Bendis on Batman? Quarter Bin Gold

This past weekend, I went back issue diving at an area comic book store, and I spent about an hour going through the quarter bins.  For those not in the know, the quarter bins are boxes and boxes of comics that you can buy for a quarter a piece.  If you don't care about the quality (not a NM book to be found) and either want to fill out your collection or find some fun old comics, the quarter bins are the place for you.

This particular quarter bin diving session had a fantastic yield.  Not only did I find a multitude of New Mutants issues to fill out my run, but I found some great issues of The Defenders (which I'm going to start collecting the complete run for) and some other random issues that looked like fun.  Being the Marvel Zombie I am, I didn't pick up that much DC stuff at all (although the store I was in was having a sale, back issues marked $10 and under were on sale for $1 a piece, so I loaded up on old All Star Squadron issues), and glossed over one Batman comic in particular.  A little later, my friend who was also diving saw that and said, "Bendis Batman" and moved on as I jerked my head to see what he was referring to.

It was issue #21 of Batman Chronicles and it contained the only DC work that Brian Michael Bendis has ever done.  Ever. 

If you were ever curious about Brian Michael Bendis and his career, this is an extremely interesting footnote.  Published in the Summer of 2000, this is Bendis right after his success on the indie scene with Jinx, Torso and Powers (which just began at this point at Image Comics), in the middle of his stint on Sam & Twitch (a Spawn spin off book), and right before he went all exclusive with Marvel Comics with Ultimate Spider-Man. And it marks the ONLY time he's ever written any DC characters.  Like I said, interesting footnote.

Batman Chronicles apparently was a seasonal anthology book of 3 Batman related stories and was canceled 2 issues after Bendis' issue came out.  I wonder if even the most die hard Batman fan like my associate, Conor, even bought this.

Bendis' story was the middle story, clocking in at 6 pages.  It was drawn by Michael Gaydos, an early nod towards what would become a great partnership over at Marvel in the pages of Alias.  The story is called "Citizen Wayne" and to be honest, isn't either Bendis or Gaydos' best work.

The gist of the story is its set in the future, where Bruce Wayne has just passed away.  His dying words, "Rosebud."  Mild mannered reporter Clark Kent gets assigned the story to find out what "Rosebud" meant, and interviews a balding Dick Grayson who now runs Wayne's businesses,  an aging and drunk Selina Kyle, and wheelchair bound Jim Gordon.  No one knows what "Rosebud" means, until the end when we flash back to the shooting of Thomas and Martha Wayne, and we see a closeup of the gun, which has "Rosebud" stamped on the barrel. 

No, I'm not making this up.

Gaydos's art is set in greyscales, of course, and the whole story has a very shadowy, dark, 1940's/Noir feel to it.  Which isn't surprising considering the tone of the story and the source influence  of the movie Citizen Kane.  The art was good, but not nearly as mind blowing as I remember Gaydos' work on Alias was.

I think it's funny that if Bendis were to ever leave Marvel (and I don't think he will) and work at DC Comics, the one character that's perfect for him is Batman.  And here we have Bendis writing Batman, and yet no one is in costume, Batman is only alive for like 2 panels, and the whole story rings of a tongue in cheek, bad idea that seemed really good at the time, I'm sure. 

If you're fan of Bendis then this is a must have, purely for the historical footnote, and for 25 cents?  How can you beat that?