Five years ago, DC decided to kill Batman. Like with every superhero, he really didn't die, but it gave us this excellent story by Neil Gaiman in the same vein as Alan Moore's Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow? story about Superman. Here we see all of the superheroes and supervillains gather to pay their final respects to Batman, each telling a different story of how he died (it's very reminiscent of the Batman: the Animated Series episode "Legends of the Dark Knight" where a group of kids each tell a story where they supposedly meet Batman). Meanwhile, Batman is somewhere offstage, trying to make sense of it all. He knows that this isn't how he died, yet all their stories seem real. Gaiman manages to take all the different versions of Batman, his rogues gallery, essentially the whole mythology of Batman and pay homage to all of it. Batman is eternal. He's as much of a myth as any of the classical ones we learn about in school, and each new iteration of him only adds to his lore. It's a fantastic story, especially for anyone who loves Batman. Included in this collection are several other Gaiman penned Batman stories, including one he wrote for the Batman: Black and White occasional series. A great addition to anyone's Bat-collection, and one that definitely needs to be read when reading Grant Morrison's run.
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