Last week DC Comics made the announcement that beginning April 2010 comic scribe Grant Morrison will launch a six issues series heralding the return of Bruce Wayne. That’s right folks, Bruce Wayne will return after barely two years being dead and this time he’s going to be battling the elements of time itself. The aptly titled Batman: The Return Of Bruce Wayne will feature the original bearer of the cowl jumping through the time stream trying to reclaim his rightful place and his memory. We’ll get to see various incarnations of Batman including pirate, caveman, cowboy and others as the caped crusader jumps into these identities to battle his way home.
Um, okay?
When I first heard this announcement I was interested in the concept but as more details emerged and I really thought about it the whole thing began to bother me. Is the world really ready for the Dark Knight to play out his own episode of Quantum Leap? I find it hard to believe that all of the creative minds at DC couldn’t come up with anything better than Pirate Batman.
There’s also the effect this will have on the next few months of Batman titles and all that’s gone on post Bruce Wayne, not to mention how anticlimactic this idea feels. Plus, how smart is it to let the man who ruined Batman RIP (in my opinion) back into the fold to screw up Bruce Wayne’s return. Morrison says this will not only shake up the Batman Universe but also bring into focus a “definitive Batman epic” he’s been writing since 2005. None of which fills me with confidence about the return of Bruce Wayne.
I’ll be the first to admit that I balked at all the changes in the Batman Universe when Bruce Wayne was originally shot by Darkseid. I’ll also be the first to admit I was wrong and that the current storylines are some of the most interesting work in the world of Batman since the early nineties. Even with my big thumbs up on Dick Grayson as Batman I stand by the fact that Morrison and his need to try and prove he’s the new Alan Moore led to Batman RIP and Final Crisis being a convoluted waste. Morrison tried to create a Batman story with the same type of intricacies Watchmen had but without Moore’s focus.
Now Morrison is stitching together a complex time travel story for Bruce Wayne’s return that I will lay dollars to donuts will be another Morrison mess. I applaud Morrison’s need to bring a higher level of thought and ideas to comic books but the man should also learn when to stop laying it on so thick. I like the idea of Bruce Wayne having to use his wits and training to overcome the odds his “death” has placed him in but dressed up in funny outfits? Morrison relies to much on the science fiction stories from the 50s Batman, ideas that have been out of date since Neil Adams and Deny O’Neil reinvented the Dark Knight in the seventies.
I’m also puzzled at the timing of this entire idea. The build up to the death of Bruce Wayne went on for almost a year and that’s just with Batman RIP and Final Crisis. If you include the Black Glove and "3 Ghosts Of Batman" storyline we’re looking at three years or more to lead up to the death. Then there was a two part series written by Neil Gaimen where Bruce walked into the light and a whole series of stories where the surviving heroes dealt with the loss. The passing of Bruce Wayne was given serious weight, way more than even the death of Superman or the loss of Barry Allan’s Flash. This was a hero who had no super powers, somebody that could actually be killed and here he was, dead for the entire world to see.
With that kind of build up and execution it seems ridiculous to bring Bruce Wayne back so suddenly. Doing this and doing it in such a silly sci-fi fashion almost totally negates the levity of the death, as if it wasn’t a comic book milestone but simply a plot device used to get Morrison to his next series. Isn’t that more what Marvel Comics is about? I always thought DC had more respect for their characters than that. Why create such an extensive and emotional sequence of events when the plan was to bring Bruce Wayne back after what feels more like a leave of absence than a death?
Another aspect that disturbs me is this claim by Morrison that Batman: The Return Of Bruce Wayne somehow feeds into a “definitive Batman epic”. Put simply Morrison’s ego is out of control. I have full respect for the man but after the debacle that was Batman RIP and the total misfire of Final Crisis you’d think he would learn. Comic book fans love the Dark Knight because we can relate to him on a level we can’t with the other heroes.
Bruce Wayne was just a man, who had to be smarter, faster and better than his adversaries because he couldn’t use super powers to fix the damage once it was done. Batman had to solve the problem before it happened and that was the magic. When you take that away in order to sci-fi Batman out, it kills part of what makes Bruce so special as a hero. Batman jumping through time appearing as a pirate, a caveman, a cowboy and so on just isn’t what the caped crusader is all about.
