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{{work}}
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[[File:batman_RIP_smaller_2774.jpg|frame|"Believe me, everything you've heard about [[The Omniscient Council of Vagueness|The Black Glove]] is true... Call me [[Names to Run Away From Really Fast|Dr. Hurt]]."]]
[[DC Comics|Detective Comics]] published the first story of "The Bat-Man" in May of 1939, written by Bill Finger and illustrated by Bob Kane. In the years since then, [[Batman]] has become one of DC's premier superheroes; along with [[Superman]] and [[Wonder Woman]], Batman comprises a vital part of [[
In the wake of ''[[Infinite Crisis]]'', Batman's history was rebooted yet again. But as the readers would soon discover, this reboot would not remove anything from Batman's past this time around; in fact the exact opposite occurred.
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After the end of Batman's "One Year Later" story, noted writer [[Grant Morrison]] became the head writer for the eponymous "Batman" monthly magazine. As Morrison's run went on, fans soon discovered that all of the previously removed portions of Batman's history had been restored to full [[Canon]] status in some way or another. '''[[Continuity Porn|ALL OF IT.]]''' (Even the bits that contradict the other bits!)
Morrison has stated that he intends his work to be [[Word of God|part of a series]], with [[Writing for the Trade|"four [collected] volumes and, if the cards are right, a fifth volume, a final volume"]]: The work he has done so far{{when}} includes the following:
* ''Batman and Son'' (After putting most of Gotham's super-criminals away, Batman is introduced to his and Talia's son, Damian al Ghul-Wayne. After looking out for the boy, Batman is forced to fight Talia in a fight which ends with Talia and Damian's temporary disappearance.)
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* ''Batman #700'' (In the landmark 700th issue of the ''Batman'' monthly title, we visit upon a long tale whose origins start in the [[Silver Age]]. Professor Carter Nichols once developed a form of [[Mental Time Travel]] long ago and subjugated Batman and Robin to it while under pressure from a villain team-up led by the Joker. Years later, the former-Robin and current Batman Dick Grayson, along with the current Robin Damian, discover the murdered body of an inexplicably older Nichols. And in a possible future, Damian, under the guise of Batman, winds up in a case with strange ties to the past. The link between Nichols and the mythical Joker Jokebook is explored in a tale that spans three generations of Batmen... and a possible view of what is [[Batman Beyond|beyond...]])
* ''Batman: The Return'' ({{spoiler|With Bruce Wayne back and stepping back into the cape-and-cowl, he attempts to begin the shift of the Bat-Family into Batman, Inc. However, information that Bruce seems to have picked up during his stay at Vanishing Point appears to have alerted him to a vast criminal organization in the midst of creating artificial metahumans and it seems that Batman has overcome one vast ordeal just to meet another... The birth of Batman, Inc. starts out knowing the name of its new enemy, "Leviathan"...}})
* ''Batman Inc.'' (Batman as a megaglobal franchise. A new series inspired by ''[[Batman: The Brave And The Bold|Batman the Brave And The Bold]]'' and [[Peter Sellers]]' ''[[The Magic Christian]]'' that'll see Batman taking his brand of justice global with new heroes and allies in various parts of the world.)
Previously, Morrison wrote a Batman story called ''Batman: Gothic'', which explores some of the same themes as his current run. While ''Batman Inc.'' was not intially included in the [[New 52]] relaunch and had to have it's last two issues released on schedule due to delays (eventually released in a one-shot entitled ''Leviathan Strikes!'', the series as a whole collected in a deluxe edition), a second series, still using the "Batman Inc." name has been added to the second wave of books, continuing the story.
----
{{tropelist}}
* [[All There in the Manual]]: ''The Black Casebook'', a collection of stories which Morrison used to build his [[Myth Arc]]. While not necessary to understand the events on what is going on per se, it can provide the proper context to the backstory of what Morrison is writing.
* [[And This Is For]]: "And '''this'''? '''This''' is for {{spoiler|'''Mr. Unknown'''}}"
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* [[Bilingual Bonus]]: ''Batman Inc.'' #3 has ''whole narration boxes'' in Spanish.
* [[Body Horror]]: The Dollotrons. First you get a mask that bonds ''irrevocably'' to your skin. Then, Pyg does ... something to you (implied to be a form of lobotomy/{{spoiler|genital mutilation}}), leaving you looking and acting like a melted Kewpie doll. And Pyg thinks this is an ''improvement.''
