The apparent death of Batman in Final Crisis revealed one of the dark sides of secret identities. Blackest Night #0 paints a picture of the difficulty such private lives can create for a departed hero’s friends and family.
Secret identities are a cornerstone of the superhero genre, and few are as highly guarded as Bruce Wayne’s. By day, he’s the billionaire scion of the Wayne fortune, but by night, he fights evil as one of the greatest crime-fighters in the DC Universe, Batman. Bruce has put a lot of effort into maintaining his secret, and thanks to the Bat-Family, Batman has kept his private life hidden from the world for years. As time has gone on, some heroes have abandoned the concept of secret identities and live with both halves of themselves publicly known. But Bruce is determined to never let his secret out, no matter how much work is involved in keeping it.
However, the work that goes into keeping a secret identity doesn’t just end when a hero dies, as two of his closest allies found out. In Blackest Night #0 by Geoff Johns and Ivan Reis, Green Lantern and Flash gather to remember Batman after his death in Final Crisis. However, instead of being buried at the grounds of Wayne Manor, Bruce’s body has been taken to an undisclosed location. Flash has arrived after helping pick up the slack in Gotham and the two begin to memorialize their friend. Barry asks Hal why their friend wasn’t given a more ceremonial sendoff, or at the very least, a marked grave. Green Lantern tells the Flash that with word of Batman’s death going around, they needed time before they could publicly announce Bruce dead so no one can link the two.
Batman’s Secret Becomes His Friends’ Responsibility In Death
Though inconvenient, spacing out Batman’s funeral with Bruce Wayne being publicly announced dead is the only way to play it. If the Bat-Family put on a public service right at rumor of Batman’s death was swirling around, it would have emboldened the idea that the two are one and the same in the public eye. And if that had happened, Bruce would have returned from his journey across time with everyone knowing Bruce is Batman. The only way to avoid such a scenario is to keep a secret identity a secret, even in death.
The thing about a secret identity is that it often impacts other people. Bruce Wayne’s secret identity being revealed could bring danger to the entire Bat-Family. And while they could handle their own, there’s no guarantee no one would get hurt from Batman’s identity getting leaked. So even if Bruce isn’t around, his team needs to do everything they can to keep Bruce and Batman’s lives separate for as long as possible. It’s frustrating, as it doesn’t allow them to grieve in the way they’d like or allow his friends to memorialize him. But by taking Batman’s secret to the grave, it ensures that his allies will be safe even when Bruce is gone for good.
