I can't help it; I know that zombies are/were the big thing, but there's something about the current trend for undead superheroics that leaves me more than a little bored. I've got nothing against genres mixing and matching, but the original Marvel Zombies - with its horror movie logic and sense of humor, and its lack of need to have to deal with regular continuity allowing it to actually act as a complete story as opposed to something that pretty much needs to reset to the status quo by its conclusion - aside, there's something disappointing about this particular take on the walking (and flying, and running at superspeed) dead. Namely...

None Of Them Are Real Zombies
Again, Marvel Zombies excepted, the reanimated in Blackest Night and Necrosha aren't really zombies, exactly (Something that Blackest Night's creators, to their credit, keep saying in interviews. Even so, calling them Black Lanterns feels like a dodge, because they're dead characters come back to life as undead monsters - They're so clearly zombie-influenced that the actual name doesn't matter). They're magically animated by the power of death itself, or by a psychic vampire (Don't ask), or whatever, and they don't conform to what we'd consider zombie rules: They're not slow, they don't eat brains, they're intelligent - and, in fact, generally have the personalities of their living selves - and they're all under the command of some central intelligence or leader with a specific mission. What kind of zombies are that organized, you might ask yourself? Which brings us to...

We've Seen This All Before
The dead being brought back as pawns to use against our brave heroes? Old hat for superhero comics - In fact, Marvel even has multiple characters based around this concept (the Grim Reaper, the Black Talon... You could even argue that Brother - now Doctor - Voodoo would have some familiarity on the subject). The only thing that's new about this latest wave is the overwhelming scale of the risings... which is one of the few things legitimately taken from zombie culture. Which reminds me.

Enough With The Magic Cures Already
Zombies should be pretty easy to beat. If Simon Pegg and Nick Frost can take care of some, after all, how hard can it be? But not these superhero zombies; no, they're not only gifted with magical regenerative powers that somehow don't take them to a fully regenerated state, but they also have very specific ways to be defeated, apparently: Blowing their heads off? Not going to work, it seems. Setting fire to them? Well, it keeps them busy for awhile, but otherwise... Nah. But keep calm and show no signs of emotion and they shut down (All of that from Blackest Night, which, in its defense is not only a fun superhero story but, in Blackest Night: Superman and Blackest Night: Batman has some really great examples of superhero comics ripping off some well-known horror movie cliches - If you've not seen Martha Kent be chased through a cornfield at night by an undead Lois Lane, or Commissioner Gordon use a double-barreled shotgun against an army of the undead while carrying his crippled daughter over his shoulder, you've missed out on some wonderfully enjoyable over-the-top moments of recent comics). Seriously, comic creators: what's that all about?

Death Is Never The End In Superhero Comics, Anyway
Ultimately, the problem with superheroic zombies is that the rules of death don't work the same way in superhero comics as they do in almost every other fiction. We're used to resurrection in superhero comics, and that works against the story from the very beginning; Blackest Night, for example, has to not only make the reader believe that the dead rising is not only a horrific thing, but also an unusual one - Which, considering that Superman, Green Lantern, Flash, Green Arrow, Hawkman and Robin have all "died" and been resurrected at some point in their careers, is a pretty tricky thing to do; Necrosha takes place in the X-Men series of titles, which has become so full of resurrected characters that characters within the story joke about the pearly gates having been replaced by a revolving door. Without the belief that death is the end - that it means that the person or character is gone and will never be seen again - the very idea of an army of the undead is weakened, because the possibility of a return is always there, and in many cases, expected to happen.

Mixing zombies with superheroes doesn't automatically mean failure - Despite all my "I know you've said they're not zombies and they're not acting like zombies, but come on, they're weird zombie-esque creatures, just admit it" problems with Blackest Night, it's full enough of melodrama, derring-do and humor to make me kind of love it - but of all the horror genres to bring superheroes into, it's one of the most problematic. I can get why comic publishers would want to jump onboard the bandwagon, but... Aren't there other horror monsters better suited to this kind of thing? I mean, Marvel: Paul Cornell gave you Dracula on the moon. That's a great gift right there...

Fans of Marvel Comics' ongoing Dark Reign storyline will be happy this week. In addition to Dark Reign: The List - X-Men, there's also Dark X-Men: The Confession (which, in the mighty Marvel tradition, ties into Dark Reign, X-Men and the recently completed Dark Avengers/Uncanny X-Men: Utopia) and Dark Reign: Made Men, which looks at what's happening for the villains not in the center of Norman Osborn's scheme to villainize America.

For those who prefer a brighter Marvel Universe, Joss Whedon's entire X-Men run gets a collection in the Astonishing X-Men Omnibus. And the X-Men Origins hardcover brings together some beautifully illustrated retellings of the earliest days of the mutant franchise. Spider-Woman #1 is the paper version of the motion comic, but the oddest release from Marvel this week is Pet Avengers Classic Vol. 1, which offers up an anthology of stories about Marvel's Mightiest Pets. Yes, really.

