Shoul he :

A: retire giving the Mantle to a new face
B. Be killed in the line of duty, and a new person take over
C. Fall into a Lazurus Pit and become immortal.
D. Give the mantle to a close partner (Dick, Tim, Jean Paul)




Edit: Poll added

Depends on who'll write. :P

Nothing is going to happen to Bruce Wayne. Come on, this is comics we're talking about. :rolleyes: Icons like Batman (Bruce Wayne), Superman (Clark Kent) and Wonder Woman (Diana) are forever. Time will pass, but they will never have the Trio step down from their mantels.

A. Won't happen. Bruce learned his lesson from Jean-Paul. He's never going to give the mantle of Bat to another newbie. Jean-Paul completely tarnished the mantle. It took alot of work to get Batman back to what it used to stand for after all that.

B. A possible end of Batman, but unlikely. DC may be crazy and stupid at times, but they will never permenantly kill Batman, Superman or Wonder Woman. They're the three biggest DC icons. They die and less than a year later they're back from the dead, ready to kick butt. Happened to Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Arrow, Hawkman, Flash, Green Lantern etc...

C. He'd never do that. It's a cop out, in Bruce's eyes. Remember what happened in Batman Beyond? Besides, time is all relative in comics. We'll probably never see Bruce turn 50 years old outside of a possible elsewhere story like Dark Knight Returns.

D. Jean-Paul is dead in the comics. And even if he weren't Bruce would never give him the mantel again. Jean-Paul is too unstable.
Dick would take the mantel if Bruce asked him too, but he doesn't want it. He learned long ago that he can't be Batman. It isn't who he is.
Tim would be the most likely of the three to become, but like Dick he doesn't want it. Tim only wanted to be Robin. He never wanted to become anyone else.