Potential spoilers for Future State: Gotham #17 and #18 ahead!
A war is coming to Batman. At last count, there were five Dark Knights running through the pages of Future State: Gotham, each of them eager to claim the mantle of the Bat for themselves. Now, all of them will come into conflict, with only one Batman left standing at the end.
Future State: Gotham posits a world where Gotham City has been taken over by the Magistrate, a paramilitary police force that es legislation making masked vigilantes illegal. Bruce Wayne has lost his fortune and abandoned his responsibilities as Batman, leaving an opening for other heroes to fill the void. Jace Fox dons a Batsuit and begins operating as the Next Batman, but other heroes take up the fight as well. Nightwing receives new powers after taking the experimental drug “Brane,” giving him precognitive abilities that convince him to take up the Batman mantle for himself. In addition to this, an older Damian Wayne returns from Hell, taking on the moniker of Batman 666, and a newly-returned Hush dons a Batsuit of his own to convince Damian he’s his father. Not one to be outdone, Bruce Wayne also returns on the scene with Talia al Ghul, ready to right all this nonsense for good.
Now, all the various Batmen will duke it out to settle once and for all who will be the one and only Dark Knight Detective of Gotham City. The recently released solicitations (via League of Comic Geeks) for Future State saga, with only one Batman left in the aftermath. According to the preview solicits, Future State: Gotham #17 promises “the return of a sinister evil that wants to destroy all of Gotham City,” while FSG #18 will depict “the last Batman standing versus Gotham's greatest threat!”
Based on those solicits, it sounds like the classic setup of the heroes fighting each other until an even greater threat presents itself, rendering the previous conflict irrelevant. But still the question remains: who or what is the “sinister evil” the last Batman standing will face? Considering the involvement of Talia, it sounds like whatever Batman is left will be facing off against some version of his true nemesis, Ra’s al Ghul. If that is the case, then it would make sense that this “Final Batman” will likely be Bruce or Damian, given those two characters’ immediate connection to the uber-Bat-villain. Of course, the solicits also hint that maybe not all of the Batmen will make it out of the coming conflict alive, with the preview specifically stating, “Don't expect everyone to survive this!”
However it all shakes out, fans won’t want to miss how the epic story playing out in the pages of Future State: Gotham comes to an end, and find out which Batman will be left to face off against the ultimate evil facing Gotham City.
Future State: Gotham #17 and #18 are available from DC Comics on Sep. 13th and Oct. 11th, respectively.
Source: League of Comic Geeks