DC aren't the kind of publishers who'd pull a lame stunt like pet superheroes (Well, apart from the Legion of Super-Pets, and Krypto and Streaky and, okay, never mind). DC would much rather pull lame stunts like phone votes to decide the fates of long-running characters, and in the DC Comics Library: A Death In The Family hardcover, you can relive that bold, classy experiment that ended with Robin being blown up by the Joker. Prouder moments of classic comics get collected in the first volume of Flash Chronicles, reprinting (again) the first appearances of the Silver Age Flash. And the Push trade paperback collects the comic book prologue that was much better than the movie it tied into.

Luckily, and unusually, the two best books of the week are both single issues, allowing you to sample both before running back in a month for seconds. (And they're openings of mini-series, so you don't have to worry about making a long-term commitment.)

Superman: Secret Origin lets Geoff Johns and Gary Frank go to town on the Man of Steel, taking six issues to tell the story of how a baby rocketed from a dying planet could grow up to make the tights and cape combo work in a way that will doubtless entertain and hint at what's to come in the character's future.

Underground brings together the obscenely talented Jeff (X-Men First Class, Agents of Atlas and countless other wonderful books) Parker and Steve (Whiteout, which I promise is better than the movie) Lieber for a series that makes up in adventure and fun what it lacks in science fiction. Check out a preview of the first issue here to be convinced.

As always, all of these books and more can be found on the official Diamond shipping list for the week, and your local comic store can be found using your friendly neighborhood Comic Shop Locator. Just promise us that you'll believe that a man can fly and go underground all at the same time, huh?

There's something iconic about the title "Batman and Robin" (as well as the idea of Batman as this well-adjusted, not-entirely-fucked-up character) - With getting a new #1 and new series to continue the story you've been telling since 2006, is this your attempt to open up the character to another audience who either have never been interested in the character, or who may have strayed away as Bruce Wayne became more and more grim?

I hadn't thought of it in those terms. The 'grim 'n' gritty', noir approach to Batman has been fairly successful over the last 25 years, so I don't know if I ever imagined it keeping readers away. It's an interesting thought. If the style of Batman and Robin opens the door for new or returning readers, I'd be very happy.

You've talked before about this title being a mix of the '60s Adam West TV show and David Lynch, with Chris Cunningham's peculiar brand of wrongness thrown in as well... This seems to continue to an extent both the pop-art imagery of early in your Batman run with Andy Kubert, and the weird psychological darkness of Batman RIP - Audiences are used to seeing a screwed-up Batman thanks to things like The Dark Knight, but the comedy/brightness that you bring to the character has kind of been shied away from since, perhaps, Bob Haney and Adam West. Is it important to you that the character has that balance?

Certainly. The Bruce Wayne voice I hear in my head when I'm writing is sardonic, upper-class, absolutely self-assured and hyper-intelligent. He's seen it all, he's been desensitized to a lot of stuff the rest of us might find shocking and I've always imagined him as a man with a very refined, jet-black sense of humour.

There have been other attempts to do a 'brighter' Batman, of course. Immediately after Frank Miller reinvented the wheel with The Dark Knight Returns and Batman: Year One, Mike W. Barr and Alan Davis launched a brilliant run of stories which owed more to Adam West than to Frank Miller. Bruce Timm and Paul Dini's Batman from the Animated Series was portrayed as a tough but psychologically-healthy individual and Miller and Lee's All Star Batman and Robin has plenty of room for comedy, so these aspects of the character have never truly gone away and form an intrinsic part of the appeal of Batman for many people. The Batman TV series was immensely popular after all and retains a certain undeniable charm even today.

I think any good, long-running thoroughly-developed fictional character will naturally come to have many faces and aspects. Batman's had 70 years to build up quite a complex and layered 'personality'.

Of course, one of my all-time favourite Batman panels was written by Haney and drawn by Jim Aparo and shows Batman strolling down the sunlit streets of Gotham, checking out the mini-skirted girls and accompanied by the line to end all lines: 'Yes, Batman digs this day!'

I'm not saying that's the Batman we want to see on every page, but I love that he might have this aspect to his character. I love the notion of a Batman who enjoys a peaceful stroll down the summer sidewalks of the city he keeps safe. There's something very human about that and it makes him much more relatable and rounded. I can certainly see the Dick Grayson Batman digging this day on a more regular basis!

To my mind, you've firmly put the sci-fi back into Batman, after years of his comics becoming more and more... mundane isn't the right word, but more of a hardcore crime book. Then you come along and suddenly there are crazy psychosomatic drug hallucinations of aliens and then Bruce Wayne gets zapped back in time by an evil god. Is this just trying to bring back all the pre-Silver Age ideas from the character's history that've been lost, or do you feel as if Batman works better as a concept when the weirdness of his rogues gallery gets amped up?

