5 DC Resurrections Done Right (And 5 That Sucked)

2. Bruce Wayne - The Return

Batman Inc David Finch
DC Comics

Another Bat-related return this time, and another that's related to Morrison's Final Crisis.

In that book, Bruce Wayne sacrifices himself so that the universe's heroes can foil Darkseid's plot for good. He's killed by the tyrant's Omega Beams, with the resulting fallout surrounding his passing causing a massive shift in the Bat-books for a good few years, leading to what many would consider to be one of the most inventive periods of the character's history, with Dick Grayson replacing Bruce as the Dark Knight.

However, just as Bruce's death provoked a positive change in DC's Bat-books, so too did his return. Morrison revealed in the Return of Bruce Wayne series that the original Batman had not been killed, but had instead been sent hurtling through the timestream, fighting his way back to the present. Eventually, when he did return, he did so with a brand-new Batsuit and a brand-new goal: to franchise Batman all over the globe.

This manifested in Batman: Incorporated, and though Morrison's designs were somewhat frustrated thanks to the advent of the New 52, there's no arguing that Bruce Wayne's death and subsequent return made for one of the most revolutionary periods in the Caped Crusader's history.

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WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.