Batman is dead.  In this week’s issue of “Final Crisis”, Batman died at the hands of Darkseid.  I always felt that if DC were to ever write this story, (I’m not including the death of Earth 2 Batman or any Elseworlds stories) Batman’s death would come at the hands of one of his rogues.  It would be an epic tale where the Joker or Ra’s would finally succeed in getting one over on Bruce in a moment of weakness. 

So now that he’s dead, where do we go from here?  Well we know DC will be putting “Detective Comics” and “Batman” on hiatus and in it’s place will be a three part miniseries entitled “Battle for the Cowl”.  We can assume from the title that there will be a fight of some sort to see who will take over as Batman.  The players are: Nightwing, Robin, Jason Todd, and Hush.

This is much different that what we saw during the “Knightfall” trilogy where the mantle was simply given to Jean Paul Valley aka Azrael.  Bruce’s relationship with Dick Grayson was estranged at the time and Tim Drake was too young, so for some reason it was deemed fitting that the character of Bruce Wayne would rationally relinquish the most important thing in his life to this guy he barely knew - but that’s ancient history now.

With Bruce Wayne dead, the decision will not be made by him, but will instead be decided by members of his family and one of his newest enemies in Hush. Maybe DC will throw us a curve and resurrect Jean Paul Valley and make him Batman. In a sick way, I would almost want to see that.  That would be hilarious, but I hope that doesn’t happen.

It’s been mentioned on other sites that if Batman is not somehow resurrected at the end of “Final Crisis” that this all maybe a set up to have him be resurrected as a Black Lantern in the upcoming Green Lantern event “The Blackest Night”.

I’m not sure how I feel about that. A zombie Batman wielding a power ring is not something I’m completely cool with. I think what makes Batman a great character is that he’s human. Unlike the majority of his fellow heroes in the DC Universe, Batman doesn’t have super powers. Batman is like Babe Ruth or Michael Jordan. He is the ultimate human being capable of doing extraordinary things due to the sheer force of the abilities he was born with and the training he has undergone to perfect those abilities as humanly possible. I always prefer a solo Batman than a Batman in the JLA. Batman is a guy from the streets. He’s a grunt on the front line getting his hands dirty. I think that’s what so upsetting to many people. For Batman to die at the hands of Darkseid just doesn’t seem right. It’s like the Joker killing Superman.

I think if DC had Batman die at the hands of the Joker, Ra’s, or even the Black Glove, it would have been a nice spring board for whomever takes over as Batman. When Jason Todd was killed by the Joker, this added another layer to the character of Bruce Wayne/Batman. The guilt of loosing a partner by your greatest foe. It was great drama. How would Dick or Tim deal with the death of Bruce if the Joker killed him? Would they be tempted to kill the Joker?

I would welcome a change of pace with Dick or Tim as Batman if I knew I’d be happy with the stories that were coming. Morrison has stated he will be returning to the title after “Battle for the Cowl”. I will get that first issue and review it, but I’m not going to be continuing after that. I will continue to read “Detective Comics” with Paul Dini and hope that Geoff Johns announces he will be the new writer for “Batman” sometime this year.