Putting Batman up against ordinary street criminals or organized gang bosses is fine but it's a bit one-sided in Batman's favour, given his training. I tend to assume that Batman goes out every single night as Gotham's Guardian and stops dozens of robberies, muggings, suicides or whatever all the time. Those 'ordinary', 'mundane' crimes are his bread and butter but they don't really challenge him and they don't necessarily make for compelling stories, so I prefer to focus on the wilder, weirder nights of his career and I like to see him facing devilishly brilliant, flamboyant psychos who can actually put him under pressure and take him to his limits. Watching a billionaire Batman disarm poorly-trained, poverty-stricken muggers effortlessly or beating up skinny junkies might be fun for a scene or two but does tend to raise thorny issues of class and privilege that the basic adventure hero concept is not necessarily equipped to deal with adequately.

As for the sci-fi elements, there's actually very little genuine sci-fi in the Batman title or in Batman and Robin. Batman RIP was certainly an attempt to recuperate those elements of Batman's long and contradictory history which no longer fit the profile of the Grim Avenger (although it's nice to see a lot of that material resurfacing in the Brave and The Bold cartoon, which features one of the most enjoyable takes on the character I've seen for a long time).

I don't have many comics in my tattered, bath-damaged 'collection' that date before 1972 when I became a 'fan' and a collector. My era of comics is the 'dark age' of the 70s and 80s, not the so-called 'silver age', so contrary to popular belief, I don't have any particular emotional attachment to 60s comics, other than John Broome's Flash stories which enchanted me as a small child.

I grew up with Neal Adams and Denny O'Neil, Len Wein, Engelhart, Starlin, Gerber, McGregor so my comic-writing style can be traced back to some combination of O'Neil' 'relevance' and Starlin 'cosmic'. Silver age, not so much.

Something that struck me about Batman RIP was the meta-deconstruction of the Batman mythos - When Jezebel Jet told Bruce Wayne that it wasn't healthy to be Batman, she may have been evil and trying to undermine his mission, but was she really completely wrong? With a new (and probably temporary) Batman who's going to not have those demons, are you trying to show how a healthier Bruce Wayne would do things?

I never really subscribed to the idea that Bruce was insane or unhealthy. As I've said before, Bruce Wayne's physical and psychological training regimes (including advanced meditation techniques) would tend to encourage a fairly balanced and healthy personality. Bruce Wayne would have gone mad if he HADN'T dressed as a bat and found a startling way to channel the grief, guilt and helplessness he felt after the death of his parents. Without Batman, Bruce would be truly screwed-up but with Batman he becomes mythic, more than human and genuinely useful to his community. I believe he began to slay his demons the moment he became a demon.

I also wanted to show a healthier Gotham City too. That whole Son-of-Sam, Rorschach-narration - 'This city is an open sewer where the rats feed on the broken dreams and filth of umm...other rats...where sneering, gnawing urban predators...blah blah...' - has become clichéd, tired and unconvincing. If Gotham was so bloody awful, no-one normal would live there and there'd be no-one to protect from criminals. If Gotham really was an open sewer of crime and corruption, every story set there would serve to demonstrate the complete and utter failure of Batman's mission, which isn't really the message we want to send, is it? You've got Batman and all his allies as well as Commissioner Gordon and the city still exudes a vile miasma of darkness and death? I can't buy that. It's simply not realistic and flies in the face of in-story logic (and you know I like my comics realistic!) so my artists and I have taken a different tack and we want to show the cool, vibrant side of Gotham, the energy and excitement that would draw people to live and visit there.

Gotham needs as many faces as Batman - it should be the loudest, sexiest, jazziest city on Earth. It has the best restaurants, the best theaters, the best art, the best criminals, the best crimefighters etc etc. People put up with the weird crime for the sheer buzz.

Why does Damian want to be Robin, if he can't show off to his dad?

Ultimately, Damian wants to be Batman. Being Robin is a step along the way.

Are you going to reference Dick Grayson's previous attempt to be Batman in the early '90s at any point in Batman and Robin?

Probably. I've tried to keep Dick Grayson's entire character history in mind, much as I did with Bruce Wayne in the earlier volumes of the story. Issue 2 has a reference to Grayson's time as a beat cop in the Bludhaven PD and the Bat-Bunker has a few trophies of his Nightwing adventures.

You've talked before about how the first year of the series works out, with artist Frank Quitely drawing the first and last three issues. What happens after the first year of the book? Are you planning on sticking around with Batman as a character, or will you be finished with Gotham for awhile once #13 rolls around?

That was the original plan but I can't seem to stop coming up with ideas for Batman, so we'll see how it goes.

Okay, last one. How would you sell Batman and Robin to people who haven't picked up a Batman comic in years?

