DC Reveals Batman’s Bizarre (Even By His Standards) Birthday Ritual

CBR

By Jon Arvedon

Published Mar 1, 2019

In Peter J. Tomasi and Doug Mahnke's Detective Comics #999, Batman reveals the odd, yet unsurprising manner in which he celebrates his birthday.

SPOILER WARNING: The following article contains major spoilers for Detective Comics #999, by Peter J. Tomasi, Doug Mahnke, Christian Alamy, Keith Champagne, Jaime Mendoza, Mark Irwin, David Baron and Rob Leigh, on sale now.

Nearly everyone has some sort of tradition when it comes to celebrating their birthday. For some, it’s a birthday party, complete with cake, ice cream, balloons and the like. For others, it’s a special family dinner, or maybe even a night at the movies.

However, in Detective Comics #999, we learn the brooding Dark Knight of Gotham chooses to celebrate his birthday in a particularly bizarre, yet surprisingly on-brand manner.

Issue #998 ended with Batman coming face-to-face with what appeared to be a younger version of himself sporting an ill-fitting batsuit, cape and cowl. As Issue #999 begins, though, we quickly discover the young “Bruce Wayne” is merely part of a simulation, which he refers to as the “2.1 program.” Furthermore, it’s revealed that everything Batman has gone through since the start of this arc, including Alfred being stabbed and Leslie Thompkins being killed, were all a part of the simulation, as well.

Why, though? Who could have been responsible for putting the Caped Crusader through such trauma by way of an elaborate fabrication?

“That’s the point of this every year, isn’t it?” the fake Bruce asks Batman. “Whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. Your gift to you… Happy Birthday, Bruce!”

In case that wasn’t clear enough, later on in the issue, we receive further confirmation that Batman’s recent woes were his own doing when he finally breaks free from the simulator.

As Alfred and Damian help Bruce to his feet, the latter points out that his father has “a weird way of celebrating [his] birthday.” He then asks Bruce what the purpose of the 2.1 program is, to which Bruce replies, “Isn’t it obvious? ...To kill me.”

“The testing apparatus itself has evolved over time,” he continues, “but yes, this is an annual… event I’ve kept to myself.”

Bruce then elaborates further, explaining that the purpose of the simulator is to ensure Batman continues to evolve and that he never becomes stagnant.

All things considered, this birthday tradition may seem odd to the average person. In fact, even Damian points out that “Alfred could’ve just baked a cake.” However, for someone like Batman, it hardly comes as a surprise that he chooses to celebrate his birthday by pushing himself to his absolute limits.