The mystery is solved, Bruce Wayne is cleared of the murder charge and both Batman and Bruce are back in Gotham. Bruce/Batman has even admitted to his Bat-family that he knows he’s not the easiest person to live with (and their expressions of shock and amusement are priceless). Before reading this volume I did wonder what exactly there was left to talk about. Which just goes to show I should have more faith, because this is the most introspective volume of the series. Having been Batman and Bruce and reconciled his need to be both, Bruce now has to face what the sublimation of himself into Batman has cost him over the years. Sasha Bordeaux was Bruce Wayne’s bodyguard and before the Vesper Fairchild murder fought at Batman’s side. She chose to protect both Bruce and Batman because she was in love with him, and Batman allowed her to discover his secret because he was afraid he was falling in love with her and he needed a way to control and distance his relationship with her. While Bruce escaped prison to be Batman, Sasha was tried and convicted of murder. Bruce/Batman’s seeming indifference to her has broken her love for him just at the moment when he is realizing that perhaps it is important for him to allow people to be close to him and possible for him to be close to them.
Batman: Bruce Wayne, Fugitive, vol. 3
ISBN: 9781401200794
By Greg Rucka, Ed Brubaker, Kelley Puckett, Devin Grayson, Geoff Johns
Art By Steve Leiber, Scott McDaniel, Rich Burchett, Roger Robinson, Damion Scott
DC Comics 2003