It also seems odd to me that something as important as the death of Bruce Wayne is just a cog in some epic story that Morrison has decided the Batman Universe needs. If Morrison has been building this since 2005 shouldn’t it end with the death of Bruce Wayne? With Morrison’s penchant for overloading his writing and confusing the focus of an epic that doesn’t play out for probably another few years might tangle the Batman Universe in knots it won’t be able to untie. I’m not against some kind of epic story arc that will shake up the Dark Knight’s world, I’m against Morrison’s self indulgent muddled writing being behind it.
Which brings me to Dick Grayson, Tim Drake and Damien. Forgetting all the build up to Bruce Wayne’s death, DC Comics also invested a lot into making Dick Grayson the new Batman. The Battle For The Cowl series was a huge battle that finally pushed Dick to step up and become the hero he knew he could be. That was a huge move for DC Comics as was the step to oust Tim Drake as Robin and replace him with Bruce’s son Damien. The writers have really done a spectacular job of allowing Dick to grow into his new role as Batman as well establishing the uneasy relationship between him and Damien. With that dynamic really starting to blossom why suddenly end it? It seems like such a waste of great story fodder.
Then there’s Tim Drake who was handed his own title (Red Robin) in order to discover if Bruce Wayne was alive. While Tim has made some progress in that regards he’s spent most of his series battling Ra's al Ghul and the League Of Assassins. With only four months between now and the start of The Return Of Bruce Wayne where does that leave the Red Robin title once Bruce returns? I’m not saying what will happen to Tim Drake once Bruce returns isn’t an interesting story arc, but now it feels very rushed especially with so much that could’ve been done. Tim figuring out Bruce is alive and helping to find him, mending fences with Dick and fighting along side the new Batman, even the eventual fight between him and Damien. This is all stuff that could be explored but now has to be put on the back burner due to Bruce’s sudden return.
So much is unresolved in the Batman Universe that now just seems like an inopportune time to return Bruce to his rightful glory. We haven’t seen the Joker or what his reaction will be to the new Batman. There’s the entire story of the new Black Mask not to mention Hush masquerading as Bruce Wayne and of course Batwoman parading around within the pages of Detective Comics. Add to that the new Batman & Robin title as well as Batman: Streets Of Gotham and it becomes a real puzzle as to why when so much is just getting settled DC would start gumming up the works. It feels wrong, like the ending of a movie that comes out of the blue and leaves you feeling cheated.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for Bruce Wayne coming back, just not now. After a fairly rocky start the death of Bruce Wayne has allowed a new creative freedom within the world of Batman and it’s playing out like gangbusters. Dick is a new kind of Batman, a master detective and warrior who isn’t quite as crazy. However, will he need that Bruce Wayne inspired lunacy at some point in the future? Will Damien become the new Tim Drake or the new Jason Todd? Will Tim Drake remain Red Robin or return to demand his place as Robin? Could either Tim or Damien turn criminal? How will they deal with Hush? What’s Batwoman and Batgirl’s place in all of this? The list goes on and on.
These are all questions that need to be answered before Bruce Wayne returns. DC needs to allow the Batman Universe to settle, to let people become invested in the characters and their lives now before introducing the element of Bruce Wayne being alive. Some will argue that Superman wasn’t dead long before being brought back but if you really examine The Death Of Superman it didn’t have the same gravitas. It read like just another Superman story where the death of Bruce Wayne had much more depth. I’m not saying keep Bruce out of the game as long as Barry Allen but to bring him back now does a severe injustice to the other characters within the world of the Dark Knight.
I suppose this could all come down to dollars and cents, having nothing to do with plot, story or what’s best for the Batman Universe. I’ve been so wrapped up in the actual telling of the stories it never occurred to me that maybe these incredibly well written Batman titles just aren’t selling. If that’s the case, if the world has largely turned their back on the Dick Grayson era then it doesn’t matter how good the stories are, Bruce Wayne is on his way back. The more I look at it, the more it seems this is what’s going on because nothing else makes sense.
With all the build up, all the execution, all the care and love that went into Bruce Wayne’s death and the new life Batman has now, this Return Of Bruce Wayne seems like it’s being ushered in faster than it needs to be. Mix with that how silly the basis for Morrison’s mini-series seems and it looks like DC is preparing to make a serious blunder in regards to one of its most beloved characters. Fans were very forgiving about the clumsy way Batman RIP and Final Crisis were handled; does DC really want to test our patients with yet another Morrison ego rub? If they’re not careful Batman could end up being the Spider-Man of DC Comics.
Like I said, there’s gonna be trouble.
