DC has unveiled the final two Andy Kubert covers of Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne, and we find Batman doing the noir thing, and the return of the hero.
Stephen Schleicher
Stephen Schleicher began his career writing for the Digital Media Online community of sites, including Digital Producer and Creative Mac covering all aspects of the digital content creation industry. He then moved on to consumer technology, and began the Coolness Roundup podcast. A writing fool, Stephen has freelanced for Sci-Fi Channel's Technology Blog, and Gizmodo. Still longing for the good ol' days, Stephen launched Major Spoilers in July 2006, because he is a glutton for punishment. You can follow him on Twitter @MajorSpoilers and tell him your darkest secrets...
7 Comments
I’m definitely going to enjoy “The Bat” as a hard-boiled gum-shoe. But here’s hoping that after all that’s happened, Bruce comes back and then hands off the mantle of the Bat permanently to Dick Grayson as it seems that Steve Rogers will/has (?) done with Bucky Barnes (depending on what comic you’re reading at the time). I’ve actually enjoyed the Batman character again since Grayson took it over. He gives a totally different perspective on being Batman and why he continues to be Batman. It will also screw up any opportunity that the writers of JLA will have of developing any team dynamic with a younger “trinity” of Batman, Mon-El and Donna Troy (can someone please give her a code-name she can stick with? I mean “CURSES! It’s Donna Troy!” just doesn’t have much bite.
Not only that, Nightwing’s already taken by Superman’s adopted kid. But, hey, this is DC where we will have two Batmen, three guys named The Flash (Jay, Barry and Wally), two Atoms, five Earth-based Green Lanterns (Alan Scott, Hal, John, Guy and Kyle), two Wildcats, etc.
i dunno why but i never got into grant morrison’s batman, gonna be sitting back and seeing how this goes.
still boy am i glad to see bruce return..can’t tamper with the legend!
I agree TaZ, I would like the opportunity for Dick to stay as Batman. However, I would not like two Batmans running around, then again, it would probably work with the whole fear motif for the small time criminals if Batman is everywhere at once.
To counter that note, there are already enough vigilante/heroes running around Gotham.
I love the Noir version, but I still hold my opinion that the ridiculousness of this story is similar to that of “Quantum Leap” the Scott Bakula driven late 80s/early 90s hit television show.
I also think it’s not very Batman-esque to have the first things he does whenever he goes to a new place (what I’m assuming from all of the covers) is make himself a new, period-friendly costume with an ungodly amount of Bat-symbols everywhere. I’m pretty sure Bruce Wayne’s trained enough to realize that survival is the number one importance before fashion accessories.
It’ll probably be explained as some kinda “symbol I can’t get out of my head. It haunts my sleeping moments and plagues my waking ones, and I cannot (until the last issue) figure out why this symbol is seemingly so important to me!”
Oh yeah, I agree totally. Unless we’re dealing with “atlernate reality” stories there is only one that wears the Mantle of the Bat. But there have been so few “sidekicks” or “partners” that have been allowed to assume the role of their mentors (aside from a few story arcs). I would be interested to see what the long term affect on Grayson would be. It’s often been noted that Batman was the “real” face of Bruce Wayne while Bruce was the mask. That’s not necessarily the case with Grayson.
Of course, we saw how well that “following in footsteps” deal did for Red Arrow…
Wow, I’m getting “Whatever happened to the Caped Crusader?” flashbacks. I really like Andy Kubert’s take on what Gotham City looks like.
I could have sworn that between “Batman: The Brave and the Bold” and all the non-comic Batman marketing we’d be seeing the return of the yellow-oval Batman.
Poop; I was really looking forward to it…!