Batman Admits He's Responsible For The Death Of Young Bruce Wayne
Warning: contains spoilers for Justice League #52!
Batman has just been accused of murder, and it looks like he agrees. In Justice League #52, the team is attacked by the Black Mercy, a psychic plant which locks its victims in visions of a better life while feeding off their psychic energy. It's an enemy that drills down to the very core of the heroes who try to stop it, and Batman is no exception.
The Black Mercy first appeared in Superman Annual #11. There, Superman gets a "birthday present" that gives him a vision of what life would have been like if Krypton had never exploded. It was a good, peaceful life, and while Superman was ultimately able to reject the plant, it left an ache in his heart. That was only a small plant, about the size of a trash can lid. The one that the Justice League encounters in Justice League #52 is much larger, so large that it has overtaken an entire planet and gained sentience along the way. It entraps the entire League with its vines, giving each member their own visions, but it's most diabolical to Batman.
The Black Mercy shows Batman a life that could have happened if his mother hadn't been killed in Crime Alley. His host for this bizarre walk through his alternate life is the specter of his mother, looking like an extra from The Walking Dead, who accuses him of murdering her son, Bruce. She says Bruce Wayne was slain in Crime Alley along with his parents, taken down by his overwhelming pride and thirst for vengeance. In the wake of the boy's murder, Batman was born. She then leads him down a path where Bruce gives up being Batman and walks away from the Justice League. He sees himself finding happiness by giving new lives to some of his most infamous foes. In the vision, Bruce lives happily to an old age.
Batman killing Bruce Wayne isn't an unfamiliar take on the character - indeed, the Tom King Batman storyline "I Am Suicide" takes this idea as its premise - but what's new to this story is how sincerely it treats the idea that he could be brought back if Batman chose to grow. Ultimately, Batman is unable to break the spell of the Black Mercy before Wonder Woman can save him. A few days later, Superman visits Batman on top of a building in Gotham City. Superman tells Batman about his previous encounter with the plant and how it changed his life; without it, he doesn't know if he'd be the person he is today. Batman has a will that is stronger than most of the people on Earth. That the Black Mercy was able to keep him in its thrall for so long shows just how tempted he was by a better life and underlines that while Bruce Wayne's childhood was taken from him, Batman is still capable of doing right by the child that was lost to his crusade.
Justice League #52, by Jeff Loveless, Robson Rocha and Daniel Henrique, is available now.