Batman R.I.P.

"Batman R.I.P." is an American comic book story arc published in Batman #676-681 by DC Comics. Written by Grant Morrison, penciled by Tony Daniel, and with covers by Alex Ross, the story pits the superhero Batman against the Black Glove organization as they attempt to destroy everything for which he stands. It has a number of tie-ins in other DC Comics titles describing events not told in the main story.

Outline

Discussing the genesis of the storyline and its linkage to the rest of his run, Morrison notes that:

So it came from there…and out of that notion came the idea for the big overarching story I’ve been telling since I first came on the book. Everything…the "Zur-En-Arrh" graffiti, the Joker prose story, the Club of Heroes…every detail that’s been in the book for the last couple of years is significant, everything is a clue to the grand design that’s unfolding.

In an interview with Comic Book Resources, Grant Morrison explained that Batman's fate in the story is "so much better than death. People have killed characters in the past, but to me, that kind of ends the story! I like to keep the story twisting and turning. So what I am doing is a fate worse than death. Things that no one would expect to happen to these guys at all. This is the end of Bruce Wayne as Batman."