PREVIOUSLY:
Bruce discovers that he has a son named Damian (Batman & Son) with Talia al Ghul, causing problems with his recently adopted
son Tim Drake (aka Robin). Meanwhile, the Demon's Head himself, Ra's Al Ghul returns from the dead to haunt Batman once more (
The Resurrection of Ra's Al Ghul). During one of their
battles, Bruce is mortally injured and dies only to return from the dead after a dip in the reviving waters in Nanda Parbat - the sight of his re-birthing ceremonies during his
year-long absence (52) .
Meanwhile, Batman is also dealing with the strange
appearances of criminals dressed in Batman costumes throughout Gotham City (The Three Ghosts of Batman). When one of them shows up at Gotham PD, Batman confronts him only to be shot in the chest causing his heart to stop. When he comes to he finds himself in the basement of
Gotham PD Headquarters being tortured by the Bat-Imposter who Bruce discovers gained his twisted psyche as a result of a bizarre experiment
by Dr. Simon Hurt based on the findings from a study Batman took part in during
his early crime fighting days (Batman #156) meant to re-create the psychological profile of the Dark Knight and spawn a Batman militia using Gotham policemen as test-subjects (Batman #674). Batman worries that this all may be the workings of a rumored King of Crime,
the Black Glove who had tried to wipe out the League of Batmen (Batman #669) and could lead to his ultimate un-doing.
.
Finally, Bruce's new flame Jezebel Jet, a wealthy leader of a foreign country, discovers his secret identity after an attack on their lives from the Ten-Eyed man (Batman #675).
SUMMARY:
The Black Glove (lead by Dr. Hurt) makes its move to Gotham City and recruit the Joker in preparation for their danse macabre. Meanwhile, Bruce is becoming more and more obsessed with uncovering the secret behind the Black Glove leading
Jezebel to question whether or not it's time for Bruce to hang up the cape and cowl. Meanwhile, Tim also begins fearing for Bruce's sanity and runs off with the Black Casebook, a collection of cases from Batman's early career
which involve the paranormal or other un-explained phenomenon. Upon comparing the Black casebook to the Gotham PD casefiles Robin finds that none of Batman's Black casebook cases appear to correspond with any events on file. He seeks out the help of Nightwing but the Black Glove
have already made their move, institutionalizing Dick under a false name in Arkham Asylum. Tim's attempts to find Batman are hindered by Spoiler, acting on orders from Bruce. Bruce wants Tim to fend for himself and not try to find him.
Back at the Bat-Cave, the Black Glove use a trigger phrase implanted in Bruce's mind during the isolation experiments to cause him to breakdown mentally. The Black Glove destroy the Bat-Cave and begin using it as a home-base. Bruce is drugged and left on the street to fend
for himself with no money or identification. Bruce crosses paths with a man he had previously helped named Honor Jackson and the two take to the streets of Gotham. Bruce befriends Jackson and is given a gift of a broken radio, which
the hallucinating Bruce believes is something called a 'Bat-Radia.' Shortly thereafter Bruce discovers that Honor had died the day before, overdosing on copious amounts of drugs he had
purchased with the money given to him by Bruce. A drug addled Bruce Wayne stitches himself a new costume and begins calling himself the Batman of Zur-En-Arrh, hunting down the Black Glove and heading towards Arkham Asylum
and the Danse Macabre.
Following the events at Arkham, Batman is missing and the Bat-Cave is destroyed, prompting the Outsiders to consider disbanding the group. Back in New York City, Nightwing is roped into helping
Two-Face protect the life of a woman he once loved.
NOTE:
The main story of Batman RIP was written as a book-end to Grant Morrison's larger run on the main Batman title and was written without tie-ins. As such, we've included all of the tie-in issues
in gray to illustrate roughly when the stories take place while keeping the main focus of the arc on Morrison's Batman issues.
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