More On the Rumor About Batman’s Death

Final Crisis tease poster. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In the latest Lying in the Gutters, Rich Johnston gives us some more information on the dirty dirty lies about the impending death of Batman:

Last week’s rumour about Batman kicking the Batbucket to be replaced by a sidekick is kicking up steam. As Valerie D’Orazio picks up on, the original plan was for all the main DC icons to die and be elevated to the status of New Gods as part of the Fifth World, their sidekicks filling the roles they left behind.

However, that plan was abandoned internally at DC and reduced to a Bat-storyline by Grant Morrison. So look for Bruce Wayne New God to go head-to-head with Darkseid in “Final Crisis.”

I’ve said privately that I’d almost be okay with them killing off my absolute favorite comics character EVAR if they did it with a good enough story. But, Captain America being the exception that proves this rule, when does a story featuring the death of a major, iconic character ever do that character justice?

In the defense of the writers who have written these stories, how in the hell do you do justice to the death of a character who has that much history and is pretty much a pillar of their universe? I’m not sure you can. Even the way Cap died didn’t really do him justice, although the story was damn good.

So yeah, I don’t think a story can be written that would be good enough to justify killing Batman and thus I oppose it. While making Bruce Wayne a New God in the Fifth World may seem like it’s giving Bats mad props, it takes Batman out of the element that makes him who he is and thus is a terrible idea to me. Besides, who would really want Batman as a god? That’s some scary shit.

That said, I’m starting to think Bruce Wayne may die in the final lead-up to or during Final Crisis and the resulting reboot to the universe will bring him back. I can imagine and accept that, even if I’m sick of Crises in the DCU and think the concept is completely played out.