Batman R.I.P.

"Batman R.I.P." is a comic book story arc published in Batman #676-681 by DC Comics. Written by Grant Morrison, penciled by Tony Daniel, and with covers by Alex Ross, the story pits the superhero Batman against the Black Glove organization as they attempt to destroy everything for which he stands. It has a number of tie-ins in other DC Comics titles describing events not told in the main story.

Outline

Discussing the genesis of the storyline and its linkage to the rest of his run, Morrison notes that:

I can tell you this much â€" this is the first story I had planned when Peter Tomasi, the editor at the time, asked me to do Batman, which must have been two years ago now…or longer. And the very first story title I noted down was "Batman R.I.P." I had a particular image for the cover, which Alex Ross has done a bang-zoom, thousand-times-better version of for the second part of the story.

So it came from there…and out of that notion came the idea for the big overarching story I’ve been telling since I first came on the book. Everything…the "Zur-En-Arrh" graffiti, the Joker prose story, the Club of Heroes…every detail that’s been in the book for the last couple of years is significant, everything is a clue to the grand design that’s unfolding.

In an interview with Comic Book Resources, Grant Morrison explained that Batman's fate in the story is "so much better than death. People have killed characters in the past, but to me, that kind of ends the story! I like to keep the story twisting and turning. So what I am doing is a fate worse than death. Things that no one would expect to happen to these guys at all. This is the end of Bruce Wayne as Batman."

Morrison talked about "Batman R.I.P." at the April 2008 New York Comic Con "Spotlight on Grant Morrison" panel. "When we begin to suspect the identity of the villain, I think it's the most, like I said the other day, it's possibly the most shocking Batman revelation in 70 years."

DC Universe #0 shed some light on the potential plot of the series, with a scene between Batman and the Joker written as a prelude to the upcoming storyline. In the sequence, Batman confronts the Joker about the mysterious "Black Glove," villain(s) who were behind the attempt to kill Batman during Morrison's "The Black Glove" (International Club of Heroes) arc in Batman #667-669. The Joker, nonchalantly dealing out a "dead man's hand" from a deck of cards, taunts Batman regarding his fear of the mystery villain and how the Black Glove intends on destroying him.

The Batman of Zur-en-arrh

The story begins with Batman and Robin perched onto a gothic building lit by lightning. Batman defiantly proclaims "Batman and Robin will never die!"

Events then flashback to Gotham City six months earlier, where Dr. Hurt announces The Black Glove's next venture, the destruction of Batman. Bruce Wayne is dating Jezebel Jet, a model who is very influential in her home country. Jezebel discovers Bruce was Batman relatively early in their relationship, and the revelation makes the relationship easier for Bruce to handle. He lets Jezebel so deep into his life, that he even introduces her to the Batcave. Meanwhile - the Black Glove member, Le Bossu, while in his secret identity as a psychologist, contacts The Joker in Arkham Asylum and offers him a role in their assault on Batman.

Jezebel tries to convince Batman that he is simply living a life he has fabricated in his own head as a child to cope with the death of his parents. This suggestion begins to affect Batman's already strained psyche (he almost died and was forced to re-live very traumatic moments in his life as Batman just weeks earlier) and he passes out when Jezebel says aloud a word that was on all the Bat-computer's screens: Zur-En-Arrh. As he passes out, Dr. Hurt and minions of his diabolical club, the Black Glove, infiltrate the Batcave. They drug Batman, beat Alfred, and wreak havoc upon the cave.

When Bruce Wayne is seen next, he is waking up in a pile of garbage with no memory of himself. He meets a homeless man named Honor Jackson, who recognizes that Bruce is going through drug withdrawal and helps him. As the two spend time together, traveling in what Honor calls an 'Odyssey' across the city, Bruce sees more evidence of his forgotten life. The two reflect on the day, and Honor gives Bruce an old broken radio as a sentimental gift. Abruptly, Bruce finds that Honor is no longer sitting next to him and learns from a local dealer that Honor had blown two hundred dollars on smack and overdosed the previous day. This statement leaves Bruce full of despair, grief and guilt (as a result of Bruce providing Honor with the two hundred dollars at the end of a car chase earlier in the story), but as well as further confusing his sense of reality.

