WARNING: The following article contains spoilers from Batman #100, by James Tynion IV, Carlo Pagulayan, Danny Miki, Tomeu Morey, and Clayton Cowles, available now.
The "Joker War" has come to an end, and the Bat-Family is more united and stronger than ever before, despite Gotham being changed forever. Batman resigned himself to asking the Bat-Family for help with Joker's hostile takeover, and deeply regretted not doing it sooner. Since the end of the war, Joker escaped and Punchline embarked on a media tour playing the Joker victim card. Meanwhile, a new villain who calls themselves the Ghost-Maker has revealed themselves -- the Bat-Family has a lot on their hands.
While Batman seems content on eventually moving past the past to operate in a new kind of Gotham, the rest of Batman's young partners seem to be more entrenched in Gotham's dealings than ever before.
Nightwing had one of the most dramatic transformations during the Joker War because Joker brainwashed him with a magic crystal and made him fight his family. However, Batgirl, Red Hood, and Tim Drake stole the crystal in Nightwing #74, by Dan Jurgens, Ryan Benjamin, Richard Friend, and Rain Beredo, and AndWorld Design. Once they got the crystal near Nightwing, all of his memories started rushing back into his mind and he quickly joined Batman's fight to retake Gotham from Joker and Punchline.
To help him in his last stand against the Joker, almost all of the Bat-Family came to the Dark Knight's side: Nightwing, Harley Quinn, Signal, Orphan, Spoiler, Batgirl, Red Hood, and Red Robin. Before they head their separate ways to counter-act Joker's stranglehold on the city, Batman gives Nightwing his classic black and blue suit back and officially welcomes him back into the family.
While this all makes for a triumphant finale for Gotham's heroes, the moment also shows much much they're all still under the shadow of Batman. Even though Batman looks to build a new future for Gotham by the end of the issue, several of his closest partners find themselves slipping back in to familiar roles instead of moving forward into the future.
Batman returning Nightwing's costume feels like a metaphor for Batman and the Bat-Family's co-dependency to Gotham City. The hard truth is they'll never be able to leave the city behind, even though many of them have tried to leave Batman and Gotham behind them, all of their identities are integrally connected to Gotham's streets.
Batgirl returned to her Oracle role and became the Bat-Family's voice while coordinating the counter-attack from her Burnside clock tower headquarters. She rallied the troops and the city with an inspirational speech that neither Batman nor Jim Gordon could deliver on their best day. "That line about the Bat-Signal gave me chills," Dick Grayson tells her over comms.
Barbara Gordon leaving the frontlines opened up some room for Spoiler and Orphan to return to their Batgirl-esque rolls. Each of these young vigilantes spent time as Batgirl, and each one got a costume change along with Nightwing. Spoiler kept her purple hood but included a matching bat symbol on her chest. Orphan changed her entire outfit from a hooded robe to a sleek and haunting Batgirl suit. The Bat-Family's new looks are sleek and intimidating and they walk through Punchline and her forces with relative ease.
Shortly after briefly rebranding himself as Drake in Young Justice, Tim Drake returned to his historical costume and identity as Robin, just as Batman and Damian Wayne -- the most recent Robin -- drift apart over the younger's cruel treatment of criminals in Teen Titans.
Taken together, these changes and reversions to form show just how strong the gravitational pull of Gotham City reall is. is. Even though they're vocal about their displeasure about Gotham and even Batman at times, they show up and support Gotham when push comes to shove. Much like the Joker is obsessed with Batman, the Bat-Family may be intrinsically tied to Gotham, and it's going to keep drawing them back in there until the bitter end.
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