Mother...Father...Your lives were sacred, your murders profane. Your fate shaped my destiny...as your end charted my beginning. Your deaths were violent. Your resting place must remain inviolable. No further harm will come to you, I swear. So long as I shall live, you will be safe in death. No one will touch you. Nor will any of the dead be disturbed--not one more grave desecrated. This night, a monster falls. 
- — Batman
Batman #539 is an issue of the series Batman (Volume 1) with a cover date of February, 1997.
Synopsis for "Boneyard Blues"
A strange man is desecrating tombs and stealing the dead's bones while singing to a blues melody. Several people complain about the stealing of their relatives' corpses. There is a couple who explain their case to Sgt. Bock and tell him that the criminal had sent them a thank you note inside a box made of bones. Commissioner Gordon tells Batman about this new criminal who calls himself The Undertaker.
The Undertaker is at his hideout polishing the bones and talking to his father's skeleton in a clearly delusional way. Batman examines the bones box at the batcave and he realizes that the box is made out of the bones of someone's hands. The earliest grave-robbings are from a cemetery where the city's homeless are buried, and Batman discovers that these funerals are conducted by a firm named Ostine and Son. This name brings back some memories in Bruce and he askes Alfred about his parents' funeral. Alfred tells Bruce the same name that Gunt did.
Batman swears at his parent's grave that he will stop the man who is disrespecting the dead. Batman goes to the funeral parlor and he discovers a book with a list of names and the skeleton of Ostine's father. Batman searches the building and finds a strange room in the basement. The room is full of sculptures made of bones as a sanctuary from dead people's bones. The Undertaker attacks Batman, believing that it is his father coming back to haunt him. Both of them struggle for a while, but in the end Batman knocks the man unconscious. Batman apologizes to the death as he drags the Undertaker out of his sanctuary.
Three days later, Commissioner Gordon informs Batman that the Undertaker died before the trial. He was choked with a splintered bone. At last the Undertaker would rest in peace.
Appearing in "Boneyard Blues"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- Undertaker (Single appearance; dies)
Other Characters:
- Martha Wayne (In picture only)
- Thomas Wayne (In picture only)
- Mr. Simon Zane (Single appearance)
- Mrs. Zane (Single appearance)
- The Spectre (Jim Corrigan) (Cameo)
Locations:
Items:
Vehicles:
Notes
- Editor Dennis O'Neil wrote in his mini essay From the Den referring to the Batman-Spectre stories to be featured in the upcoming character's titles. He clarified that it was not a inter-title crossover but rather two separate stories in each character's own titles. He recalled his promise of a crossover free titles for a year at least made in Detective Comics #702.
Trivia
- This is the first issue in which Vesper Fairchild is named. Her name can be seen in a billboard announcing her radio show.
- The Spectre appears in the last two panels as a prelude to the upcoming storyline featuring him.
See Also