Batman is Dead in Final Crisis #6

I was going to write about how the Dow Jones took a huge beating in light of low retail sales and the looming panic over Q4 earnings for the blue chips. I even considered talking about how Geithner is a shady character for owing around $34,000 in back taxes to the IRS or how he likes to hire (exploit) undocumented immigrants as nannies. I even thought about talking about how Citigroup proved that American financial institutions are incapable of being financial supermarkets like their counterparts outside of America. But not today. Instead I am going to write about the death of Bruce Wayne, a popular character also known as Batman.

Batman (Bruce Wayne) finally meets his end facing a supervillain called Darkseid, who is a being known as a “New God” in the comic book world. Earlier in the year, there were headlines from the corporate media about Batman meeting his death in a controversial storyline called “Batman RIP” where he supposedly endures a series of psychological attacks from a villain purporting to be his father. This storyline generated controversy by forcing readers to question Batman’s origins and his sanity and ended with Batman attacking his “father” before disappearing.

A follow-up storyline to “Batman RIP” tied into the mini-series where Batman meets his final fate. In this story, we learn that Batman did survive the events of Batman RIP and is currently imprisoned by Darkseid’s minions who are attempting to extract Batman’s mind to clone an army of soldiers who think and act like him. Bruce manages to break out of the trap and goes to put an end to Darkseid’s plans.

Still psychologically scarred from his encounters in “Batman RIP” and from Darkseid’s torture, Batman confronts the villain and threatens to shoot Darkseid with a bullet that can kill New Gods:

He manages to wound Darkseid but is hit by Darkseid’s Omega Beams, which are known to instantly kill anyone on contact. It would seem odd to see Batman threatening to kill someone with a gun given his tragic origin, but the events in Batman RIP forced him to question his background, his sanity, and his motivations.

In that storyline, the villain claims to be Thomas Wayne, Batman’s father, who had hired Joe Chill to kill his entire family so he can start his life over again as Simon Hurt. Most of all, he had planed hypnotic suggestions in Batman to make him mentally shutdown and quit crimefighting. Unfortunately, Batman was unable to investigate any of Hurt’s allegations as he was captured by Darkseid.

If no one believes that Batman was killed in Final Crisis #6, here is the final page of the comic that just came out this Wednesday:

Batman is killed by Darkseid’s Omega Beams; not even Superman can save him. Batman RIP.  It looks like Dick Grayson, the original Robin, will take over as Bruce Wayne has met his end.

The writer responsible for both the controversial storylines “Batman RIP” and “Final Crisis” is Scotsman Grant Morrison. His official website is http://www.grantmorrison.com/. Let him know what you think!