Immortal Legend Understands the Core of the Batfamily: Immortal Legend Batman Review

Olivia Lindquist ‘26 / Emertainment Monthly Staff Writer

Immortal Legend Batman was announced by DC Comics at writer Kyle Higgins’ C2E2 panel in April 2025. Teased as a new limited series with a tokusatsu vibe, the first issue of the run released August 27, 2025. The story of epic proportions follows superpowered Bruce Wayne as he tries to find his shadow-self who is wreaking havoc across the galaxy. In this Elseworlds universe, the bats and birds—Batman, Robin, and Nightwing—are greater legacy roles than main continuity.

In issue #1, the history of their powers, and mantles, is explained as three extraordinary people harboring talents for accessing the “energy that binds [the] universe and the shadow universe together.” This energy operates in direct opposition to the shadow realm the ancient people of Gotham City let loose into the world, working as light to push back the encroaching darkness. These three people took up familiar hero names: the Robin, the Bat, and the Nightwing. Each took on a different approach to harnessing the universe’s energy. The Robin embraced the “ennobling, spirit lifting, right half of the binding energy,” and whoever took on the mantle committed to that role. Stephanie Brown—Spoiler and a former Batgirl and Robin in the main continuity—passed down the Robin mantle to Tim Drake, one of the longest standing Robins in DC Comics. The way of the Bat affirms that the tactics and abilities of the shadows could be used against them, embracing the “terrifying, relentless half of the binding energy.” Roger Elliot passed the mantle on to Bruce Wayne, skipping over his son, Thomas (Hush in the main continuity), and providing the framework for a secondary conflict throughout the series. The Nightwing mantle committed to practicing both the Robin’s and the Bat’s approaches, “soaring into the light in some moments and utilizing the terror of the dark in others.” Harper Row—Bluebird in main continuity—passed the role on to Dick Grayson.

Aside from this lengthy explanation of legacy heroes, readers are springboarded into the action as the Bat is in the middle of a particularly violent streak looking for Bruce Wayne. The shadow version of himself has been causing chaos on multiple planets, killing people and sullying the good name of the trillionaire. Each issue follows the Bat tracking down a different shadow-version of himself, from a frontier sheriff, to a castle renovator, and even to a group of fighting pirates, as he avoids the other heroes in an attempt to fix his own mistakes.

*Spoilers ahead*

As the issues progress, Higgins introduces beloved villains like Two-Face, Lady Shiva, Bane, the Riddler, and even the Joker. Dick and Tim are officially introduced as fighting partners in issue #2 as they battle a spiked purple monster on their quest to find Batman and see what mess he got himself into. Readers meet Barbara Gordon in issue #5 as she saves the Bat from being killed by an assassin hired by the Joker. 

Her entrance is proof that she is an iconic badass in every universe. Her hunt for the Bat is in an effort to find her father, Jim Gordon, who was kidnapped by one of the shadow-Bruce Waynes. Committed to saving her father, she sets out to help the heroes in her own way, trailing after them and stepping in when they need it the most.

The action scenes are incredible and engaging, throwing readers back to the golden age of comics with dynamic panels, bright and detailed scenes, and lots of onomatopoeia. 

The conclusion of this fast paced epic brings home the truth behind Bruce Wayne’s character in all universes. As he approaches his final battle against the last shadow version of himself, the Joker morphed with a shadow version of Bruce and with his energy belt, the Bat is up against impossible odds. The Joker is nearly beating both Robin and Nightwing in their own efforts to stall until the Bat can get his powers back while Bruce is on a mission against time to regain his connection with the universe’s energy.

After nearly drowning in the Gotham Harbor after an altercation with Thomas Elliot—insistent on taking the Bat’s power for himself, Bruce saves both himself and Thomas and begins on his journey to the original Gotham City buried deep underground. Thomas follows him at gunpoint as Bruce explains the error of his ways, allowing readers to get an understanding of just what brought him to making such a huge mistake. The simple answer is his grief.

He was grieving all the losses he’d faced and wanted to take that pain away, separating the dark side of himself from the noble, brighter side. This is what gave the universe these different shadow selves. Each new shadow-self was a portion of Bruce’s soul, his connection to the universe, and each one was darker than the last. Except for one. The final shadow self, as revealed at the end of issue #6, was him as a child, tucked away in a robotic suit mimicking helper bots for protection—an Alfred. This emotional arc is proof that Higgins and his co-writers understand the character of Bruce Wayne on a deeper level than most. 

When Bruce reaches the underground ancient city of Gotham, he leads Thomas to the tear in the universe that first let the shadows invade and where he separated parts of his soul. Thomas, however, is overcome with the promise of unlimited power—insistent that if Bruce can go into the tear and come out unharmed he must be able to as well. Bruce tries to talk him out of it, but fails. Thomas returns a shell of himself, tainted by the shadow energy.

As Bruce enters the cave, though, he confronts his pain, accepting it as a piece he needs to be himself. His acceptance dominates the shadow universe, allowing him to take enough of the light energy from the space between worlds to create his own Bat-belt.

Newly powered, he returns to assist Robin, Nightwing, and Barbara, taking out the Joker and his last malevolent shadow-self in a multi-page boss fight that ruins the original Bat-belt and banishes the Joker once and for all. 

Bruce’s character development comes full circle when the reader is introduced to his child self. Bruce must accept and let go of the hurt inner child that he’s held on to for so long. The child version of himself leaves willingly, knowing that Bruce didn’t have the courage to defeat the child himself, leaving Bruce with “I want you to let me go.”

With the belt now broken, Bruce insists to Dick and Barbara that the Bat needs to be put to rest, but Barbara’s passion for saving people and pushing back the darkness proves her to be the right successor to the Bat mantle. “A new legend is born” with Batgirl, Nightwing, and Robin keeping the universe safe and Bruce Wayne in retirement.

The final panel of the mini-series hints at a possibility of Bruce leaving retirement, giving us a glimpse at this Elseworld’s version of the Red Hood.