Neil Gaiman to design a demise for Batman

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No one mentioned this article in USA Today earlier this week?

Neil Gaiman to design a demise for Batman

Will success kill Batman?

Just as The Dark Knight closes in on $1 billion worldwide gross, DC Comics is ready to have Bruce Wayne "die" — or at least give up the cape — in his monthly comic.

Batman #681, due Nov. 26, wraps up writer Grant Morrison's Batman R.I.P. story line, in which the crimefighter is so shaken by a secret from his past that a new Batman must be found.

What makes this "death" go beyond the usual circulation booster is the talent involved. Helping to bury Batman will be best-selling novelist Neil Gaiman, who created the goth-cult Sandman comic 20 years ago.

Gaiman is writing a two-issue tribute to the character, starting with Batman #686 and tentatively titled Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?, due in February.

"This is my last Batman story," he says. "And in some ways, it could be seen as every last Batman story."

Working with artist Andy Kubert, Gaiman will try to reconcile the various versions of Batman, some wisecracking, others brooding, over the Dark Knight's 69-year history.

"There are infinite Batmans," he says. "It has been really hard on Andy because I keep asking him to draw in so many different styles."
 
I'm waiting until Morrison's last R.I.P. issue to see exactly what happens so I can understand the context of these interviews.
 
This is old news.

Morrison is the one that is setting the demise for Batman, not Gaiman.

Gaiman is writing a sort of tribute as I understand it.
 
I hope this is one time the butler did in fact do it. Get him Alfred!
 
"Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?" is a two-part comic that's the last ever Batman story?

It's going to be the Batman equivalent of "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?" in which, just after Crisis resolved, Alan Moore took the old Silver Age Superman and all the stuff that wasn't going to be rebooted and did a farewell love-letter to the character and his world.

It seems that Gaiman is just going to do the same to the old Dick Sprang type Batman with the bat-shark-repellent stuff.
 
Question I was just pondering. Is this going to be an important, well-thought out story if they are killing him off or is this a just cheap answer to Marvel killing off captain america?
 
Question I was just pondering. Is this going to be an important, well-thought out story if they are killing him off or is this a just cheap answer to Marvel killing off captain america?

the difference is that cap died without anyone knowing ahead of time. with batman, this has been alluded to for almost a year that he would in fact die. the incentive is you get to see it happen if you buy the book. dollar dollar bill y'all
 
the difference is that cap died without anyone knowing ahead of time. with batman, this has been alluded to for almost a year that he would in fact die. the incentive is you get to see it happen if you buy the book. dollar dollar bill y'all

People knew with Captain America just not as long. I read about his death on news sites before the comic came out. I was assuming this might just be a way of answering to that.

But you said it's been planned for a year. It should be really good then. Thanks.
 
"Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?" is a two-part comic that's the last ever Batman story?

It's going to be the Batman equivalent of "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?" in which, just after Crisis resolved, Alan Moore took the old Silver Age Superman and all the stuff that wasn't going to be rebooted and did a farewell love-letter to the character and his world.

It seems that Gaiman is just going to do the same to the old Dick Sprang type Batman with the bat-shark-repellent stuff.

I think that's a long shot. Sprang Batman has been out of the picture for a while. If this is supposed to be the equivalent of Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow, then it would be a farewell to the Batman of this era. But who knows? We have three different two-part retrospectives coming from three different writers. But I don't think the similar name necessarily means it's going to be alluding to the same era of the character.

Question I was just pondering. Is this going to be an important, well-thought out story if they are killing him off or is this a just cheap answer to Marvel killing off captain america?


First off, as tog (or someone) pointed out, this has been lined up for a long time. We've seen hints of it in Morrison's book since the beginning.

Second, considering the talent involved, I think it being a "cheap answer" is unlikely. Gaiman and Morrison are both well respected writers with a history for not compromising their artistic visions. And O'Neil was the guy who basically rebuilt the House of Batman and kept it in line for decades.

