Having grown up reading comics during the excesses of the early 1990s, there are very very few company-wide crossovers that I enjoy and respect in hindsight as an adult, but I will always have a soft spot in my heart for Armageddon 2001. Yes, the end of the story had to be completely rewritten at the zero hour thanks to a company that didn't yet understand how to respond to early internet fanboy spoilers, and yes the story ended on a totally unfair cliffhanger that took two follow up limited series that no one actually wanted to trudge through in order to arrive at a totally unsatisfactory ending, but the premise, the writing for that first issue, and the idea of having every DC annual tell a future story of the current hero--it was all such a winning combination. this was the only time in history that I went out and bought every annual released as part of a company-wide crossover, and I've never regretted that decision in hindsight.


Batman Annual #15



"The Last Batman Story"
writer: Alan Grant
pencils: Jim Fern
inks: Steve Leialoha
colors: Adrienne Roy
letters: John Costanza
asst. editor: Kelley Puckett
editor: Dennis O'Neil

grade: C+


What had the potential to be an awesome future Batman story really doesn't end up going anywhere special. Beyond the early excitement of Tim Drake quitting out of frustration ten years in the future, the Joker being pronounced sane and becoming a talk show host, and most of Batman's rogues gallery being brutally murdered (presumably by Bruce or by Tim), the story spins its wheels for a long while before revealing the safest possible solution to all of this -- The Joker never really went sane, and he was killing everyone in an effort to frame Batman and put him on Death Row.

Ho-hum.

That being said, there's still a lot worth discussing about this issue. For starters, I believe it's the first time we've had Alan Grant working without Norm Breyfogle. He turns in some nice narration to make up for the loss of visual style



but Fern ultimately proves to be too much of a liability, turning in steroid induced Batman images that are unclear, often anatomically impossible, and desperately pleading for a comparison to the work of Rob Liefeld. I guess some fan boys wanted this approach back then. But, I mean, seriously, here's the final panel of the entire story, and I honestly don't know what's going on. Did Batman just die? The story's title would suggest as much, but the artwork just seems to suggest he's passing gas.




Beyond that, there are really three things worthy of note in this story:

1. Alan Grant's contribution to Post-Crisis Continuity

One of the most interesting things this story does is present both Killer Moth (in his death) and Killer Croc as mainstay Batman villains who had been around for a long time ten years from now, suggesting that they're already established villains now. And yet this is both villains' first ever Post-Crisis appearance.


2. Alan Grant's perpetuation of his own continuity

In addition to the Ventriloquist's death being briefly depicted, we get no less than TWO references to Harold the Hunchback, showing brilliant inventions he's still producing for Batman ten years down the line



(I was really starting to think Grant had forgotten about him! He hasn't been mentioned in five months now)

Additionally, Grant just refuses to give up on Anarky, his original bid for the next character to assume the Robin mantle prior to Tim Drake being chosen by O'Neil.



Not only does Anarky get ample time in this story; he ends up playing a more meaningful role than Tim Drake. Tim debates about breaking Batman out of prison but is indecisive and, utimately, unable. Anarky is the one who gets in to the prison where Batman is being held and, more impressively, convinces Batman to escape, having Anarky take his place. Grant never exactly portrays Tim as a chump, and he definitely depicts Anarky as being a bit unstable, but there's no doubt which of the two played a more critical role to the story.



3. Alan Grant's treatment of the Joker

Grant has not been allowed to touch the Joker until now, as he was only brought out briefly in the wake of Death in the Family, handed to Wolfman, and then put back on the shelf, but in this technically non-continuity story, it would appear Grant was given more free reign. Considering the kind of stories he prefers to write -- grounded street-level stories about psychologically twisted villains, one would THINK Joker would be right up his alley, and it's not like he hasn't now had four years writing for the Bat Office to think about this, but the work he turns in is a disappointing and shameless rip-off of how Alan Moore depicted The Joker in The Killing Joke.



...only less funny.


It's all there -- the pandering to the reader as audience, the fake sympathy and modesty, even the style of humor employed. But if you don't believe me there, how about this fan service that comes a few pages later?



Note the intended irony here that, this time, Batman is the one who has been replaced with a stand-in. That is the full extent of what Grant has brought to the character of his own.


In the end, I think it's safe to say that this story generally fails to achieve anything memorable beyond establishing the existence of Killer Moth and Killer Croc in the Post-Crisis Batman continuity.



plot synopsis in one sentence:

Ten years in the future, Tim Drake has given up being Robin, hoping that becoming a senator will allow him to make a bigger difference, someone is killing off Batman's rogues' gallery, Batman gets framed for it and, upon believing he has accidentally killed The Penguin, he turns himself in and is put on Death Row, but he realizes the Joker has set him up and allows Anarky to take his place in prison so that he can prove it; in the final confrontation, the Joker manages to accidentally kill himself (it's truly implausible, not even worth explaining), and it looks like maybe Batman died too. Hard to tell.