The Black Glove is taking hold

With this information, Bruce seems to snap. He makes himself a costume out of red, yellow, and purple rags, and begins referring to the broken radio as the "Bat-radia". He then calls himself "The Batman of Zur-En-Arrh," and begins taking advice from Bat-mite (written as "might" in this case, as the character is meant to be a voice of reason to Zur-En-Arrh, as in "the Bat might do this"). He hunts down and dispatches two small-time members of the Black Glove, and finds that his next destination is Arkham, armed with nothing but a baseball bat, his Bat-radia, and miscellaneous bits of junk that serve in place of his utility belt.

Batman and Bat-mite finally make it to Arkham, where Bat-mite says he cannot follow. Inside, Batman is confronted by Joker, who holds Jezebel Jet captive and kills her in front of him using the flowers that make up Joker's laughing gas. As Batman regains his sanity and loses consciousness from the same poisonous flowers, Jezebel appears to be okay, the Joker is smiling, Dr. Hurt is there, and everyone is asking Batman: "Now do you get it?"

It is revealed that Jezebel Jet has been a part of the Black Glove all along. The word Zur-en-Arrh was written all over the city by Hurt as a subliminal trigger to be used when the time was right to break Batman's mind. Dr. Hurt calls off The Joker, referring to him as "my good and faithful servant." The straitjacketed Batman is buried in a shallow grave, Hurt's intention being to exhume him once oxygen deprivation has permanently damaged his mind. Back in the asylum, The Joker casually murders a Black Glove member and places a bet with those who remain; that Batman will emerge from the grave undamaged and hunt them down, as he always does. While the now mentally stable Batman escapes the shallow grave the Black Glove put him in, Joker points out that no one has investigated Batman's "bat-radia." When they do, they activate a transmitter that brings Nightwing, Robin, Damian, and the League of Assassins right to them. Before The Joker flees in an ambulance he promises the remaining Black Glove members that he will collect his winnings from them soon and tells Hurt that he should not have called him his servant. Batman hunts down Hurt, who tries to convince Bruce that he is his father, but Batman believes him to be Mangrove Pierce, an actor who had once been his father's double. As Hurt tries to escape, Batman infiltrates his escaping helicopter, causing it to crash in a blazing explosion.

Flying back to her own country, Jezebel Jet's plane is ambushed by Talia's Man-Bat ninjas. Back in present day Gotham, Le Bossu tells his henchmen that Batman has not been seen in months and that they are free to commit crimes unmolested, when suddenly a Bat-signal-like light comes on above them, bringing the story full circle to it opening image.

Related titles

Each title involved in the "Batman R.I.P." arc has its own story that relates to the other titles, especially the main one of Batman, but the timelines of each do not coincide with the order in which they are published. For instance, the Detective Comics story occurs a few nights prior to the main story in the flagship Batman.

Likely part of the "R.I.P." aftermath, DC Comics announced that the ongoing Nightwing, Robin, and Birds of Prey titles would all end in February, 2009. No specific reason was given.

A portion of the storyline runs through Batman #682-683, and is intertwined with Final Crisis, in which Batman is Bruce Wayne. Writer Grant Morrison, in regards to the chronology of "R.I.P." and Final Crisis (because they were both being published simultaneously), stated, "First it's 'R.I.P.'. Then the two-parter (#682-683) goes through Batman's whole career, in a big summing up of everything that also ties and leads directly into Final Crisis. (Final Crisis #5 is where 'R.I.P.' resumes.), and the final fate of Batman (Final Crisis #6)."

In Paul Dini's Heart of Hush storyline that ran in Detective Comics #846-850, parallel to the main story in Batman (but actually a prologue to it), Thomas Elliot returns to Gotham City to enact a plan to kill Batman before the Black Glove. Also explored in this arc is his connection to the Gotham underworld, and how his family history helped transform Elliot into Hush. This story continues into Detective Comics #852 and Batman #685, a two-part "Faces of Evil" storyline that is also labeled as "Last Rites." In "The Great Leap" storyline that ran in Nightwing #147-150, Two-Face tasks Nightwing to protect an old flame of Harvey Dent's, Carol Bermingham, a witness in a high-profile mob trial. Nightwing is, in fact, protecting Carol from Two-Face himself. In "Scattered Pieces," which ran in Robin #175-176, also parallel to the main story, Batman is missing and rampaging through the city in a delusional state. Nightwing is imprisoned in Arkham Asylum and Robin, fearing that Batman could have lost his sanity and gone rogue, tasks himself with finding his mentor and stopping him if necessary. In "Outsiders No More," which ran in Batman and the Outsiders #11-13, Batgirl, having a reduced roster, takes command and comes to the conclusion that no one can replace the Caped Crusader. She starts seeking out a group of new Outsiders whose combined skills could match Batman's.

