Batman: Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader? (2009)

An excellent conclusion to the Batman canon. The bonus stories at the end were a little uneven--I liked one and the other two wee okay. But the focus is really on the conclusion of Batman's story, bringing in all the ways it could have happened over the years and mimicking the styles of the different eras, artists, and writers.

This totally coherent, in-depth review brought to you by: seven-week-old infant first book read in over a month! ( )

This is close to the end of my Sandman spin-off runthrough. It's also stretching the definition of "Sandman spin-off," though no moreso than when I included Gaiman's early DC work like Black Orchid and Legend of the Green Flame. Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader? actually teases you with an appearance of someone who might be Death... but turns out not to be. (Or so I think, anyway. Some evidently disagree!) The story takes place after Batman's death in Grant Morrison's Batman R.I.P. and Final Crisis, with all of his old allies and enemies gathering in Gotham to pay homage to him. Only... everyone thinks they did it. So we get a succession of stories told, by Catwoman, Alfred, the Mad Hatter, Joker, Robin, Clayface, Superman, each telling completely contradictory stories about something they did (or did not do) that lead to the death of Batman.

The stories range from a few pages to a panel or two to just dialogue, but each of them manages to be completely and utterly Batman. It's the greatest hits of Batman deaths, if he was allowed to have more than one. There are a lot of nice details-- my favorite part is the guy outside the club where the funeral is being held who watched the villains' cars-- in both the (beautiful) art (by Andy Kubert) and the writing. It's the perfect tribute to the Batman, the man who never gave up, no matter how crazy he seemed.

The whole funeral is overlaid by two people talking in caption boxes, who turn out to be Batman and not Death ("I don't think death is a person, Bruce."), and Batman passes from the funeral, from life, into something greater and beyond reality. Here, Bruce gets a chance to reflect on who he was and why he did everything he did. There are a lot of great lines, my favorite being, "Do you know the only reward you get for being Batman? You get to be Batman." And then he's done... or as done as Batman can ever be, because he's apparently got to pass on somewhere else. I know that when Darkseid kills Batman in Final Crisis, Batman actually goes tumbling into the past, so I assume this is all tied into that, but it works on its own as a story about the endurance and struggle of Batman, too.

The still-thin book is padded out by everything else Gaiman wrote related to Batman, which amounts to a weird set of stories. "A Black and White World" is about what Batman and the Joker do "off-panel" in their comics, but Simon Bisley's art is just a little too "gritty 1990s" to work for me. Check out those ears on the Batman! And those R. Crumb-style women. "Pavane" is about a Suicide Squad agent trying to recruit Poison Ivy, giving her origin story-- pretty good stuff. "Original Sins" and "When is a Door" are two linked stories about a news team visiting Gotham to do a feature on supervillains.

I like the frame a lot, being filled with big and small character moments, and jokes at the Penguin's expense, but "When is a Door," the teams encounter with the Riddler, ended up being a long metafictional rant about the death of fun in superhero comics. Well, Neil Gaiman, go write some fun superhero comics then. This is your world; as I was just reminded, Batman and the Riddler just live in it.

Neil Gaiman's The Sandman Spin-Offs: « Previous in sequence | Next in sequence »

Didn't really care so much for this batman novel. It was a fun concept but, I thought it could have had a better story line. For some reason, I just don't see batman's enemies acting the way they did in this novel. This was a bit of a let down. ( )

A must-read book for fans of both Batman and of Neil Gaiman.
We watch Batman's funeral through his own eyes. Speakers at the wake include Albert, Catwoman, Riddler, Joker, Penguin and more, as well as cleverly including one of gaimans characters from his legendary Sandman series. A great read also includes 3 other short batman stories penned by Gaiman including one previosly published in Batman: Black and White vol. 1. ( )

http://tpi-reads.blogspot.com/2010/12/batman-whatever-happened-to-caped.html ( )