9 Times Batman Was Forced To Surrender His Cowl
3. The Dark Knight Rises
The concluding chapter of Christopher Nolan's epic Dark Knight trilogy divided fans for ending on this note, but in many ways, it was fitting.
Presumed to have met an explosive end, Bruce Wayne is ultimately revealed to have faked his death to relinquish the cowl in favour of living happily ever after in Florence with Selina Kyle, much to the delight of Alfred.
Ignoring how overly neat and tidy the ending of the Dark Knight Rises is, it was apt to see John Blake inherit the Batcave and presumably the Batman moniker along with it.
This harks back to something we've already touched on - the idea of Batman as an ever-enduring symbol.
This a concept that Nolan rams home from the off in Batman Begins, and thus seeing the next generation of Batman about to meet his destiny felt like a natural conclusion.