Batman #674
DC Comics
Writer: Grant Morrison
Pencils: Tony Daniel
Inker: Sandu Florea

I’ll say this for Grant Morrison: he keeps you guessing.

In Batman #674, Batman is held hostage by the third of the “Imposter Bat-Men,” who finally spills the beans on just what the heck’s been going on for the past twelve-fifteen issues. The origin behind the three “Imposter Bat-Men” is scarier than those Filipino convicts who reenact the Thriller video, and the use of flashbacks in #673 is appropriately trippy, but what’s really on everyone’s mind is only hinted at:

IS GRANTY-POO GOING TO KILL BRUCE WAYNE?

In recent interviews, DC Editor-in-Chief Dan DiDio and writer Grant Morrison both have discussed the upcoming story arc “Batman: RIP.” (slated to start this April) Both men have been predictably cryptic about whether Batman will RIP by the end of the story. DiDio was quoted as saying that Bruce Wayne is actually dead as the “Batman RIP” arc begins, but “dead” is slipperier in comics than “sexual relations” in the Democratic party. Especially given the way Morrison’s toyed with altered states of consciousness for the past four or five issues.

The shifts in location and narration in this issue are dizzying. For a lesser writer, it would be a mad jumble, but Morrison’s deranged genius somehow manipulates the Tarantino-esque time warps. That’s all secondary, though, compared to the excruciatingly tempting hints dropped about what mystery villain waits in the wings. “If my hypothetical ultimate enemy can be imagined, I can’t help considering the possibility that he actually exists,” Bruce Wayne thinks to himself. Equally frustrating are the Imposter Bat-Man’s taunts: “Ask yourself why we reactivated. Why your replacements are circling like vultures. Maybe it’s because we know your luck is running out.”

this article needed a second pic, so enjoy this inadvertant hilarity.

Of course, no one (but Grant, Tony Daniel et al) know what will happen when Batman’s luck runs out, or who that tantalizing “hypothetical ultimate enemy” is. Worse yet, no one knows if they’re going to actually kill off Batman. I’m completely unsure, though one hint unsettles me. Back during Infinite Crisis, apparently the Monitors told Dick Grayson (Nightwing) that he couldn’t die because he was meant for big things. Will Dick Grayson, the first Robin, become the second Batman? It’s what I’d put my money on right now, and I wish I weren’t.

Marvel Comics has already shown fans that it puts sales and shock before story and tradition. That’s what really died when Captain American bought it a year ago. Will DC do the same? Is the commercial pressure too great on DC not to match Marvel’s strategy by killing one of their own? I can theorize all I want--it’ll probably be wrong, given Grant Morrison’s ability to pull surprises out of his ear. Still, I’m holding out hope that DC Comics won’t off Bruce Wayne and make me want to stop buying their product, because I need entertainment, and there’s only so many times I can watch those Filipino prison inmates “terrorize y’all’s neighborhood.”

Worth the money? Yes, for the time being.