Batman is dead. Robin is now Batman and Batman's evil son is now Robin. Everything is new again. If you ever liked Batman and don't want to see how that dynamic plays out, then may the Lord have mercy on your dry and shriveled worthless husk of a 'soul'! G'wan, g'wan, g'wan and buy Batman and Robin before the whole world starts laughing at you for missing out! Missing this is like missing your own birthday!

Batman and Robin #2 is in comic stores now.

"The Color Of Revenge" was packed with shout-outs to longtime Batman fans, whether it was the villain's hideout on the corner of Haney and Aparo (For Bob Haney and Jim Aparo, whose long run as writer and artist on the comic version of The Brave And The Bold in the '60s and '70s clearly inspired this series), the opening sequence that "borrowed" from the 1960s Adam West TV show, or even adult Robin wearing his Earth-2 counterpart's costume. Luckily, it also had enough of a thoughline for those who haven't wasted their youths to get something out of the episode, as well. Namely, that Batman is a dick.

Okay, okay; the plot was actually that Crazy Quilt, a villain that Robin had (accidentally?) blinded when he was Batman's sidekick had escaped from Arkham Asylum and wanted revenge, prompting Batman to swoop in and try and save the day before he realized that Robin was a grown man now and could fight his own battles. But the best part of the episode was that Batman didn't really learn his lesson; the episode finished with Robin, still pissed off, still riding in the sidecar of the Batcycle.

I'm sure I should feel more bothered that the series pulled the same "And here's the lesson... but he didn't learn it!" joke last week with Booster Gold, but I admit it; I'm enough of a fanboy that I was won over by the Dick Sprang-esque Robin, and love seeing Batman being oblivious to the obvious when it's not got anything to do with a case. If next week's episode involves someone failing to notice the very, very clear moral to the story, however, my faith in this colorful, sly, fun show may be shaken.

Well, unless they throw in more shiny injoke distractions, of course.

Admittedly, the solicitation text doesn't really reveal a lot about the new Batman. Take the advertising copy for Batman #687:

This 40-page issue explores the final moments of the Battle for the Cowl as the new Batman learns that winning the Cowl comes at a high price! Witness the new Batman taking to the streets of Gotham City for the first time! Putting a new man inside the Bat-suit was the easy part – now the fun begins! Guest-starring Superman and Wonder Woman, this issue is a must-read for any Batman fan.

Similarly, the solicit for new series Batman: Streets of Gotham doesn't help much:

As a new Batman rises on the streets of Gotham City, the heroes, villains and citizens take notice. How will the police feel about this new Batman, and can he control the crime in Gotham the way the old Batman did?

If nothing else, the solicitation for a second new series - All Star Superman's Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely's Batman and Robin - tells us about their mode of transport and promises answers:

The new Dynamic Duo hit the streets with a bang in their new flying Batmobile as they face off against an assemblage of villains called the Circus of Strange. They also tackle their first mission investigating a child who's been abducted by the mysterious Domino Killer. But will everything go smoothly? And who exactly are the new Batman and Robin? The newest era of The Dark Knight begins here!

(Honestly, anyone who doesn't get a little bit excited or amused by "their new flying Batmobile" is a little bit dead inside.)

If you want a real clue who the new Batman and Robin are, however, it's better to just talk to Morrison himself, whose hints are just a little bit too easy:

I don't want to give away who they are just yet with [writer-artist] Tony [Daniel] still doing "Battle for the Cowl." But what we've got is a more light-hearted, more spontaneous Batman and a real bad-ass, violent Robin. So I think people are going to enjoy it. It's a very different dynamic between the two characters... It's the classic buddy thing. It's the original partnership. And it's always worked. And I think it's going to work in even more interesting ways in this book. Their personalities are very, very different. So where we saw Batman before in a leadership role, a mentor role, this shows Robin as having some big ideas of his own. It's the sparks that fly between the characters in this incarnation that makes it very interesting. It's a real fresh kind of feel.

A light-hearted Batman? A bad-ass violent Robin? That sounds ridiculously like Dick "Nightwing" Grayson is taking over as Batman (a hunch accidentally confirmed by one of DC's writers in his blog - thanks, Rajiv!), with Damien, Bruce Wayne's slightly psychopathic son, taking on the Robin guise. But if you're wondering where that leaves Bruce Wayne and Tim Drake, the former Batman and current Robin, then I'd suggest that new series Red Robin may be the place to look:

Someone believes that Bruce Wayne may still be alive…and that someone is Red Robin. But who is wearing the Red Robin costume, and why is he traveling the globe looking for a dead man? Whoever he is, he's not alone in his search!

