The Dark Knight Returns

That Bruce Wayne was going to come back was absolutely assured even at the very moment he "died". It's all good. Grant Morrison has him coming back to franchise the Batman "brand" by training Caped Crusaders around the world in the aptly-titled Batman, Inc. book. I'm intrigued by that...we'll see how it turns out.

Hopefully Bruce will be returning with that stick up his butt finally removed...the post-Dark Knight Returns pompous, arrogant, condescending, inflexible, always "too cool for...and the smartest guy in... the room" Batman had gotten extremely tedious. (I don't mind the guy being driven and intense but dude get over yourself every once in a while.)

Dick Grayson is apparently going to continue as one of the Batmen...and that's cool too. I really like Dick as Batman...more than I expected to. I've even grown to like Damian Wayne, snot-nosed punk that he can be, as Robin (he is, despite all of his bitching and moaning, working hard to be a good soldier and partner...he may complain but more often than not he does what Batman tells him and he comes through when the chips are down.)

Dick shows that Batman can be good at his job and still be a person at the same time. Bruce Wayne will probably never be that kind of Batman again (he used to be before writers took Frank Miller's angry old Batman from the future and superimposed his worst traits onto his younger self)...but hopefully at least a little of it will creep back into him...hey, couldn't hurt :-)

Hell's "Angel": Batman #666

Given constant reboots…nothing sells like a #1 after all…it’s quite unlikely that very many titles will ever make it into the 600’s, much less actually reach the so-called “number of the beast”, 666.

That said, some of DC’s most venerable titles have managed, through thick and thin, to hang on to their issue numbering and to actually reach that “dreaded” issue number (both Action Comics and Detective Comics passed that number long ago.) Superman #666 deals with the milestone by literally going to hell while Batman #666, already published, took a slightly more symbolic route.

In a dystopian future, Gotham City is protected by a new, more brutal Batman: Damian Wayne, the son of Bruce Wayne and Talia al Ghul, who has taken up the mantle after the death of his father. The world is turmoil…global warming has the city baking in 120+ degree heat, millions are dead in an epidemic in China, Mecca has been irradiated by a dirty bomb, and criminals are meeting grisly ends at the hands of a false Batman who thinks that he’s the Anti-Christ.

Batman, who is at odds with the Gotham Police Department and Police Commissioner Barbara Gordon (who bears considers Damian a “monster” who is somehow responsible for the death of a “good friend” of hers), lives a solitary, almost ascetic, life with only a cat…archly named “Alfred”…as companion.

Grant Morrison’s story is taut and fast-paced even as tantalizing threads are left dangling (perhaps to be picked up at some point in the future) and Andy Kubert’s art is kinetic and engrossing (the redesign of the Batman uniform with an overcoat…rather than a flowing cloak…as its focal point is an inspired idea that works very nicely.)

Batman #666 is…if you’ll pardon the expression…one hell of a comic book.