Batman: Dark Age is a Batman miniseries published by DC Comics, written by Mark Russell, and illustrated by Michael Allred, Laura Allred, and Dave Sharpe. It operates in a similar world to Superman: Space Age though it does not share continuity with that series (which had its own version of Batman separate from this one.)
In 2030, an elderly Bruce Wayne is living in a nursing home, alone and cantankerous. His doctor has diagnosed him for memory loss and gives him a journal to document his memories while he still has them. Little does she or anyone else know, Bruce Wayne was once the Batman. Bruce then reminisces about his life, starting with the murder of his parents in 1957 through his rowdy adolescence, origins as the Batman and beyond. While some things will seem very familiar to the average Batman reader, some things will be wildly different.
Batman: Dark Age began publishing in March of 2024, scheduled for six issues.
Batman: Dark Age contains examples of:
- Alternate History: This is a version of Batman who, among other things, learned how to be Batman by serving as a special forces guerilla soldier under Ra's al Ghul during the Vietnam War.
- Big Bad: Roman Sionis, known as the supervillain Black Mask in mainstream continuity, serves as the primary threat against Bruce whom Sionis sees as a threat to his designs on Wayne Enterprises.
- Canon Character All Along: Sionis' hand-picked replacement for Wayne Enterprises President after Thomas Wayne's death is Pariah based on the fact that none of his predictions for the market are ever wrong.
- Card-Carrying Villain: After Thomas Wayne's death, the Wayne Enterprises Board meet to discuss who will be president of the company in his place with the most obvious choice being EVP Lucius Fox. When Fox leaves the room, Roman Sionis notes that both Lucius and the late Thomas are "nice men". He then clarifies "I'm not a nice man. I'm a businessman" before convincing the rest of the board to assign someone else as President.
- Cassandra Truth: Pariah keeps mumbling about the eventual Crisis on Infinite Earths that will result in the destruction of their world, prompting the rest of the Board to question how sane this man actually is. Sionis points out that his investment decisions are never wrong and that should be good enough. As such, nobody takes Pariah's premonitions of an incoming apocalypse seriously.
- Corporate Conspiracy: The False Face Society is managed by Roman Sionis and includes everyone from the Wayne Enterprises Board of Directors that isn't Thomas Wayne or Lucius Fox.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: Roman Sionis and the rest of the Wayne Enterprises Board.
- Deadpan Snarker: The elderly Bruce is very sarcastic to the people in the nursing home.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: The Board allows Alfred to have custody of Bruce after the Waynes' death, believing a simple employee would be willing to be bribed to look the other way should an assassination attempt happen to Bruce. Turns out Alfred is passionately committed to keeping Bruce alive to the point of being willing to kill anyone who tries to assassinate Bruce. Even Bruce himself has trouble understanding why Alfred is so loyal to him.
- When Bruce attacks the False Face Society in Wayne Manor, he leaves them tied for Jim Gordon to arrest. When Sionis hears they were handed over to a policeman, he's relieved as the GCPD is in his pocket, apparently unaware Gordon is the one cop on the force that isn't corrupt.
- Foreshadowing: When Sionis reveals Pariah as the new president of Wayne Enterprises, he proposes strategizing the company's long term strategy for the rest of the century. Pariah ominously suggests they don't need to think that long term because "only up to 1985 will do", referencing how the Anti-Monitor is going to destroy the universe they're in by that point.
- Framing Device: The story is based in an elderly Bruce writing down his memories onto a journal before his memory deteriorates.
- Frame-Up: Roman Sionis employ Selina Kyle and a guy named Randy to lure a teen Bruce into a trap where Randy can then accuse Bruce of attempted murder. This triggers a morality clause where Bruce is therefore disqualified from being Wayne Enterprises President as he was set to be at 18.
- Honest Corporate Executive: Thomas Wayne and Lucius Fox both use Wayne Enterprises as the catalyst for the City of Tomorrow Project that would upgrade Gotham's infrastructure to benefit the whole city even though it's the least profitable project in the company.
- Mundane Utility: Pariah is aware of everything that will happen in the future, including the incoming end of the universe in 1985, and he uses this to... make business decisions that are guaranteed to make Wayne Enterprises money. In his defense, he also makes not very subtle references to the end of the world but the executives around him either ignore it or just become confused by it.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: Thomas Wayne is very clearly visually based on Clark Gable.
- Prestige Peril: That Bruce is set to inherit the majority control of Wayne Enterprises at 18 means Roman Sionis and the False Face Society are determined to kill him so that they can continue to use the company as they see fit. Even after Bruce is disqualified from being the company's president through Roman's scheming, the False Face Society is still determined to kil him, sending him off to a black ops guerilla unit in Vietnam in hopes he will get killed in combat and then trying to assassinate him directly when he returns home still alive.
- Secret Test of Character: While in Vietnam, Bruce is ordered by Ra's al Ghul to interrogate a captive prisoner. When Bruce gets nothing out of the prisoner, Ra's hands him a large combat knife with the understanding that Bruce is to kill the prisoner. Bruce refuses and goes to sleep. When he wakes in the morning, he finds that Ra's and the rest of the unit are gone with the prisoner having been stabbed through the heart with Bruce's honorable discharge certificate pinned to the knife. Bruce then realizes the night before was a test to see if Bruce would do what it takes to win the war and kicked him out when Bruce chose to be merciful instead. Bruce also believes that Ra's discharged him with the knowledge that Bruce would then have to go back to Gotham and eventually be killed by the False Face Society.
- Lucius goes to Jim Gordon and tests his honesty by suggesting the cops should put Bruce in circumstances where he would likely die. Gordon becomes violently angry and demands Lucius get out, passing the test as a man of integrity in a police force with integrity in short supply.
- With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility: Thomas Wayne believes those who are lucky enough to be wealthy have a moral duty to improve the community around them. This prompts the City of Tommorrow Project, a massive public works project designed to upgrade all of Gotham into something of a utopia for the citizens with very little profit as a return.
