I was at the the San Diego panel last summer where Dan DiDio announced that Neil Gaiman would be doing a 2-part Batman arc telling what was being billed as "the final Batman story." I was intrigued. Yet, as more details emerged, my enthusiasm began to subside. DC was promising a post-Crisis Batman story that was the equivalent of Alan Moore's post-Crisis Superman story "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?" That's all well and good, and Gaiman is a logical successor to Moore, but was this story going to smack of "full circle syndrome"? Then it came out that Gaiman was following in Morrison's footsteps by treating every Batman story as part of Bruce's actual life. Come on, DC, you've got Neil Gaiman on Batman! Let him tell his own Batman story, not someone else's!

I should have know better. Gaiman hits this one out of the park.

What Gaiman and artist Andy Kubert have given us might fit the above categories, but isn't limited by them. With Kubert's art referencing classic moments from Batman comics as well as the 50s TV show, Gaiman isn't just touring the past like Morrison did, but taking a trip down "what could have been" lane. Perhaps most importantly, the "final" story of DC's greatest detective is a mystery that both the reader and the master crime-solver himself must solve. Batman watches as mourners gather for a funeral...his own! Confused, Batman converses with an unseen woman who is possibly, though not necessarily, his guide through the afterlife. Yet something's not quite right. Selina Kyle stand up and tells the story of how she, the forsaken lover, was responsible for the death of the Dark Knight. Except wait: next up is Alfred Pennyworth with an entirely different and contradictory account of Batman's death. Oh, and Alfred? Yeah, he's actually the Joker, a ruse to keep a depressed Bruce busy and happy. Confused? Batman sure is.

Are these vignettes just eulogies from alternate universes as Bruce travels back in time post-Final Crisis? And who is this mysterious female companion? Did Morrison just give Gaiman some of those "aliens kidnapped me and took me to a parallel universe" drugs? That's what we - and Batman! - must figure out.

Will Gaiman's story live up to Moore's classic? Only time (and part 2) will tell, but he's off to a good start!

(For the record, I think the mystery woman is Barbara Gordon. But tune in next month, same Bat-time, same Bat-channel to find out!)