Warren Ellis is bringing Batman to his grave this fall

Inimitable comics writer Warren Ellis (Nextwave, Transmetropolitan) and his collaborator Bryan Hitch (The Ultimates, Justice League) are teaming up for a new Batman miniseries with a very ominous title: The Batman’s Grave.

The 12-issue series will get deep inside the head of a Batman who is obsessed with the lives of murder victims, vividly imagining their lives and final moments as he hunts down their killers. Meanwhile, according to DC’s press release, “Once a week, rain or shine, Alfred Pennyworth walks to a little cemetery plot in the Wayne Manor grounds. He meticulously tends to Thomas and Martha’s headstones, plinths and slabs: weeding, cleaning, polishing. But how much longer before there’s another Wayne memorial to tend to?”

Ellis and Hitch’s Stormwatch, produced for the at-the-time independent publisher Wildstorm, is one of the rare successful and influential superhero books not published by DC or Marvel. After Wildstorm was acquired by DC Comics in 1999, the Ellis and Hitch run on Wildstorm’s follow up series, The Authority, became a must-read comic.

With The Batman’s Grave, the two are entering new territory. Ellis has written only a scant handful of Batman stories, and Hitch has only drawn the character in team books.

“When [Warren] mentioned it I said ‘yes’ before even asking what it was about. That’s what you do when Warren says ‘I’ve got a proper, big Batman story,’” Hitch said in DC’s press release. “And now we get to give Batman the fight of his life.”

The Batman’s Grave #1 will hit shelves on Oct. 9, 2019. Here’s a look at the full cover and three interior pages: