WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for "The Last Crime in Gotham," the short story by Geoff Johns, Kelley Jones, Michelle Madsen and Rob Leigh, featured in Detective Comics #1000, in stores now.

After months of hype, the milestone Detective Comics #1000 has finally hit comic shop shelves, celebrating more than 80 years of the Caped Crusader's adventures. The issue offers multiple stories set in the past, present and future of the Dark Knight, each story offering a peek at the man under the cape and cowl of Batman.

In Geoff Johns and Kelley Jones' story, "The Last Crime in Gotham," readers learn what Bruce Wayne wants most in the entire world through the framing sequence of a birthday wish. Is it to save the Earth from total destruction? To inspire a whole new generation of superheroes that will keep the universe safe? No, it's actually much simpler and more emotional than that. What Bruce wishes for is to have a family.

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Bruce's wish takes on the form of an alternate future where we see him lead a literal Bat-family -- not one made up of the strays he has trained along the way in his long vigilante career -- like Dick Grayson, Tim Drake and Barbara Gordon -- but a real family made up of a wife, Selina Kyle, his son, Damian Wayne, and a new crime-fighting daughter named Echo (a possible nod to a different character named Echo who appeared as an enemy to the Crimson Avenger in 1941's Detective Comics #49). And, yes, there's a dog, with Ace the Bat-Hound joining the family on Gotham City's rooftops.

In Bruce's wish, his Bat-family takes on the case of the last crime in Gotham, at a time when the city has never been safer. His wards, like Barbara and Jason Todd, have hung up their masks, and they are living lives away from crime-fighting. With Gotham now safe, Bruce can stop fighting, and focus on his family.

Unfortunately, that is a wish that will seemingly go unfulfilled. Bruce Wayne's life will always be one of fighting. But what a follow-up story by Tom King, Tony S. Daniel and Joëlle Jones reveals is that, the family that Bruce doesn't need a nuclear family -- he already built for himself one, the result of an entire lifetime of work. And, as King and Daniel's story reveals, they are his ultimate truth.

Having a real family may be a wish of Bruce's, but the one he built for himself will always be the one that means the most to him. Simply told, they are his greatest triumph.

KEEP READING: Tony Daniel's Detective Comics #1000 Art Gathers the Entire Bat-Family