Death in comics is ephemeral. The idea that DC would commit to murking their top-level franchise property for more than a few months or years is ludicrous. Batman, even more than Superman now, is a money-printing machine for DC. Messing with that property as anything more than a way to drum up sales short-term (as was done with “Knightfall”) doesn’t work.

It sounds like Morrison has realized that his run on “Batman” just isn’t gelling with the fans and the general public. The stories are too disjointed and strange, recalling an era of Bats’ history that is really only of interest to older fans. The “hairy-chested love God” Neal Adams Batman just doesn’t penetrate the public consciousness better than the Dark Knight model. When people think of Batman now, they invoke Christian Bale (whose portrayal was influenced by Miller’s best work), not “The Batmen of Many Nations.” Couple that with the atrocious delays on the artwork, and the series has just lost momentum.

I think RobC is on the money–any death of Bruce Wayne and assumption of the mantle by Dick (or whomever) will be a plotline resolved in Final Crisis, leading to a universe-wide reboot and retooling of Batman back to his essence. Until it plays out, I recommend treating this as the unsubstantiated rumor it is.

1) As somebody above points out, Knightfall happened fairly recently. As others have pointed out, Marvel just killed Cap and will (in all likelihood) replace Steve Rogers with Bucky, at least for the time being. The idea is just kind of played out for DC to be doing this.

2) Batman hasn’t last 60+ years by being a bad character concept. It’s the force and simplicity of the character that makes it so durable and open to reinterpretation. Son of millionaire witnesses parents deaths, becomes costumed vigilante to combat and terrify criminals. It’s a straightforward and powerful concept. If Batman is just a teen superhero grown p to replace his mentor, what makes him any different from the flash beyond his costume and powers? A short term burst of sales seems like a bad trade for the loss of such a durable and profitable character.

That being said, I think that RobC, above, is exactly right, and that Final Crisis (ugh) will undo all of this stuff.

If this is fake the really sad thing is that DC has created a rep where we believe they’re this stupid. Captain America’s death was organic to the story in the book that had been developed for two years before the issue came out. No way this is as well planned. Plus Dick Grayson is cooler as Nightwing.

DC went to all of this trouble to make multiple earths, just kill off the New Earth Bruce and let Earth 38 have a Bruce Wayne Batman book.

If “superheroes” are going to survive–change has to take place. I think Dick Grayson should be a wary Batman–he may not like it and that’s where the story becomes compelling again.

Kill away DC, kill away–I’m down with this 100%.

The only thing that Bruce Wayne is good for is to attend or throw some party that will be robbed by some villain, or for Wayne-Corp to have some invention or business division attacked by some criminal.

Mama always said don’t believe everything you read on the internet. Especially when it’s in a column called LYING in the gutters. I’m still waiting for DC to announce that Buseik is writing FC.

I trust Morrison to give us a captivating story. I only ask the story remain at the forefront of DC’s mind and not the “shock” aspect of which the media will be interested.