Batman goes global in "Batman, Inc."

Do you live far from Gotham City and wish your city had a Batman, too? Well, there will soon be "Batmen" in cities like London, Moscow, Beijing, and Tokyo featured in the new comic “Batman, Inc.," due out Nov. 17th.

It all began last week in the final pages of the latest issue of "Batman and Robin" when Bruce Wayne held a press conference and announced to the world: "Some of you may have wondered ... how does a man like Batman afford to constantly update his crime-fighting technology? Where does his money come from?"

"Well, the answer is me."

Wayne concluded this bombshell by saying that he is expanding his funding to create a multinational organization known as Batman, Inc. In other words, Wayne is upping the ante in his war on crime by "franchising" the Caped Crusader. Wayne will travel the globe to draft, train, and command an entire team of Batmen.

Meanwhile Dick Grayson (aka Robin) will retain the role of the original Batman in Gotham City.

The adventures of the new Batmen will be chronicled in a new comic book series written by Scottish comic book writer and playwright Grant Morrison.

So what do you think? Will the Bruce Wayne Batman lose his uniqueness or will it be awesome to see an army of Batmen? Online, fans seem split so far. We’ll have to wait to see the reaction when the book comes out next week .

Rich Clabaugh is a Monitor staff artist.

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