Not that Bruce ever really left.  I mean, sure, he got launched back into the time of the dinos, but he didn’t die or nothin’.  He just became a prehistoric graffiti artist, as we always imagined Bruce Wayne would once be?

Don’t know what I’m talking about?  Neither do I, but Grant Morrison does, since that’s how he ended Final Crisis, a series so bad that Aron gave all of the comics away in a contest just do he didn’t stink up his longboxes with them (no wonder DC won’t give us any exclusives! heh).

Well, DC announced not one, but TWO Grant Morrison related Bat stories today!

The first, and probably the most exciting (or most terrifying) is Captain America: Reborn The Return of Bruce Wayne, in which Steve Rogers Bruce Wayne gets ripped through different periods of history, and has to find his way back to the present.  The six-issue miniseries, which will feature a different artist for each issue, will showcase Bruce Wayne assuming a Batman-like identity in the Late-Paleolithic Era, in Pilgrim-era Gotham Village, in Wild West times, and even a noir style Bats.  Character designs for the series are being done by Andy Kubert, which is pretty spiffy.  According to Morrison, the series will shake up the status quo of the Batbooks (duh) and is the next piece of his “definitive” (his words not mine) Batman epic.

Mo’ info at DC’s Source Blog and USA Today.

Also announced is the next artist to take on Morrison’s Batman and Robin book, Frank Quitely Andy Clarke!  I know you’re saying “who?” but in actuality, I’ve got nothing negative to say (gasp) about Clarke.  His talent is sorely wasted on R.E.B.E.L.S., and I’m glad to see DC putting him on a higher profile book while Frank Quitely continues work on his next issue … which, at this point, will probably be somewhere around #20 or something.  Clarke’s run on the book is titled Batman Vs. Robin, and will hopefully find Dick Grayson f*cking up Damian Wayne like his daddy shoulda.  Maybe he’s Superboy Prime punch him so hard, that Talia al Ghul will have a miscarriage…in the PAST.  Hey, it’s Grant Morrison – crap like that happens.

Tons of preview art at The Source and even on Facebook, because that’s what the kids like nowadays.