Question about the DC relaunch and Batman

[Fanofthegoblins]

So, does that mean the Batman we know and love from 1939-2011 is gone forever(erased)? The Batman we see now is from another universe, right?

[nepenthes]

Not really. Everything still happened unless where directly contradicted

For example
- Selina no longer knows that Batman is Bruce so alot of that history is gone.
- There's been no mention of Barbaras time as Oracle, nor any mention of Steph Brown or Cassandra Cain (althought no mention is not the same thing as never existed, we just don't know until it's addressed directly)
- The timeline has apparently been shortened so that Batman has only been active for around 6 years - though I'm not sure where exactly that's been referenced in comics, think it was something editorial just announced.

Apart from that everything's the same

But if a completely new universe is easier for you to deal with then yeah, sure, new universe. It's up to you really.

[ArnoldoAAD]

So, does that mean the Batman we know and love from 1939-2011 is gone forever(erased)? The Batman we see now is from another universe, right?

no
in fact the batman of 39 is not the same from the silver age or the bronze age the 86 or the 2005

is still batman

[bat39]

no
in fact the batman of 39 is not the same from the silver age or the bronze age the 86 or the 2005

is still batman

Its a grey area, honestly.

Thing is, DC never did a total reboot of the Batman mythos, the way they did for Superman, Wonder Woman and now pretty much the entire DCU. At most we had the 'soft reboot' in 1987 with 'Year One'; and subsequent stories did retell Batman's early years, essentially replacing the original Golden Age and Silver Age stories...but, the bulk of past Batman continuity was still intact.

With the new 52, the 'soft reboot' seems a bit 'harder'...since significant chunks of past continuity have been erased and/or altered...but even then, most of the past continuity is relatively intact and continues to inform present stories.

So really, its possible to read the Batman mythos as one continuous narrative from 1939 to the present...albeit, with numerous twists and turns and outright deletions all through the middle.

[UKComicFan]

So, does that mean the Batman we know and love from 1939-2011 is gone forever(erased)? The Batman we see now is from another universe, right?

As somebody else alluded to, where do you get the idea that the Batman from 1939-2011 was the same person? Batman has gone through many periods of complete change, disowning previous storylines etc - not often as blatant as the "new 52" (e.g. renumbering the comics) but the Crisis of the 1980s was more of a dramatic change - lots of character amendments e.g. Jason Todd's origin, Joe Chill, Hugo Strange etc

[bat39]

As somebody else alluded to, where do you get the idea that the Batman from 1939-2011 was the same person? Batman has gone through many periods of complete change, disowning previous storylines etc - not often as blatant as the "new 52" (e.g. renumbering the comics) but the Crisis of the 1980s was more of a dramatic change - lots of character amendments e.g. Jason Todd's origin, Joe Chill, Hugo Strange etc

True enough...then again, the Batman mythos from 1939 onwards CAN largely be considered the same continuing narrative, albeit with a lot of tweaks and rewrites in the middle.

But I agree with you on one thing-the 'new 52' isn't the first time Batman has been given a 'soft reboot'; so if you considered Batman Pre and Post-COIE to be the same character, then you should easily be able to consider the new 52 Batman the same character. If you considered the Post COIE Batman to be separate from the Pre-COIE Batman, then the new 52 Batman could likewise also be considered a separate character.

[Seattle Freeze]

My biggest continuity issue is. . . So Batman's been doing this for 5 years but Damian is 10 years old?

[Conway]

My biggest continuity issue is. . . So Batman's been doing this for 5 years but Damian is 10 years old?

Actually they insinuated that Dick was already Nightwing at the time of the Darkseid clash so Batman has been around longer. Superman was the first "meta" and he didn't show up till 6 years ago but most of the Bat-fam story seems to be intact for everyone but Dick Grayson (no Titans = no past between being Robin and Crisis).

The short answer is no he's a different Batman, but most of the things you know about him are still true.

[Seattle Freeze]

Well, I don't have the continuity standards for Batman that I do for Star Trek but I thought 5 years is a little much.

It isn't hard to believe that much of the important continuity happened in the past 5 years. I thought at first that the events of Knightfall were cast aside but the fight with Bane in Dark Knight seems to indicate otherwise. But then if Knightfall happened, then I assume so did Azrael's tenure as batman.

[Conway]

Well, I don't have the continuity standards for Batman that I do for Star Trek but I thought 5 years is a little much.

It isn't hard to believe that much of the important continuity happened in the past 5 years. I thought at first that the events of Knightfall were cast aside but the fight with Bane in Dark Knight seems to indicate otherwise. But then if Knightfall happened, then I assume so did Azrael's tenure as batman.

WF #1 insintuated that someone other than Bruce was Batman after they came and both Nightwing and RHatO talked about fighting, so it looks like Battle for the Cowl happened (even if "52" didn't) and Dick was the bat for a year after that. And Dick said he was Batman for a year before the DCnU, probably Batman in Gotham while Bruce setup Batman Inc. (likely he also trained Damian as Robin then). So for Batman to have retired in there too seems like a lot of time for him to be gone in the last 6 years, but there is no reason it couldn't have happened before. Bruce is in his 30's and started training when he was 8 so...

[bat39]

DC originally hinted that the Bat-family has been around for longer than 5 years, but since then there has been overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

The Batman Annual is the clincher though...there is a flashback scene set '6 years ago' which features a Bruce Wayne who has just returned from his travels abroad. So yeah, the idea does seem to be that Bruce became Batman 6 years ago, and Dick became Robin 5 years ago.

As far as Damian goes, I think they're going the route that Bruce met Talia on his travels abroad and that Damian was born BEFORE he became Batman. It does make sense and doesn't exactly contradict 'Batman and Son'.

[Seattle Freeze]

So they are going to do something similar to batman Begins, that Ras al Ghul had dealings with Bruce before he became Batman? Could work. However, in the current line, Bruce says Damian is the result of the night he and Talia spent together in metropolis so I gather that event occured after he returned to Gotham.

[bat39]

So they are going to do something similar to batman Begins, that Ras al Ghul had dealings with Bruce before he became Batman? Could work. However, in the current line, Bruce says Damian is the result of the night he and Talia spent together in metropolis so I gather that event occured after he returned to Gotham.

Where in the new 52 did Bruce ever specify Metropolis as the place he slept with Talia?!!

Having said that, its not necessary for Bruce to have encountered Ras al Ghul himself before becoming Batman. He could have met Talia and slept with her while being completely unaware of who her father is. Years later, he encounters Ras al Ghul for the first time and is surprised to discover that he's the father of his old flame...

[Seattle Freeze]

I recall that in one of the first few issues of B&R, Damian's origin is stated. Issue 2 or 3 I believe. I recall Bruce mentioning Damian was conceived in Metropolis. I remember this because I thought it was interesting that the night in Metropolis was also mentioned in Arkham City because I was wondering if maybe they are going to introduce Damian in Arkham 3.

[HawkBoy]

Out of all the characters..Batman is the character who has had the least change