MORRISON BATM-ANNOTATIONS: BLACKEST KNIGHT

"Blackest Knight"

Batman and Robin #7 - "Pearly and the Pit"

• Dick removes the corpse of "Bruce" from the sepulcher beneath Wayne Tower.
• Dick and Beryl stop a train from blowing up in London.
• Crime war between Pearly King and Old King Coal for an abandoned mine.
• Prison for all the British supervillains, overseen by the Beefeater. Metaleks...
• Pearly King, claims heraldry from King Arthur in Seven Soldiers, the heir of the Cauldron of Rebirth.
• Dominoes, bones, Mexican Train, some kind of design/map that Pearly King guides Dick through to get to the pit.
• Alfred visits Talia as her surgeons repair Damian.
• Bruce's corpse was confirmed, Talia hints at either Damian taking the place of his father or maybe resurrecting Bruce?
• She claims that Damian as Robin is just a phase, that he will accept his destiny as heir to the Al Ghuls soon...
• Midwinter, longest night, abandoned mine shaft, dead miners in accident, murdered children...
• Meet up with Cyril, Coal's men carrying coffin, chanting twice named daughter of "...".
• Batwoman bursts from the coffin! King Coal is connected to the Religion of Crime from 52 and Final Crisis.
• Dick wants to resurrect Batman with the primordial Lazarus Pit, Kate thinks that it's not gonna go well b/c of prophecy of Knight of Beast.
• Batman's corpse has been in there for an hour, now to subdue the temporary madness of the pit.
• He emerges...  

Batman and Robin #8 - "Batman vs Batman"

• Religion of Crime, Crime Bible, worship Manheim as a martyr and the rock that killed Abel and even the nuclear bomb.
• There's a hole in everything, the beast will rise out of the pit...
• Goes back to dawn of time, worship of the bad New Gods, black messiah at New Age of Crime.
• Batman resurrected, but it's not him! It's one of the replacement clones, saved by Mokkari and Darkseid right before the Omega confrontation with Bruce.
• Batman never fights to kill, Dick knows it's not him.
• Coal blows the mine to trap the bats. Kate is mortally wounded. She recognizes Dick from 52.
• Not-Bats makes it out and the takes the ship back to Gotham.
• Damian is back in a wheelchair recovering, but Alfred is worried about Dick taking the corpse, believing that he's given into Jason's comments from the last arc.
• Kate succumbs to her wounds, but it's all part of the plan...
• Not-Bats arrives at Wayne tower and KO's Alfred, confronting Damian...

Batman and Robin #9 - "Broken"

• Not-Bats! Vat clone! Botched programming from the impossible survival of the Bruce Wayne trauma bomb!
• Dick and the gang resurrect Kate with the primeval Lazarus Pit! Jacob Kane comes around and gets them out with a suborbital!
• Damian claimed to be the Third Ghost of Batman, a sacrifice for the city...
• Damian is saved at the last second by Dick. Him and Kate beat the tar out of the clone.
• Cyril and Beryl KO the Coal King.
• Dick apologizes to Alfred and Damian for leaving them out of the loop, admitting that Tim Drake was right, Batman is alive!

Batman #700 - "Time & The Batman"

• In Batman #700 we witness the moment where he changes from the ‘60s TV Joker to the O’Neil/Adams homicidal master of ceremonies.
• AN ATTEMPT TO UNDERSTAND THE 666 TIMELINE:
• #666:
• Bruce/Dick dies in the alley, The Hanged Man.
• Doctor Hurt offers Damian immortality in exchange for his soul. He will come to collect at some future time... unless he already has...
• Babs becomes Commissioner.
• Prof Pyg, Loveless, Candyman, Phosphorus Rex, Max Roboto, Jackanapes, Flamingo, Nikolai, Weasel. All villains. Many killed to form five pointed horned demon star on Gotham's face.
• Fights Bat-Devil. Kills him. The apocalypse is cancelled.
• BUT NOW IN THIS:
• January/2-Face-2 wants Joker's Jokebook, holds city in ransom.
• Max Roboto reprograms Gotham Climate Control to rain Joker Zombie Virus/Laughing Death.
• They've also taken Terry McGinnis and Carter Nichols hostage.
• Damian has 'brother-I'.
• Cure to virus from Roboto spit, he gets eaten by rats.
• Nichols was humiliated in the past, finds his future body in the present and meets his future self, goes to the future to bring his dead self back to present, meets his present self, then goes back to the past to call the GCPD as he's being humiliated, then goes on to live his own life across time. He will eventually return to Gotham and be captured by 2-Face-2 in the future where he's an old man and die by the laser. Then his past self will take him back to the Dick-Bats present where they'll find his body.
• The cure and the child and the city are saved. Damian eventually mentors him as Batman Beyond.
• The legend lives on! Until the 853rd Century! Batman Forever!