This Never Happened. Neither Did This.

This is one of the most commonly Photoshopped panels from Batman comics. Its combination of startling subject and blank background invites people to compose their own word balloons. Which, frankly, can’t be any less realistic than those paragraphs Batman and Robin appear to spew out in one violent instant.

DC Comics has now reprinted the story that contains this panel, so you can have a copy of the original for your very own. What’s more, the same volume will also bring you this popular panel. And as a bonus, for absolutely free, this panel of Bruce Wayne and Lois Lane water-skiing. The way they do. Actually, they don’t. These panels are all from DC’s Greatest Imaginary Stories: Vol. 2, Batman and Robin. So the events in those panels never happen in the DC Universe or any accepted variation on it (e.g., Earth-Two). They’re officially non-events. We don’t have to worry about them.

Just as we don’t have to worry about the old man next door whose green hair is turning white.