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Morrison's run on Batman has been pretty mixed, and was badly interrupted by the truly awful Ra's Al Ghul storyline. There's been some flashes of brilliance, though, (the Club of Heroes story was just fucking genius) and the first installment of Batman RIP has me really interested again.

Interested enough that I'm actually trying to think through who the Black Glove actually is, and what Morrison means to have happen next in the story.

Plausible candidates for being the Black Glove, from what I've seen:

1. Alfred
2. Bruce Wayne himself, under some kind of posthypnotic compulsion from the sensory deprivation experiments with Dr. Hurt
3. No one character: just a description for all the bad guys gathered together in the first issue of Batman RIP.

But I'm not very good at this kind of guessing game--or more accurately, the writers sometimes suck worse than I do in my own imagination. (e.g., I thought it was clear that Hush should be Hugo Strange, the master psychological manipulator; and that the Hobgoblin should have been Mendel Stromm, not Ned Leeds, for fuck's sake.)

Hobgoblin wasn't actually intended to be Ned Leeds.

Oh, I know. That's what I mean: what I guess sometimes gets called off because of some sort of stupid editorial mandate. I think that's what happened with Hush, too.

Here's what will happen:

Bruce Wayne will be seen committing murder (really in self defense, or less likely he's framed) and be convicted and put in prison.  He'll be switched with some sort of robot or clone, and Batman will soldier on without his civilian alter-ego.  He could clear "Wayne"'s name if he really wanted to but decides its better if he's only the Batman.  He gradually becomes more dark and brooding, until some sort of retarded event convinces him he needs his Bruce Wayne side or he'll lose his soul. 

They already did that story, though.

Or you knew that and I've fallen into the sarchasm. 

A little bit of both. 

I'm  thinking Didio must be squirming about the fact that in the middle of Batman's biggest summer as a character, the main book is telling such a deeply weird story that can really only be appreciated if you have a long knowledge not just of the character but of the aesthetic history of comics. I like Morrison, but so far this is not really working for me. Maybe it's Daniel's art--some similar stuff worked great when Williams was drawing it.

I don't think a movie release has ever noticably increased sales of the monthly comics.  It seems to boost TPB sales more than anything (with Watchmen being the most current example before the movie has even released), and the Joker's Asylum one shots (five of them, one being released each week) seem to have been done with an eye toward attracting fans of the movie.

Well, if what they were just saying on the news is correct, the next Batman movie will be total crap... Johnny Depp as the Riddler? and CHER AS CATWOMAN?!? WTF?!?

Totally not kidding:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,410603,00.html

They aren't casting yet.  Nolan hasn't even agreed to come back for a third movie yet.

Cher would make a great General Immortus if they want to make a Doom Patrol film, though.

Until I hear it from Nolan, I won't believe it.

I really hope they don't fuck up the good thing they have going.

681 big reveal turned out to be pure dud.
and the fan speculation of batman vs satan is pure  :why_so_serious:

I can't take it anymore  :uhrr:

Wait so Batman is going to be killed off by his own Dad?   :uhrr:

i don't wanna read into this too much. But the amount of fan speculating that Doc Hurt = Satan is making my eyes roll.
He can't be Wayne's dad. All of these fake origin retcons are probably Black Glove info manipulation. But the way Batman just took them all out at once, OK that was good but the hype wasn't worth it. Once again villains fell for the 'bullet on his head is too easy' cliche. They had batman paralyzed, and decided to bury him alive instead of shooting him? Wow. Even the Joker was laughing at their faces.

If it is indeed Satan = Doc Hurt. I guess Morrison really went extra crazy on this one.

The whole thing is misdirection. Hurt isn't the issue. The Black Glove is Bruce Wayne. Morrison says so about three or four times in the issue. I hope they put him back on the title, because RIP is only the middle act of this whole story.