"New Gods" -The Ascension of Batman

It wasn’t that long ago that I reported – upon seeing it reported elsewhere – that one of the DC Universe’s favorite sons, Bruce Wayne, would be saying adios to life. It was a massive announcement that seemed to somehow get slipped underneath the proverbial welcome mat of the internet. Well, a few weeks on, and there is more news.

All of the information is making its way in to the world via Rich Johnston, of Comic Book Resources. His weekly column, Lying in the Gutters, has been held in high regard for some time, so these “rumors” can be taken with a bit of weight.

Over the past two weeks, Johnston has passed on two more bits of information that, for my part, blew my mind.

Firstly, last week, Johnston expanded on another rumor that had picked up speed thanks to Valerie D’Orazio on her blog Occasional Superheroine. The rumor is that, all of the main DC heroes are to take a step up in the evolutionary scale and become ‘New Gods’, leaving their sidekicks to fill their vacant spots behind.

This might need some explaining.

Created by Jack Kirby and first published in 1971, the New Gods are natives of the twin planets of New Genesis and Apokolips. As their names might suggest to the insightful, New Genesis is an Eden like planet and Apokolips is hellish. The inhabitants of these two planets belong to the Fourth World, and live outside of normal time and space, and are immortal, stronger, faster, and smarter than homo-sapiens.

Any more information can be found across the internet, especially Wikipedia, but that is the gist of what needs to be known for the moment.

According to D’Orazio, rumor had it that the DC universe was going to promote all their number one’s, presumably including Bruce Wayne, Superman, Wonder Woman, among others. However Johnston in last week’s Lying in the Gutters column said that DC had abandoned promoting the entirety of the roster, and reduced it to be only Bruce Wayne.

The reason for the promotions rested in the fact that currently, in various DC books, the New Gods are being killed off one by one. Jim Starlin is currently writing an 8-issue series entitled Death of the New Gods, in which he makes it very clear there will be very few to make it out alive, if any.

Furthermore, for fans of the current Countdown weekly series, we’ve already been shown that Darkseid – the ruler of Apokolips – is at least a player in the damages being wrought across the DCU. So as Johnston suggests in his column, could we be looking forward to seeing a Bruce Wayne versus Darkside battle at the end of Countdown?

Another note is the change of name to the weekly Countdown series, which at issue #26 – half way through – the title changed to “Countdown to Final Crisis.” The name refers not only to what will no doubt be a massive climax, but also what will be the last of the ‘Crisis’ DC crossover books that have peppered the last two decades of comics.

Lastly, and possibly most newsworthy for the world at large, is who will be donning the cape and cowl after Bruce Wayne departs this mortal plane?

There has been a lot of speculation as to which protégé would fill the roll left behind, between Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, and Tim Drake. Well, once again, according to CBR’s Johnston, the name is now out there, and it’s Jason Todd.

Jason Todd was the unlucky second Robin that was doomed to die in the Batman event, A Death in the Family. However he has slowly been reintroduced in to the DCU and once again grown to prominence in the weekly series Countdown. From a sheer literary point of view, his promotion would have, and subsequently will, make the most sense. His reintroduction in to the universe has been strategically timed.

The DC Universe is pumping out some rather impressive books, and some decent storylines to accompany them. At first I was a little concerned about the death of Bruce Wayne, as I didn’t want them to just retrace the death of Superman, and bring Wayne back a few years later. But this seems a good way to give the Bat-universe a shift, while not adhering to stereotypical comic book conceits.

Needless to say, I cannot wait!

Posted by Josh Hill.

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The Death of Batman?
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Digital Dent -Batman's "Two Face" Legacy
The Star Trek Cosmos -Where Have the Beatles & Stephen King Gone
NASA's Search for the Planet Vulcan
Star Trek XI -The Movie, a Preview
The Quest for Spock's Origins
Galactic Review: Blade Runner Ultimate 5-Disc DVD + the Premiere of Razor
Blade Runner's 25th Anniversary: "Archeology of the Future" -A Galaxy Insight
Ridley Scott, Post '2001 -A Space Odyssey': Science Fiction is Dead!
Stanley Kubrick & the Mythology of Extraterrestrial Life -A Galaxy Insight

 

Links:

http://www.comicbookresources.com/columns/index.cgi?column=litg&article=2919
http://www.comicbookresources.com/columns/index.cgi?column=litg&article=2923
http://www.comicbookresources.com/columns/index.cgi?column=litg&article=2928
http://occasionalsuperheroine.blogspot.com/2007/11/i-plead-fifth.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Gods#Death_of_the_New_Gods

Comments

[jollybengali]

You are a moron for reporting this. Lying in the gutter is wrong 99.8% of the time, you sir have made everyone dumber for reporting this garbage.

[a concerned citizen]

jollybengali thought Transformers was good, and loves Rainbow Brite. He is also currently working on a My Lil' Ponies live action spec script. Which I believe to be further proof that he is a bigtime furry.

[BigGayLeal]

You're posting something from Lying in the Gutters?!?!?! Its like reporting on something you read in the enquirer. After reading this article it is apparent that Josh Hill likes to take it up the ass.

[FaggotMuslim69]

But whoever disputes with you in this matter after what has come to you of knowledge, then say: Come let us call our sons and your sons and our women and your women and our near people and your near people, then let us be earnest in prayer, and pray for the curse of Allah on the liars

[jcorle00]

How would Jason Todd become Batman when DiDio recently came clean and clearly stated that Red Robin will be Jason Todd?

[Franklin]

Batman becoming a New God on a parallel planet from another dimension, while his former sidekick Jason Todd, who died, will take his place?
I don't know what those bafoons at DC are on, but they should stop taking it... for the love of the Batman.

[monkeyboy]

I was hoping some of the ... ahem ... 'writers' at DC would have woken up to themselves after all of this crisis garbage (yay! we resolved all our continuity problems... only to make it even more complicated because we cant resist inane plot happenings when real drama and character work is herder to do!).

If they 'kill' Bruce it'll only be a temporary one like with Supes... or, ahem... Jason Todd. WTF? he is alive again now? Thank god for Ra's and his handy Lazarus pits - "ooh, we killed someone off.. im having second thoughts... and ive run out of ideas... lets bring him back!!". And Jason was the one the fans voted to have killed - just fricken keep him dead.

Jeph Loeb (hes one of the better ones, but still) and his kind are making comics that much more like Smallville-scale ridiculousness every day. Cant we just have a 'smallville universe' Batman for all the soap-opera addicts and a 'grown ups universe' Batman for those who started reading the comics for, i dont know, THE WRITING?

2 universes, everyone's happy. Character driven, good stories, in one universe, and keep 'other-Jason-Todd-Batman', bat-hound, bat-mite, bat-conquistadore, bat-robot, bat-alien, bat-sentient-plant, et al, to the 'smallville' one. With Aquaman.

Is a good story too much to ask? Alan Moore will have that much more material to take the piss out of now...