* [[Bratty Half-Pint]]: Damian. Initially to the absolute point of being [[The Scrappy]]. He [[Rescued
* [[Break the Haughty]]: Jason believed that his lethal brand of vigilante justice brought results and made him better than less ruthless crimefighters. Cue Flamingo.
* [[Brick Joke]]: Odd, reverse example - Dick occassionally complains how difficult crime fighting with a cape is. Guess what article of the original Batsuit Damian didn't include in the previously published 666th Batman issue?
* [[Call Back]]: The intro sequence of B&R #16 is one to Peter Milligan's ''Dark Knight, Dark City'' story.
* [[Came Back Wrong]]: A serious case by the looks of it. {{spoiler|According to Superman, if Bruce returns to the 21st century on his own, [[Everybody Dies]]}}.
** {{spoiler|Although Superman [[Idiot Ball|was not exactly at his brightest]] during Bruce's absence and completely failed to consider that the Goddamn Batman might know what he was doing. Even after Bruce said "Trust me", Superman's reaction was to try to smash the time sphere being constructed around him and the other heroes.}}
* [[Canon Immigrant]]: {{spoiler|[[Batman Beyond|Terry McGinnis]]}}, at least in the 'future' continuity of New Earth.
** Lord Death Man and Professor Gorilla, as well.
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** ''Batman and Robin'' #15-16. Keep an eye on {{spoiler|the Joker's banana peel.}}
* [[Cloning Blues]]: Tad hard to hate {{spoiler|Damian}} now, isn't it?
* [[
* [[Crazy Prepared]]: Batman has a backup personality in case of psychological attacks. Yes, a backup personality. Who actually is crazy.
* [[Curb Stomp Battle]]: Deathstroke vs. Batman, with Deathstroke on the receiving end. Twice. In the same issue.
* [[Dead Man's Hand]]: In the prologue, Batman speaks to The Joker in Arkham Asylum. The Joker taunts Batman with his upcoming destruction while dealing out aces and eights.
* [[Don't You Dare Pity Me!]]: {{spoiler|The reason Hurt wants to destroy Thomas and Martha Wayne's legacies - they dared to try to ''help him''.}}
* [[Designated Girl Fight]]: Batwoman winds up taking on Scorpiana in ''Batman Inc.'' #5.
* [[Doing It for the Art]]: To hear El Sombrero say it, this is the appeal behind creating complicated deathtraps - the potential for aesthetic appreciation. Plus the fact that compared to most criminals' brilliant plans of "shoot the guy, go to a strip club, do cocaine", they often ''are'' works of art.
* [[Driven to Suicide]]: In Batman 673, {{spoiler|this seems to be established as Joe Chill's latest canon fate; after stalking/tormenting Chill, Batman finally reveals his identity and then gives the depressed Chill the same handgun that he had used to kill Bruce's parents. The next page shows Batman stoically staring on with two gunshots being fired.}} Also, {{spoiler|winds up being Professor Carter Nichols' fate in Batman 700.}}
* [[Entertainingly Wrong]]: Batman concludes that the Joker's playing card suits were a reference to the red and black poisoned flower petals used against Batman during the climax. They weren't. There was no clue, the Joker was addressing Batman's skill at solving these kinds of things by providing a riddle with no answer. The Joker's crazy, you can't expect him to be honest all the time.
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** Also in Batman 666, which introduced Professor Pyg long before his present-day debut in Batman: Reborn.
** Damian's description of Oberon Sexton: {{spoiler|There's something funny about him.}}
** Cassandra Cain's cameo in Fabian Nicieza's ''Red Robin'' #17 heavily foreshadowed her eventual involvement in Batman Inc., where Morrison made her into the Batman of Hong Kong in issue #6.
* [[Flying Car]]: Foreshadowed in one panel of ''Batman and Son'' when Damian pulls the tarp off an unfinished chassis; Used in ''Batman and Robin'' as Dick and Damian's main vehicle; and, based on interior art from the ''Batman Incorporated'' reboot, remains the main vehicle for the Dynamic Duo.
* [[Fourth Wall Psych]]: "NOW DO YOU GET IT!?"
* [[Hannibal Lecture]]: The Joker gleefully gives one to the Black Glove.
{{quote|"I'll bet that you have no idea who you're dealing with."}}
* [[Heel Face Turn]]: Issue 12.
* [[Hijacked by Ganon]]: Doctor Hurt and Doctor Dedalus have both claimed credit for Professor Pyg's current status as a mad scientist villain
* [[Hoist by His Own Petard]]: {{spoiler|Deathstroke}}, though to be fair, it wasn't technically his Petard. He still got his ass kicked though.
