This week saw the finale to "Endgame", the latest storyline of Scott Snyder's acclaimed run on "Batman". Following his defeat in "Death of the Family", the Joker returned to Gotham and unleashed the deadliest and seemingly incurable version of his Joker Toxin yet called the Endgame Virus, hell bent on destroying everything Batman loves and protects. In the climax of the story, Batman is able to find the source of a cure in a pool of liquid similar to a Lazarus Pit down in previously unknown deeper cavern of the Batcave. This leads to a very bloody and brutal battle between Batman and Joker as an explosion rigged by Joker causes the cave to collapse. While Batman makes sure the liquid gets topside to Julia Pennyworth for a cure to by synthesized, he makes sure that Joker can't retrieve it, and the two are left deep down in the collapsing cave, seemingly dying from their injuries or being crushed by the rubble coming down on them. So in the aftermath of the Endgame Virus outbreak, Gotham is healing as well as mourning over the apparent loss of their Dark Knight.
Let me go through the gist of this: Bruce Wayne apparently dies, Gotham is left without a Batman, and someone new has to take on the role...Am I the only who feels like we've jumped back to 2009?
Cut to seven years later, Bruce apparently dies stopping the Joker and as revealed in the Divergence Free Comic Book Day issue released by DC, Jim Gordon (who got a shave and a haircut (two bits!(sorry, couldn't resist))) is hired by Powers Industries to patrol Gotham in an armored apparently police sanctioned Batman suit.
Okay, there's a lot of difference in the details, but when you get down to it, we're getting a rehash of an outline that was last used under a decade ago (yes, Dick was Batman before in the mid-90's, but there was still a good gap between the two times).
A lot of you know me as more of an optimist when it comes to comics related stuff, hoping that it turns out for the best and entertaining. I have to say though that when I read the finale to "Endgame", it left me with a bitter sweet feeling. On one hand, if this was indeed the last hurrah between Batman and Joker, with both dying beside each other, this would be a fantastic ending their decades old rivalry. However, 1. These are comics, 2. These are continuing stories, 3. No one ever stays dead, and 4. I'm not an idiot. Bruce's "death" in 2009 was a big moment for batfans because this was the first time his character had been apparently killed off like Clark, Barry, Hal and so many other heroes before him. Now we're getting it again so soon, and it just doesn't seem to be getting people as talking as before.
The big difference this time around is that it's Jim Gordon wearing the suit. That's a big "Say what?!" moment. I mean, it's different, but it could be interesting. Scott Snyder hasn't really let me down yet. I even applaud him for bringing in Powers Industries from the Batman Beyond canon. It kind of fits to use given the Beyond prototype suit shown in a previous story along with the concept being official canon to the New 52 future timeline.
I do have to wonder though, story wise, why Gordon? If everyone thinks Bruce is dead (again), why not have Dick take over again? True, it's been done before, but Dick's time as Batman and his partnership with Damian as Robin was really popular. Plus in last year's "Robin Rises" story, Bruce was going on a life and death mission to retrieve Damian's stolen body on Apokolips, and told Dick that should he not come back, that he would need to take on the cape and cowl again, apparently abandoning his undercover mission as an agent of Spyral. If Bruce had such a plan in place before, why not now? Then again, I'm assuming a lot, given we haven't gotten much exploration of Gotham post-Endgame or any other character's reaction to Batman's apparent death.
At this point, I'm going in with cautious optimism for Scott Snyder and his Jim Gordon Batman. But of course, I and lot of other fans will just be waiting for Bruce to come back.
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