Never mind the flying Batmobile, this may be the series to follow for science fiction thrills. After all, we know that Bruce Wayne is alive, and trapped in the past... and Morrison himself admits that "We're not really entertaining the notion that Bruce won't be back at some time. This isn't like 'Captain America' with the Winter Soldier story and Cap's really gone." Open the sci-fi closet, Alfred. Strange times may be ahead.

DC Comics in June [DC Comics]

With Bruce Wayne "elsewhere" (and that's all DC is saying about that), 2009 will see its first lesbian superhero in its longest running book as Batwoman takes over Detective Comics. DC super-writer Greg Rucka and artist J.H. Williams will be taking over the reins of the flagship title for "at least" twelve issues. Although Batwoman is not the first openly gay character to star in a DC series – her former partner Renee Montoya is just finishing up starring in Final Crisis: Revelations, also written by Rucka – this does represent the most high profile title starring a gay superhero for the publisher.

Rucka's run will start this June as part of DC's massive month of Batman releases, with eight different titles hitting comic book stores. Joining the venerable Detective and Batman will be Red Robin, Batman and Robin, Outsiders, Batgirl, Gotham City Sirens, and Batman: Streets of Gotham.

Of course, all of this will be spinning out of this spring's Battle for the Cowl storyline, where various potential heirs will fight for the right to succeed Batman. At today's panel promoting the coming year of Batman comics, it was clear that everybody in the Batman family (except, you know…Batman) will have a huge role to play in the upcoming stories, including all three Robins, Batgirl, Catwoman, Knight and Squire, Damien, and characters from the late, lamented Gotham Central – because, as Greg Rucka explains, "He just can't keep himself away from [them]." There's one other returning person that will likely make Batman fans very happy, as the panel assured the fans that Batman: The Animated Series and Detective Comics scribe Paul Dini will be back in the near future.

And finally, Outsiders writer Pete Tomasi promised the Batman's most faithful friend will be getting his time in the sun. Alfred Pennyworth will feature in upcoming issues of the series where he will be "the eyes and ears" of the audience. Outsiders will explore the faithful Wayne family retainer's prior history, including his military experience, all as part of a larger plan to show Alfred can do more than simply get beaten up all the time. Or so he claims.

The tabloid UK paper The Sun (no doubt ears perking from the recent Rachel Weisz Catwoman rumors) is reporting that Eddie Murphy has been cast — mind you, CAST — as The Riddler in the sequel to Dark Knight according to one insider.

Also the paper says Shia LaBeouf has been cast as Robin. Forget the fact that Christian Bale has announced he would rather do Newsies 2 than share the screen with Dick Grayson, but hey — why not?

According to The Sun:

A film insider said: “Chris wasn’t sure if he wanted to do another movie but as soon as he decided to, he got the wheels in motion. "Eddie’s a fantastic addition. Everyone’s excited to see what he does as the Riddler.”

Forget, also, the fact that the script hasn't been written and that rumors have been running wild for months now. There is just no way that Murphy is cast in the movie. How do these rumors take flight? Don't forget, not long ago people were seriously debating whether Cher was going to play Catwoman. I'm still hoping to start a rumor that Liza Minelli is playing the Penguin — pass it along!

[The Sun]

For those who haven't been following the storyline, this is what you've missed: Bruce Wayne's girlfriend, the wonderfully-named Angelina Jolie stand-in Jezebel Jet, works out that he is, in fact Batman. At the same time as telling him that such behavior isn't healthy, she also reveals that she has been contacted by a group calling itself "The Black Glove" - a group that has also been making various moves against Batman over the past few months. We learn that the Black Glove is headed by a man called Simon Hurt, and that their goal is the complete and utter destruction of Batman... which they apparently succeed in, by kidnapping Bruce Wayne and, in a plot development that skirts the "awesome/insane" border multiple times, drive him insane by getting him addicted to "weapons-grade heroin."

Only problem is that Batman was already insane, and had planned for something like this to happen. Batman's sanity is not in doubt in this storyline; we are told, multiple times, that Batman is clearly insane and unhealthy, and that's brought home when the broken Batman is replaced by an all-new personality that Batman himself had created as a hypnotic failsafe in case of emergency: The Batman of Zur-En-Arrh. This personality, which is the personification of the unstoppable Batman of myth, returns to confront not only the Black Glove, but also the Joker (released from Arkham Asylum by the Glove).

As the Batman of Zur-En-Arrh realizes that he can't win, and becomes plain old Bruce Wayne again - before blacking out - we're left with a revelation and a possible clue as to who's behind it all: Jezebel Jet, it's revealed, is apparently part of the Black Glove.

Except... that's a little too easy, according to a rumor that's going around the internets. That rumor says that, although Jet is part of the bad guys, she's not the bad guy - because that's Robin, the Boy Wonder.

No, really.

