Both Batman and Bruce Wayne are now suspected of murder, and it isn’t the first time this has happened to either of the Dark Knight’s personas.
WARNING: The following contains spoilers from Detective Comics #1036, by Mariko Tamaki, Dan Mora, Jordie Bellaire and Aditya Bidikar, on sale now.
“Joker War” greatly reduced Bruce Wayne’s financial acumen, and now Batman’s alter ego has more to contend with than a lack of funds. The latest issue of Detective Comics sees Gotham’s protector accused of murder. Batman was confronted by the police at the scene of the homicide of Sarah Worth, daughter of the criminal Roland Worth.
With Batman already under suspicion, the last thing Bruce Wayne needed was to be seen by neighbors while carrying what looked like the corpse of Sarah Worth into his new home. At the end of Detective Comics #1035, a figure resembling a shambling zombie approached Wayne outside his Gotham residence before abruptly collapsing in his arms. Unfortunately, the event was witnessed by one of the building’s other residents.
This isn’t the first time that Gotham City’s protector has been accused of murder. Back in 2002, an event that started in Batman: The 10-Cent Adventure led to a saga that crossed over with all the Batman and Bat-Family books of the time.
Like the events unfolding in the current storyline, Bruce was also caught — seemingly red-handed — in his own home. At the time, Batman’s love interest was a radio talk show host named Vesper Fairchild. Police raided Wayne Manor in the early hours and found Bruce cradling her dead body in his arms. Bruce was arrested, charged and incarcerated in Blackgate prison.
Of course, fighting crime isn’t an easy thing to do from behind bars, so Bruce decided to break out of prison to continue his war on crime. This led to him becoming a fugitive and Batman dropping his secret identity completely — much to the horror of Alfred and all his crime-fighting partners.
Bruce Wayne: Murderer and Bruce Wayne: Fugitive were important storylines for that era. They showed that not all of Batman’s closest confidants believed he was innocent. Whereas many comics fans believe that having an alter ego is detrimental to the life of a crime fighter, these stories proved that operating as a vigilante is dangerous in even more ways — both physically and psychologically. There needs to be a clear distinction between personas and occasional respite. Even superheroes need a work/life balance.
The recent “DC Future State” event showed us a world where Batman was presumed dead, with his secret revealed to the mysterious Magistrate organization running the Gotham City of the not too distant future. Of course, Batman is hard to kill and he survived the attack. However, like in the classic 2002 storylines, he discarded his Bruce Wayne persona and stayed dead in order to fight back.
Events in current issues of both Batman and Detective Comics are seeing the formation of the Magistrate, and seem to be leading us to the dystopian Gotham City of “Future State”. In the old stories, only Bruce Wayne was accused of murder, but right now both the man and the Batman are in the frame and in trouble with the law. While we saw the beginning of his troubles in the twisted tomorrow of Future State, we now know that his redemption is still a long way away.
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