Dan DiDio: “Batman to die like a whiny bitch!”

DC Comics announced Saturday at Emerald City Comicon that Countdown is counting down to the moment when all of DC Comics’ characters will have been killed off, which will lead into a new event beginning a new era. While killing off characters has been done before, the big difference will be the change in methodology. Past “death” events like Superman, Flash, Supergirl, Hal Jordan, Green Arrow, etc. have focused on the main character going out with a blaze of glory, defeating an enemy and saving the city/nation/world/universe in the process.

However, prompted by the massive, worldwide news coverage (and resulting stellar sales) that Marvel garnered by having Captain America gunned down while hand-cuffed and placed under arrest, DC’s Editorial Staff and Countdown lead writer Paul Dini began making plans to put an end to many of the characters in the most pathetic way possible.

“‘Degradation’ is hot right now,” DiDio said in a surprise appearance at the Seattle convention. “When Superboy sacrificed himself during Infinite Crisis, the readership replied with a yawn. We got more buzz from Black Adam pushing the Medusa Mask through Psycho Pirate’s skull. The rape and death of Sue Dibny, the torture and death of Spoiler, the deaths of The Question and Osiris in 52, those are what people respond to…big time! And we’re listening to what people want!”

The big surprise revealed at Emerald City was that Batman will be killed off early in the event rather than being one of the last to go. “Batman is going to go out, and not in some ultimate fight with the Joker, either. Bane proved that Batman can be broken, and now Batman’s going to go out begging to be put out of his misery like a whiny bitch! The rest of the book will be about Nightwing and Robin trying to take up the mantle after witnessing the sad end.” When questioned at the Q&A later about why Batman isn’t going out as a hero, DiDio was uncharacteristically frank: “The ‘blaze of glory’ thing’s been done. It’s a cliche. If we did that, the world would barely notice and figure we’ll resurrect him in a month. But killing off Batman in the most pathetic way possible will get us in the papers for months! It’s the kind of thing that gets mentioned in Time Magazine’s Year In Review.”

As to what will happen to the DCU at the end of Countdown, DiDio said that that was a year away and it was too soon to reveal anything.

Hat tip to my buddy Rob at Comics Continuum which confirmed the story on the scene. Visit the link for the full story.