* [[I Coulda Been a Contender]]: Played straight and subverted with the different members of the Batmen of All Nations; the team-up that could have propelled them to international repute ended up sputtering out after only two meetings. The members ended up reacting quite differently, running the spectrum of this trope; some, like El Gaucho and Man Of Bats, ended up thriving and being quite content operating within their local spheres of influence rather than as an international JLA-style powerhouse (and Man Of Bats actually prefers being a defender of the little guy). On the flip side of the coin, we have Wingman, who for all his over-compensating clearly suffers from this trope worst of all. {{spoiler|It's what prompts his [[Face Heel Turn]].}}
* [[Injun Country]]: The stomping grounds of Man-Of-Bats and Raven Red, described by the latter as "America's own third world."
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* [[Out of Focus]]: His run excludes a portion of Batman's supporting cast (particularly Oracle, Huntress, the police other than Gordon) as well as most of his rogues gallery (with the main exceptions being The Joker and Talia, as well as brief appearances by Harley and Langstrom) in favor of new characters as well as the characters being brought back from obscurity. Although on the flipside, most of the characters he ignores are covered in Paul Dini's Bat-books.
** There is a reason for that: most of Batman's enemies are (currently) either in Arkham or prison.
** Completely subverted in Batman Inc., where most of the characters Morrison was accused of excluding have appeared. Oracle, Batgirl, Cassandra Cain, and Red Robin have all shown up in some capacity so far.
* [[Pet the Dog]]: The first thing we see Damian do as Batman in the [[Bad Future]]? Save a little girl from one of Professor Pyg's acid-spewing dollotrons.
* [[Pocket Protector]]: In ''Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne'', an amnesiac Bruce Wayne wakes up in hospital; his life apparently having been saved from a bullet by Mordecai Wayne's journal he was carrying in his pocket.
* [[Pure Is Not Good]]: The drug lord El Penitente goes through severe scourging to absolve himself of sin, cleansing his soul to pointedly free him to commit further atrocities. {{spoiler|Probably subverted when it turns out it's just another alias of Simon Hurt.}}
* [[Real Men Wear Pink]]: Flamingo can take a lot of punishment in that flamboyant ensemble.
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* [[Red Herring]]: Averted. During R.I.P., the "Bat-Radia" which the Batman of Zur-En-Arrh had turned out to have been more important than anyone thought. Previously in the arc, it was just thought as being another call back to the [[Silver Age]].
* [[The Reveal]]: You know what Gravediggers are also referred to in Shakespearean literature? {{spoiler|Clowns.}} Now what is old Oberon's real name again?
** After the Black Glove's escape from Arkham, it had been revealed that almost all of the core members were murdered over the course of several months. At first, we are lead to believe that it was due to the League of Assassins. As it turns out, not only was the League ''not'' responsible, all the murders had a striking similarity to them: {{spoiler|they were murdered in such a way that only the Joker would find them funny}}.
** Doctor Hurt is {{spoiler|a result of Darkseid's fall through space and time prior to Final Crisis.}}
*** More specifically, Doctor Hurt was {{spoiler|"Thomas Wayne", an 18th century ancestor of Bruce Wayne's who worshipped a Bat Devil known as "Barbatos". However, "Barbatos" turned out to be Darkseid's Omega Adaptor, which turned Thomas immortal and insane (moreso). Bruce's parents tried to help Hurt by putting him in Willowood Asylum (a reference to an old Silver Age story where Bruce has a brother, Thomas Wayne Jr, who went insane and had to be put in an asylum), but he didn't want their pity, so (after they were dead) Hurt arranged to tarnish their names and summon "Barbatos" again using a secret box that's said to bring about the end of the world when opened. What's inside the box, though? A batarang and a note that says "Gotcha".}}
* [[Revival Loophole]]: Used in the final issue of ''The Return of Bruce Wayne'' -- Bruce Wayne has been imbued with dangerous Omega energies that will cling to him until he dies... you can see where this is going. (That's not all there is to it, though.)
* [[Screw This, I'm Outta Here]]: After a short but traumatic stint as a vigilante, {{spoiler|Scarlet takes the Red Hood's mobile headquarters}} and drives the hell away from Gotham, laughing at all the pain and misfortune that befell her during her time there.
** [[Subverted Trope|Subverted]], actually, in that {{spoiler|Red Hood}} told {{spoiler|her}} to run.
* [[Shoo Out the Clowns]]: Sort of. Batman is so embarrassed by many of his sillier adventures that he hides away all evidence of them, only saying they occurred in the Black Casebook.
