By Erik Norris

As I enjoyed Election Day off from my futile day job, getting the crap scared out of me by Dead Space, and eating some delicious Hot & Spicy Cheez-its, I came across some news that rocked my Batman loving world. Not just one piece of news, two to be precise.

I accidentally stumbled on the first bit while cruising the DC Comics’ forums. In a thread titled “Robin QnA” fans where asking Fabian Nicieza (current writer of Robin) what to expect from his run on the title. It was there that Nicieza spilled the beans on who would be writing the “Battle for the Cowl” limited series; DC’s post RIP storyline whose title explains everything about the project. The answer: Judd Winnick. Now I don’t know about you, but Judd Winnick is one of the few writers I would do anything in order to keep him away from the books I love. That’s a pretty harsh statement, but he is the one responsible for officially bringing back Jason Todd with the now infamous Superboy Prime “continuity punch” after all. You could explain Winnick’s writing with such words as boring, bland, run-of-the-mill, or just plain awful. Pick your poison.

So after a buddy and I brooded over this news that instantly cooled down our excitement for the post RIP Batman world, we were able to calm ourselves. Worst case scenario: I could just skip “Battle for the Cowl,” which was sure to deliver something extremely mediocre, and jump back in with Morrison’s second go-around. However, little did I know that Newsarama would soon be running another shocking story in regards to the Batman-verse; every Bat-title (Nightwing, Robin, and Birds of Prey) would see their last issue in February. Now it’s obvious these cancellations are storyline based, driven by whatever outcome RIP steers towards, but it’s the fact that this news came on the same day I found out “Hurricane Winnick” would be storming through one of my favorite universes that had me in the dumps. I mean, I was finally enjoying Nightwing as a well written superhero comic. He’s always been one of my favorite characters, but his series never had the weight I felt it deserved, until now. And now it’s over.

Nightwing - Before 2011 Renumbering

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Robin

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Birds Of Prey (1999 series)

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I also feel Robin is having the wind removed from its sails rather abruptly. Since Fabian Nicieza took over writing duties on the title, he’s successfully brought Tim Drake to the forefront of the Batman-verse. By starting with a story-arc involving the disappearance of Batman (surely editorial mandated to coincide with RIP), Nicieza displayed just how resourceful, smart, and powerful Tim Drake was. And most importantly, he proved Robin can exist without a Batman. Robin, under Fabian Nicieza, wasn’t a book I read for the inevitable Batman cameo, it was a book I read because I actually loved the character. But once again, gone come February.

It’s now pretty obvious a major mix-up is going down in the Batman-verse at DC. Odds are we’ll still see plenty of Robin, Nightwing, and the rest of the Bat-family in Batman and Detective Comics, it’s just weird that their respective titles are ending after so many years of being published. But there is nothing we can do now, it’s already official, so the best we can do is rant about it on the internet.

So how does everyone else feel about these announcements? Drop a line to weigh in.

UPDATE: Didio reveals that Tony Daniel (the current artist on Batman) will be both writing AND drawing the “Battle for the Cowl” mini-series spinning out of RIP!