Batman: Battle for the Cowl

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. After a confrontation with Talia on a boat ends with Talia and Damian getting hit by a torpedo Bruce simply leaves. Damian then returns to Bruce in the Resurrection of Ra's al Ghul, though Ra's'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 not to in Batman's Will.

Poster art of Battle for the Cowl story arc, art by Tony Daniel.

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. Azrael manages to convince Nightwing that he is not responsible for the murder.

Nightwing becomes as cold as Bruce had. Despite Tim's requests, he refuses to take up the mantle of the Bat. This leads to an imposter taking up the mantle, but this one 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.

• Batman: Battle for the Cowl #1-3
• Battle for the Cowl: Commissioner Gordon (written by Royal McGraw, with art by Tom Mandrake, May 2009)[10]
• 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)
• Gotham Gazette: Batman Alive? (July 2009)
• Secret Six #9 (July 2009)
• Batman #687 (August 2009) - aftermath, with the logo of Batman: Reborn story-arc in the cover

• Detective Comics #854–863 (written by Greg Rucka and penciled 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)[11]
• Batman and Robin #1-26 (written by Grant Morrison and penciled by Frank Quitely).[12][13] This series focuses on Dick Grayson and Damian Wayne as a light-hearted and spontaneous Batman and brooding and violent Robin respectively. The book contains an overarching story split across several smaller stories.
• Red Robin #1-26 (written by Chris Yost and penciled by Ramon Bachs).[14] The story revolves around Tim Drake'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 #1-21 (written by Paul Dini and penciled by Dustin Nguyen) focuses on the GCPD, as well as the Gotham Underground. It stars the new Batman. Starting with issue #1, the Manhunter is attached in a co-feature.
• Gotham City Sirens #1-26 (written by Paul Dini and penciled by Guillem March) focuses on female rogues the 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.