FAMILYFANS Books & Comics

BATMAN:
DEAD AT 70
in...

FINAL CRISIS #6

by Grant Morrison, J.G. Jones, Carlos Pacheco, and Jesus Merino

(DC Comics)

Reader Appeal: Teens to Adults

Genre: Superhero Comic

The fanfare is less considerable than when the moment of truth finally came for Marvel’s classic hero Captain America, but January 14, 2009, will go down in history as the day that Batman died. He was 70 years old. (Batman, as created by Bob Kane, made his debut in 1939 in Detective Comics.)

True, everyone had been expecting him to die or retire at some point in the near future. After all, we had just reached the end of the Batman R.I.P. series, which ended, oddly enough, with Batman doing just fine. But DC was already gearing up with a new series (I’m having flashbacks to the whole successor to Captain America storyline at Marvel) about who would be taking over the cowl from Bruce Wayne. Would it be Robin, or Nightwing, or someone else altogether? The puzzling question we were left with was, what was going to happen to Batman? And now we have our answer.

Major spoilers ahead...

It’s not easy to explain exactly what’s been happening in the Final Crisis series. The whole thing has been treated as a kind of a mystery, and it’s all been very confusing. But the practical upshot is that the godlike supervillain, Darkseid, has finally managed to bump off his son Orion and anyone else who might get in his way. He and his evil cronies are manifesting themselves on Earth.

The people of Earth, meanwhile, have been largely overcome by Darkseid by means of the Anti-Life Equation, a sort of math problem that really will drive you crazy and make you a slave to the person who tells it to you. Apparently, though, Darkseid isn’t feeling well from the beating he took at Orion's’s hands, and in his failing health he’s taking the whole universe with him. Or something like that.

Superman is off in the far future, trying to figure out how to get back, but despite using time travel, he can’t seem to arrive in time. In the end, the only really important moment is when Batman tracks Darkseid down and shoots him with the same bullet Darkseid used to kill his own son.

There is something terribly fitting, really, that Batman should meet his end this way. If he was going to die, you would hope that he would do it taking down a major threat to the entire world. And the fact that he meets his end after doing something he would normally never do (shooting and killing someone) is symbolic and appropriate. It’s the one line he tried never to cross. But, as he tells Darkseid, he’s making a once in a lifetime exception, and that marks the end of his life. Really, though, it’s kind of a bummer.

What’s even more of a bummer is that Batman’s end, unlike that of Captain America, isn’t a moment that’s likely to go down in history as a memorable event. It just happens. Neither the hero nor the villain is looking very good, and then they both bump each other off. The writing in this whole series seemed a bit shoddy and vague to me. Half the time you don’t know what anyone is talking about, and the rest of it is pretty bombastic, even by comic standards. The last conversation between Batman and Darkseid wasn’t even very interesting to read. I wanted this to be a great moment, but somehow it just sort of fizzled.

As for the art, the layout wasn’t bad and the style was interesting, but somehow it just didn’t quite come together for me. On the one hand, the progression of the panel and the angles used were almost cinematic, like looking at really well-drawn storyboards for a movie. But certain key moments, like Batman getting zapped and Superman holding his crispy body, just didn’t deliver. It’s a sad fact that, at the moment of his death, Batman looks more like Batgirl dancing the cosmic conga. And the moments of gruesomeness, like seeing his burnt body, seemed kind of tasteless and cheap. I also don’t like to see so many people (six total) listed under the art credits. Clearly DC Comics was hurrying and slapped the thing together as a collaboration of many artists, which in a book this size just isn’t a great idea.

I really can’t say that I loved this issue. There might have been some cool themes in there, but the writing was so spotty that the moments didn’t quite come off. And I’m not thrilled to see Batman die. Really, it seems like more of a publicity stunt, and not the meaningful conclusion of any great journey. Admittedly, Bruce Wayne has been Batman for an awfully long time. But Bruce Wayne is Batman, and that’s why we love him.

Overall, I’m disappointed, too, in how the whole “the day evil won” thing of Final Crisis turned out. But maybe this will lead to new and fresh ideas in the series. Sometimes you just have to shake things up to breathe new life into them. But it doesn’t change the fact that I didn’t really like this issue.

Because of the disappointing and confusing plot, because of the inconsistent art, and because of the arbitrary gruesomeness, I just can’t recommend it. But you might want to read it anyway, if you’re a fan, just to see Batman die. Not a great issue for kids, though.

FAMILYFANS RATING: C-

AFTER THE STORY

If your family members are interested in this book, then encourage discussion about it afterward. You can use these questions to get started:

• Why do you think Batman made an exception to his own solemn rule and decided to shoot Darkseid? Was he right or wrong to do so?

• Have you ever been in a position where you seriously compromised your own standards to achieve some end? What happened?

--MV

Note: All book or comics-related graphics in this column are standard publicity/promotional shots and are owned by their respective publisher.