Comics: Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?

by Teresa Jusino

Maybe it’s the fact that Aunt Flo is visiting. (Hey, this is Pink Raygun. I can say things like “Aunt Flo is visiting” and you’ll be cool with it, right?) Or maybe it’s just that the two issues that make up Neil Gaiman and Andy Kubert’s Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader? are The Moist Panties Issues of Batman. Whatever the reason, when I read Part Two of the story I nearly burst into tears. I never thought that reading Batman comics would make me act like such a girl.

Part One begins with a parade of villains arriving at the Dew Drop Inn – Catwoman, Two Face, the Joker, etc – there for what looks like a funeral. It isn’t just villains who are in attendance. We see Alfred and Dick Grayson, Commissioner Gordon and his daughter, Barbara. There is also Batman’s disembodied voice. He is watching the proceedings not knowing exactly why or how he is able to, and he isn’t alone. There is another, mysterious voice guiding him, cryptically explaining what he sees. Batman then realizes that he’s at his own funeral, and characters from his entire history are there to pay tribute to the apparently dead Caped Crusader. One by one, they begin to tell their own versions of the story of his life and death. They’re all different, and none of them sound right to Batman, who still can’t understand how it’s possible for him to be here watching this, or why none of what’s happening seems right. The issue closes on Batman and the mysterious voice, a woman, in shadow standing over the coffin. The woman challenges Batman to solve his own mystery: You’re the world’s greatest detective, Bruce. You figure it out.

Part Two has Batman do just that. But before that happens more stories are shared, and they all reinforce one key point. Batman doesn’t give up.

I won’t say any more. You’ll have to read the story for yourselves for all the specifics. What I will say is that I’ve been reading different versions of Batman comics – from Frank Miller’s Dark Knight Returns, to The Resurrection of Ra’s al Ghul, to Grant Morrison’s recent Batman RIP – for a couple of years now, and I have never cared more about the character of Batman as a person than I did reading these two issues. They are a chance for both long-time readers and more casual readers to have a last look at the myriad Batman stories and characters they’ve come to enjoy over the years. They also allow us to see a more vulnerable, innocent side of Bruce Wayne than we’ve used to seeing, and if the children’s book reference in this doesn’t touch you, or at least make you laugh, then you have no soul. There’s also the bittersweet revelation of the mysterious female voice, which is both heartbreaking and comforting. Kudos to Gaiman for telling a wonderful, surprisingly sweet story. Kudos also to Kubert, whose ethereal artwork in both issues at several points told the story better than the words did.

Batman has had a long successful run. Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader? was a lovely, emotional send-off.

You know, at least until the next version. New Bat-Time, new Bat-Channel.

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TERESA JUSINO was born on the same day that Skylab fell. Coincidence? She doesn’t think so. As a writer, her work has appeared in Elmont Life newspaper, and on the sadly defunct website, CentralBooking.com. She has recently become a comic reviewer for PopMatters.com, and is currently at work on several fiction projects, including a collection of short stories and a comic. As a geek, Teresa loves Star Trek, Lost, comics, and anything Joss Whedon ever touched. She has a tendency to develop fangirl *squee-ing* crushes on writers, and is also an aspiring fangbanger. Get Twitterpated with Teresa, or visit her in The Red Room.