Spoil Batman RIP for me.

Man, I was hoping you wouldn’t ask me to list them, because I didn’t want to make myself look too fanboyish by giving a detailed explanation, but here goes:

During the torture session in police headquarters, Lane, the Third Ghost of Batman, says in so many words that Hurt is the Devil. In issue 666, both Lane and Damian demonstrate supernatural powers which they claim to have gotten via deals with Satan. It’s a future story, so we don’t know whether it “really” happened, and we don’t know whether they’re talking about Hurt, but it injects the devil directly into the mix as a suspect. Batman even seems to be leaning that way just before the helicopter crash, when he asks “Did I look the devil in the face, and was that fear I saw in his eyes?”, or words to that effect.

It seems clear to me that Hurt tells the Joker that he’s Satan, and that the Joker buys into it. Apart from the Sympathy with the Devil bit, there’s also the part where Joker splits his tongue with a knife so that it takes on a forked, devilish look; he does this immediately after telling Batman that he knows who Dr. Hurt is. The mere fact that the Joker initially defers to Hurt, even briefly, suggests Hurt is something more than a garden-variety lunatic. When he eventually rejects Hurt’s orders, he does it by telling Hurt “devil is double is deuce, and joker beats deuce.”

Someone in the Club of Heroes makes a reference to a Satanic curse just before telling Robin to go help Batman, implying that they think Batman is facing the Devil. By the end of the issue Hurt has placed a curse on the cape and cowl…a curse which apparently had some oomph behind it, based on Final Crisis #6.

There were also general references to the Devil throughout the run. The image that appears on the Bat-Computer when the trigger phrase takes effect is demonic. Early on, I believe Gordon asks Batman why they chose to fight an evil as old as time, and Batman says “I thought I could take him.” There’s hellish imagery used in the original Club of Heroes arc (the painting on Mayhew’s island). A lot of these “clues” are vague, I’ll admit, but they add together to paint a certain mood.

As for why I didn’t buy Hurt’s claim to be Thomas Wayne, he just didn’t seem very committed to it. He seems to be trying anything and everything in order to rattle Bruce at that point: shooting at him, shouting additional post-hypnotic trigger phrases, and then telling Bruce that he’s Thomas Wayne. When Bruce refuses to buy it, he doesn’t argue the point at all; he asks whether Bruce is really willing to consider the only other alternative, which is that he’s “the hole in things,” and I don’t know what that could possibly mean other than that he’s the Devil.

Do they dance in the pale moonlight?

In fact, they do. Issue 680, page 17, lower left panel. Proof positive.

Not anymore. Morrison now made them all a hallucination! Isn’t that much better? So much simpler!

He’s not subtle. He’s sloppy and overly ambitious. Too many threads and retro characters which he just sort of slams together at the end. Now that I’ve read both Batman R.I.P. and Final Crisis, I’m thinking Morrison shouldn’t be allowed near a writing gig ever again. Bad as the Marvel events were, at least I knew what had happened.

I think Morrison just needs a good, strong editor who will actually guide and limit him instead of letting him jerk off all over the Superfriends.

When he runs loose with all of his “magick” bullshit and theories on fiction, we get garbage like Final Crisis, about half of Seven Soldiers, and R.I.P…

When he just decides to write a good, solid story, we get cool stuff like All-Star Superman, We3, and the other half of Seven Soldiers.

Oh, and to get back to the OP, the answer about Bruce’s final fate (revealed in Final Crisis #7) is that He’s trapped about 40,000 years in the past. As a grown old Anthro (the first Cro-Magnon) dies of old age, Bruce is seen right there, on panel, watching. So my “Bruce becomes a New God” theory is shot to hell.

Of course, that kinda leaves the question about “Wait–then who’s body is Superman holding in Final Crisis #6 and #7?” hanging, but…

Thanks. I’ll keep an eye out for it.