The Dark Knight is dead in WB Games Montreal's upcoming Gotham Knights. Robin, Batgirl, Nightwing, and Red Hood are left behind as Gotham's protectors when Bruce Wayne is killed in a mysterious explosion.
While the studio has confirmed that Batman really is dead this time around, fans of the franchise may be forgiven for their skepticism. Batman has died in many versions of the comics, and in many of those versions he later comes back to life. Here are just five of the most interesting times the Caped Crusader has met his end across the DC multiverse that may influence Gotham Knights.
Heart Failure (The New 52)
The Court of Owls will be the main villains of Gotham Knights, which makes Batman's brief death at their hands in the comics highly relevant to the new game. In the New 52's Batman: The Court of Owls the Dark Knight finds himself trapped in a maze, hunted by the Talon. The Talon is a title given to the highly-trained assassin the Court picks from the performers at Haly's Circus and turns into a nearly-immortal killing machine.
With the Court of Owls watching from above, Batman experiences terrifying hallucinations and receives a brutal beating from the Talon. Right when the Court's members are preparing to tear him limb from limb, Batman sees an image of the tortured body of Alan Wayne. Alan was his great-great grandfather who was murdered by the Court of Owls in the period after the Civil War.
As a final act of defiance Batman improvises an explosive using the chemicals in a camera, blasting a hole through the floor allowing him to escape the Talons. However, Bruce Wayne suffers a massive heart attack which leaves him clinically dead. He is only revived when Bluebird finds his body in Gotham Bay, and restarts his heart using a car battery.
Murdered As A Boy (Earth-3)
In Earth-3, Bruce Wayne had an older brother named Thomas Wayne Jr. Believing that his parents were squandering the Wayne family fortune, the young Thomas devised a plan to have Alfred murder them both. However, when he tried to pitch the idea to his younger brother Bruce, the boy was horrified. To tie up loose ends, Thomas Jr murdered Bruce while Alfred took care of their parents.
Later, Thomas Wayne Jr would become the supervillain known as Owlman, a twisted criminal version of Batman with a similar philosophy regarding fear. In Owlman's reality, Dick Grayson would become his sidekick "Talon" instead of Robin, and would die in a mutually fatal encounter with Earth-3's Joker. Owlman would even manage to eventually cross realities to Prime Earth, but remained haunted by Bruce's murder his entire life.
Self-Sacrifice To Stop Steppenwolf (Earth-2)
The Batman of Earth-2 was a little different than his main incarnation, most notably for his use of guns. He was no less heroic, however, and when Steppenwolf and his army of parademons threatened this version of Earth, he was willing to make the ultimate sacrifice. Steppenwolf had created several towers across Earth-2 which allowed his forces to flood the planet, destroying entire civilizations.
Wonderwoman led a direct assault on the forces of evil while Superman tackled the parademons, with both also sacrificing themselves in the process. Batman managed to make it into one of the towers with help from Robin, who in this universe was his daughter Helena Wayne, who he had with Selina Kyle. With Robin providing cover, Bruce uploaded a virus to the tower which would cause it to self-destruct, buying the remaining defenders of Earth-2 valuable time. Making sure Robin has time to get to safety, he was killed in the explosion.
Murdered In The Joker's Time Loop (New Earth)
In Superman: Emperor Joker the Clown Prince of Crime finds himself gifted with immense cosmological powers when he tricks Mr. Mxyxptlk the fifth dimensional imp into handing him 99.9 percent of his powers. Recreating reality in his image in just 69 seconds, the Joker also made this new reality a time loop. This allowed him to kill his enemies as many times as he wanted. Naturally, Batman faced the brunt of this hellish new universe.
Batman is killed over and over again in this reality. In one instance this Prometheus-like ritual is even made literal, with the Joker using birds of prey to tear Batman to shreds. In the end, however, it turns out that the Joker's connection to Batman is his own weakness. Superman realizes that the Joker can never truly destroy the universe because that would destroy Batman, and the Joker defines his entire existence by his relationship to the Dark Knight. This weakness allows Mr. Mxyxpltk to retake control, and eventually to restore order to the universe.
Killed By Darkseid (New Earth)
Batman may escape the Joker's time loop in the New Earth run, but his eventual death proves almost as horrifying. Darkseid is the main villain of this story, and is close to finally defeating the remaining members of the Justice League when Bruce meets his end. Batman is forced to make an exception to his ban on guns, taking up a gun loaded with a radion bullet. Darkseid used a similar weapon to kill Orion, and Batman hoped to turn the weapon on Darkseid.
When the pair have their final confrontation, Darkseid refuses to believe that Batman will shoot at him. "Try me," Batman responds, before firing the gun. The bullet hits Darkseid in the shoulder, giving him time to fire the Omega Sanction — his weapon known as "the death that is life." Hit by this powerful bio-electric energy beam, Batman's charred body is found in a grizzly condition by Superman.
Batman has died many times across the DC multiverse. If the developers of Gotham Knight are to be believed, he will stay that way in the game's new continuity. After years of Batman deaths and revivals, however, fans know that the only way to truly tell is to wait for the game's release.
Gotham Knights is set to release on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series S/X in 2022.