As ridiculous as it sounds, there are a couple of clues that point to this being more than just wild speculation. The first is from the end of the previous chapter, where the reader's attention is drawn (by both the Joker and Batman himself) to the colors red and black; this may be pointed towards Jezebel Jet (a black woman with dyed red hair), but it could also be directed towards Robin, whose costume is red and black, and whom, we were told earlier in the chapter, has not been captured like all of Batman's other sidekicks ("Well, little red Robin's proving to be a more... slippery customer than we expected"). We know from upcoming solicitations for Robin's own comic that 2009 will see "an all-new Robin," and the cover of last month's issue of the Robin comic did say that the end was near... But what kind of end is that, exactly...?

(To add entirely specious fuel to the fire; it's never been revealed what made writer Chuck Dixon leave DC Comics so suddenly this past June, just prior to the launch of Batman RIP, but as the writer most credited with the development of this current Robin, the possibility of his leaving in protest over discovering that the character was going to be revealed as the character trying to take down Batman once and for all is an interesting one.)

While Robin's sudden turn to the dark side would be a surprising one in more ways that one, it's definitely a revelation that fits writer Grant Morrison's promise that the villain's identity will be "possibly the most shocking Batman revelation in 70 years." But where does this leave Batman himself? Not dead dead, apparently; Morrison has also said that the storyline will end "Bruce Wayne as Batman" but that "it’s so much better than death. People have killed characters in the past but to me, that kind of ends the story! I like to keep the story twisting and turning. So what I am doing is a fate worse than death."
Uberfan Omar Karindu has a compelling argument as to what that fate may be:

Batman Will Die At the End of "Batman R.I.P."

This doesn't have to mean that Bruce Wayne dies in the flesh, or even that he no longer wears the costume and fights the fight. It means that Batman as a persona, as the 'real" person where Bruce et al. are merely masks and tools, has to die.

The Black Glove has won by exploiting the split that let Batman take on all the unreason and hurt of Bruce Wayne, child victim of crime and traumatized orphan, making the split expand and multiply. So how does Batman win? By fixing the split, by unifying the personality again, the whole personality. By letting Bruce Wayne live, and hurt, and be a little irrational when it's human to be so, and ultimately, by killing the need for Batman.

Batman will die; Bruce Wayne will live. Bruce Wayne will no longer be "a daytime mask for the Batman," but rather "Batman" will either cease to be or will become simply a mask Bruce Wayne finds useful in extreme circumstances.

Let's face it, you don't have to wear the symbol of your father-as-heroic-ideal and your childhood fears wrapped up into one Bat-emblem to fight crime, help crime victims, answer to and avenge your parents' memory. In fact, what Batman has done is to mix the impossibly perfect memory of Thomas Wayne with the impossibly infinite well of fear and suffering of that scary cave of bats and that terrible night in Crime Alley, tp the point that the heroic ideal Thomas Wayne can also be the murderous psychopath Simon Hurt. Thinking in absolutes about regular people gives you God and the Devil all in one... What if Bruce Wayne puts himself back together to the point that he doesn't need Batman anymore? Would that be the death of Batman?

(The entirity of Karindu's post is well worth reading - It dives into Batman's insanity as hyperrationality and the ways in which all of Batman's companions from Wayne himself to Alfred on down are enablers, and therefore accomplices of the Black Glove.)

Is healing Bruce Wayne's insanity a fate worse than death? Potentially, for Batman (and for fans who like their Batman to be driven, haunted and a little on the nuts side himself); it would definitely fit in with what we've seen in RIP up until this point, which has often commented on the broken psyche of Bruce Wayne... as well as fulfilling (famous fan of the more sane, groovy 1960s Batman than the Dark Knight version of the character) Morrison's aim of providing something more shocking than death - What if Bruce Wayne just... gets better?

We'll find out whether either of these speculations are correct on Wednesday, when Batman #681 - part six of Batman RIP hits stores.

The first few episodes of the new Smallville season have been literally exhausting, I can't bear to watch any more. Now that Michael Rosenbaum's suave Lex Luthor is gone, there's just nothing compelling about this show. Everyone has been speculating that this will be the final year of Smallville, and maybe lead into a fun Lois and Clark reboot. But alas TV execs are denying Smallville its rightful death.

Smallville executive producers Brian Peterson and Kelly Souders released a statement that season 9 was already on the drawing board, and there was no way The Graysons would end the series.

Never have we been so committed to the continuing success of Smallville as we are to seasons 8 and 9.... [We] are all working full-steam ahead on a storyline for Clark that allows for seasons of further trials and adventures for our favorite hero.

They also told Kryptonsite.com that The Graysons was never seen as a replacement for Smallville. So it looks like we're getting both, blech.

[TV Guide]

I just love the fact that Batman carries around a giant bag of Bat-snacks. Where does he keep them? Somewhere on his utility belt? Does he keep them to reward Robin after a long day of crime-fighting? Is that the same pouch where he stores his pants after he whips them off in the earlier clip?

