Batman #17 Spoilers: Who Lives And Who Dies

Warning: There are spoilers ahead for Batman #17 and the rest of the Death of the Family crossover.

Digital copies of Batman #17, the final chapter in Scott Snyder, Greg Capullo and company's sprawling, family-wide Death of the Family crossover, have begun to hit ComiXology, the Barnes & Noble Nook, Amazon Kindle and iBooks. The months-long crossover that began with the disturbing and gruesome image of Joker attacking Alfred Pennyworth has officially drawn to a close and, while there have been some pretty tense moments along the way, nothing quite compares to the threat of the unknown that has come from the last month's guessing game: What is underneath those silver platters The Joker has served to each member of the Batman family? And where's Alfred, whose grisly fate was teased very clearly in the preview pages that went live online earlier this week? All these questions and more (well, not really that many more--mostly just those) were answered in today's issue, so if you want to dance with the Devil in the pale moonlight and know the answer, read on. If not, we're giving you one last chance to back out with a strategically-placed cover.

As Spider-Man would say, "Nobody dies." That isn't to say that this isn't an issue without drama, twists, and a particularly gruesome scene or two. The meta-narrative that Joker (and Snyder) have been crafting all this time, the notion that this battle would be a microcosm of the Batman/Joker dynamic--all of that is executed pretty well. But nobody dies. And that's all you get for free--go buy it, ya bums.