Batman #447

"Earth Day! Demon Night!"
writer: Marv Wolfman
pencils: Jim Aparo
inks: Mike DeCarlo
letters: John Costanza
colors: Adrienne Roy
assoc ed: Dan Raspler
editor: Denny O'Neil
creator: Bob Kane

grade: C-

Two years after introducing the idea of the multi-part mega event in this very title, one of its biggest negative qualities is beginning to become clear: the practice of selling the premise without actually having worked out how to end it. Looking at what we know of the development of Crisis on Infinite Earths, as well as the recent Lonely Place of Dying crossover, it's not hard to figure out that Wolfman is a pretty indecisive writer, often changing his mind about things mid-course. So we have this storyline that, based upon Nightwing's revelations back in Year Three, was originally intended to star the now still living KGBeast, that features a title that never ever actually ends up reflected in the events of the story ("When the World DIES!", conveniently dropped in this final installment), and has this final chapter that clumsily brings things to a close in a way that didn't feel carefully planned at all.

Probably my biggest problem here is the final confrontation between Batman and the NKVDemon. Wolfman has now clearly established that the Demon is a master of disguise and pretty much the best assassin who ever lived, as well as Batman's superior in hand to hand combat. By that logic, Batman doesn't have a prayer of stopping him without some brilliant plan. But Batman never concocts one. He simply waits around and hopes, and this only works because the NKVDemon MISSES TWICE when firing at Gorbachev at nearly point blank range and then inexplicably loses to Batman in combat even though Batman has been twice seriously injured by him in the past 24 hours and does nothing particularly special nor clever to stop him. Wolfman brings the story to an end because it's the fifth chapter, and it feels exactly as abrupt as that.

Additionally, the plot for this issue is just as unceremoniously direct. Wolfman takes no opportunities to explore anything more in regard to politics, Batman's ethics in working with a police agency that's less concerned with rights and which locks up potential targets against their will for their own "protection", gives no more characterization, motivation, or complexity to Nikita, the agent working with Batman against the wishes of most of his own government, paints Lenin and Communism in a disturbingly simple light ("Lenin began the process that separated our world into two, into them versus us"), makes absolutely no use of Vicki Vale and no meaning of her involvement in this story for three issues now, does nothing interesting with the character of the NKVDemon, and ultimately utterly fails to make a point about environmentalism, even though it's clear the title for this story ("When the Earth DIES!") suggests a deeper thematic connection between international cooperation and international environmental efforts that never really arrives by the climax beyond Lenin's birthday being on Earth Day.

And what was with that tacked on ending in which Bruce promises a promotion to the attache assigned to him in Moscow that he'd been ditching throughout the story? Wolfman and Aparo are clearly trying to play it for comedy, but it came out of nowhere and truly felt as such. This was a dark storyline, and this utterly saccharine ending depended upon our remembering an utterly minor subplot that hadn't been referenced at all in this issue.

The one real positive in this issue was the cover by Brian Bolland, featuring a Soviet newspaper with Batman photographed at a crime scene on the front page. I even enjoyed the random Batman logo on the paper under the issue number and price, exactly where the "cover box" for this issue should have been, featuring a Dick Sprang era Batman with a Soviet logo beneath him.

Truly, this wasn't a bad issue, but it really didn't do anything right either, and since it was supposed to be the pay-off of a mid-sized multi issue story arc, that makes it pretty darn disappointing. Wasting one issue is one thing; wasting the potential of a storyline that took up three issues is another.


minor details:

- This is the second issue in a row in which Tim has neither been shown or mentioned, a surprising move considering how heavily he was being featured prior to this.

- I'm still scratching my head on how Batman caught that flagpole to break his fall at the beginning of the issue if he was already holding both ends of his cape before hitting it. And did we really need a full page devoted to this?

- Wolfman makes too good a point about how the Soviets would be bothered by the amount of unwarranted wealth Bruce Wayne has compared to the average American and then goes nowhere with it, instead attacking Lenin and his principals on the next page. Now who's brainwashed?

- Again, how does the Demon rip off a human face and have a mask that is larger than a human face beneath it? And how did that face make expressions on page 18?

- What did Nikita shoot the Demon with to make him burn to a crisp like that at the end??


plot synopsis: Batman survives the fall from last issues' cliffhanger, the Demon kills the next three on his list leaving only Gorbachev, Batman figures out he'll strike on Lenin's birthday (also Earth Day), Batman defeats him without a plan by sheer luck, and Nikita kills him, knowing Batman won't.