Finally, none of these stories follow the same format as the Captain America story. Both the O'Neil and Gaiman stories seem to be "last days" type stories, taking place in the indefinite future. We can't say for sure until the stories come out, but that's the impression I get at least. And R.I.P. wasn't about the death of Bruce/Batman. I think it's pretty clear to everyone that Bruce is going to be back at some point. He was given an incredibly skeptical "death sequence", and the weight of the character insures that he's going to be back. We know that, the talent know that, and the talent knows that we know. If you read the story, it's really about the death of Batman's innate mystery. His transformation to Batman is just another symptom in the pattern of destruction seeded by the Black Glove. The "death" is the revelation that his whole, miraculous career has been a game being played by villains he doesn't have the capacity to truly stop. These garish fights between lunatics in masks has really just been an elaborate masquerade to entertain a fraternity of twisted ponces. It's not that Batman died at the end of the story, it's that Batman's never really existed as more than a comfort identity for Bruce Wayne, a wish fulfillment channeled through his memory of Zorro and propelled by the brilliance of Bruce. As for the three two-parters, I'd wager good money that Morrison's story will reveal the secret history of Batman, O'Neil's story will reveal the fate of Gotham City after Batman, and Gaiman's story will show the final days of Batman. But again, who knows? It's probably just as likely that DC wanted a big name to tell a "final Batman story", they dangled the story in front of both O'Neil and Gaiman expecting only one to take the bait, and when both of them bit, they couldn't say no to either.
 
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People knew with Captain America just not as long. I read about his death on news sites before the comic came out. I was assuming this might just be a way of answering to that.

It's possible, but cap died in the comic and then it swarmed the news. There was no news ahead of time that cap would die other than Marvel telling distributors to order more issues than usual and that I believe was only week before the issue was released. Maybe it was different in England because of the time lapse and all. I don't know. All I know is I was shocked by the comic and then read about it in the papers the next day, on colbert and so on.


But you said it's been planned for a year. It should be really good then. Thanks.

Well, it should be good. It doesn't sound too bad from what I've read, but fact is it's been planned for a really long time. Morrison's interviews from a year ago, Hints from DC universe #0 and the fact the arc is called RIP with the tagline, "Batman is Going To Die" along with pins given out at cons with Nightwing and robin saying "I Am Batman," as if to say Batman is dying and someone is going to replace him.

To answer your question, his death is going to be seen in Final Crisis so that in itself should hint that maybe it's going to be a big important deal. It seems pretty intricate and well thought out. I haven't actually read it other than wikipedia updates. Then again they have 51 other batmans in the multiverse so I'm sure DC can take a pick as to who they want to replace him. That or they can have Projectx2 Prime punch the walls of reality again.
 
It's possible, but cap died in the comic and then it swarmed the news. There was no news ahead of time that cap would die other than Marvel telling distributors to order more issues than usual and that I believe was only week before the issue was released.
Marvel also told all the news stations and what not, which is how they told everyone before comic shops even opened.
 
Yeah your all right and that's cool. Though you can see how I thought it might be based on both been rivals then one kills a big character than another does.
 
I can't think of a more perfect person to send Batman (the urban legend superhero) off than Gaiman, even if it is just a possible future or what if or whatever. I don't even read Batman and I want to pick this up.

Do you have to read Morrison's stuff to understand Gaiman's story?
 
I can't think of a more perfect person to send Batman (the urban legend superhero) off than Gaiman, even if it is just a possible future or what if or whatever. I don't even read Batman and I want to pick this up.

Do you have to read Morrison's stuff to understand Gaiman's story?

Probabl not. If it's anything like Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow? then it'll be perfectly accessible as long as you have a general knowledge of the character and the stories.
 
I can't think of a more perfect person to send Batman (the urban legend superhero) off than Gaiman, even if it is just a possible future or what if or whatever. I don't even read Batman and I want to pick this up.

Do you have to read Morrison's stuff to understand Gaiman's story?

Probabl not. If it's anything like Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow? then it'll be perfectly accessible as long as you have a general knowledge of the character and the stories.

But you should read Morrison's stuff.
 
Is this the thread for this story?

Either way, I just read it and it was utterly magnificent. The ending is one of my favourite Batman moments, ever and made me rethink about how I feel about the character in a lot of ways.

It's got nothing to do with R.I.P. which is pretty clear from the get-go. It's obviously just something DC tried to tie in with it.
 

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