One of the most fascinating things about this series is that it isn’t particularly about Batman or Bruce Wayne. He is the catalyst, but the focus of the story is on how everyone around him reacts to the events that he precipitates. At the end of the last volume Bruce Wayne escapes from prison and essentially drops of the map, while Batman continues his nightly patrols of Gotham. The people who are closest to Bruce – Oracle, Nightwing, Robin and Alfred – are frustrated by his apparent disinterest in clearing his name and resuming his civilian life. Contributing to tensions within the group is the uneasy possibility that Bruce might be guilty. Nightwing vehemently refuses to believe that the man who raised him, who taught him how to be first Robin and then Nightwing, could kill another person. However, Oracle and Robin have seen a very different Batman recently and can’t quite convince themselves that its outside the range of possibility. As the team, absent Batman, continues to investigate it becomes clear that someone is trying to frame Bruce for murder, someone who knows that Bruce Wayne is also Batman. Batman himself remains frustratingly mute on the whole subject, including the question of his guilt or innocence.
Batman: Bruce Wayne, Fugitive, vol. 1
ISBN: 9781563899331
By Devin Grayson, Ed Brubaker, Chuck Dixon, Kelley Puckett
Art by Roger Robinson, Scott McDaniel, Rick Leonardi, Phil Noto, Trevor McCarthy, Sean Phillips, William Rosado, Dave Ross
DC Comics 2002
