Has Bruce (Bats) ever met his parents after they died?

[DR.MID-NITE]

In the DC universe we know their is an afterlife. So I am wondering if their has ever been a story where Bruce meets his parents after their deaths? If not. I would love a story where by some reason Bruce meets them and they discuss what he has done with his life and what he has given up.

[shoujoaifan]

I wouldn't be too surprised if it happened in the past, like the Silver or Gold eras, but it would not fly today, for two reasons:



1. A legitimate concern, since his basic EXISTENCE depends on him angsting over his parent's death. If they had his parents show up from the afterlife to talk about it, they would still need him to angst over their deaths. And very, very few parents would want their kids to be doing what he's doing.

It would be a challege for the writers to come up with a way for the parents as ghosts to tell Bruce not to feel sorry for them, yet not tell him to stop crimefighting like 99.9% parents would say, and still have Bruce angst over their deaths in order for the motivation for his fight to stay the same.

Its the status quo. 'cause after all these years, they're not going to start saying "He's doing it both because of his parents, saving other kids from the same fate, and justice, he's just mellowed out a bit when it comes to his parents..." when they recap his origin each time.



2. Batman's too "realistic" now, even as they try to (thankfully) try to mellow Bruce from "Bat-Jerk" to someone who can be friends again with Supes and WW (THANK YOU!), yet still be serious and grim at times. Which is the thing, fans and writers together confusing "serious", "grim", even "dramatic" with "realistic", even though the latter isn't necessary for the previous 3.

Even if they did come up with a decent story that could keep the status quo, they wouldn't have Bruce meet his parents' ghosts.

'cause after all, we all know how Batman is all-so realistic, fighting criminal kinpins...rapists...kidnappers...men who look like crocodiles...women who control plants and are part plant...men and women made up of living mud...and the worst killers getting conveniently sent to an insane asylum over and over instead of being executed...the occassional demonic being.......

[Anthonynotes]

>>cause after all, we all know how Batman is all-so realistic, fighting criminal kinpins...rapists...kidnappers...men who look like crocodiles...women who control plants and are part plant...men and women made up of living mud...and the worst killers getting conveniently sent to an insane asylum over and over instead of being executed...the occassional demonic being.......<<

Heh. :-)


The closest I've seen to any such story was the early 80's tale "To Kill a Legend", where the Phantom Stranger gives Bruce the chance to prevent the deaths of an 8-year-old Bruce Wayne's parents on an alternate Earth---one in which there was no heroic legends at all. Very entertaining story, though Bruce doesn't actually get to talk to the alternate-Bruce's parents.

-B.

[Clayface]

There are many recent stories in which Bruce meets his dead parents, though usually the question of whether or not he really met them is left just that: a question. For example, in the recent mini-series Batman: Death and the Maidens, Bruce takes a mysterious concotion provided by Ra's al Ghul, and meets up with his dead parents for a conversation. Whether this meeting was a true out-of-body reunion in the afterlife, or just an elaborate hallucination is never clear.

There's also got be a dozen different Scarecrow stories in the past decade where Bruce meets his parents, but those are always clearly hallucinations.

[90'sCartoonMan]

There's also got be a dozen different Scarecrow stories in the past decade where Bruce meets his parents, but those are always clearly hallucinations.

The most recent happened just two months ago when Batman had to fight a Scarecrow illusion of Thomas Wayne in a pre-Batman costume.

If we're actually talking about Batman conversing with the spirtis of his parents that we know, without a doubt, are real, they could do something to put him in a limbo-like place and when he leaves, his memories begin to fade (but he'd have a lingering feeling of satisfaction). That could address some of the problems shoujoaifan brought up. We'd get an interesting encounter, and it'd still be believable for Batman to be angsting over his parents' death later.

[Invidente 7]

There's an issue of green lantern (The recent hal jordan version, the last one before one year later) where hal gives bruce a green lantern ring and tells him to focus on conquering his greatest fear, and so bruce recreates the night where his parents got killed, and he nearly apologizes to them...but then he shuts off the illusion and told hal he wasn't ready yet

(That's how bruce and hal reconciled his differences by the way, awesome issue by the way )

[Mynd Hed]

1. A legitimate concern, since his basic EXISTENCE depends on him angsting over his parent's death. If they had his parents show up from the afterlife to talk about it, they would still need him to angst over their deaths. And very, very few parents would want their kids to be doing what he's doing.

But then he could be even MORE angsty, knowing that his parents wouldn't/don't approve of what he's doing in their names. (-: