Excitement about the death of Batman has infected even the mainstream media. Because that’s what it’s supposed to do. Like the death of Marvel’s super-soldier Captain America in 2007, the ‘killing off’ of Batman – or at least his secret identity, Bruce Wayne, is one of those ‘special events’ that the comics world likes to throw up now and then to get some visibility outside the comics nerd ghetto.

Death in comics, especially in DC comics’ universe, is not as final as one might imagine. Batman’s Justice League of America allies Green Lantern, Green Arrow, Flash, and even the mighty Superman have all been pronounced dead only to return once the novelty of their absence had worn off.

With the popularity of Christopher Nolan’s Batman films bringing awareness of the character to a peak that probably surpasses even his mid-Sixties ubiquity there’s no possibility of the seventy-year comics series coming to an end.. It should be noted, too, that Nolan’s films are distinguished from their predecessors by focusing strongly on Bruce Wayne, rather than his cowled alter-ego, indeed in Batman Begins we’re fully half-way through the film before Wayne dons his famous costume.

In the short term Batman’s son or someone else close to him will take up the mantle of Gotham City’s guardian, as flawed hero Azrael did in the 1993 Knightfall storyline. In Knightfall Bruce Wayne’s spine was snapped by super-villain Bane, who then threw the broken bat from a building. He recovered from those injuries, and the helicopter crash which spells the Dark Knight’s doom in December’s Batman issue 681 will no doubt prove similarly survivable.

Star writer Neil Gaiman is already putting the finishing touches to a series called Whatever Happened To The Caped Crusader? deliberately echoing Alan Moore’s well-remembered story collection Whatever Happened To The Man Of Tomorrow? Will we see tormented billionaire playboy Bruce Wayne back in January? Let’s not hedge our bets. Let’s say yes.

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