Warning: Contains Spoilers forZero Hour 30th Anniversary Special #1!Batman’sability to get back up after taking a beating is the true nature of his persona. He’s fought villain after villain time and again, and he’s never given up - not even when Bane broke his back. Until fans travel to the one universe, that is, where the Bat finally stayed down.
Kyle Rayner’s Green Lantern slips into a world of an alternate ’90s reality inZero Hour 30th Anniversary Special#1 by Dan Jurgens, Ron Marz, Darryl Banks, Howard Porter, Jerry Ordway, and Kelley Jones. What he finds is one of the biggest what-if scenarios forBatman in DC history.
Deep within Wayne Manor is a paralyzed Bruce Wayne, living as a hermit in his mansion and using a high-tech wheelchair to get around. This is a sordidreality where Bane really broke the Bat- and the Bat never came back.
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Batman is one of the most iconic and recognizable characters in superhero comic books, but he’s had plenty of bizarre outfits over the decades.
The Iconic Image by Jim Aparo fromKnightfall
The events ofKnightfall,by Doug Moench and Jim Aparo, had far-reaching consequences for the Dark Knight. One of the biggest shockwaves from this iconic storyline was the fact thatthe Batman could be beaten, and even more surprisingly, the beating came from an entirely new villainand not from the Joker.Bane broke Batman’s back in a single comic panel that reverberated through the comic community for years to come. What came back, however, was only stronger.
The most unrecognizable aspect about this alternate Batman is that he gave up.
In Tom King’s run on theBatmantitle — specifically in theCity of Banearc with artist Mikel Janín —Batman and Bane have a back-breaking rematchwhere Batman is finally able to take his revenge. King and Janín’s story took years in the making and all of it happened because Batman was never truly broken. But thisZero Hourspecial asks an essential question, creating an entire alternate reality where the best DC stories of the ’90s met their worst outcomes: what if the Bat was actually broken duringKnightfall- and for good?
This alternate timeline also features the death of Superman - but with no return, unlike the iconicDeath and Return of Supermansaga from the same DC era asKnightfall.
The Real Batman Never Breaks
Batman Finally Catches a Break With His Revenge
AsBatman is becoming more powerful than everin DC’s modern timeline, it’s important to remember that he’s just a man, and men can be broken. In this alternateZero Hourworld, Batgirl takes the role of Gotham’s protector full-time, andBruce Wayne wastes away in his manor, practically unrecognizablewith his gray hair and his full beard. More than that, the most unrecognizable aspect about this alternate Batman is that he gave up.
Batman isn’t special- he just keeps getting up to fight. The worst part about this version of Batman isn’t that his back was permanently broken, but that he lets that stop him. Even from the chair, Batman could still be the essence of the Dark Knight, just differently, not unlike Barbara Gordon’s Oracle. If the person wearing Batman’s cowl can be broken, then he wasn’t Batman to begin with. Thankfully, in the real world,Batmanalways gets up, and he can never be broken.
Batman
One of DC’s most iconic heroes, Batman is the vigilante superhero persona of billionaire Bruce Wayne. Forged by tragedy with the death of his parents, Bruce dedicated his life to becoming the world’s leading martial artist, detective, and tactician. Recruiting an entire family of allies and sidekicks, Bruce wages war on evil as the dark knight of his hometown, Gotham City.
