Bruce Wayne’s tragic origin regrettably repeated itself when one Batman.
When DC Comics established its married a reformed Catwoman, had a daughter who became the Huntress, and assumed the role of Gotham City’s Police Commissioner. However, fans of Batman know that tragedy looms large over the character and can only be avoided for so long before it strikes.
The Earth-Two Selina Kyle, Bruce Wayne’s wife, is eventually killed when she is blackmailed into committing one last robbery as Catwoman in DC Super-Stars #17 by Paul Levitz and Joe Staton. This tragedy lays the foundation for Helena Wayne, Bruce and Selina’s daughter, to assume the costumed vigilante identity of the Huntress. Two years later, Bruce comes out of retirement to stop a criminal with supernatural powers, but Batman's secret identity is publicly exposed and he is killed as a result. Huntress witnesses her father’s death in the “Only Legends Live Forever” story published in Adventure Comics #462, also written by Levitz and illustrated by Staton. Bruce is buried in a grave next to his wife and parents while Helena becomes the newest Wayne to be tragically orphaned.
Batman's Death Echoes The Murder of His Parents
Although Bruce's secret identity is revealed in his final battle, Dr. Fate uses his magical helmet to simply cast a spell and erase this knowledge from the general population. This mystical action is enough to protect the secret identities of the Huntress and Robin but the writer Paul Levitz would rather erase the entire story. According to Levitz in the book Batman: The Definitive History of the Dark Knight in Comics, Film, and Beyond by Andrew Farago and Gina McIntyre, the story felt appropriate “because an older Batman wouldn’t be in shape to perform.” The death of Bruce Wayne was meant to “echo the original death of his folks,” but Levitz regrets the approach. In fact, Levitz has gone as far to say that “it’s one of the stories in my career I wish I could do over.” Helena refuses to let anyone take the mantle of the Earth-Two Batman, insisting that he was irreplaceable. Ironically, the story served its intended purpose and definitively established the Earth-One Bruce Wayne as the one true Batman.
The death of the original Batman should have been a landmark issue for DC Comics. In many ways the death of this Batman was unsatisfying because being the “current” Batman is more important than being the “original” Batman. In retrospect, the events of Crisis on Infinite Earths were already going to erase the Earth-Two Batman from the official timeline anyway. The villain who managed to defeat this version of Bruce Wayne never shared any meaningful connection to the Batman mythos. The story never even bothered to explain the source or nature of his cosmic powers. Despite some strong thematic elements, the story itself never feels fully formed, so it makes perfect sense that Paul Levitz regrets unmasking and killing DC Comics' original Batman.
Source: Batman: The Definitive History of the Dark Knight in Comics, Film, and Beyond by Andrew Farago and Gina McIntyre
