Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne #4

Issue Details

Synopsis

DARK NIGHT, DARK RIDER A group of hired guns attack a family searching for something. In the end, the daughter is kidnapped, a small box with a bat symbol printed on it is taken, and the mother is left to cradle the body of her dead son as a strange black ranger looks on silently.   When Jonah Hex enters Gotham City, he is taken to the place of the man who hired him; Monsieur Savage, currently weak from a cancer in his intestines. Savage wants Hex to eliminate the "ghost" who has been attacking his men, and is willing to pay in gold to make it so. Savage meanwhile oversees the attempts to torture the daughter, whose family was entrusted with the box, which they are to keep sealed until its owner comes to claim it.  A Native American shaman, Midnight Horse, steps forward and mentions that Hex is no longer needed; the woman will tell whatever they desire, and mutters darkly that he never intended to cross paths with the Miagani, who are said to be able to murder the sky. Meanwhile, the black ranger defeats the guards one by one while Savage and a man that calls himself Thomas Wayne try to make the daughter open the box. When they realize that their secret lair has been discovered, Savage and Wayne escape with the girl, who is holding the box while the dark ranger follows them. During the escape, the cart goes towards the recently constructed bridge, where Alan Wayne is about to commit suicide due to his current dejection about life. The cart stops and everyone falls from it. The dark ranger approaches the girl and she recognizes him as the man from the legends told by her ancestors and she returns the box to him, opening it by whistling a special melody. The dark ranger gives her a necklace that he took from her great-grandmother and he stares at the opened box. Savage and Wayne try to fight the ranger, but they are both too injured from the crash that they don't stand a chance. However, Jonah Hex has followed them all the way to the bridge and he gets ready for a stand-off against the dark ranger. Hex is faster and he shoots the rider, causing him to fall into the river below and granting Hex the bounty promised to him by Savage.   After this events, Alan Wayne marries the girl and together, they rebuild Wayne Manor. After Wayne's wife dies in childbirth, Wayne develops it according to his wife's desires to honor the bat-man who saved them.   However, Bruce Wayne, has reached Gotham City the 1930s, but he is still bleeding after the shot. Stumbling through the streets, he finally collapses after getting hit by a truck in the middle of the road.