This article contains spoilers for Batman #101, by James Tynion IV, Guillem March, and Tomeu Morey.

The comic book version of Batman is taking a major cue from the DCEU. The Dark Knight has fallen upon hard times of late. The Joker successfully stole the Wayne fortune, and used it to plunge Gotham City into chaos. Batman won in the end, of course, but the sad truth is that he has failed to protect his city - and Gotham knows it.

In the wake of the "Joker War" event, Bruce Wayne is no longer a billionaire; his wealth has been transferred to Lucius Fox. The board of Wayne Enterprises want to rebrand, feeling the Wayne name has been ruined by the Joker, and they're pushing Bruce out. Worse still, because Wayne Enterprises is being watched carefully right now, Batman has effectively been stripped of his arsenal and gadgets as well. And so, as he starts over as Batman once again, Bruce Wayne has made a shocking decision. He has decided to move out of Wayne Manor, and leave the estate crumbling into disrepair.

Related: Joker Reveals His True Origin Story Started Before Batman

The decision makes a sad kind of sense. For Bruce, Wayne Manor is filled with ghosts - not just the ghosts of his parents, but also of his beloved butler Alfred, who was murdered by Bane. In truth, Bruce likely no longer has the money to pay for the upkeep of Wayne Manor, and living outside the city would hinder his career as Batman rather than help it. It's unlikely he'd be able to even pay for the fuel to keep driving the Batmobile in and out of Gotham in the first place.

Batman Comic Moving Into Gotham City

There's a sense in which Batman is still struggling to come to terms with Alfred's death; he spent much of "Joker War" dealing with a hallucination of him, caused by a new version of Joker Gas. No doubt the Dark Knight is well aware that abandoning Wayne Manor, allowing it to fall into decay, is a poor way of honoring his butler's legacy. But, in truth, he has absolutely no choice. He's moving to a brownstone in Gotham that he'd frankly forgotten he owned, and that he can actually afford to maintain.

There's a strange sort of mirror here with the DCEU, where Bruce left Wayne Manor and ordered it to be allowed to decompose. There, he lived in his mother's old lake house, which became his base of operations as Batman. The story of Wayne Manor didn't end in decline, though, but rather with it being repurposed as the headquarters of the Justice League. It remains to be seen whether Batman will ultimately find another use for Wayne Manor in the comics as well.

More: Bruce Wayne is Trading Batman For a Brand New Identity