DC K.O.: Knightfight #3 (2026)

The battle between Bruce and Jason continues. Bruce, having willingly transformed into Clayface, fights to restrain Jason, not to kill him, but it does little to convince Jason to stand down. Jason almost falls of a rooptop but Bruce catches him and apologizes to Jason for having him endure so much pain in his quest to save Gotham City. Bruce offers to stay with Jason so they can escape together, but the Heart of Apokolips is not happy with Bruce's choice. It opens a portal that swallows Bruce and throws him into an endless void. Angry, Bruce proclaims that he will not play by the heart's rules or fight his own children, but the heart is not impressed by Bruce's resolve. It shows Bruce a vision of what is happening at the King Omega tournament, a vision of his friends suffering and the Joker winning. Even so, the heart feels generous and offers Bruce a way to return to the tournament if he wins the challenge, but Bruce does not think he can trust the heart, which will challenge his mind and his heart. In another world, Tim Drake has assumed the identity of Batman and become a successful detective. In his latest case, he captures the murderer of Dalton Glory. Thanks to his deduction skills, every case in Gotham has been solved, every mystery revealed, every answer found... except for one. As he returns to the Batcave, Tim is informed by Cassandra and Stephanie that they captured Owlman and want him to come with them to celebrate, but Tim is not in the mood for that. He has become more like Bruce with the passage of time. Suddenly, he finds a message written in binary on the Batcomputer. The message says "Tim. This is Bruce. I need your help." Tim is both surprised and fascinated by this development, for it has been a while since someone tried to hack into the Batcomputer. He sits down and attempts to track down the hacker, only to be ambushed by one of his own mechanized suits, which speaks with Bruce's voice. Bruce attempts to reason with Tim and explains who he is and where he comes from, but Tim destroys the suit. This was just a distraction, though, as Bruce has already gained control of Tim's hologram systems. A full hologram of Bruce is generated and Bruce explains he had been trapped in Tim's computers for days and used that time to learn about Tim. Bruce explains how proud he is of Tim for solving every mystery in Gotham and acknowledges that, through his intellect, he has become a better Batman than he was. Tim angrily replies that he was never able to solve Bruce's own murder, but Bruce says that, deep down, Tim never wanted to. Tim held on to that mystery because he felt it was the only thing keeping him from truly losing Bruce. Tim removes his cowl and admits he wanted to solve one last case with Bruce and Bruce offers him that chance. By analyzing the evidence and looking at the crime scene, Bruce has already discovered the perpetrator, but before he and Tim can act on their findings, the heart of Apokolips banishes Bruce from that universe. As Bruce floats in the void between universes, the heart is angry that he choose to help Tim rather than angry and Bruce can only gloat that he beat the heart's test his way. The heart voices its displeasure by announcing that it could force Bruce to travel across multiple universes and fight the people he loves, but instead, it shall test him differently. Bruce awakens in a bed and takes the time to look at his hands. He is old, bearded and with grey hair growing on the sides of head. As he looks through the window, he sees Crime Alley, clean, bright, and devoid of trash. A young man enters the room and Bruce immediately recognizes him as Damian. He, like his other sons, had followed Bruce's path until he decided to become his own man. He decided that Batman was no longer necessary. He also knows that the world they are in is not real and whatever created him also made him too smart to ignore that conclusion. Bruce asks Damian if he can help Bruce escape from this world and Damian asks Bruce to understand what is at stake for Damian. A young boy hiding behind Damian enters the room. He is Alfred, Damian's son and Bruce's grandson.