by Batman is dead. RIP the dark knight, 1939-2022.
That’s right – the Caped Crusader was killed, along with the rest of his fellow superheroes, including Wonder Woman and Superman in the Justice League. In April 26’s Justice League #75, aptly titled “Death of the Justice League”, the majority of the team are defeated and killed by a so-called “Dark Army” made up of some of the deadliest villains in the game. DC universe, and Batman is not spared.
Over 80 years on the streets of Gotham City and beyond in DC’s larger “Omniverse”, Batman has become one of the most influential and popular superhero characters of all time – and now his legacy Apparently ends at the hands of a group of cosmically powerful enemies. But this being comics, the details of Batman’s death in Justice League #75 aren’t exactly cut and dry, and you can bet DC won’t drop the idea of Batman (or the Justice League in its together) anytime soon.
Here’s what you need to know about how it happened, why it happened, and what happens next after Batman dies.
How does Batman die?
In Justice League #75, the League faces off against the aforementioned “Dark Army” of Super Villains, including ultra-powerful foes such as Darkseid, Doomsday, and more, all under the power of the Great Darkness – and more, the heroes actually lose.
Facing the Dark Army, the Justice League is caught off guard by the power wielded by the Dark Army’s leader, Pariah, who seeks to undo the death of his own world in 1985 Crisis on Infinite Earths. The first DC crossover event that remade and rewrote all of DC reality, the publisher has unmade, remade and rewritten its events over the 37 years since.
Although they put up a good fight, all but one of the Justice League members are killed. Nonetheless, a Justice League survives declaring “The Justice League is dead!”, and the DC Universe listens.
As a result, the Justice League title ends with issue #75 and, according to DC, won’t be revived for some time, with the League’s death rippling through the storyline of the “Dark Crisis” event, which deals with the consequences of such a devastating loss.
But what will happen with Batman while it’s happening? Will he be replaced in Gotham City until he is potentially resurrected, as many superheroes face death? Not exactly…
How will Batman’s death affect the DC Universe?
“Death of the Justice League” marks the end of the ongoing Justice League title and kicks off a story in which Batman and the rest of the team are dead. So who’s watching Gotham while Batman isn’t on the table, and will DC be canceling its Batman titles as well?
The answer is a bit complicated. DC currently has a storytelling concept called “Divine Continuum” (a play on the publisher’s name) in which every story ever told with DC characters exists somewhere in DC Omniverse, the publisher’s name for all the different aspects of his concept of the multiverse, his evil mirror of the dark multiverse, and more metaphysical ideas that tie together into the larger puzzle of the “divine continuum.”
As such, some DC titles don’t quite align, continuity-wise – meaning that sometimes the events of stories told in the Justice League title occur before or after the events of the Justice League title. stories told in single-player Batman titles, for example. Although they exist in the same world, and in the same continuity and timeline, the question of where on that timeline the various stories told in each title fall remains somewhat up in the air and undefined.
This means that even though Batman is technically dead in the upcoming ‘Dark Crisis’, the events of that story exist somewhat apart (“somewhat in the future”) from the events of Batman’s solo comics, so that Batman can continuing to appear alive and well in its own titles, with the caveat that “Death of the Justice League” occurs in the same timeline, but adjacent to and separate from the events of Batman and Detective Comics.
All of this allows DC to have its continuity cake and eat it too, with Batman still appearing in his own comics while simultaneously being deemed “dead” in the DC Universe’s greatest meta-story, with “Death of Justice”. League’ and ‘Dark Crisis’ residing in their own space, leaving the details of how the stories line up chronologically left hanging for the reader…for now.
What happens next for Batman?
As “Death of the Justice League” unfolds, back in Batman’s private corner of the DC Universe, it gets a pair of new creative teams, with writer Chip Zdarsky and artist Jorge Jiminez taking on Batman, and writer Ram V and artist Rafael Albuquerque arrives at Detective Comics.
In Batman, Zdarsky and Jiminez plan to introduce a new villain known as Failsafe, described by DC as “Batman’s Doomsday”, an especially ominous comparison given that elsewhere in the DC Universe Batman is currently believed to be dead. at the hands of a team of villains. which includes the real Doomsday (who is of course known as the villain who first killed Superman in 1992).
In Detective Comics, V and Albuquerque will tell a story called “Gotham Nocturne”, described as a “terrifying” story that is still “essentially Batman”. While other details are still under wraps, promotional art for “Gotham Nocturne” shows Man-Bat, the half-man, half-bat creature who’s also sometimes a human scientist and part of the larger cast. of Gotham characters for decades. .
As you can see, even though Batman is technically dead in the pages of Justice League #75 and its aftermath in ‘Dark Crisis’, there is another version of the Caped Crusader that exists right alongside the Justice League version, although to a separate, earlier version. DC continuity point. Whether the two sides of the coin will touch each other, or whether DC’s events in Batman’s single-player stories will catch up and match the events of ‘Death of the Justice League,’ remains to be seen, but the magic of the comics is, we can still read about. him while waiting.
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