This is "Provide Some Answers," which is a feature where long unresolved plot points are eventually resolved.

Today, we look at what Batman was up to while Dick Grayson filled in as an interim Batman during the "Prodigal" storyline!

There was a plotline in the X-Men where X-23 came to the X-Men to help her deal with the fact that she was essentially born and bred to become a killer. She needed the X-Men's help with dealing with the programming she went through that could possibly lead to her going on a killing rampage at any moment. Cyclops' idea for handling this situation was to make X-23 a part of his secret murder police team known as X-Force. I mention that to show how Batman has some company when it comes to letting down people dealing with murderous impulses. Batman had been helping Jean-Paul Valley deal with the programming that led to him becoming the latest in a long line of enforcers/assassins for the Order of St. Dumas known as Azrael. While helping him with the programming, Batman also trained him to be a hero. Then Batman had his back broken and just tossed Jean-Paul into the fire and, shockingly, Jean-Paul eventually reverted to his Azrael programming while he was technically being Batman and things went to hell in Gotham City in the absence of the paralyzed original Batman. Bruce Wayne found a way to heal his back and he returned to get rid of Jean-Paul (otherwise known as "Az-Bats"). Along for the ride was Robin and Nightwing. Nightwing was a bit miffed that when Batman needed someone to fill-in for him, Bruce turned to a relative stranger dealing with murderous impulses instead of asking his former partner, Nightwing.

However, once Bruce returned as Batman (and dealt with the crisis known as Zero Hour), he decided that he wanted to take some time off. This time around, though, he would have Dick fill-in for him, as shown in this scene from Robin #0 (by Chuck Dixon, Tom Grummett and Ray Kryssing - how cool is that Grummett reaction that he gives Tim Drake on the final page?)...

So Dick and Tim have a nice three-month series of adventures as the new Batman and Robin (they worked so well together that it was almost a shame that it was obviously going to be a short term thing, a sort of big "mea culpa" to not having Dick being Batman before) until Bruce returns in Robin #13 (by Chuck Dixon, Phil Jimenez and Ray Kryssing)...

Note that Bruce pointedly does NOT say where he went.

Dick wants to have a heart to heart with Bruce (mostly voicing the subtext of the betrayal he felt when Bruce picked Jean-Paul over him and Bruce explaining that he did not feel he had the right to pull Dick from his new life to come back and help him)...

In the end, Tim returns to the cave to find Dick is Nightwing again and Bruce is back...but different!

The changes are elaborated a bit in Batman #515 (by Doug Moench, Kelley Jones and John Beatty), but to be frank, they are kind of vague. Like, be closer to himself as Bruce Wayne or whatever...

Really, the only REAL change is the new costume.

What Bruce was up to during that time off was pretty much dropped immediately and it has never been COMPLETELY explained, but years later, we did surprisingly learn a little bit about what he did during that time...

Page 2: [valnet-url-page page=2 paginated=0 text='Where did Bruce go, besides a little place called 'Bruce Wayne'?']

Years later, Gotham City was ravaged by a massive earthquake. The government decided to, in effect, give up on the city and just blow up all of the bridges to the city so that whoever stayed behind was stuck there.

Batman was missing for a while before he returned in Batman #563 (by Bob Gale, Alex Maleev and Wayne Faucher)...

Almost a year later, we got No Man's Land #0 (by Jordan Gorfkinel, Greg Rucka, Greg Land and Drew Geraci) that showed what Batman was up to in the months before he showed up again and he revealed that during his time off in Prodigal, he had set up secret bases all over Gotham City so that he would never get caught unawares again...

Technically he just says "After Bane broke him," but we know what he was up to right after that. It was in KnightsQuest and KnightsEnd. The only unaccounted for time was during Prodigal, so that has to be when it happened.

So almost six years after the fact, we got a part of the answer of what Bruce got up to during the time that Dick was filling in as Batman!

If anyone else has a suggestion for a plot that was resolved after a number of years, drop me a line at brianc@cbr.com!