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22 11 2007

Bat-God?

Posted by Alan in Comics

BatmanThanks to Lying in the Gutters, the rumours have been rife for the last couple of weeks that Batman is set to “die” in the upcoming Final Crisis. The story is that he’ll ascend (to borrow from Stargate) to become a New God as part of the DCU’s new Fifth World.

To further this story, the rumours now say that the mantle of Batman will be taken over by Jason Todd.

My reaction to this? Well, obviously its all still rumour. I’ll believe it when it happens in Final Crisis #7. I’m not sure I really see the point in it to be honest. I don’t mind shake ups like this, when its obvious they’re temporary (as this obviously would be - no matter what’s said at the time), but I’m unsure what benefit this could have to the DC’s storylines. Of course, that’s why I’m not Geoff Johns, Grant Morrison or Mark Waid ;-)

The original version of the rumour I thought was more interesting. Which would’ve seen the main pantheon of DC’s heroes (Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Hal Jordan, Wally West etc) all become the New Gods of the Fifth World. That sounded pretty interesting to me. They’d be put into a new environment (for a year or however long it would’ve lasted) with new cosmic challenges to face, while we could’ve had a year focusing on the backups taking up the mantle (John Stewart as the primary Earth GL, Jay Garrick as the main Flash, Donna Troy actually getting a decent shot as Wonder Woman).

Granted that would be a bit derivative of 52’s concept, but still I think it could’ve been interesting. This watered down version with just Bruce I don’t think sounds as good.

As for Jason Todd taking over the mantle? I’ve said before what I think of Jason Todd, and I still think he should go back to being the Red Hood. This just strikes me as the latest attempt to find a place in the DCU for him ever since Dick got a reprieve in Infinite Crisis. I can’t see DC fandom really taking to the idea of Jason Todd as Batman. And didn’t they already basically do that plotline in Knightfall?

Besides all of which, its just rumour at the moment, so may or may not actually happen. Its just fun to discuss :-)

Especially while we wait for Green Lantern Corps #18, which apparently will be very Sodam Yat heavy, giving us his backstory and generally fleshing out the character (something long overdue in this story), while he and Superman Prime beat the living daylights out of each other.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, November 22nd, 2007 at 14:03 and is filed under Comics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

2 Responses to “Bat-God?”
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  1. David says:
    November 25, 2007 at 1:16

    Sorry for the amount of comments, but I thought this might be of interest.

    http://www.dccomics.com/comics/?cm=8864

    Booster Gold, issue 0. From the release date, it IS after the current storyline, but the main point of interest is the new storyline. This issue is a Zero Hour crossover. Yes, the same Zero Hour that Hal Jordan orchestrated back as Parallax. And that same iteration of Hal is set to guest star too. I’ve missed Parallax Hal, he was a good tragic figure before the retcon.

    …though I still bloody love Geoff Jones for bringing him back to glory =D

  2. Alan says:
    November 25, 2007 at 1:29

    Yeah, I’ve noticed the solicit for this before, and I absolutely love how they’re playing with the time travel aspect by plugging the issue heavily as a Zero Hour crossover, as if Zero Hour is happening just now :-D

    I’m really looking forward to seeing how they handle Parallax after the Sinestro crossover in issue 2. Should be an awful lot of fun. And I agree a lot about the way Hal was used. I picked up Zero Hour in trade format a while back, and was really surprised about how well Hal was handled in it. I never got the feeling he was being written as a villain, but rather he was very much played as someone who had suffered a breakdown and just really needed some help.

    Really enjoyed that take on the character.

    Which to be honest, just made Rebirth even better. I did like the idea of Hal as the Spectre, and I loved when he turned up in Kyle’s GL run in that role. But nothing’s going to beat Rebirth #5, when Sinestro blasts Hal across the moon, and he just smirks at the reader, as if he’s having the time of his life.

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