Bruce Wayne Takes Back The Cowl In Batman #50

Bruce Wayne becomes Batman again in just a few months, but don’t expect things to just return to normal for the Dark Knight

Well, it seems like James Gordon’s time as Batman is running out. The end of issue #47 of Batman showed an amnesiac Bruce Wayne finally starting to remember who he really was, and the synopsis for issue #50 has been announced, which leads with the return of Bruce Wayne as Batman. But of course it’s not going to be a smooth and easy transition.

Here’s the synopsis for Batman #50:

"Batman has returned to Gotham City! In this extra-sized conclusion to Snyder and Capullo’s epic story “Superheavy,” Bruce Wayne returns to the cape and cowl to battle Mr. Bloom alongside Jim Gordon for the fate of the city they both love"

I knew this wouldn’t last forever, nobody pretended for a second that Batman as Gordon was the new status quo. But given the timing, this seems like a decision driven far more by some sort of corporate synergy than for any storytelling reasons…

Next: Frank Miller Wants To Make Batman he Bad Guy

Allow me to explain. Batman #50 comes out March 23rd. That’s a mere two days before Batman v Superman comes out. Theoretically a lot of people are going to go see that movie, and then want to buy some Batman comics, especially if they are lapsed comic book readers. When they pick up the latest issue of Batman, it better have Bruce Wayne as Batman, not Jim Gordon, who for all we know might be dead in the timeline of Batman v Superman. People who haven’t been paying attention to the comics won’t know what’s going on and won’t care, they’ll just want Bruce Wayne as Batman

In a way I don’t blame DC, but they didn’t even give this status quo change a year before reversing it. This is why comics feel impenetrable sometimes. It’s not nothing lasts forever, it’s nothing even lasts long enough for people to give it a chance. This isn’t exclusive to DC of course, but it seems like way more of a glaring issue there.

h/t CBM