Ah.
I can understand why Morrison did this, because of the symmetry. Bruce Wayne becomes Batman to avenge his parents' death, but then is killed by his father.
Thomas Wayne has never had much characterisation over the years. I remember there was an old storyline from the 80s in which Thomas Wayne coincidentally dressed up in a "bat" costume at a costume party and ended up fighting off some criminals. Batman mused over this remarkable coincidence. It was a fairly crap story.
Then we had the storyline where Bane might have been Thomas Wayne's illegitimate son in Cuba.
Finally, we had JLA: Earth 2, in which Thomas Wayne as the Police Commissioner of Gotham City on a parallel universe, is shown as an emotionally tortured hard man. This is probably the most characterisation the father of Batman ever had in comics, and it was deliberately perverted because of the storyline that things always go bad on the parallel universe.
(The best characterisation was in the movie Batman Begins. Thomas Wayne is shown as a very caring father who adores his son, who as his last act tries hopelessly to comfort the young Bruce. That death scene was really well-acted, and gave you a sense of why Bruce became lost and wild.)
I suppose with such little in-continuity background Morrison could be said to have a clean slate with Thomas Wayne.
But for Morrison to now out of left field suggest that not only is Thomas Wayne alive (some shock treatment to undermine the Batman myth) but also that he is in fact a shady criminal is to stretch suspension of belief.
Setting up Dick Grayson as Batman needs some effort. Nightwing always struck me as a bit more happy-go-lucky than Batman. The murder of his parents didn't strike me as being as brutal, partly because Bruce Wayne was there straightaway to act as Grayson's ward. I had always thought it would take some sort of grim catalyst - the murder of a pregnant Starfire or some other character with whom Grayson was romantically linked - to give Grayson sufficient gravitas to take on the role. He is nonetheless the logical successor.
It would be nice also to see Azrael pop up again, called out of his retirement by a sense that he should resume the old mantle.
The only other person who I would like to see take on the role is the Huntress, who, despite being sufficiently grim and having a decent (new) backstory, has the disadvantage of being the wrong gender.
