Batman Incorporated #5

History

The issue was written by Grant Morrison and illustrated by Chris Burnham with colors by Nathan Fairbairn, the same core creative team that had steered Batman Incorporated Vol. 2 from its May 2012 relaunch as part of DC's New 52 'Second Wave.' The series occupied an unusual editorial position: although set in post-Flashpoint continuity, DC editor Mike Marts confirmed that Morrison's prior storylines — Batman and Son, R.I.P., The Return of Bruce Wayne, and Batman and Robin — were all still considered in-continuity backstory for the book, making it simultaneously a New 52 title and the direct conclusion of a pre-Flashpoint narrative. Issue #5 was published on November 28, 2012, with a January 2013 cover date, and was later collected in the trade paperback Batman Incorporated Vol. 2: Gotham's Most Wanted alongside the issues building toward Damian Wayne's death in #8.

Trivia · 8 facts

• Written by Grant Morrison, penciled and inked by Chris Burnham, colored by Nathan Fairbairn, with a cover date of January 2013 (on-sale November 28, 2012).
• The issue's story, titled 'Asylum,' is structured as a framed narrative: Batman tells Damian the story of his apocalyptic near-death vision to explain why he fears Damian becoming his successor.
• The issue delivers a full-length expansion of the 'Batman 666' future — first introduced in Batman Vol. 1 #666 (2007) — set in a Gotham devastated by a Joker-virus plague, with adult Damian-as-Batman as the last defender of an overrun Arkham Asylum.
• The Batman 666 sequence reveals that Dr. Hurt — Morrison's recurring supernatural villain — is the 'devil' to whom Damian sold his soul in the dystopian future, granting him near-immortality at an apocalyptic cost.
• Commissioner Barbara Gordon's infection by the Joker virus at the issue's climax serves as the story's gut-punch ending, depicting the total collapse of Gotham's last line of defense.
• The issue is part of the Batman Incorporated Vol. 2 series, which DC relaunched in May 2012 as part of the New 52 Second Wave — a unique situation where the title was simultaneously in-continuity with New 52 and the direct continuation of Morrison's pre-Flashpoint Batman saga.
• The 'Batman 666' future revisited in this issue was subsequently explored further by Andy Kubert in the Damian: Son of Batman miniseries, and the Batman Incorporated #5 vision is cited by DC continuity scholars as one of four major texts depicting that alternate future.
• The issue was collected in the Batman Incorporated Vol. 2: Gotham's Most Wanted trade paperback (2013) and is also included in the Absolute Batman Incorporated hardcover edition.

Full credits

Variants (3)