I'm not reading any of this stuff, but can somebody give me a quick rundown of what's going on?

What I know of is that Bruce Wayne won't be Batman after this arc and all hints lead to the return of Jean Paul Valley. Make of this what you want. I think JPV is going to die as Batman...again...lol.

I'll do my best.....

Years ago, Bruce Wayne went through a sensory depravation experiment to strengthen his mind. His goal was to be able to understand why guys like the Joker operate the way they do. It turns out that the guy who helped him with the experiment planted a phrase in his psyche which, if ever uttered, would wreck Bruce. That doctor guy went on to become Doctor Hurt, the leader of the Black Glove criminal organization. Since he knew Bat's true identity, he and his gang attacked Wayne Manor, beat the #### out of Alfred, and uploaded the phrase onto the Batcomputer. When Bruce heard hit, he snapped....he began wandering the streets as a hobo, using drugs, etc.

Robin is currently trying to track Bruce down and put all the pieces together, enlisting even the Penguin's help to try to find his whereabouts. Robin may wind up having to become the new Batman until Bruce gets his head on right.

Hush, Bat-Mite and Joker have roles to play in this series thus far (Joker and Mite in Morrison's Batman; Hush is in Detective), but their parts in all of this have not been fully revealed yet.

In the last issue of Batman, the derelict Bruce received some aid to help him rediscover himself. First was a hobo guy who guided him out of the darkness, who may/may not have been an illusion. Second is a audio recording on a tape deck which helped Bruce to regain his mind. At the end of the issue, he became a new kind of Batman -- the "Zur En Arrr" Batman (which was the phrase that Doctor Hurt programmed into Bruce during the treatment). It looks like Bruce had a contingency plan set in place just in case something was done to him in the sensory deprivation treatment (which is very much Bruce-esque).

I recommend the series; it's great. The Morrison stuff is slow and cryptic (which is Morrison's style), but it's also very interesting.

C

Actually, it looks more like Robin (Drake) is going to be Bats, with possibly Damien or Spoiler becoming the new Robin.

Things aren't looking too good for Nightwing, either.....rumor is that he might be killed off in this series.

C

Spoiler is alive again?

wow. I love the idea! this is the kind of pshocoligic stories that I love!

Doctor Hurt?

Oh, come on.

That's one step away from Baron von Bad.

I doodled a supervillain in college named The Harmer.

He said "I WILL HARM YOU!"

A guy ran away from him, yelling "DO NOT HARM ME!"

What about Big Daddy Danger?

Okay. In Australia, I'm three months behind the states, but I couldn't resist reading the spoiler anyways

My question is, do I need to track down the Robin and Detactive Comics issues? Or can I still just read Morrison's Batman run and get the full story?

Over here at my newstand, we've only just gotten the first issue of the arc.

that is the big problem. (don't know the answer by the game) but I hate when a story run is SEVERAL books.

for what I know interact with Robin and Outsiders at least.

why I don't like when this happen? because the book don't have a "standard" quality with so many writers and artists doing the same story in different books. sometimes there is great stories even with this format (I remember "the Reigh of Superman" that it was nice) but others times the work suffer with so many people touching the story.

Batman is the only series you need to read for RIP. The rest (with the possible exception of Robin) are so far just cashing in on the RIP name. They only deal with fallout from the main series, but nothing that directly affects it.

Apparently she never died. Dr Leslie Von Bad lied to Bruce to teach him a lesson.

Retcon action!

I heard Nightwing dying was Didio's idea but it was nixed due to being terrible.

Apparently in some interview Didio(or was it Morrison) hinted that R.I.P also meant replacement is possible. Which I hope is true, because killing BruceWayne/Batman would be a bad idea, a BAD IDEA DC.