This is the final chapter of the “Batman: Confidential” storyarc, “Rites”.  I’ve blogged about this story before and how it’s been a breath of fresh air over the past few months in contrast to what Grant Morrison has been doing over in “Batman”.  Overall this was a very good story.  It’s a story so good that I think it would be accepted by fans if this story was incorporated into the current Batman continuity.

The story continues with the rogue police officer looking to get revenge on the Joker for tricking his wife into committing suicide.  The story has no surprise endings really.  The cop doesn’t kill the Joker obviously and Batman of course comes in to save the day.  However, there are some cool moments like the birth of Arkham Asylum where the Joker tortures his fellow inmate the rogue cop with cruel jokes about his dead wife. 

The cover of this issue gives away the ending as the story comes full circle and shows the Batman bringing in a new villain to police headquarters for booking - the Riddler. The writer of this story Andrew Kreisberg is a Hollywood writer and producer. I doubt he would give up his day job to come and work for the comic industry full time. It’s our loss as he has done a fine job here. Scott McDaniel is on the money here as always with the art work.

The next storyarc is the introduction of the 1960s Batman TV show villain King Tut into Batman comics.  Whether this story will be in continuity I have no idea.  The story will be written by Christina Weir and Nunzio DeFilippis who wrote the very underrated “New Mutants” relaunch a few years back and its next incarnation “New X-Men Academy X”.  I’ll be sticking around as there won’t be any Bruce Wayne/Batman stories hitting the stands for a while.  Whose idea was it to kill off Batman as we enter his 70th year of publication?  Nice move!