Aftermath

Batman #683 reveals that Batman survives the explosion and returns to the Batcave to examine the gathered evidence on the Black Glove. However, the events of Final Crisis draw his attention elsewhere. The events between R.I.P. and Final Crisis are covered in greater detail in Batman #701 and #702, which are presented as a missing chapter of R.I.P.

In the crossover story Final Crisis, Darkseid attempts to mind-control Batman, capturing him while he is investigating the death of the New God Orion and attempting to create an army of clones based on him, but cannot, and only manages to make imperfect copies of him, the clones being unable to cope with the psychological stress of being Batman. After escaping, Batman uses the same bullet that killed Orion to shoot Darkseid. At the same time, Darkseid strikes him with the Omega Sanction, "the death that is life." Superman is later seen holding Batman's charred body (later revealed to be one of the clones rather than the true Batman). The Batman is now presumed dead and the Bat-Family and all of Gotham must figure out what will happen without him. In the end of Final Crisis #7, Anthro dies of old age and someone wearing Batman's pants, trunks, and boots places a utility belt over the dead body and then draws the Batman logo on a wall of the cave.

The main Batman title featured several months of retrospective stories that "showcase the legacy of the Batman." Those were followed by a two-part story by Neil Gaiman called "Batman: Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?", a play on the Superman story, "Superman: Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?" by Alan Moore, which was also the last story before major changes in that character. According to DC Senior Vice President and executive editor, Dan DiDio, Bruce Wayne does not really die in the storyline, although it leads to his absence. Part of the aftermath later plays out in Blackest Night: Batman.

The titles Nightwing, Robin, and Birds of Prey were canceled; and both Batman and Detective Comics went on hiatus for three months in March, 2009. In March, April, and May, a three-part series titled Batman: Battle for the Cowl, written and illustrated by Tony Daniel, focused on the aftermath of the series and the battle for Gotham. Tied to this was a three-part Oracle mini-series, a three-part Azrael mini-series, and two bookends titled Gotham City Gazette that encompassed the changes in all of those series. In addition, five one-shots were published focusing on key characters in upcoming storylines. These featured Man-Bat, Commissioner Gordon, the Network, the Underground, and Arkham Asylum.

Grant Morrison is writing Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne, which shows Bruce Wayne trying to regain his memory and making his way back from the distant past to the present.

It wasn't until after Bruce Wayne's return, in Batman and Robin #16, that the true meaning of the R.I.P. acronym was revealed as Rot In Purgatory.

Publication

Main storyline

Pre-R.I.P.

The "Batman R.I.P." storyline is the aftermath of "The Black Glove" storyline told in the following comics:

• Batman #667-669 "The Black Glove" (First mention and solo appearance of a Black Glove member) Reprinted in both "The Black Glove" and in "Batman and Son".
• Batman #672-675 "Space Medicine" (Concludes "The 3 Ghosts of Batman" storyline. Mentioned earlier in Batman #664-666.) Reprinted in both "The Black Glove" and "Batman and Son".
• DC Universe #0 (3 page interior prelude to "Batman R.I.P.") Reprinted in "Batman R.I.P."

R.I.P.

• Batman #676-681. Reprinted in "Batman R.I.P."

Last Rites

• Batman #682-683 (Expands on the events in the bunker in Bludhaven in "Final Crisis".) Reprinted in "Batman R.I.P."

R.I.P. - The Missing Chapter

• Batman #701-702 (Expands on the events that take place between "Batman R.I.P." and Final Crisis.) Reprinted in "Time and the Batman".

Final Crisis

• Final Crisis #1-2, #5-7 (Resumes from "Batman R.I.P." with the fate of Batman.) Reprinted in "Final Crisis".

