It’s time to reset the Dark Knight’s world again as he makes his way through Gotham City after his recent losses.
Batman 101
Written by James Tynion IV
Pencils and Inks by Guillem March
Colors by Tomeu Morey
With the end of JOKER WAR and the upcoming soft reset for DC Comics post-FUTURE STATE, it’s a good time to establish a new normal for the publisher’s biggest cash cow.
Much like this week’s “anniversary” issue of NIGHTWING, the 101st issue of Batman is used to as a jumping-on point to explain what’s happened to the Caped Crusader and why, all of sudden, nothing is as it should be. The billionaire vigilante has had a rough time in the Rebirth and post-Rebirth era. His butler and father figure was killed by Bane and then the Joker came to town and stole all of his money in an effort to drop Gotham into chaos.
Comic book fans are used to having this level of monumental changes undone by the end of the story to ensure that everything goes back to normal. But Alfred is still dead and instead of Bruce Wayne’s billions being returned to him, Catwoman funneled the money to Lucius Fox, Wayne’s chief business advisor. Fox gives Wayne the option of taking his money back, but there are a lot of negatives attached to Bruce being a billionaire again.
Or maybe Fox was just messing with Bruce’s head because he wants to have all that money. Who knows?
So Batman decides to move out of Wayne Manor, into an apartment in downtown Gotham City. More importantly, he and Selina agree to hold off on a romantic reunion for one year, so they can both get a handle on their new lives.
Those are some pretty significant changes, though maybe not as significant as the Future State changes would have ended up being. It’ll be interesting to see if these changes result in major differences to the Batman books, though everything being written right now is a placeholder for whatever comes after the two-month Future State break.