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Warning: Contains Spoilers for Zero Hour 30th Anniversary Special #1!Batman’s ability to get back up after taking a beating is the true nature of his persona. He’s fought villain after villain time and again, and he’s never given up – not even when Bane broke his back. Until fans travel to the one universe, that is, where the Bat finally stayed down.
Kyle Rayner’s Green Lantern slips into a world of an alternate ’90s reality in Zero Hour 30th Anniversary Special #1 by Dan Jurgens, Ron Marz, Darryl Banks, Howard Porter, Jerry Ordway, and Kelley Jones. What he finds is one of the biggest what-if scenarios for Batman in DC history.
Deep within Wayne Manor is a paralyzed Bruce Wayne, living as a hermit in his mansion and using a high-tech wheelchair to get around. This is a sordid reality where Bane really broke the Bat – and the Bat never came back.
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Bane Is the Only Villain to Break Batman
The Iconic Image by Jim Aparo from Knightfall
The events of Knightfall, by Doug Moench and Jim Aparo, had far-reaching consequences for the Dark Knight. One of the biggest shockwaves from this iconic storyline was the fact that the Batman could be beaten, and even more surprisingly, the beating came from an entirely new villain and not from the Joker.Bane broke Batman’s back in a single comic panel that reverberated through the comic community for years to come. What came back, however, was only stronger.
The most unrecognizable aspect about this alternate Batman is that he gave up.
In Tom King’s run on the Batman title — specifically in the City of Bane arc with artist Mikel Janín — Batman and Bane have a back-breaking rematch where Batman is finally able to take his revenge. King and Janín’s story took years in the making and all of it happened because Batman was never truly broken. But this Zero Hour special asks an essential question, creating an entire alternate reality where the best DC stories of the ’90s met their worst outcomes: what if the Bat was actually broken during Knightfall – and for good?
This alternate timeline also features the death of Superman – but with no return, unlike the iconic
Death and Return of Superman
saga from the same DC era as
Knightfall
.
The Real Batman Never Breaks
Batman Finally Catches a Break With His Revenge
As Batman is becoming more powerful than ever in DC’s modern timeline, it’s important to remember that he’s just a man, and men can be broken. In this alternate Zero Hour world, Batgirl takes the role of Gotham’s protector full-time, and Bruce Wayne wastes away in his manor, practically unrecognizable with his gray hair and his full beard. More than that, the most unrecognizable aspect about this alternate Batman is that he gave up.
Batman isn’t special – he just keeps getting up to fight. The worst part about this version of Batman isn’t that his back was permanently broken, but that he lets that stop him. Even from the chair, Batman could still be the essence of the Dark Knight, just differently, not unlike Barbara Gordon’s Oracle. If the person wearing Batman’s cowl can be broken, then he wasn’t Batman to begin with. Thankfully, in the real world, Batman always gets up, and he can never be broken.
Zero Hour 30th Anniversary Special #1 is available now from DC Comics!
ZERO HOUR 30TH ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL #1 (2024)
Writer: Ron Marz, Dan Jurgens Artist: Dan Jurgens, Jerry Ordway, Howard Porter, Kelley Jones, Darryl Banks, Paul Pelletier, Tom Grummett Inker: Norm Rapmund, Brett Breeding Colorist: Alex Sinclair Letterer: Troy Peteri Cover Artist: Dan Jurgens, Jerry Ordway, Alex Sinclair
“}]] The Bat is broken – for good. Read More