All of the above are included in the four trade paperbacks "Batman and Son", "Batman R.I.P.", "Final Crisis", and "Time and the Batman".

Tie-ins (not written by Grant Morrison)

R.I.P.

• Detective Comics #846-850 "Heart of Hush" (Takes place immediately before Morrison's officially titled main "Batman R.I.P." storyline)
• Nightwing Vol. 2 #147-150 "The Great Leap" (Epilogued in Nightwing #151. Labeled "Last Rites")
• Robin Vol. 4 #175-176
• Batman and the Outsiders Vol. 2 #11-13 (Takes place in accordance with Batman #680-681)

Last Rites

• Detective Comics #851 "The Last Days of Gotham" (Part 1 of 2)
• Batman #684 "The Last Days of Gotham" (Part 2 of 2)
• Detective Comics #852 "Faces of Evil" (Hush) ("Heart of Hush" epilogue, part 1 of 2)
• Batman #685 "Faces of Evil" (Catwoman) ("Heart of Hush" epilogue, part 2 of 2)
• Nightwing Vol. 2 #151 (Although labeled "Last Rites" is the epilogue to the Nightwing "R.I.P." storyline)
• Nightwing Vol. 2 #152 "Faces of Evil" (Ra's Al' Ghul) (Ra's reflects on Bruce's death)
• Nightwing Vol. 2 #153 (The final Nightwing issue)
• Robin #183 (The final Robin issue. Later relaunched as Red Robin)

References to earlier comics

The "Batman R.I.P." storyline references earlier comics involving "The Black Casebook" and the Club of Heroes. The following comics are referenced:

• Detective Comics #121 "Commissioner Gordon Walks a Beat"
• Batman #47 "The Origin of the Batman"
• Batman #62 "The Batman of England"
• Batman #65 "A Partner for Batman!"
• Batman #86 "Batman -- Indian Chief"
• Detective Comics #215 "The Batmen of All Nations!"
• World's Finest #89 "The Club of Heroes"
• Detective Comics #235 "The First Batman"
• Detective Comics #241 "The Rainbow Batman"
• Detective Comics #247 "The Man Who Ended Batman's Career"
• Batman #112 "Am I Really Batman?"
• Batman #113 "The Superman of Planet-X!"
• Detective Comics #267 "Batman Meets Bat-Mite"
• Batman #134 "The Rainbow Creature"
• Batman #153 "Prisoners of Three Worlds"
• Batman #156 "Robin Dies at Dawn" (1st Appr. of Doctor Hurt)
• Batman #162 "The Batman Creature"
• 52 #30 (week 30) and #47 (week 47)

Promotion

At New York Comic Con 2008, DC Comics gave away pins featuring Nightwing, Tim Drake, Jason Todd, and Hush with the words "I Am Batman" beneath them. The pins were also being given away at the Newsarama booth by DC's executive editor, Dan DiDio, during HeroesCon 2008 in Charlotte, North Carolina, and again by DiDio at Emerald City Comic-Con in Seattle.

Comics across the DC Universe also featured a checklist of the related issues, alongside a picture featuring Batman's empty cowl hanging on a cross-shaped tombstone.

Critical reception

Popcultureshock wrote that the story was "a creative and intriguing Batman tale," but that elements of the story were repetitive of earlier ones and that "some readers will likely feel cheated that the real conclusion to what happens to Batman will occur in Final Crisis and not R.I.P." A popular Batman website, Batman-On-Film.com, posted a review that gave the series positive marks, saying, "Does [the series'] sentiment not reflect who and what Batman is all about? How, even with all of the restrictions that come with humanity, we are still capable of superhuman achievement?"

The deluxe edition hardcover of the series made the New York Times Graphic Books Best Seller List in May, 2009.

Other media

Bruce Timm also expressed interest in an animated adaptation of Batman R.I.P. in an interview at Comic Con. Several members of the Black Glove appear in the "what if" Batman: The Brave and the Bold episode "The Knights of Tomorrow!".

References

External links

• Review of Batman #676, Comic Book Resources
• Review of Batman R.I.P. Deluxe Edition, Comic Book Resources
• Batman R.I.P. at the Comic Book DB