Personally, I doubt you could fit the cute sidekick into the noir-inspired world of Chris Nolan's Batman movies? Even Frank Miller, whose Batman: Year One inspired Nolan's vision, has failed to make Robin work in his All-Star Batman And Robin The Boy Wonder comic. The original Batman comic only lasted about a year before Robin turned up in Detective Comics #38, and the comics have been struggling fitfully to return to their lone-hero roots ever since — most notably after killing off Robin in the late 1980s.

What do you think? Would Robin ruin the Bat-movies? Or could Nolan and co. pull it off?

Gawker Media polls require Javascript; if you're viewing this in an RSS reader, click through to view in your Javascript-enabled web browser.

[Vulture]

City of Ember:

Here are a couple of new photos from City Of Ember, October's movie about the creepy girl from Atonement investigating the secrets of her post-apocalyptic underground city. (Which probably don't involve half-naked James McAvoy this time.) Click the link for bigger versions. [Cinemablend]

Virtuality:

Here are a few more spoilers I left out of yesterday's write-up of Ron Moore's new show Virtuality, either because I forgot or because they were too spoilery. Rika, the wife of the ship's therapist/show producer Roger Fallon, works in the ship's "greenhouse" and says plants are better suited to space travel than humans — but the plants start having root problems. Roger allegedly gets a percentage of all the revenues from the ship's "virtual reality" show. Jules Braun has the V.R. program simulate his dead son Shawn, but the simulation isn't rreal enough, until the program takes from Braun's own psychological profile, and then Shawn is a bit of a psycho.

One of the Green-Eyed Man's virtual-reality murders targets Captain Pike when he's having illicit virtual sex with Dr. Fallon's wife Rika. The Green-Eyed Man "kills" the Parkinsons-afflicted Dr. Meyer in V.R., but he finds the experience liberating instead of scary. When the Green-Eyed Man attacks Billie, the computer geek, she tries to tell the computer to "freeze" the program, but the program won't stop. And she can't exit the program prematurely. (Oh, and the V.R. is via headsets, not a holodeck. Shoulda mentioned that before.)

Dr. Fallon disagrees strongly with Captain Pike's decision to take the V.R. modules off-line after Billie's assault. He feels that without the V.R. modules, the crew will go nuts in deep space. Also, an engineer named Jimmy Johnson, who's confined to a wheelchair, really needs V.R. because it's the only way he can get out of his chair. (The show has a dozen characters, which is a lot to get to know.)

And here's the major spoiler: At the end of the pilot, Capt. Pike gets killed while trying to repair the ship's com-array. (It sucks, because he's one of the most likeable characters in the script, and we've gotten pretty attached to him by this point.) And the ship's com-array is still broken at the end of the episode. Jimmy Johnson takes command, and his first order is to reinstate the V.R. modules. [Thanks so much to Lukas for the heads up]

Get Smart:

In the Get Smart movie, they "super-teched" the Cone Of Silence, says original series writer Mel Brooks. (And did you know that World War Z author Max Brooks was Mel Brooks' son? I didn't.) [LA Times]

X-Files 2:

Mulder does a lot of climbing and jumping off cliffs in X-Files: I Want To Believe, while Scully does no fancy stunts at all, says Scully actor Gillian Anderson. [IGN]

Tekken:

Is Tekken science fiction? I seem to remember the original Tekken movie had a fighting android in it. In any case, here's the first pic of martial arts champion Cung Le as Marshall Law. The movie also stars Luke Goss as Steve Fox and Chiaki Kuriyama (Kill Bill) as Ling Xiaoyu. [Kotaku]

Doctor Who:

The BBC released a new picture from the first part of Steven Moffat's space-library two-parter, which airs a week from Saturday. Plus a short excerpt from the script. [Planet Gallifrey]
THE GIRL: Something's here! Someone got in! No one's supposed to get in!
Dad, agitated, barely able to keep his seat...
DAD: She's never mentioned anyone else. She's always been alone.
The girl, panicking now, afraid...
THE GIRL: Someone's in my library.

Heroes:

Heroes fans are tossing around rumors and speculation, including that Sylar kills Bob, the nominal boss of the Company. Also, we may find out the reason the Company's founders had that meeting that was immortalized in that photograph that everybody kept looking at during season two. [Superhiro.org]

Stargate: Atlantis:

In the Stargate: Atlantis episode "The Lost Tribe," the team meets Katana, the ship's commander for the Travelers, a race that travels in the Pegasus galaxy to avoid the Wraith. And the Travelers are techno-magpies, grabbing all the technology they find in their travels. Katana comes to Atlantis to find out why stargates are blowing up. [TV Squad]

Iron Man

We won't see Iron Man's fellow armored superhero War Machine in the Iron Man movie, but we may get to see Jim Rhodes (who becomes War Machine) put on Iron Man's old armor to rescue Tony Stark, based on hints actor Terence Howard dropped. [IESB]

