Longtime Batman writer Grant Morrison's run on the ongoing series would reach an explosive crescendo in 2008 with the epic "Batman R.I.P." storyline. The six-part main story arc was written by Morrison, penciled by Tony S. Daniel, inked by Sandu Florea, colored by Guy Major and lettered by Randy Gentile, running through the pages of Batman #676-681. By the end, a new Dynamic Duo had begun to defend Gotham City while Bruce Wayne himself was seemingly lost for good, setting a new era for the Dark Knight mythos.
Here is a complete guide to the emotional climax of Morrison's tenure on the main Batman title and how it would shake the Bat-Family for the remainder of the pre-Flashpoint era of the DC Universe.
WHAT HAPPENED BEFORE BATMAN RIP?
Morrison began his run on Batman in 2006 following the Infinite Crisis, starting with Batman #655. The run opened with a bang -- literally -- as an imposter Batman shot the Joker in the head. While the Clown Prince of Crime survived, the incident further warped the villain's already tenuous grasp on sanity causing him to become even more violent in an immediate response. However, Batman's attention was diverted elsewhere, with the discovery he had fathered a son named Damian with Talia al Ghul, trained by the League of Assassins to become a formidable warrior even at an early age.
As the Caped Crusader reunites with the International Club of Heroes, heroes inspired by Batman around the world, the ensemble is ambushed by a shadowy group of villains known as the Black Glove. The clandestine group is led by a figure eventually revealed Doctor Simon Hurt, a physician who would oversee an isolation experiment conducted by Batman earlier in his career while Dick Grayson was still Robin. Realizing the Black Glove was actively plotting to strike out and destroy him, the Dark Knight began to prepare for their coming attack.
WHAT HAPPENED IN BATMAN R.I.P.?
The main story begins with Batman still recovering from the Black Glove's most recent attack, only to pass out when his new girlfriend Jezebel recites a mysterious code phrase Zur-En-Arrh. The Black Glove seizes the opportunity to infiltrate the Batcave and heavily drug the incapacitated Caped Crusader with powerful psychotropic hallucinogens, turning Bruce Wayne out in the street as his mind reboots itself to recover with a backup persona that Batman had prepared for just such a possibility.
While dressed as his backup personality, the Batman of Zur-En-Arrh, Bruce infiltrates Arkham Asylum where Hurt is leading the Black Glove in a celebration for breaking the Batman. The Dark Knight's mind fractures further when he discovers that Jezebel has been part of the Black Glove all along -- with "Zur-En-Arrh" as a subconscious phrase implanted in Bruce's mind to break him -- with Hurt burying the senseless Bruce alive. As the Joker turned on the Black Glove, Batman escaped the deathtrap and brought in reinforcements to defeat the assembled villains, seemingly killed in a helicopter crash with Hurt and Nightwing claiming the mantle of Batman in the wake of his mentor's apparent death.
WHAT HAPPENED AFTER BATMAN RIP?
At the end of the miniseries Batman: Batman for the Cowl, written and drawn by Daniel, Dick Grayson, and Damian Wayne would replace Bruce Wayne and Tim Drake as the new Batman and Robin, with the new series helmed by Morrison. Taking on new threats that rose to replace much of Batman's classic rogues gallery, the heroes would face villains like Professor Pyg while Jason Todd and the Joker would resurface in altered appearances to menace the new Dynamic Duo.
Bruce was revealed to have survived the helicopter crash but distracted by the events of Final Crisis before he could announce his return to the Bat-Family and resume his conflict against the remnants of the Black Glove. During the 2008 crossover event, Batman was transported back in the past by Darkseid's Omega Beams, gradually returning in the present just in time to take down Hurt with Dick, with the villain revealed to be an ancestor of Bruce's that used occult rituals to unnaturally prolong his life. In the months leading up to Flashpoint, Batman would recruit new heroes around the world to join his Batman, Inc. initiative while Dick continued to defend Gotham as the Dark Knight in the interim before Bruce reclaimed the mantle for good.