In a short interview with Newsarama's Matt Brady, Dan Didio said this:

"Batman is upset, his mind has repressed the wiping it received from the JLA after he figured out what they did to Dr. Light," DiDio said. "Much of Batman’s strange behavior in the past few years - including his protocols on how to contain his fellow heroes - comes from his subconscious remembering and protecting himself from the other heroes. We deal with this in The OMAC Project and the JLA arc by Geoff Johns and Allan Heinberg."

On the one hand, I kind of like the idea that the "cold and distant" Batman, whose bad attitude keeps even Dick Grayson and Barbara Gordon at a distance, and who has seemed unbalanced at times, can be explained like this. On a subconscious level, he realizes that he cannot trust his fellow heroes, and not only has it tainted his relationship with them, but also screwed up his personal life (the gradual disappearance of his Bruce Wayne identity, fighting with Nightwing, etc).

On the other hand, though, it seems to me that things are going to get far worse before they get better. It seems that his knowledge may be restored in the upcoming JLA arc, and this will certainly worsen his already-strained relations with his allies. However, the revelation could actually improve things with Barabara, Dick, Tim Drake, and so on, as they might understand that in some very important ways, he hasn't "been himself" for years.

Anyone else have any thoughts on the subject? Do you think this is a good idea? A bad idea? Or are you indifferent to the whole thing because you gave up on Batman a long time ago?

This can only work if it were villains who made Batman believe the heroes mindwiped him. If this is how Batman is when he is not fully cognizant of the mindwipe, just imagine how he will be now that he is fully aware that his fellow "heroes" acted like villains. This is my whole problem with the revelation in "Identity Crisis"; there is no way to resolve this. Look at what Geoff Johns is having to do to put Hal back.

This whole situation is only going to reinforce Batman's paranoia.
"Identity Crisis" has proven that heroes are a potential threat and they should be watched..

Right. Batman would probably REALLY not trust other heroes, if this is what he can expect. Given it might've also wrecked what was left of his fractured personal life, he could feasibly go on the offensive.
Hmm. Maybe someone wrote this in a book fifty years ago, and nobody said "SHAZAM" until now...

Spoiler space provided....

















Lovely. So Sue Dibny and Blue Beetle had to be killed so that DC editorial could explain why Batman's personality was "off"?

I'm not sure why they're bothering to "explain" any changes. Just start writing Batman correctly and forget that other stuff.

Does *anyone* remember Dan Chichester's run on Daredevil?

Incidentally, I don't know when Batman became paranoid. I've always seen him as "driven." His enemies, however, should be paranoid.

Jim Lawless

Anyone find striking similaries between the "mindwipe" plot in Identity Crisis and a similar plot in Mark Gruenwald's Squadron Supreme? The Batman equivalent in that comic didn't want to go along with it either - and it also contained a subplot about a mindwipe going horribly wrong.

I'm tempted to threadcrap and say "the latter" ~ I don't see any possible direction for them to go with this that will leave us with a "quality" Batman character of whatever kind.

This is an interesting approach they're taking if only because it's a tacit admission that they haven't been doing Batman well for years. But it also sounds like it hasn't been thought through completely. If Batman has been "subconsciously distrustful" of other heroes, then why has he arranged his circle of Bat Family members so as to become more and more dependent upon them rather than less? Look at a current issue of Batman. It used to be that he could, and often would, go out to fight crime on his own. He needed no one else. Maybe he'd need Alfred to patch him up afterwards if he was severely injured, but that's all. Now he's got Oracle on the headset at all times, giving him driving directions, crossreferencing data for him ... he's got one Robin after another watching his back ... he does regular gigs with the JLA and gets involved in every national, global and interplanetary threat that comes our way ...

If he's been "distrustful" then he's hidden it so well that he appears MORE trustful and reliant on his fellow heroes than ever before.

How could this storyline "fix" Batman, anyway? Wouldn't it just make him worse? If he was distrustful before, now he'll be even more distrustful. He was borderline paranoid before, now he really is being watched all the time, by one of his own inventions. He was grim and angry before, now he'll have even more reasons to rage and wreak vengeance.

Batman has become DC's Wolverine. 40 issues a month, all of them trying to out-do each other's grimaces, blood-spitting and bulging veins. An occasional "sardonic" comment as he kicks in the face of another villain, or better yet, another hero. Where are the detective skills? Where are the brains he used to rely on? Batman has become so stupid, so off-putting, that his biggest villains are now ex-Robins who grew to despise him!

Don't worry about picking the last choice. I haven't read the Batman books regularly in over five years, so "indifferent" probably describes my attitude best at this point. Like Linda, I do find it telling that they feel the need to explain his behavior, but feel that they have probably chosen the wrong way to do it. After all, how can his relationship with the JLAers who mindwiped him EVER get better? An apology just won't cut it.

Maybe this is all just setting up for Infinite Crisis, when we'll get the real Batman back.

From the same interview;

Despite the name, the upcoming Infinite Crisis is not like Crisis on Infinite Earths, DiDio said.

It will not be about time-bending heroics and new universes, but about heroes.

"It’s building on the cornerstones of the DC Universe," DiDio said. "We will deal with the hard issues like what makes the man, what makes the hero. Then we will break all the characters down and rebuild them, showing what it really takes.

"I wanted to show the heroes motivations, what their true beliefs are and why they think what they do makes a difference," he continued.

He said if anyone out there thinks they have figured out what DC was going to do for the rest of the year they can be sure of one thing: they will be wrong. "We’re starting a long-range plan to re-establish the DCU characters," he said. "Every three months we will pull the rug out. We will bring back the sense of surprise and excitement, the serial nature of comics."
It certainly doesn't seem like there will be "reality-altering" events in this series. The only thread of hope I have for it is that Geoff Johns is the writer, but even with that, I'm afraid that it will be more of an "event" than a story, you know?

I only wish they make Batman smile again. I can't remember the last time he smiled, but I haven't kept up with the Batman books in recent years. During this weekend I was in a bookstore and found a Batman coloring book. I flipped through it and noticed that Batman doesn't even smile at all. That's going to leave a bad impression on children who have this coloring book.

Sounds like the same "faux excitement" corporatespeak mouthed by Star Trek's Berman & Braga. Talk about the basic, fundamental premises of the artistic concept as though it's an amazing discovery that needs to be deconstructed and "reimagined". The fact is that superhero books used to have this stuff in every issue ~ the characters showed why they were heroes, they were tested, they fought, they won against all odds. Now it's an "event"?

I don't think I'm interested in seeing what Dan DiDio would consider a "rebuilt" superhero anyway.

Sounds like DiDio is overthinking the whole superhero concept...he needs just relax and put out some old fashioned superpowered adventures.......

It's worse than that. It's a convenient retro-active excuse for not doing Batman well.

There is only one way out of this situation, but it is not pretty. The JLA was under the mental control of someone else and was forced to mind-wipe Batman. That is the only way the heroes look like heroes again and Batman can trust his friends again. Very contrived, but it is either that or pretend it never happened. Anything else is like punching a tar baby.

da tar baby, he say nuthin...

say, linda. is your new avatar of dan didio getting strangled?

*g*

I'm hopeful for the Batman: Dark Detective mini coming up, with the return of Engelhart, Rogers & Austin. THAT could be our first glimpse of the definitive Batman in years.

I agree. Just that one little thing would be a milestone, nowadays. Probably take a four-issue miniseries just to lead into it, though!

Hell, it took JB *six* issues to get to it!

Explanation ... or justification?