Article:
Batman Had To Die

Batman had to die.

It’s the simple truth, and unfortunately that’s the way it had to be. He was just too old.

You obviously know that the first appearance of Batman was in May, 1939 in Detective Comics #27 (good info for pub quizzes) and when he appeared he was a fully grown man.

That’s over 70 years of crime fighting and kicking of villain butt before he died.

He’s raised three young wards almost into adulthood (yes, I’m counting Jason Todd here, the Robin that died at the hands of the Joker), not counting his own actual real son (long story, he’s called Damien).

He’s fought and defeated Joker, Two Face, Riddler, Penguin, Zsasz and Catwoman a thousand times, as well as the myriad of other villains in his extensive rogue’s gallery. In fact, he’s filled both Arkham Asylum and Blackgate Penitentiary numerous times with the people he’s captured and not killed.

He also found the time to join numerous iterations of the Justice League and saved the world from apocalypse time after time after time.

He’s watched Gotham City get hit by aliens, plague, earthquake, starfish, robots, ninjas, vampires, demons, fake batmen, time travellers, and he’s even faced down the Predator (yes, that one) three times now without losing a limb, although on one memorable occasion he did have his spine snapped.

He’s had to build and rebuild the Batcave and Wayne Manor more than once, countless variations of the Batsuit, Batmobile, Batplane and Batboat.

And all that’s on top of the fact that he has to keep ahead of all modern technology, stay fit, update the Batcomputer’s files and keep up the pretence of being a billionaire playboy… maybe that should be Playman now, he is getting on.

Let’s face it, he deserves a bit of a rest and a lie down.

Indeed, he has to die, if only so he can come back.

DC comics wasn’t and isn’t fooling anyone. Bruce Wayne might be dead and there’s somebody else in the Batsuit (I won’t spoil it by telling you who) but everyone knows that comic characters don’t stay dead, at least not the big ones.