Fun fact!
Batman once “died”, but in all actuality, he was sent hurdling through time where he
became a caveman, a witch hunter, a pirate, a cowboy, and private detective before coming
back to life!
...Because comics.
Hello and welcome to Because Comics the show where we look at all of the crazy, strange,
and straight up bizarre things that make comic books well... comic books.
I’m your host, Drake McWhorter.
American comics sometimes get a bad reputation for just how gingerly they handle deaths and
resurrections and sometimes a comic character can die and come back to life within the span
of a year, but Batman, one of the most iconic comic book characters of all time?
Well, he did die and come back to life... technically.
It’s weird and very uniquely bizarre so let me explain.
Everything that I’m going to talk about in this first part was written by comic book
legend Grant Morrison, a dude notorious for making things really convoluted and trippy.
Anyway in the Final Crisis storyline, Batman discovers that the New God, Orion, was killed
by a special bullet which he kept to analyze.
Shortly thereafter though, Bruce was kidnapped by the evil New God, Darkseid, but escaped…
because Batman.
In an attempt to take down Darkseid, Bruce broke his “no guns” policy and shot him
with the very same bullet that was used to take down Orion.
At the same time however, Darkseid shot Wayne with his deadly Omega Sanction, seemingly
killing the Dark Knight.
Nope.
Turns out that the attack just sent Bruce back in time, but we’ll get back to that
in a second.
Even though he was sent back in time, Superman still found Batman’s corpse and Wayne was
mourned by the superhero community.
Turns out this was just a clone that was made by Darkseid.
Sure.
Why not?
This body was buried, Dick Grayson (the original Robin) took over as the new Batman, and the
Bruce clone was temporarily resurrected as a Black Lantern for a bit during the Blackest
Night event.
It’s also discovered that Bruce (now lost in time) was leaving clues of his existence
all throughout history which prompted Tim Drake to ditch the mantle of Robin, strike
out on his own as Red Robin, and try to solve this mystery of this for himself.
Yeah, the quote unquote “death” of Batman led to a LOT going on.
But if you think that this was a lot then let’s hop back to Bruce’s journey through
time.
So Wayne first ended up thousands of years ago in the age of cavemen, but every so often,
he would make involuntarily jumps throughout time, collecting something called omega radiation
all the while.
If Bruce was able to time jump back to the 21st century then all of the omega radiation
in his system would cause him to unknowingly explode like a bomb.
Because of this, Superman, Rip Hunter, Booster Gold, and Green Lantern are tracking the radiation
throughout time to try and find Batman before he goes boom.
In the era of cavemen, Bruce had amnesia and was discovered by a group that called themselves
the Deer People who thought that he was a god, but they were attacked by a warlord named
Vandal Savage and his Blood Tribe.
Fresh off the heels of killing a monstrously huge bat, Vandal Savage wanted to kill Wayne
and consume his heart.
Thankfully, Bruce was freed by a young surviving member of the Deer People who brought him
Bruce’s utility belt.
Wayne donned the pelt of the bat that Savage had killed and defeated the Blood Tribe with
the tricks in his utility belt and his superior fighting skills, saving the day and inspiring
the Deer People to become the Miagani bat tribe.
Shortly after, Bruce was sent into the future.
Now, Wayne ends up in the 1600s where he takes up the identity of a witch hunter.
He doesn’t really try looking for or encounters any witches though.
What he does find however is a big sea monster… thing.
This is the “Hyper-Adapter”, an ancient beast contained within a device called an
Ancestor Box which was opened by Darkseid so that it could torment Bruce throughout
time.
Because comics.
After staving off the beast, Wayne was flung forward in time once again and this time,
Batman was a pirate, but not really.
You see, this was just a really cool cover and that’s not the actuality.
On the bright side, Bruce was discovered by the legendary pirate, Blackbeard, who thought
that Wayne was a famous pirate himself named well… the Black Pirate because that’s
original.
Legend has it that the Black Pirate was the guardian of an ancient treasure, relics from
the Miagani bat tribe.
Turns out though that they were just some of Bruce’s Batman gear that was left behind
in the age of the cavemen.
No time to dwell too long though since you guessed it, it’s another time hop.
This one doesn’t actually have much to it though.
Batman’s a kick ass cowboy who throws Batarangs instead of using a gun.
He’s trying to track down Vandal Savage who has gotten his hands on a Miagani artifact.
