Author: Chris Clow
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Across the internet comics-reading community, I've heard numerous misgivings directed towards DC Comics for putting the purported "final fate of Batman" in their event book FINAL CRISIS. I understood it after hearing it at the time, but now this can be said with definite truth: there is nowhere else that this kind of event could have happened for Batman, and there is no one else more appropriate to project it onto. I say this with certainty, even though they did what I thought they would never do. Batman is dead. Really dead. If the last page of FINAL CRISIS #6 isn't enough of a hint, then you're just in denial.
Throughout FINAL CRISIS and the last two Morrison-penned issues of BATMAN, we've seen stories examining exactly what Batman means to the DC Universe, and by extension, our own world. For us Batophiles who love our solo kick ass Batman and want him seen only in this regard, the unequivocal truth of the matter is that even though some of his best stories are on his own, Batman is a member (a very important member) in the ensemble of the DC Universe. And given his place in it as the ultimate bad ass by having an incorruptible will and a relentless thirst for justice, as well as his inspiration to the other heroes of the DCU, this death is the most meaningful death in comics. Period. We can debate between Barry Allen, Steve Rogers, Gwen Stacy, or Jonathan Kent, but the buck stops here.
The bottom line of the plot is this: as you saw in BATMAN #682-683, after FINAL CRISIS #2, Batman overpowered anything that Darkseid's disciples tried to do to his mind. He thrashed them with his mere thoughts and endurances of his crime fighting career. After this, and investigating Orion's death (while still being close to the Dark Lord himself) Batman figured it out. He figured out how to kill a god with it's own weapon.
He had something that nobody else did, either: access to Darkseid. When he confronted Darkseid about what he now knew about his murder of Orion, using the "god-bullet," Batman explained how he knew of Darkseid's resurrection and exactly how he could stop it.
"I made a very solemn vow about firearms. But for you, I'm making a once-in-a-lifetime exception. A gun and a bullet, Darkseid. It was your idea."
He fires as Darkseid sends his omega beams after the Dark Knight. After the omega beams are nearly on him, the bullet hits Darkseid square in the chest.
"Gotcha."
The beams then slam into Batman. As we now move over Metropolis, the skies turn red as something extremely powerful beelines through the city, tearing up everything within sight. The heroes stop and stare.
The unstoppable force was Superman. And he's carrying the burnt out husk of his friend, lifeless in his arms.
Yes, the backlash will start. DC sacrificed Batman in a story for the whole DC Universe. But Batman also knowingly sacrificed himself to stop the megalomania of Darkseid. He knew, as Harvey Dent recently exclaimed in the film THE DARK KNIGHT, that there was "no escaping this." How could there be?
I am telling people to keep this in mind: The writer IS Grant Morrison, and FINAL CRISIS is not over yet. The Crisis brought back Barry Allen, and in this issue he knew exactly how he came back and how to outrun death. Hell, Wally and Barry were starting a new run in this issue.
Until the last page of issue #7 is in my hands and on my eyes, all bets are off. But as of right now, Batman is dead.
Only took 70 years and a god to do it.
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