DC's Batman Abandons Christian Faith in New Comic

A new issue of DC's Batman comic reveals the iconic superhero's Christian upbringing, and the event that made him leave it all behind.

"Cold Days" Part 3 in Batman #53 begins with Bruce Wayne (who is secretly Batman) questioning his life after Catwoman abandons him at the wedding altar.

Wayne notices a character's cross necklace, which sparks a flashback to his early years.

"My father was a Christian. He held hallow the immortal soul, heaven, the Father and the Son," Wayne says in the story. "He wanted me to believe too. But he wanted me to come to it on my own. He went to church. He told me all the stories."

However, Wayne rejected his faith when his parents were suddenly murdered.

"I put aside believing in a deity or believing in anything my father thought had saved him. I couldn't really see that anything had saved him," he recalls. "I searched for something solid to put my faith in. I asked a great deal of questions. I paid for some answers. But I didn't find anything out there."

Eventually, Wayne puts his faith in Batman.

Derek Stauffer from Screen Rant says "a deep belief in Batman saved him."

"Batman became the symbol of morality, goodness and faith in Bruce Wayne's world," he writes, also noting that "Batman couldn't save Bruce from his despair over losing Catwoman. Batman, or more accurately Bruce, is just a man."

According to Stauffer, Batman’s lack of faith in God isn't "all too shocking to comic fans."

Batman's religious background has been ambiguous, but it was generally assumed that he was raised a Christian.