Spoilers! Want to know how BATMAN R.I.P ends?

By Matt Holmes / June 24, 2011

USA Today have gotten their hands on the exclusive reveal of how the much talked about Batman R.I.P storyline is set to wrap with Batman #681 which hits stores tomorrow, penned by Grant Morrison. Could DC really pull the trigger and kill off Bruce Wayne, their most lucrative character who just this summer appeared in THE DARK KNIGHT and made $1 billion? The Batman franchise has never been bigger but at 681 issues, is the character done?

SPOILERS BELOW IF YOU HAVE BEEN READING THIS SERIES!

No he doesn't die, they haven't killed him off. Instead they are going for the sitcom ending of sending him away for a while, with the full intention of bringing him back at a later date. The issue wraps with the caped crusader "so shaken by a secret from his past that a new Batman must be found".Neil Gaiman is writing a two-issue tribute to Batman which will start at Batman #686, tentatively titled Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader? Gaiman calls it his last Batman story and hints it could be the last Batman story ever. The movie mirrors Alan Moore's Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow, which was similar wrap-up of Superman in the mid 80's before that character was retooled. You can read Gaiman's issues from February.