Today, Shelby and Mikyzptlk are discussing Batman and Nightwing 22, originally released August 21st, 2013.

Shelby: Grief is hard. Even the most well-adjusted, grounded person will struggle with it, and I think it’s pretty safe to say that Bruce Wayne is pretty far from well-adjusted. His grief over his parents’ deaths so many years ago still propels him forward, so it’s no surprise he’s been having difficulty letting go of Damian. It’s not until he lets himself see the grief in those around him that he really begins to move towards acceptance.

Alfred has called Nightwing in from Chicago to deal with Bruce’s latest attempt to deal. He’s been plugged into a virtual reality simulation of Damian’s last moments, replaying it over and over to prove there was a way he could have saved his son.

Let’s just pause for a second to think about how horrible that is.

Instead of trying to talk Bruce out of it, Dick plugs in, and together they are capable of bringing Heretic down and saving Damian. Bruce finds it a hollow victory, since his son is still dead and all, and Dick explains that he needs to find the good in it all. Being Batman lost him his son, but without Batman he never would have met his son in the first place. Damian may be gone, but that doesn’t change what they had, the love he left behind. The two leave, and surprisingly Alfred plugs into the simulation. Bruce comes back in just in time to see Alfred give Damian a mild sedative, preventing him from ever leaving the cave that night. Alfred tearfully apologizes to Bruce, saying he’ll never forgive himself for letting Damian go, and Bruce realizes his pain blinded him to the pain Alfred was feeling as well.

Just when I thought I had finished shedding tears over this story, Peter Tomasi and Patrick Gleason have to go and show me Alfred’s side. To be honest, I had forgotten that Alfred let Damian leave the cave to be by his father’s side; this whole time, Alfred has been trying to help Bruce while carrying his own massive load of grief and guilt. It breaks my heart all over again, thanks in no small part to Gleason’s pencils.

Honest to glob, that man could wring tears from a stone with the way he draws Damian. It always comes down to the way he draws Damian like a child; no matter how bad-ass Damian was, Gleason never lost sight of the fact that he’s just a little boy. To see Alfred carrying him, essentially tucking him in as he curls up in the chair, adds so much more weight to Alfred’s grief and guilt here.

I have to wonder what exactly Bruce was trying to accomplish with this exercise. I can’t think of anything more painful than replaying your child’s death over and over, trying to find the mistake you made that would have saved him. The psychological torment Bruce is putting himself under is almost unfathomable. And the best case scenario? You figure it out, and have the same realization that Bruce did; it doesn’t matter, Damian is still gone. From the outside, it seems an exercise in torture, a grief-stricken lose/lose situation. There might be a momentary feeling of satisfaction seeing Heretic skewered on a spear (hell, I felt it), but what is there after that? Acceptance?

That’s where things get interesting; Bruce flat out says he may have to live with Damian’s death, but he will never accept it, which is an interesting turn to take in a book about acceptance. Even more interesting: Dick tells him he doesn’t have to. “That’s all anyone can ever expect from a father who had to bury his son.” This is really what gets to the heart of what makes Bruce be Batman every night. In the intro, I mentioned that Bruce still held on to his grief over his parents. It’s that grief that drives him every night to don the cape and cowl and go out into the city as the Bat. Here, again, he says that he will not accept Damian’s death, and Dick tells him that’s fine, but make something of it. If Damian’s death is going to have some meaning, it’s up to Bruce to find it. Does saving someone else’s child from the same fate bring his own son back? No, but that good then becomes a part of Damian’s legacy.

With that, I’m going to turn it over to Mik; what did you think of Bruce’s experience with the final stage of grief?

Mikyzptlk: So wait…after all of this, Batman doesn’t accept the death of his son? Oh. Well then, that is exactly as it should be. I think that this issue is yet another example of just how well Tomasi grasps Batman as a character. Bruce has always used his grief as fuel for his obsession, and you don’t need to be Dr. Arkham to know that kind of thing just ain’t healthy. At the same time though, Batman is what Bruce Wayne needs in order to survive. The obsession he has to keep others from experiencing the same trauma he experienced as a child is what keeps him moving forward. If it wasn’t for that, Bruce would most likely be dead by his own hand or an inmate of Gotham’s infamous asylum.  There is something else that keeps Bruce going that is just as important as Batman: his family. Unfortunately, this is something that Bruce tends to forget about an awful lot, which is why I’m glad Tomasi ultimately has Bruce circle back around to Alfred at the end of this issue.

When I think back upon this “stages of grief” arc, it focussed a great deal on Batman’s interactions with his Bat-family members…oh, and Frankenstein. Even in a post-Death of the Family era, Batman’s closest allies were still there for him in at least some capacity. It’s no wonder to me that Nightwing was saved for Bruce’s final stage of grief. Dick has been there since darn near the beginning, and I enjoyed seeing the original dynamic duo back together again.

Shelby, you mentioned the message that Nightwing delivered to Batman. This was definitely something that Batman needed to hear, and it’s going to help Bruce a great deal. However, as much as I understand why this issue is called Batman & Nightwing, I wish there had been enough room on the “marquee” for it to be called Batman, Nightwing & Alfred. Okay, I know that’s a terrible title for a comic, but it would have been a much better representation of how important Alfred was to this issue.

Yeah, Dick Grayson has been there since near the beginning, but Alfred’s been there since the very start. Just as Alfred has always been there for Bruce in his crusade as the Dark Knight, he is able to show Bruce that he isn’t alone in his grief either. This arc has been hit and miss, but it has had some great moments. Fortunately, Tomasi was able to finish strong by having Batman realize that even though he has lost a son, he hasn’t lost his family.

For a complete list of what we’re reading, head on over to our Pull List page. Whenever possible, buy your comics from your local mom and pop comic bookstore. If you want to rock digital copies, head on over to DC’s website and download issues there. There’s no need to pirate, right?