Savage hired a bounty hunter named Jonah Hex to protect himself, but Bruce was shot and
time jumped before he could retaliate.
Bruce has now been transported to right after his parents were shot, but this whole setup
is just… weird.
Okay so remember how Wayne has had amnesia this whole time?
Well now he has it again, not remembering any of his previous time jumps.
Wayne was injured and put into the hospital where he’s found by Marsha, a friend of
his mother’s.
She pays for Bruce’s medical bills and clothes him in exchange for researching the Wayne’s
death.
The two make out after some investigation, but Marsha betrays Bruce, looking to sacrifice
him to a dark god referenced several times during this storyline, Barbatos.
To make things even more crazy, this sacrifice was being filmed with Marsha dressing herself
up as Martha Wayne to make it look like that the Waynes were a part of a cult!
Well the goddamn Batman performed one last time hop at the perfect moment, saving his
life.
This final destination for Bruce was the very end of time, the Vanishing Point.
However, the Hyper-Adapter managed to infect Bruce.
Thankfully, the Justice League steps in and manages to separate Batman from the Hyper-Adapter
and seal it away inside of a time machine.
As it tries to break out, the Hyper-Adapter takes the form of a monstrously huge bat,
but the League sends it back in time… to the age of the cavemen.
Yeah!
That big bat that Vandal Savage managed to take down before Batman was sent back in time?
The same bat who’s pelt that Bruce wore later on inspiring the Miagani bat people?
That was the Hyper-Adapter.
There’s still the matter of the omega radiation though.
Wonder Woman’s plan to get rid of it?
Batman must die.
Bruce’s heart is stopped and he’s rendered clinically dead for two minutes, allowing
for the radiation to escape.
Then the team resuscitated him and the day is saved.
See, that’s the weird thing about this story.
Despite all of the over the top comic book shenanigans, how Bruce TRULY dies and comes
back to life is something that commonly happens everyday in hospitals around the world.
So yeah, Bruce was dead and came back to life, but he actually didn’t jump right back into
being Batman right away.
In fact, he still let his former protege be what the fandom likes to call “Dickbat”
in Gotham, and he even travelled the world as he established a new company called “Batman
Incorporated” where Bruce would publicly fund Batman operations not just in Gotham
City, but around the world.
Now, every country would have their very own Batperson to protect them.
Ordinarily, that would be the end of things, but these time traveling shenanigans were
later used as the basis for a huge DC Universe event called Dark Knights: Metal.
I’m not going to get into all of the minuta of convoluted multiversal stuff, but to make
things simple, it turns out that Barbatos is in fact a real dark god, a powerful entity
from the Dark Multiverse.
When Batman was first sent back in time to the age of cavemen, Barbatos took notice and
apparently he manipulated all of the events in Bruce Wayne’s life so that he could actually
BECOME Batman.
This god even claims that he was the exact same bat that crashed through Bruce Wayne’s
window which gave him the idea to make his superhero persona a bat in the first place.
As a part of these schemes, Barbatos made it to where Batman would be infected with
several important metals over the course of his life, specifically his adventures post-Flashpoint.
Electrum, Dionesium, Promethium, Nth Metal, and the appropriately named Batmanium.
After being exposed to these metals, Barbatos was able to use Batman’s body as a portal
into his multiverse and he brought with him a ruthless team called the Dark Knights, a
bunch of evil alternate universe Batpeople with extra fun and dangerous powers.
Metal was a crazy event that requires a video in and of itself to explain, but to make things
short, Barbatos and the Dark Knights were defeated by the Justice League who were clad
in a special metal called Element X, a material of pure possibility and imagination and you
know what, I don’t know if anything is more because comics than that.
I’ll be the first one to admit that I am not Grant Morrison’s biggest fan and the
story of the death and return of Bruce Wayne is a little too comic booky for my taste,
but one thing that I do appreciate is that this is a story that you can pretty much only
tell in a comic book.
You could probably adapt this story, but it wouldn’t be the same and the fact that this
is just something that you can only get in this medium is why I appreciate it a least
a little bit.
But if you like this video then why not consider subscribing or even watching another one?
And if you like Because Comics, this show that you just finished watching, then I actually
have a playlist with all of the episodes of this.
So maybe you can go down that rabbit hole and have a little bit of fun, but anyway.
I hope you learned at least a little something new and hopefully I’ll see you next time!