It's not the logistics of it for me. I don't see where it fits in with his personality.
I have a harder time with the actual events of the movie, because I just don't believe, in terms of his personality, that
Bruce would quit being Batman while he was still alive. I don't.
Or -- I'm perfectly willing to entertain the possibility of a
Dark Knight Returns scenario where he retires from the cape and the cowl but keeps training young vigilantes.
Or -- and this is a long shot -- a
Kingdom Come (not Kingdom Come, damn it, I can't remember -- was it in JSA where the "sequel" to Kingdom Come" was done?) scenario where he shacks up with Superman and Wonder Woman. I'm cool with a superthreesome.
I'm going to get the audiobook from the library. It has a full cast!
I can, weirdly, see
that
Batman doing it, without feeling like that's not one of
my
Batmen, if that makes sense. It's a pretty huge departure, as well as
Alfred walking away during a crisis moment, even if it is for his own good,
but I think both things work for that particular story arc.
But I would be less accepting in anything other than such a clear trilogy with the peaks and valleys that implies.
The more I think about it, the more
Alfred walking away
bugs me. Because
Alfred wouldn't DO that. He's there for Bruce no matter what.
Or am I forgetting something from comics canon that matches up?
ita and Jilli, that pulled me out of the film, too.
Alfred
just doesn’t do that!
I guess the point is (and it took me till the second viewing to try and accept it for what it is) that it's Just That Bad. Yes, it's a thing we consider inconceivable--that's how serious he is.
I would be more surprised to see it in the comics, but I'm not sure how I'd take
Alfred lying about Rachel
there too. I'm torn on that also.
That is straight from the comics. The only difference is the timing:
in the comics, Alfred quit when Bruce decided to return to Gotham after his spine was handwaved back together.
I love that moment. Never read Nightfall in comics but the novelization is surprisingly awesome.
I think the one thing that I didn't get/catch was the
leaving something in Bruce's will for Blake. I was confounded by the scene where Blake picked up the duffel bag, and then of course where the heck the coordinates came from. I was either overwhelmed with feelings or an overly-loud score at the time.
