Batman: Battle for the Cowl

"Batman: Battle for the Cowl" is a 2009 comic book storyline published by DC comics, consisting of an eponymous, three issue miniseries written and penciled by Tony Daniel, as well as a number of tie-in books. The central story details the chaos in Gotham City following the "Batman R.I.P." and "Final Crisis" storylines, due to Batman's perceived absence and abandonment by the public. His disappearance is actually caused by the character's apparent death at the hands of Darkseid in Final Crisis, which causes dissension in the ranks of his allies and enemies who fight for the right to become the new Batman.

Publication history
While the core story is to be presented as self-contained within the limited series, DC has published a group of related stories in various one-shots and limited series.

The titles Nightwing, Robin as well as Birds of Prey were canceled and Batman and Detective Comics went on hiatus for three months beginning in March 2009. The Battle for the Cowl plot focuses on the aftermath of the Final Crisis and R.I.P. and the battle for Gotham.

Other publications tied into this story line are a three-part Oracle mini-series, a three-part Azrael mini-series, and two bookends titled Gotham City Gazette that encompass the changes in all of those series. In addition, DC published five one-shots focusing on key characters in subsequent story lines featuring Man-Bat, Commissioner Gordon, the Network, the Underground and Arkham Asylum.

At New York Comic Con 2009, DC Comics' creative personnel announced the launch of several new series to coincide with the new Batman and Robin adjusting to Gotham City's altered status quo.

Prelude
The prelude to the story begins with Grant Morrison's Batman and Son, which starts off with the Joker being shot by a man pretending to be Batman. Batman then realizes that since his return after a one year absence, he has eliminated all supercrime in the city. Talia al Ghul then wrests the Man-Bat formula from Kirk Langstrom leading to Batman confronting Talia. Talia reveals that Bruce is the father of her son, named Damian Wayne. Damian then tries to replace Tim Drake as Robin leading to Bruce sending Damian back to Talia. Damian then returns to Bruce in the Resurrection of Ra's al Ghul, though Ra's resurrection cannot be stopped, Damian learns about the rest of Bruce Wayne's sons. In Batman R.I.P, Bruce confronts the Black Glove and attacks Simon Hurt in a helicopter that explodes. Bruce survives and spends some time looking for the body of Hurt, but is called away by Superman to investigate the death of the New God Orion. In Final Crisis, Bruce ends up being captured by Granny Goodness and Darkseid's minions attempt to clone Batman. Batman ultimately escapes, his clone commits suicide, and Bruce takes the bullet used to kill Orion and shoots Darkseid with it, breaking his no gun policy, but his decision allows the Black Racer to substitute Barry Allen's fate for Darkseid. However, Darkseid simultaneously hits Bruce with the Omega Sanction, sending him to the past. Superman takes Bruce's body, actually the body of the only successful clone, to Nightwing. Chaos breaks out in Gotham as Batman is no longer operational and Dick refuses to become Batman because Bruce told him to in Batman's Will.

Central storyline
Due to his involvement in Hurt's plan to kill Batman, Michael Lane believes himself to be responsible for the crime and trauma brought to Gotham City. He confesses this to his priest who takes him in to the Order of Purity to become the next Azrael. In his first act as Azrael, Michael Lane defends the properties of the Azrael suit from Talia al Ghul, in turn preventing her from giving it to Damian Wayne. Azrael then manages to not only defeat Talia, but also retrieve the Sword of Salvation from her. Azrael is then attacked by Nightwing, believing him to be responsible for the death of a police official. However, Azrael manages to convince Nightwing that he is not responsible for the murder.

Nightwing becomes as cold as Bruce had. But despite Tim's requests, he refuses to take up the mantle of the Bat. This leads to an imposter taking up the mantle. However this imposter uses brute force and shoots his victims to death. Black Mask II soon takes control of Arkham's inmates with implants that will kill them if they do not obey him. Among his recruits are Scarecrow, Jane Doe, Firefly, Poison Ivy, Killer Croc and Victor Zsasz.

After Damian is attacked by Killer Croc, Nightwing rescues him, but is in turn attacked by the imposter Batman, Jason Todd. When Damian attempts to prove himself to Dick by attacking Jason, he is shot by the latter and severely wounded, saved only by Alfred. This leads to Tim Drake assuming the mantle of Batman and tracking Jason down to a demented version of the Batcave. There he too is attacked and severely wounded by Jason, who awaits the arrival of Nightwing.

Damian is then sent by Alfred to find and rescue Tim, though to make sure that he does not get further injured, he is sent with Squire. The two of them rescue Tim together. Meanwhile, Dick enters an all out brawl with Jason which leads to a fight on top of Gotham's sky train system. Dick manages to defeat Jason, but the latter falls into Gotham River telling Dick that they'll be meeting soon enough. Dick then returns to the Batcave and assumes the mantle of Batman.

Main books

 * Batman: Battle for the Cowl #1-3
 * Battle for the Cowl: Commissioner Gordon (written by Royal McGraw, with art by Tom Mandrake, May 2009)
 * Gotham Gazette: Batman Dead? (May 2009)
 * Azrael: Death's Dark Knight #1-3 (written by Fabian Nicieza, with art by Frazer Irving, May - July 2009)
 * Oracle: The Cure #1-3 (May - July 2009)
 * Battle for the Cowl: Arkham Asylum (June 2009)
 * Battle for the Cowl: The Underground (June 2009)
 * Battle for the Cowl: Man-Bat (June 2009)
 * Battle for the Cowl: The Network (July 2009)
 * Battle for the Cowl: Secret Six #9 (July 2009)
 * Gotham Gazette: Batman Alive? (July 2009)

Aftermath

 * Detective Comics #854–863(written by Greg Rucka and pencilled by J. H. Williams III). It follows the adventures of Batwoman along with a Question co-feature).
 * Batman #687–713 (written by Judd Winick and penciled by Ed Benes on the first issue, Mark Bagley on the next four and Tony Daniel after that)
 * Batman and Robin (written by Grant Morrison and penciled by Frank Quitely). This series focuses on a light-hearted and spontaneous Batman along with a brooding and violent Robin. The book contains an overarching story split across several smaller stories.
 * Red Robin (written by Chris Yost and penciled by Ramon Bachs). The story revolves around Red Robin's quest to find Bruce Wayne. The title follows his journey throughout the DCU and is divided into mini-arcs under one major story. The first four issue arc is titled 'The Grail.'
 * Batman: Streets of Gotham (written by Paul Dini and penciled by Dustin Nguyen) will focus on the GCPD as well as the Gotham Underground. It stars the new Batman. Starting with issue #1, Manhunter is attached in a co-feature.
 * Gotham City Sirens (written by Paul Dini and penciled by Guillem March) focuses on female rogues Catwoman, Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn.
 * Superman/Batman #76 looks at Superman's reaction to Dick Grayson assuming the role of Batman; initially angry at this perceived 'disrespect' to his friend's memory- regarding it as essentially Dick wearing Bruce's skin as Batman was the true identity-, a talk with Wonder Woman helps Superman realise that he is simply lashing out over his grief at his friend's loss, and he later acknowledges Dick as the new Batman.

Collected editions
The series and its secondary titles are being collected into individual volumes:
 * Battle for the Cowl (160 pages, hardcover, November 2009, ISBN 1-4012-2416-4)
 * Battle for the Cowl Companion (128 pages, softcover, November 2009, ISBN 1-4012-2495-4
 * Azrael: Death's Dark Knight (144 pages, softcover, September 2010, ISBN 1-4012-2707-4)