Batman's destiny

I should start this off by saying I write a lot of Batman fan fiction...one issue I've recently been pondering is how the story of Batman/Bruce Wayne ends.The most satisfying ending I've come up with for Bruce is death.I'm talking here about my favorite fictional character.

Death,his life...the ultimate sacrifice any tragic hero makes.And I consider Bruce Wayne a tragic hero...by definition...a tragic hero is a character who is willing to sacrifice everything for his ideals and in the end pays the ultimate price.It has been like that since the days of Sofocles etc.Giving his life to save the people of Gotham one last time is what I imagine Bruce should end like.I am of opinion that Bruce Wayne is incapable of leading a normal,quiet life.To me he is a deeply damaged man,a man who has devoted his whole life to an ideal.My perfect ending for him is the one I've almost finished writing.In the story..Joker kills Alfred..paralyzes Barbara Gordon..tries to release a virus on Gotham...Bruce manages to stop him.In the ultimate end..he hunts The Joker down..the two of them find themselves alone...in a building rigged with explosives..the Ace chemicals building...there they talk...the have one oglf their weird conversations...about life..hate..ideals..motives etc...Bruce is filled with incredible rage...realising the building is going to explode and he will die...he finally allows himself to be consumed by the darkness he has been dancing with since that moment all those years ago in Crime Alley...he kills the Joker...but its ok...he feels satisfied...he always feared that if he killed...he couldnt be able to come back from that place...but he doesnt have to..its over...he is going on his deserved vacation...moments before dying in the explosion he talks with Dick Grayson...he just says..its over Dick...you know what to do.And thats it...Bruce Wayne is dead...he reached his end...the end of his path...but Batman?Batman is more than a man...he is eternal..

I like it. They never give superheroes a true ending, so this is largely unexplored territory. Yeah, they die occasionally, but that doesn't come with the sincerity of knowing that their story is being wrapped up.

If I have an issue with this, its that its too simple. Grand and explosive, yes, but it only deals with Batman's relationship with the Joker and the symbol that he is. Both of which are huge, but Batman's life consists of so much more than that. I would like to see most of the aspects of his personality and life either wrapped up or given one final development (his angst over the death of his parents, his romantic life, his relationships to other villains and heroes, etc.).

Also, are sure that you want to have Batman kill the Joker at the end? I feel that an essential component of his identity is fighting even at horrible odds, so I think he would spend his last moments trying to figure a way out rather than wasting them killing the Joker. Batman's drive is too much a part of him for him to think he deserves any sort of vacation.