in killing characters—he prefers having them suffer a fate worse than death. Worse than death? Fans and publications alike speculated that the "R.I.P." is metaphorical; that Bruce Wayne would simply quit being Batman and leave the cowl for others to take on. Morrison hinted at this strongly by stating that Final Crisis would take place after Batman R.I.P. and it would be left ambiguous as to who the Batman shown in Final Crisis really is.

So what ended up happening in Batman R.I.P.? An organization called The Black Glove, who knew Batman's real identity, tried to thoroughly destroy Bruce Wayne's life. They drugged him, drove him crazy, beat up Alfred, destroyed the Batcave, and falsified a sex scandal involving Bruce's parents. Worse, the Black Glove's leader claimed to be a still-alive Thomas Wayne who arranged for his wife to be murdered and faked his death. Oh, and Bruce's lover turned out to be a part of the Black Glove. All this appeared to be the "fate worse than death" Morrison was talking about.

Except, in R.I.P's final issue, it was revealed that Batman had deduced this all along, worked out a plan, beat the Black Glove, and came out more or less unscathed, business as usual. Then he moved on to Final Crisis. So was all that talk just media misdirection, then? Or was there a last-minute change of plans on DC's part? In the end, Batman R.I.P. had almost nothing to do with Batman's death.

In Final Crisis #6, Batman goes mano-a-mano with ultimate baddie Darkseid. He takes down the villain, but not before Darkseid let out a final attack that confirms how Batman's death is in fact quite literal, as seen in the issue's final page:

Death scene posted here.

Over at Marvel, writer Ed Brubaker had successfully turned the death of Captain America—what was originally thought to be a silly publicity stunt—into a compelling storyline, the book going on 2 years without the title character in it before Cap's former sidekick Bucky finally took on the mantle as the new Captain America. While there is little doubt that the original, Steve Rogers, will someday return, it looks like Marvel's doing just fine without him.

DC is planning to do the same thing with Batman: an upcoming storyline called "Battle for the Cowl" will see someone else become the new Batman. Will it be Nightwing? Robin? Someone else? Who knows.

The real question is, will the fans accept a Batman other than Bruce Wayne?