WARNING! Potential spoilers ahead for Batman: Dark Age #6Batman: Dark Age is coming to a close, and the seminal miniseries is going out by making an old DC villain one of the Dark Knight’s greatest nemeses. Retelling Batman’s origins as if he were aging in real time throughout the latter half of the 20th century, Batman: Dark Age is alternate continuity storytelling at its finest, as the creative team has found a unique way to retell Bruce Wayne’s life story from beginning to end.

Coming from the creative team of Mike Russel, Mike Allred, Laura Allred and Dave Sharpe, the preview for Batman: Dark Age #6 opens with Wayne Enterprises in flames. The party responsible is none other than Pariah, one of the chief characters of the classic DC crossover Crisis on Infinite Earths.

Pariah successfully tears down Wayne Enterprises in this concluding issue, but Bruce Wayne isn’t down and out just yet. As the last page shows, Pariah’s slash-and-burn approach to taking down Wayne Enterprises allows Bruce Wayne to buy it back “on the cheap.”

Pariah is the Ultimate Foe in Batman: Dark Age

Pariah has been lurking in the background of Batman: Dark Age since the beginning, taking control of Wayne Enterprises and making the board of directors very happy with his ruthless business tactics. All the while, Pariah has been talking about a coming “crisis” that will end everything, prophesying doom and gloom while the Wayne board grows richer and richer. Now, it appears the “crisis” he previously foretold is finally coming home to roost, as Pariah burns the company to the ground while escaping with a literal gold parachute.

“Batman: Dark Age has already established itself as one of the great interpretations of the Dark Knight”

It appears that the Dark Age world will be playing out its own version of Crisis on Infinite Earths as the story moves into the 1980’s. Considering readers have already seen sequences set in the present day of an old Bruce Wayne in a retirement home, it’s safe to assume the Dark Knight will survive whatever apocalypse this version of the DCU will face in the eighties, but there’s no telling what he could lose along the way. Pariah could very well be a greater foe for Batman than even Ra’s al Ghul or the Joker, so it will be fascinating to see how (or if) the Caped Crusader defeats him.

Batman: Dark Age Ends with its Very Own “Crisis”

However it all shakes out, Batman: Dark Age has already established itself as one of the great interpretations of the Dark Knight. Readers will have to wait until reading this final issue before delivering their ultimate verdict, but the five issues released thus far have been a captivating reinvention of the classic Bat-mythos, taking full advantage of the out-of-continuity nature of the concept to deliver a Batman story for the ages, Similar to their earlier work on Superman: Space Age, Mark Russell and Mike Allred continue to find interesting ways to interpret classic DC lore with Batman: Dark Age.

Batman: Dark Age #6 is available 11/13 from DC Comics