Batman - Still dead?

[Pete Wells]

I don't read American comics so I was wondering, is Bruce Wayne still dead or have they come up with some way of bringing him back?

[Colin YNWA]

Well I'll spoiler tag this just in case.

[spoiler]He never was dead. He was hit by Darkseid's Omega Sancation which courses him to 'live' the death without death' in Final Crisis 6. According to the Mister Miracle mini (from Seven Soldiers). Essentially he's cast into time and space to live numerous terrible lives, die and be reborn again in another terrible life. He was seen at the end of Final Crisis 7 living one of those lives in the ancient past (or Earth 51 depending on who's theory you believe.[/spoiler]

The details will be revealed when Grant Morrison returns to Batman this Summer.

[TordelBack]

-deep sigh-  Bruce Wayne was [spoiler]never dead per se, he's just on some sort of Swamp Thing-like odyssey through various parallel worlds after his body in this parallel was 'killed' by one of Darkseid's doo-dads which apparently do that to you.[/spoiler]  There's a 'new' Batman comin'atcha courtesy of Morrison and Quitely, which sounds lie its; going to be about as much fun as the remake of Planet of the Apes - very pretty but dear sweet god when will it end.  At least Steve Rogers has had the decency to stay dead for a good while, although I was sure he'd pop out at Obama's Inauguration.  America... reborn!  Thankfully not.

Edit:  ACH!  Beat me to it.

[Pete Wells]

Fucking hell that sounds shite! I hope nothing like that ever happens to our beloved Joe.

[Al_Ewing]

Pete, you'll be glad to hear that I think the above-mentioned comics are ACE like a bat-hound. I'm looking forward to The Batman Of 4,000,000 BC outwitting the Ultimate Trap in ultra-gorgeous Frank-Quitely-O-Vision even if nobody else around here is.

[SamuelAWilkinson]

Sorry, did I read that right? Bruce Wayne is now

starring in Quantum Leap?

[TordelBack]

I'm looking forward to The Batman Of 4,000,000 BC outwitting the Ultimate Trap in ultra-gorgeous Frank-Quitely-O-Vision...

Well who wouldn't.  The problem is: Batman is going to die (again)!  Now he's dead!  Oh, uh, maybe not quite yet (again)!  Now he's really dead!  Now there's a new Batman (again)!  But wait, Bruce Wayne isn't actually dead!  And so forth.

Is it really necessary to go through all that media hoopla to tell fun Batman stories?

[Robin Low]

Is it really necessary to go through all that media hoopla to tell fun Batman stories?

To tell stories, no; to sell comics, apparently.

Regards

Robin

[Al_Ewing]

I don't think comic sales are taken as a given any longer, sadly, so you're going to get a lot of this kind of media manipulation in future. Personally I let most of it wash over me at this point.

I think the whole 'Death of Batman' thing might have been a lot better received if it'd just happened without any hoopla - but I doubt sales would have been as high on word of mouth alone, despite Batman and Morrison having built-in audiences. I think people have certain expectations of a 'Death Of Batman' story if it's been announced as such, and [spoiler]Batman going mad on meth and becoming The Alien Batman Of Space, before punching Satan/his Dead Dad and being hooked up to a giant Batman Life Simulator and finally being zapped back in time by anti-life rays to become the Batman Of 4,000,000 BC[/spoiler] isn't it. (Although naturally I had a great time.)

[JOE SOAP]

I don't read American comics so I was wondering, is Bruce Wayne still dead or have they come up with some way of bringing him back?

No, but I wish he was.

[Colin YNWA]

I think its only fair to say that the main reason that sounds so bad and stupid is actually more to do with my inability to sum up rather than the comics themselves. Those that I've read have actually been very very good.

[Pete Wells]

Al Ewing said:

Pete, you'll be glad to hear that I think the above-mentioned comics are ACE like a bat-hound. I'm looking forward to The Batman Of 4,000,000 BC outwitting the Ultimate Trap in ultra-gorgeous Frank-Quitely-O-Vision even if nobody else around here is.

Al Ewing! Our Al Ewing! The next best hope for Dredd! Ye gods!  

[satchmo]

I'm tremendously excited about the Morrison/Quitely book, I adored the whole RIP and Final Crisis shebang.
He was never dead, as others have remarked,but you can safely ignore all the Battle For The Cowl/tabloid drivel/dog and pony show cobblers if you want. It's better just reading it as a story.

[Roger Godpleton]

MK Libraries have been getting a lot of the more "recent" DC stuff in recently and to my surprise I've really been enjoying it. If for some reason I actually decided to go into the Domain of Douchebaggery that is (was?) my nearest comic store what would be the best books I could buy. I'm deffo picking up all the Final Crisis stuff as soon as poss.

[Matt Timson]

I loved All Star Superman and I'd be happy with something that was only half as good as that was.