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 that he stands for. It has a number of tie-ins in other DC Comics titles describing events not told in the main story.

The story begins with Batman and Robin perched onto a gothic building lit by lightning, where the former defiantly proclaims, "Batman and Robin will never die!". Events then flash back to Gotham City six months earlier, where Simon Hurt announces Black Glove's next venture: the destruction of Batman.

Bruce Wayne is dating Jezebel Jet, a model who is very influential in her home country. Jezebel discovers Bruce was Batman relatively early in their relationship, and the revelation makes the relationship easier for Bruce to handle. He lets Jezebel so deep into his life that he even introduces her to the Batcave. Meanwhile, Black Glove member Le Bossu contacts the Joker in Arkham Asylum and offers him a role in their assault on Batman.

Jezebel tries to convince Batman that he is simply living a life he has fabricated in his own head as a child to cope with the death of his parents. This suggestion begins to affect Batman's already-strained psyche, and he passes out when Jezebel says aloud a word that was on all the Bat-computer's screens: Zur-En-Arrh. As he passes out, Hurt and minions of his diabolical club, Black Glove, infiltrate the Batcave. They drug Batman, beat Alfred, and wreak havoc upon the cave.

When Bruce Wayne is seen next, he wakes up in a pile of garbage with no memory of himself. He meets a homeless man named Honor Jackson, who recognizes that Bruce is going through drug withdrawal and helps him. As the two spend time together, traveling in what Honor calls an "odyssey" across the city, Bruce sees more evidence of his forgotten life. The two reflect on the day, and Honor gives Bruce an old broken radio as a sentimental gift. Abruptly, Bruce finds that Honor is no longer sitting next to him and learns from a local dealer that Honor had blown two hundred dollars on heroin and overdosed the previous day. This statement devastates Bruce and further confuses his sense of reality. At this point, Bruce seems to snap. He makes himself a costume out of red, yellow, and purple rags, and begins referring to the broken radio as the "Bat-radia". He then calls himself the "Batman of Zur-En-Arrh" and begins taking advice from Bat-Mite.

The Batman of Zur-En-Arrh hunts down and dispatches two small-time members of Black Glove, and finds that his next destination is Arkham Asylum, armed with nothing but a baseball bat, his Bat-radia, and miscellaneous bits of junk that serve in place of his utility belt. Batman and Bat-Mite ultimately make it to Arkham, where Bat-Mite says he cannot follow. Inside, Batman is confronted by Joker, who holds Jezebel Jet captive and kills her in front of him using the flowers that make up Joker's laughing gas.

As Batman regains his sanity and loses consciousness from the same poisonous flowers, Jezebel appears to be okay, the Joker is smiling, Hurt is there, and everyone is asking Batman "Now do you get it?" It is revealed that Jezebel Jet has been a part of Black Glove all along.

The term "Zur-En-Arrh" was written all over the city by Hurt as a subliminal trigger to be used when the time was right to break Batman's mind. Hurt calls off Joker, referring to him as "my good and faithful servant". The straitjacketed Batman is buried in a shallow grave, Hurt's intention being to exhume him once oxygen deprivation has permanently damaged his mind. Back in the asylum, Joker murders a Black Glove member and places a bet with those who remain: that Batman will emerge from the grave undamaged and hunt them down, as he always does. While the now mentally stable Batman escapes the shallow grave that Black Glove put him in, Joker points out that no one has investigated Batman's "Bat-radia". When they do, they activate a transmitter that brings Nightwing, Robin, Damian, and the League of Assassins right to them. Before Joker flees in an ambulance, he promises the remaining Black Glove members that he will collect his winnings from them soon and tells Hurt that he should not have called him his servant. Batman hunts down Hurt, who tries to convince Bruce that he is his father, but Batman believes him to be Mangrove Pierce, an actor who had once been his father's double. As Hurt tries to escape, Batman infiltrates his escaping helicopter, causing it to crash in a blazing explosion. Flying back to her own country, Jezebel Jet's plane is ambushed by Talia al Ghul's Man-Bat Commandos. Back in present-day Gotham, Le Bossu tells his henchmen that Batman has not been seen in months and that they are free to commit crimes unmolested, when suddenly a Bat-signal-like light comes on above them, bringing the story full circle to its opening image.