I Am Literally Melting

Dick Grayson as Batman and Damian as Robin

WOW. It is too hot out. Way too damn hot out.
Today was the first day at North Hampton, and besides melting in my shoes, it went really well! The student I'm working with is a pretty funny kid, and the staff are all really great. All in all it's been a pretty sweet day. But now we're going to get into some comic book news. News that I'm sure is going to cause a pretty big divide amongst my fellow nerds.

DC's blog "The Source" has revealed its plans for the "Batman" franchise when Bruce Wayne makes his inevitable return in a few months. Up until now, Bruce Wayne was thought to be dead, when in fact he was really just stuck in time, moving from one time period to the other. Meanwhile, in present day Gotham, Dick Grayson, the first Robin, took up the mantle of the Bat and became Gotham's new Dark Knight, with Bruce's alleged son Damian becoming the new Robin.

However, DC started publishing The Return Of Bruce Wayne, leading many Bat-fans (myself included) to ask themselves "so...what will happen to Dick Grayson?" Up until now, I was really enjoying Dick Grayson as Batman, something I will admit that I didn't think I was going to at first. But now that Bruce Wayne IS coming back, apparently there is going to be two Batmen: Dick Grayson will remain in Gotham, while Bruce Wayne will travel the world, assembling a team of "Dark Knights".

Bruce Wayne's "new" costume

To me, this could go two ways. It could be really cool, or really, really awful. And considering Grant Morrison's recent track record of Bat-books (Batman and Robin excluded) doesn't fill me with much hope. Maybe it's because I got used to Dick Grayson as Batman, or maybe its because Marvel already did this with Cap, but I've got a really bad feeling about this, especially when DC editor in chief Dan DiDio says that Bruce's intentions are to "build a Starbucks-style franchise of Dark Knights".

Maybe it's because I grew up reading 90's comics, but for me Batman works best as a character when he has fewer allies and more trust issues.  Creating a team of Bat-men does fit into Bruce Wayne's obsessive desire to fight crime, but one of his big deals and flaws is that he can't trust anyone. Bruce Wayne is Batman because he has trained himself to absolute perfection, and doesn't trust anyone to complete a task(see JLA: Tower Of Babel). Again, I could be completely wrong about this, but my initial reaction to this news is that it's really out of character for Bruce. Hopefully Grant Morrison has some crazy good idea for his motivations.