Bruce Wayne lost his parents one night in Crime Alley. While they died, something else was born: Batman. It took years for Wayne to train and mold himself into the type of person who could be a hero like the Dark Knight, but he quickly showed that it all paid off. He tacked the deadliest criminals in the most dangerous city and became a key part of the Justice League, saving the multiverse numerous times. The legend of the Caped Crusader has become one of the greatest of all time; his allies and enemies alike fear and respect him. There are few threats that could break him and even fewer people who could take his place. It’s a tough thing putting on the cape and cowl every night, and several people have done their time with the mantle.
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Over the years, Bruce Wayne has been replaced numerous times in many different kinds of stories. His successors are often some of the most skilled and experienced heroes out there, including several who were molded to fit into the utility belt. Each of these times was rather interesting for both the mantle of Batman and Gotham City as a whole. They presented very different kinds of Batmen; sometimes it was awesome and other times it wasn’t. These five times saw Bruce Wayne away from the Batman mantle, and we still have questions about one of them.
5) Azrael Batman
“Knightfall” saw Bane attack Gotham City, eventually breaking Bruce Wayne’s back. Jean-Paul Valley, the man known as Azrael, stepped up and made his own armored Batman costume, taking to the night to defeat the man who broke the bat. Azrael was created as a reaction to the ’90s trend of grim, violent heroes. DC editorial wanted to show fans that this kind of character shouldn’t work as Batman. Azrael was every ’90s cliche you could imagine and fans quickly realized that they didn’t want a Batman like him. However, there was a problem with that, since the story wasn’t done by the time that fans decided that they didn’t want to read about AzBats anymore. “Knightquest” and KnightsEnd” also showcased Bruce Wayne trying to rebuild himself, which honestly should have been the A story rather than the subplot. AzBats was a failure in a way that the four Supermen, Kyle Rayner, even Connor Hawke weren’t. He was never a good Batman and this was easily the worst time that Bruce Wayne was away from the mantle.
4) Tim Drake
Tim Drake earned the mantle of Robin and did something that Jason Todd couldn’t – make the character popular in his own right. Tim had an ongoing series for 16 years and eventually did the Dick Grayson thing of forming a teen team. In his case, it was Young Justice, but he made his name as a leader and would move over to a new version of the Teen Titans with Superboy, Cassie Sandsmark, and Bart Allen. During this time, they would end up meeting a future version of their team. In this future, Tim, Conner, Cassie, and Bart took over the mantles of the mentors. They were forced to step up after the adult heroes were killed in a mysterious event. Back then, clues were laid that on their Earth, Infinite Crisis went very differently, each member of the Trinity dying. However, besides getting a few little teases of exactly what happened, we still have no idea. It’s been said that it was a “Crisis”, but no one knows which one it was or what really happened afterwards. While this version of Tim is from a couple of multiverses back, we have seen him several times, so maybe we’ll finally get more with the character.
3) Damian Wayne
Damian Wayne was introduced in the beginning of Grant Morrison’s epic Batman run. As the son of Batman and Talia al Ghul, he was heir to a unique legacy and Morrison teased the young hero’s future in Batman (Vol. 1) #666. This issue took place in a future where Damian had stepped up after the death of his father to become the Dark Knight. He was much more violent than Bruce and instead of being friends with the GCPD, he was at odds with Commissioner Barbara Gordon. We’ve seen this version of the Caped Crusader (actually, in his case, it should be the Trenchcoated Crusader) several times over the years – he was the Batman of Earth-16, a world where the next generation of heroes had become the media of the future – but we don’t really know much about this time in Batman’s history. Sure, it’s usually on alternate worlds or futures, but DC has never had a problem with fleshing out alternate worlds. There are so many questions from this version of Batman and it would be great to know more about it.
2) Two-Face
Infinite Crisis changed the DC Universe in multiple ways and its immediate aftermath is very interesting. Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman, who had spent almost the entire story at each other’s throats, decided that they needed to learn to be better heroes and each of them felt the best way to do that was to become more human. Superman had lost his powers, Diana became Diana Prince in order to have a human life (post-Crisis Diana never had a secret identity or a civilian life like other heroes), and Batman decided to retrace the steps of his training, except this time he took Dick Grayson and Tim Drake with him. He didn’t want to leave Gotham without a protector, though, and he picked someone that no one would have guessed – Harvey Dent. Dent had been “cured” during “Hush” and Batman trusted him with the city. Dent didn’t put on the cape and the cowl, but he went every night and did the work. For one year, Harvey Dent cleaned up the streets with fists and wiles. However, Batman’s return to the city would see him lose his spot and sanity, birthing Two-Face again. “Face the Face” is amazing, giving readers a different look at a replacement for the Dark Knight.
1) Dick Grayson
In Final Crisis, Batman was hit the Omega Sanction after shooting Darkseid with a Radion bullet. This threw him back in time and the corpse of a Batman clone was thought to be his. This led to several claimants for the cowl, with Dick Grayson winning out to the surprise of no one. This was his second stint as Batman, but this time he actually had a chance to shine. He took Damian Wayne under his wing and trained him, battling the Flamingo, Professor Pyg and the Circus of Strange, Red Hood, the Joker, James Gordon Jr., and more. He led his own Justice League for a time, working with a group of legacy heroes to protect the world from every threat. When Bruce was the Caped Crusader, everyone was scared of him. When Dick was the Dark Knight, he was feared by his enemies and loved by everyone else. Many people think that Dick should still be Batman. His time in the cape and cowl was a huge success and it honestly felt like it only got cut short because of the coming of the New 52. Bruce was always going to return, but Dick was able to become the best Batman he can be.
What’s your favorite time Bruce wasn’t Batman? Leave a comment in the comment section below and join the conversation on the ComicBook Forums!
