DC Future State's Two Batmen Finally Meet

DC Future State's two Batmen have finally met. The Future State line has seen Lucius Fox's son Tim Fox take up the Batman mantle in The Next Batman series, while Bruce Wayne has been working incognito (while presumed dead) in The Dark Detective series. Well Bruce's investigation of Gotham City's new paramilitary police force The Magistrate takes him into the streets of Gotham, where he eventually runs across The Next Batman in action. It's a kind of a funny milestone, in that Bruce Wayne is (arguably for the first time) forced to confront a good, noble, person who is outside his "Bat-Family" taking up the Batman mantle.

Warning: DC Future State SPOILERS Follow!

The fateful meeting of Bruce Wayne and Tim Fox/Batman goes down in DC Future State: Dark Detective #3. The main thrust of the story sees Bruce investigating how The Magistrate is able to keep its iron hold on the populace. Bruce's suspicions are confirmed when he discovers that The Magistrate has employed an entire fleet of nano-drones with cloaking camouflage to perform constant micro-surveillance on every citizen of Gotham.

Once Bruce knows The Magistrate's little spy game trick, he goes about trying to defeat. That battle requires Bruce to get ahold of a few drones to hack into - not easy since they are rigged with all kinds of emergency signals and self-destruct explosives. However, through much trial and error Bruce manages to get a drone in his possession - only to attract the entire fleet of drones in the area. Bruce is forced into a combined fight/flight situation; Bruce is cornered in an ally and is fighting so hard he doesn't notice one drone get the drop on him.

Bruce gets saved by the timely arrival of Tim Fox/Batman, as Tim takes out the last drone. What follows is a fun little scene, where gruff Bruce Wayne has to finally have his gruff Batman attitude thrown right back in his face by Tim. Bruce remarks to himself that Tim is "wearing my suit," while also having to admit that the symbol he created has done just what he intended: grown larger than just one man. The scene ends with Tim getting to hit Bruce with one of Batman's own classic lines of advice to would-be vigilantes: "Stay home tomorrow night."

This little DC Future State Batman crossover scene is made even more fun by the fact that Bruce Wayne and Tim Fox are totally unaware of one another's identity - or their close personal connection. Tim is Batman because he thinks Bruce is dead, and Tim's fully body armor and face mask don't give Bruce the first clue who he is. This meeting of the Batmen is one of the best highlights of DC Future State thus far - and an interesting dynamic we wouldn't mind seeing in the main Batman comics timeline.

DC Future State: Dark Detective and The Next Batman are both now on sale.