There have been several important storylines that the Batman titles have focused on in recent years. This page lists a summary of the lastest storylines, and the links below will take you to summaries of what these past stories covered, and their importance to understanding Batman.

DC promises that Legacy will be the last large crossover for a year, to give readers a break from the large, long stories (and a break for their wallets, too). The word from Denny O'Neil is that no crossovers will occur for one year; that all in-title stories will never extend beyond three months; and that every month there will be at least one single-issue story. Also, there are going to be six team-ups of characters.

Regarding the recent appearance of The Spectre in Batman #540 & #541, and Batman in The Spectre #51: this is not a crossover. They just happen to be appearing in each other's titles, and this happens to be around the same period of time...

Kingdom Come was a recently-released miniseries showing a possible future for the DCU characters. Superman has retired (after his parents and Lois died); Batman apparently has never fully recovered from Bane, and has robotic Bat-men protecting Gotham (Gotham is the only "safe" city in the US now); and Lex Luthor has been conspiring with Catwoman, the Riddler, Ib'n Al Xu'Ffasch (Ra's al Ghul's grandson (son of Batman and Talia)), and others. A new breed of superhumans has become bored with protecting the people, and hunt one another down, killing many innocent people in the process. Diana convinces Kal-El to return to his role as Superman and take control of the new superhumans, after they destroy most of the American Midwest during one of their battles. The story is presented from the point of view of a priest being taken around by the Spectre (very much like the three ghosts in A Christmas Carol).

The story is in four parts: the first shows the new breed of superhumans, and Diana's meeting with Kal-El. The second shows the incarceration of these new superhumans by Superman and his allies. The third shows Bruce Wayne and the people on his side - those that oppose Superman's methods, meeting with Lex and his people to stop Superman, and the fourth shows the final showdown.

Kingdom Come featured fantastic artwork by Alex Ross - it is all painted. And Mark Waid wrote an excellent story, although there are a lot of things that were left unexplained that made the story confusing. The newest issue of Wizard (#65) explains a lot of the back stories behind Kingdom Come, and is definitely worth picking up.

All in all, not quite The Dark Knight Returns, but an excellent story to pick up.

Addendum: When DC/Graphitti released the Kingdom Come slipcase (the signed and numbered one), they released an additional 12 pages.

This file was last modified on June 18, 1998

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