"You can never prepare for the unexpected, the well-timed punchline. The Wild Card."
Grant Morrison may have a reputation for giving superheroes happy endings regardless of how much sense it makes, but with Batman they went in a very different direction.Batman & Son
- The very first issue opens up with the Joker boasting about having killed the Batman (actually an impersonator) in front of some children, while Gordon has succumbed to some Joker venom.
- Damian establishes that he's not screwing around when he shows Tim his new trophy
◊. - The Clown at Midnight tells the story of how the Joker survived getting shot in the face, but the trauma caused him to go from Monster Clown into something even more psychotic. The artwork is also pretty freaky.
- Bat-Bane. A Batman impersonator that was force-fed venom and Hugo Strange's monster serum in an attempt to trigger Batman's greatest fear. Street walkers are offered up to him, which they all rightfully consider a death sentence.
- Batman 666. Damien has become the new Batman and has to deal with an even more hellish Gotham City, where his arch-nemesis is a Batman impersonator who claims to be the Anti-Christ.
- We get our first look at Professor Pyg. He's crucified upside down with a nail in his mouth.
The Black Glove
- We get our first glimpse of the Big Bad. He's wearing the freshly-removed face of a retired playboy and tells Batman and his allies that they've just walked into a death trap.
- Bat-Devil describes the torture he went through to get into the mindset of the Dark Knight."They poured hot glue into my brother's eyes. Carved obscenities into my sister's flesh...so I could be driven by demons just like you!"
- (Un)Surprisingly, Batman himself in one chapter. After locating Joe Chill, the man who killed his parents, Batman stalks him for several nights. Then Batman, the man who swore never to commit murder, drove Chill to suicide! No wonder so many Batman villains are nuts. Sane people don't last long enough.
Batman R.I.P.
- The Joker's skeletal new look; a smile so forced it's tearing his face, coupled with unfeeling David-Bowie eyes. When he's recruited for the Black Glove, he's fantasizing about killing Batman's allies and leaving them with smiles as ghastly as his own. He even goes far enough to SLICE HIS OWN TONGUE IN HALF WITH A STRAIGHT RAZOR. Which he does, of course, with that giant grin on his face.
- The Final Crisis tie-in opens up with a montage of all the Batman-related events leading up to the present, then the first part ends with the revelation that Batman has been captured and is having his memories scanned. Part two has "Alfred" hypnotise Bruce into a scenario where his parents never died and he lived a fairly uneventful life. Then a young trapeze artist tries to avenge his parents' murder and is kidnapped by a grinning madman. Bruce later stumbles into the cave beneath Wayne Manor and finds a skeleton wearing circus clothes.
Batman & Robin
- Professor Pyg. A surgeon that's completely bonkers and likes grafting plastic faces onto his victims. He also has a scaffolding covered in nails and barbed wire that he occasionally hangs upside down from.
- Flamingo EATING FACES WHILE HIS VICTIMS ARE ALIVE.
- The first attempt to resurrect Batman (which later turns out to be a defective clone). He goes on a rampage trying to kill everyone while babbling incoherently. We get a glimpse of his memories, which are a jumble of the real Batman's adventures.
The Return of Bruce Wayne
- The Hyper-Adapter. A tentacled monstrosity that follows Bruce through time. Worse? There's the implication it might have been a form or extension of BARBATOS.
Batman Inc.
- Bruce tells Damian a vision he had of a dystopic future where the Boy Wonder has become the third-generation Batman. Bat-Damian has to deal with the citizens going violently insane from some unknown plague. He forms a quarantine in Arkham Asylum, but it's revealed that the baby he just rescued was a carrier, causing everyone there to go insane as well.
- There's also the fact that Simon Hurt is back again and serving the president of the United States. When Gotham is targeted for a nuclear strike, Hurt can be seen grinning wickedly from the sidelines, the ultimate victor.
- The Heretic's face: the head of a baby in the body of an adult.
