In the conclusion to Batman: Curse of the White Knight, the Dark Knight finally surrenders the most powerful weapon in his vast arsenal: his money. Bruce Wayne is arguably comics' most famous billionaire, a superhero whose secret identity is defined by massive riches. Batman's ability to design and mass-produce an endless array of gadgets and vehicles has always been premised on his access to inherited wealth. The White Knight events occur within a self-contained alternate reality as part of DC Comics' Black Label imprint, which "affords" the creators greater opportunity to deconstruct the Batman.
The 8th chapter of the maxi-series by writer-artist Sean Murphy focuses on Batman's pursuit and climactic showdown with Azrael, an adversary whose costume, weapons and skill-set mirror his own. Recent revelations have suggested that Azrael is the true blood heir to the Wayne family fortune, and Bruce Wayne, to his great surprise, is not. Batman sets out to rectify the situation by confronting Azrael and, in an unprecedented public announcement, promising to surrender all of Bruce Wayne's billions for the benefit of the lower and middle-class residents of Gotham City.
The Curse of the White Knight's finale serves up a suitably thrilling fight with Azrael, and goes on to spell out the multi-faceted plan for redirecting the Wayne family's monetary assets towards Gotham City's infrastructure and citizenry.
The timely vocabulary addresses several core aspects of the Batman mythos as they relate to ongoing debates in American life. The newscaster reports: "Some are accusing Wayne of socialism and of militarizing the police, while others don't think his donations go far enough." Bruce Wayne's money has always set him apart from working-class folk, and he's made use of that advantage with varying versions of guilt and indulgence over the years. In Curse of the White Knight #7, he declared live on Gotham's broadcast media: "My entire inheritance will be put into a nonprofit that will create better schools, libraries, homeless shelters, and scholarships. Everything we generate will be donated right back to Gotham, offsetting your taxes for decades."
Holy bold policy agenda, Mr. Wayne! Potentially, this is an era-defining reframe of an iconic character, were Batman to shift from Caped Crusading to riches redistribution. To be sure, "Batman without wealth" has been a recurrent plot motivator (e.g., the first act of The Dark Knight Rises, or the time he lived in a prehistoric cave following Final Crisis), just as the question of whether Batman would exist without his elite trappings is as enduring a problem as economic disparity itself. It remains to be seen how or if Bruce Wayne will continue his life's costly adventure now that he is no longer, on the ledgers, worth a penny - but the next chapter in Batman: Curse of the White Knight will certainly explore the new avenue.