WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for "Hard Target" from Batman: Gotham Nights #18, from Marc Guggenheim, Scott Koblish, Nick Filardi, and Troy Peteri, available now.
In the DC Universe, it's not often that Bruce Wayne gets killed. Grant Morrison's Final Crisis did achieve this for a bit by throwing him through the timestream, while Scott Snyder's "Superheavy" arc sort of "killed" Bruce off by taking his memory away. But no matter what, the Dark Knight will always rise above -- just ask Joker, Bane, Darkseid, and countless others who've tried to take him off the table.
However, in Batman: Gotham Nights #18, Bruce isn't just assassinated; he's killed in full view of the public after taking a bullet to the skull. And the shocking thing is Superman actually helps!
The story finds Bruce formulating a strategy against Gold Star Assassin, a new killer that Interpol can't track. The villain has even beaten up Deathstroke so the Bat knows he's got real competition on his hands. He plots with Alfred and calculates that the best time for an attempt on his life will be at Robinson Park when he gives a charity speech out in the open. He places the Bat-Family at the major checkpoints, but Gold Star still pops up and snipes Bruce through the head.
It's a bloody scene, yet somehow the Caped Crusader shows up behind the assassin and takes her out. Now, at this point, there's confusion as to how Bruce fakes all this as everyone's preoccupied, but when the heroes convene, Nightwing figures it out: Bruce had Clark Kent pretend to be him with the bullet getting stuck in his forehead. Clark used facial augmentation tech known as a smart mask, similar to what Black Widow wore in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, a voice modulator to replicate Bruce's voice, as well as fake blood, quickly speeding off when it was over. Bruce reveals that his resurrection would easily be explained as him working with Interpol to set this trap.
It's a deft move and a death that everyone is glad isn't real, especially with the history the two heroes have of fighting each other. Notably, it's not the first time Clark has portrayed Bruce to fool the public. In the third season of Superman: The Animated Series, 1998's "Knight Time" found Clark pretending to be Batman when Brainiac kidnapped the billionaire and mind-controlled Bruce so Wayne Enterprises could build a Kryptonian rocket.
Clark, donning the cape and cowl, would work with Tim Drake's Robin to stop the alien, fighting the likes of Bane along the way and even fooling Commissioner Gordon on the rooftop. Also, in Superman: American Alien, a young Clark was mistaken for Bruce on a party on a yacht and while he didn't like that people thought he was the playboy, Clark did enjoy the women and booze on board. Thankfully, this story finds Batman and Superman as friends, proving why the World's Finest work so well together.