“How do I get down from here?”
Detective Comics Annual #2
DC Comics (1991)
“Succession” WRITER: Louise Simonson ARTIST/COLORIST: Tom Grindberg LETTERER: Albert DeGuzman ASSISTANT EDITOR: Kelley Puckett EDITOR: Denny O’Neil
Waverider appears to Batman one final time, this time allowing himself to be perceived as an enemy to see what this will do to Batman’s potential future. Gotham has gone far downhill, even replacing Gordon with a Commissioner in the mob’s pocket. Meanwhile, Batman tries to stop another of Ra’s Al Ghul’s attempts to destroy the world. The result of the battle is Batman seriously injured and rescued by Robin while Ra’s is on his way to the Lazarus Pit again. Nearly paralyzed, Bruce goes into a depression while Gotham gets even worse. Deciding Robin isn’t enough, Tim puts on the Batman costume and does a good job, until Talia and her men gun him down, thinking it’s Bruce in the costume.
After learning about Tim’s fate, Bruce creates an exosuit to enable himself to fight again as Batman and hunt down the party responsible for Tim’s murder. It’s a tip from the Joker that eventually leads him to Talia. The Lazarus Pit’s ability to restore is finite and Batman is Ra’s chosen successor. Talia wanted to kill Bruce only because he wouldn’t accept becoming the new “Demon’s Head” willingly. However, Batman was prepared for this, and the exoarmor explodes, destroying his body as well as getting his revenge on Talia for Tim’s murder. Finally convinced Batman will not become Monarch, Waverider leaves the Dark Knight feeling somewhat blessed by Waverider’s last thoughts.
What they got right: For the time period the art is quite good. The concept of Bruce being forced out of retirement was nothing new by this point thanks to stories like The Dark Knight Returns but at least this one doesn’t show hatred for Superman. Frankly, this tale was hard for me to put down until the end, watching how Bruce deals with his own mortality versus the murder of Tim Drake.
What they got wrong: For a story in Detective Comics, there isn’t a lot of detective work. Batman’s hunt for answers is (1)beat up criminal group (2) ask who killed the boy and be told they don’t know (3) tells them to “find out”, those exact words every time (4) return to step one. It’s the Joker that has a witness tied up just so Batman can find out that Talia was responsible the hard way because he recognized the uniform the witness told him about. In other words, the Joker did more detective work while inside Arkham than Batman does. Also “the” returns to Monarch’s name and even Waverider gets “the” in his name. Again, not what we’ve seen in previous stories.
Recommendation: This is the last of the Armageddon crossover stories in my collection and it ends on a high note. I say give this one a look. And come back tonight for Scanning My Collection’s conclusion of Armageddon 2001.
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