WARNING! Spoilers ahead for Batman: Dark Age #5
Summary
Batman: Dark Agehas presented a compelling alternate continuity of the Dark Knight’s mythos, and the penultimate issue makes one change that is sure to raise some eyebrows. The preview for the issue reveals that none other than Martha Wayne was a patient at Arkham, forever changing Batman’s relationship with the asylum that would go on to house so many of his future enemies.
Batman: Dark Age#5by Mark Russell and Michael Allred is the penultimate issue of the critically-acclaimed retelling of the Dark Knight’s origins. The preview for the issue starts off with Bruce Wayne discussing the influence his mother had on him.
The opening five pages go on to describe Martha Wayne’s charitable work disarming mines and attempting to cure sick children, eventually explaining the toll it took on her. Overwhelmed by guilt that wasn’t hers,Martha decides to spend some time in Arkhamto get well.
“The Most Realistic Depiction of Batman”: DARK AGE Writes Bruce a New, Historical Origin Story by Mark Russell & Mike Allred
The BATMAN: DARK AGE creative team, Mark Russell and Mike Allred, sat down with Screen Rant to talk all things Batman, Gotham, and American history.
Main Cover by Michael Allred and Laura Allred
Batman: Dark Agehas been fascinating in how it approaches the classic Batman origin story. The creative team has found new perspectives from which to explore Batman lore, whether it’s revealing that Bruce Wayne got hiscombat training from Ra’s Al Ghulin Vietnam or now showing a different side to Martha Wayne. It’s a refreshing take, as while there have been numerous stories exploring Thomas Wayne,Martha has rarely been explored in depth. Showing how she had a charitable spirit that eventually took its toll on her makes Martha a far more interesting and rich character.
Batman has a personal stake in seeing the asylum returned to a place of healing as opposed to another prison.
As a writer,Russell has routinely found new waysto explore classic superhero archetypes, andhis portrayal of Arkham Asylum has been compellingso far. The preview forBatman: Dark Age#5 contains several insightful passages that put a new spin on concepts that have been around for more than a century.
“When I was a boy, Arkham wasn’t some chronically underfunded prison for the criminally insane,” Wayne reflects in the narrative captions, “It was an asylum.” Revealing thatMartha Wayne was formerly committed to Arkhammeans that Batman has a personal stake in seeing the asylum returned to a place of healing as opposed to another prison.
Russell and Allred previously worked together on another historical retelling of a classic superhero story:Superman: Space Age, which is available now both digitally and in collected editions from DC Comics.
Variant Cover by Roberto Meli
Batman will certainly have his hands full asDark Agereaches its conclusion, as Ra’s Al Ghul has returned to Gotham to check in on his former student. With the issue’s solicitations teasing that Batman will be teaming up with some of his rogues gallery, the creative team certainly has more unique takes on the classic Bat-mythos in store before the series concludes with its sixth issue. Now thatBatman: Dark Agehas revealed that Martha Wayne was once a patient of Arkham Asylum, anything is possible in the alternate continuity.
Batman
One of DC’s most iconic heroes, Batman is the vigilante superhero persona of billionaire Bruce Wayne. Forged by tragedy with the death of his parents, Bruce dedicated his life to becoming the world’s leading martial artist, detective, and tactician. Recruiting an entire family of allies and sidekicks, Bruce wages war on evil as the dark knight of his hometown, Gotham City.