Dragonball

Here's a picture of the Mexican set for the new Dragonball movie, opening in 2009. It looks like some kind of crater, presumably with CGI stuff happening in the middle where the greenscreen is. [Slashfilm]

Lost

There are rumors that the next Lost episode (the one with the funeral in Iraq) will also feature "GI Jack (aka "Through the Looking Glass" Jack)" in action, and could be a multi-character flash-forward. The episode definitely will feature scenes on the beach, in Otherton, and in the forested valley where Karl was shot. There's also a rumor there will be no Sawyer-centric episode this season. [DocArzt]

Smallville

The April 24 episode of Smallville, "Sleeper," feaures a blonde femme fatale named Vanessa, sent to investigate one of the characters. [BabetteW54]

Battlestar Galactica

Here are the official first 15 episode titles of season four: "He That Believeth In Me," "Six of One," "The Ties That Bind," "Escape Velocity," "The Road Less Travelled," "Faith," "Guess What's Coming to Dinner," "Sine Qua Non," "The Hub," "Revelations," "Sometimes a Great Notion," "The Disquiet That Follows my Soul," "The Oath," "Blood on the Scales," and "No Exit." [Pop Media Cult]

Batman

Robin's dead ex-girlfriend, Spoiler, recently started turning up mysteriously in some of the Batman comics, but we won't find out who the new Spoiler is until this summer. But she's someone we know, says writer Chuck Dixon. Also, Robin will soon face a "true badass" named 666Gun, who will force Robin to rethink his view on the world. And an upcoming storyline will challenge Tim Drake's present as Robin, and his hard-won future as Batman. This synopsis, plus an upcoming cover image (below), gives weight to the idea that Batman will be dying and Robin will take his place. [Comic Book Resources]

Marvel Comics

A low-level Marvel employee dished some minor spoilers (and bitched about the company) in a Livejournal that was deleted over the weekend. Apparently, spoilers included that several of the company's classic 1970s heroes will turn out to have been replaced by shape-shifting alien Skrulls years ago (as part of the big "Secret Invasion") — and that means blaxploitation hero Luke Cage will be back to his original tiara-wearing, yellow shirt look. Also, Iron Man may get a new villain: MODOG. And Spider-Man's dead girlfriend Gwen Stacy may be back. [Lying In The Gutters]

• A new casting notice for the delayed Justice League movie makes the plot sound even stranger than earlier versions. In this version, Superman has been killed by Doomsday, the monster from outer space that killed him in the comics. And Batman gets tossed out of the League for being a pointy-headed control freak. So the movie is about second-stringers Green Arrow and Green Lantern forming a meaner, greener JLA. [Cinemablend]
• The mutants making cameos in the Wolverine movie may include high-profile ones like Deadpool and Gambit, but also minor-leaguers like The Blob and Beak. And we may get (shudder) flashbacks to Wolvie's childhood. [IGN]
• On Lost, someone we've "gotten to know fairly well" is going to die soon, actor Michael Emerson told Barbara Walters. [DocArzt]
• Sounds like that Torchwood rumor we posted before, about Owen becoming the Weevil King, is coming true. Which does not sound good. In episode seven, Jack takes "drastic steps" to bring Owen back from the dead, but opens the doorway for "a terrifying evil" in the process. And the Weevils crown a new king. And then in the following episode, Owen is tormented by his "new circumstances," while a missing alien device threatens to kill everyone. [CoolSciFi]
• There are rumors that a new girl will be taking over as The Spoiler, the superhero whose whole superpower is giving away other people's plots. (The Spoiler used to date Robin, then replaced him, then died horribly and pointlessly. She should really be the mascot of Morning Spoilers.) [Midnight City]
• Monday's Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles sees Brian Austin Green fighting for his life and having flashbacks to life in 2037. Meanwhile, Sarah has some explaining to do to her ex. [WatchTerminatorChronicles]
• A new preview went online for Joss Whedon's newest issue of Runaways. It's been so long since the previous issue that it's all a bit blurry. But the exciting development is that when Xavin loses control, she reverts to her girl self... making that the real her! Here are the preview pages, but unfortunately they popped up backwards. Read the last one first (the one with the big black space and all the text) and they'll make sense. [ComicBookResources]

Famous names: Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons

Crunchy goodness: 5

Spinoffs/Sequels/Copycats: The animated show Justice League Unlimited adapted this story pretty much note-for-note into an episode.

Quotable: "Think clean thoughts, chum." — Batman to Robin, who's checking out Wonder Woman's amazonian bathing suit.

Life lessons: It's easy to idealize your birth family — until you invite your friends over for the holidays. That's always when you realize your super-scientist dad isn't perfect, he's a fascist nutjob.

Victoria Wayne summarizes the story.