DC is just going crazy with announcements this week! With the decade coming to a close and a new era of comics certainly upon us, DC has announced that the real Batman, aka Bruce Wayne, is coming back. When we last saw the caped crusader, he was back in the fun old caveman days, covering Anthro with his belt and drawing pictures on a rock wall with a stone. Of course, being killed by the Omega Sanction is not actually death – it’s the death that is life. The Omega Sanction, by definition from Seven Soldiers, is that the body dies, but the soul and mind is shot all over time into thousands of parallel dimensions. Well, it looks like it’s time for Wayne to gather up his pieces and come home!
Lost in the time stream, believed to be dead by his friends and enemies alike, Bruce Wayne must use every bit of intelligence, every ounce of strength and training he’s acquired over the years to find his way back to the city, and adopted family of vigilantes, he’d left behind.
Blasted by the mysterious and powerful Omega Effect in the pages of FINAL CRISIS during a deadly battle with the malevolent New God Darkseid, Bruce Wayne must battle back through the waves of time to reclaim what was his — his city, his life…his cowl?
From the kinetic and awe-inspiring imagination of writer Grant Morrison and an all-star cast of artists, including Chris Sprouse, who’ll handle art chores on the first issue, BATMAN: THE RETURN OF BRUCE WAYNE #1 (of 6) hits in April and will prove to be Bruce Wayne’s defining moment as a hero, and his toughest challenge yet.
If you swing over to USA Today, you’ll find an interview with Morrison in which he goes more into the whole of the story. I love Morrison, and you can be sure I’ll be buying this as I go along, but I do have one thing to note: does this plot line seem familiar to anyone? At least a little? Something about a hero who was “supposedly dead” but was really “unstuck in time”? Anyone? No? Ok. Maybe it’s just me. I mean, don’t get me wrong – I think this’ll be great. Read what Morrison has to say on the book is very exciting, and I’m looking forward to seeing it all play out, and I’m looking even more forward to going back and reading older issues and seeing how much of it was there from the beginning as I always do with Morrison’s work. My only MAJOR complaint is … well, has it even been a year? No, it hasn’t. I’m not crazy. Final Crisis finished up at the beginning of this year, and that included the reveal that Bruce was still alive. I’m all for keeping the original characters in their hoods (as has been discussed on this site by David and I in regards to some other hero coming back from being dead “in time”), but couldn’t we have waited a bit longer? I’m really enjoying the dynamic of Dick Grayson under the cowl and Damian as Robin, and I don’t really want it to end so soon. Batman and Robin (the series) is still off to such a strong start, why halt it by bringing back that old fart?
In general I don’t think I can call myself a Batman fan so much as I can call myself just a fan of comics (so I, by proxy, like Batman), but I’ll be honest when I say I’m kind of sick of Bruce Wayne. In fact, I like him more dead than I do alive. Sometimes I feel like the only person on the planet who believes that, but none the less. Wayne is coming back, and Pirate Batman looks awesome.
Thoughts? Are you uber excited for the return of Wayne, or are you like me and want him to stay in the ground a bit longer? Weigh in with the comments!
