Batman #686 and Detective Comics #853
DC Comics
Story by Neil Gaiman and Art by Andy Kubert
We all know that Batman isn’t really dead. But it’s nice to see a death of Batman story turned into a sweet Neil Gaiman confection. You can read “Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?” now as there are fully stocked shelves with the story appearing in Batman #686 and Detective Comics #853 at your LCS.
None of the villains are particualrly menacing. They’re more like little marionettes dancing around in a fairy wonderland. We go through numerous scenarios of how Batman could have died including the most implausible case involving Alfred being the Joker. But, quickly and with style, we learn that these are only scenarios. This may even all turn out to be a bad dream.
As befitting a Gaiman tale, childhood and slumberland play a pivotal role. We see Bruce Wayne and his mom share great joy in the reading of a bedtime story. This scene takes on greater and greater significance as the story progresses, as it shines light on the deep recesses of Batman’s mind, and brings us full circle to a surprising ending of sorts. What’s not to like? Add to that the lush and intricate art work of Andy Kubert who does yoeman service as he brings to life various Batman eras in styles from each period.
However, I think that Gaiman piles on too many scenarios for how Batman could have died but maybe that goes with the territory. The point is, in this story, that it really doesn’t matter how you die but that someday you’re going to die anyway. And that’s something profound for anyone to mull over, especially if you’re Batman. An opportunity is lost in moving this promising theme forward since the Batman in this story is endlessly saying that he’s not a quitter and he’s there to save his city making him sound more like a third rate politician than an inspiring legend. It’s as if Gaiman gets caught up in a spin cycle where he feels obligated to reverence. He even has Robin pretty much say that Batman died for our sins.
All in all, it’s a good effort but I’m lost as to whether anything was really said. The fun stuff in this two part story is seeing Batman from various eras, some of the metaphysical playing around on Gaiman’s part and the curious ending which brings to mind, in a way, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Maybe that’s what happened to the caped crusader. In the end, it doesn’t seem to matter. It’s probably all a bad dream and you’re going to die anyway.
April 27th, 2009 at 2:02 am
of course batman ain’t dead, he just stopped a group of rioters from stealing a truck full of flammable liquid in bangkok!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEZA_gRkRw0
April 27th, 2009 at 5:56 am
this certainly doesn’t compare favorably with WHTTMOS, which was a story with a beginning (everything starts going terribly wrong for supes) a middle (supes attempts to deal with everything going wrong) and an end (we find out who was causing everything to go wrong and why and how supes overcomes this). WHTTCC, otoh, is a series of vignettes, with an “ending” that really defies explanation. go on, what exactly happened at the end and how does it make any sense? even though it would have been really predictable, it probably would have been more satisfying, in a narrower way, had the female character been the one from Gaiman’s former series that everyone thought it was, rather than who it actually was. even another female character from his former series would have been better. oh well, it wasn’t terrible, just could have been better.
April 27th, 2009 at 7:26 am
I actually took the story as a literal take on the character of Batman. I read it not so much as an examination of mortality, but as a testament that death is never real if memories are kept alive. Since he’s a fictional character there is no after life for Batman. As long as there is a Batman in our culture, then Bruce Wayne will always be Batman. So the birthing at the end was a visual representation oh how Batman will never die.
April 27th, 2009 at 7:42 am
“go on, what exactly happened at the end and how does it make any sense?”
It’s Gaiman succeeding where Morrison failed: The hero of the story is the story itself.
The core of the story remains the same no matter how many times it’s told. Driven by the tragic death of his parents, Bruce Wayne becomes the Batman and fights the good fight. But every time the story ends, someone is ready with another.
Each and every storyteller puts their own spin on the tale… personalizes it, spins it with their own nuance and perspective. This allows story to be told over and over again with no two versions ever the same. And every time the story ends, someone is ready with another.
So the end? Neil Gaiman’s story of Batman has ended. Someone else’s version is about to begin.
-J
April 27th, 2009 at 10:58 am
I thought these were some of the worst comics I’ve read this year. Major fail.
April 27th, 2009 at 12:39 pm
ravenproject: meh. liked morrison’s take better.
April 27th, 2009 at 11:41 pm
I thought this tied in very well with the “death” in Final Crisis.
After all, what did Darkseid sentence Batman to?
Infinite lives, infinite deaths, each worse than the one before.
Here we have Batman living out those lives. No heaven. No hell. Just Batman.
Eventually, he’ll end up as a prehistoric graffitti artist, but that’s another story. Apparently.