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* [[Shout-Out]]: A rather cruel use of the trope - Near the end of "The Revenge of the Red Hood", Jason Todd finds himself shot, unmasked, beaten and at the total mercy of a gaudily dressed psychopath. Said psycho has a LOVELLLLLLYYYYY smile by the way...
** Morrison has stated that he intended to leave as many Joker shout-outs in ''Batman and Robin'' as he could without being too obvious. At the end of the Pyg arc, Batman and Gordon meet to arrest the gang and Gordon states he wishes he could burn the circus base down to the ground. ''That's'' when you realize that the base Pyg used was the Joker Circus from [[The Killing Joke]].
** [[Animal Motifs|Scorpiana's]] distinctive fluted stinger-helmet might just be a coincidence, [[Warhammer
** Chris Simms, writer for Comics Alliance, host of War Rocket Ajax and "the world's foremost Batmanologist", makes an appearance in Batman Inc. #6 -- as a rotting corpse being eaten by Gotham City seagulls. Congrats Chris!
* [[Shrouded in Myth]]: One of the aspects of Batman, Inc. is bringing this facet of the Batman mythos to the fore -- Batman is now everywhere. He's black, he's white, he's a woman, he can fly, he's Bruce Wayne, he was never any one person... Bruce actually spreads these rumors himself on various chatrooms and message boards.
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** Well maybe Wingman was. What El Gaucho was trying to say was that Wingman shouldn't look down on the Knight just because he's had some problems in the past. ...One of which just happened to be mind-controlled by a gorilla.
** Red Hood believed his was the next epoch in crime fighting. Then he got shot in the face.
* [[Spell My Name with an "S"]]: The fandom seem torn between spelling the new Robin's name as Damian or Damien. Officially it's the former.
* [[Take That]]: The Red Hood, who is laughably self-conscious about his branding as a Nineties Antihero.
** A vigilante with his own website? Unmasking your enemies live over the internet? Sounds like Jason's been reading far too much [[Kick-Ass]].
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* [[Teeth-Clenched Teamwork]]: The Hood and el Gaucho ''really'' don't like each other, due in no small part to the lasting enmity between Britain and Argentina
* [[Ten Little Murder Victims]]: "The Black Glove"
* [[Took a Level
** The Musketeer actually retired from regular crime fighting after he wrote a book about his time in an insane asylum and made millions.
** The Ranger changed his name to Dark Ranger in order to keep up with the ever-changing underworld, although he points out that he did so out of necessity and doesn't come across as a typical nineties antihero. He's one of the more amicable and rational of those at the party.
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* [[Villainous Breakdown]]: Professor Pyg. "Sexy disco hot."
** Hurt suffers one during his total defeat in B&R #16.
* [[Villainous Harlequin]]: Pierrot Lunaire
* [[We Have Reserves]]: Spine blasted to bits? That's okay, Damian's got a spare.
* [[Wham! Episode]]: Batman #680. Along with the [[Face Heel Turn]], Batman actually unmasks and reveals his secret identity to The Joker of all people. Joker doesn't seem to care about this and then starts indirectly addressing the audience.
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** The Joker pretty clearly already knew - and didn't give a damn.
*** In ''Arkham Asylum'' (also by [[Grant Morrison]]), the Joker makes it clear he doesn't care who's under the mask when the other inmates want to see Batman's real face, stating the mask ''is'' his real face.
** Batman #701-702: After resting for three days after his confrontation with Hurt in Batman R.I.P., Bruce finally ventures into the [[Room Full of Crazy]] hidden in Wayne Manor, with the names "Barbatos" and "Thomas" scribbled all over the walls.
** You think Darkseid just used the Omega Sanction on Bruce? WRONG. {{spoiler|After hitting Bruce with the Omega Sanction Darkseid pulls out the Ancestor Box which, as the box itself puts it: "It learns! It knows! It bonds! It lives to become the fate you can't escape! Omega is death that gives and gives forever. Omega ‘tailor makes’ an unbeatable ‘life trap’ just for you. It uses 'history’ to do it!”}}
** Aside from learning about the most important elements from RIP and Doctor Hurt, Bruce's entire narrative from RIP came from the beginning of BTROBW.
* [[Where Does He Get All Those Wonderful Toys?]]: {{spoiler|"Well, the answer is me."}}
{{reflist}}
[[Category:DC Comics Series]]
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[[Category:Batman]]
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