The Post-Crisis Batman Continuity (as of Batman #472 [1991])

Please note: Denny O'Neil was not the most vigilant of continuity editors, and so this list attempts to resolve a number of seeming contradictions, most notably made in Year 3, at which point O'Neil seemed to be intentionally making changes to continuity.

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22-28 years prior to Year 1 -- Bruce Wayne is born to Thomas and Martha Wayne (Secret Origins tpb indicates he is 8 years old when his parents died, Detective Comics #578 and Batman #404 indicate his parents died 18 to 20 years prior to Year 1, Secret Origins tpb also includes the problematic detail that he is "in his early twenties" when he concludes his training and returns to Gotham prior to Year 1 -- thus the range of years in which this event could have occurred. Based on the other events shown/listed in the Secret Origins tpb, Bruce had to be at least 22 when he became Batman, having begun his training at 20, studied under Kirigi for almost a year, studied with Ducard for six months (Detective Comics #600) and sought out at least 16 other mentors in that time(various sources, all compiled here).

19-25 years prior to Year 1 -- A young Bruce Wayne falls through a hole into a cave on the Wayne Manor property (presumed, Bruce is at least three years old here and his parents have not yet died (Secret Origins tpb) (they die when he is 8, and that was 19 years prior to Year One, as stated in Batman #404).

19 years prior to Year 1 -- The Reaper retires after a career of protecting Gotham through murderous vigilantism (stated as having occurred 20 years prior to Year 2 in Detective Comics #575).

18-19 years prior to Year 1 -- Alfred Pennyworth's father dies; Alfred takes his place as butler to the Waynes (all immediately prior to the deaths of Thomas and Martha Wayne, Batman Annual #13). Thomas and Martha Wayne are murdered (20 years prior to Year 2, as stated in Detective Comics #578, 18 years prior to Year 1, as stated in Batman #404). Bruce is 8 years old (Secret Origins tpb)(1). Lewis Cord, a runner for the mob, had the ability to warn the Waynes that Joe Chill was in that alleyway, chose not to, and regretted it up to the moment he died (Detective Comics Annual #3). Bruce is taken in by Dr. Leslie Thompson. Alfred watches over Wayne manor and remains involved in Bruce's upbringing (Detective Comics #574 and Batman Annual #13).

14 to 15 Years prior to Year 1 -- Bruce attends an exclusive private school by the time he is twelve (Detective Comics #614). Grant Morrison's contradictory depiction of this school (which may or may not count since the story didn't come out of the Bat Office) indicates that Bruce and the other students were repeatedly abused (sexually and otherwise) by the staff, and that Bruce's friend, Robert, was killed by the headmaster, who was also the villain called "Whisper" (Legends of the Dark Knight #7).

12 to 14 Years prior to Year 1 -- Bruce revisits Crime Alley for the first time since his parents' death, is attacked by the Demonz gang (including "Skorp," a new initiate who is forced to fight Bruce one on one to prove himself) and is rescued by a homeless "fairy godmother" (Detective Comics #614: this happens sometime after we learn that he was attending private school at the age of 12, but presumably occurs while he is still there and before he begins attending college)

12 to 13 Years prior to Year 1 -- Bruce attends various colleges from ages 14 to 20, in search of information to aid him in his war against crime (Detective Comics #574 and Secret Origins tpb).

6 to 7 Years prior to Year 1 -- Bruce begins his training.(2)

Just prior to Year 1 -- Bruce studies under his final trainer (Willy Doggett), is nearly killed while pursuing a murderer in the Alaskan wilderness, and is saved by a Shaman who tells him the story of The Bat (Legends of the Dark Knight #1, Secret Origins tpb).

Year 1 -- Bruce Wayne returns to Gotham. Jim Gordon moves to Gotham and rises to the rank of Captain. Batman begins his career. James Gordon Jr. is born. Catwoman begins her career. Batman forms informal partnerships/friendships with Gordon and Harvey Dent. (Batman #404-407).

Between Year 1 and Year 2 -- The events of the "Shaman" storyline (Legends of the Dark Knight #1-5). Additionally, Batman briefly partners with an unstable Harvey Dent, ends up regretting it, and Harvey Dent becomes Two-Face (Batman Annual #14).

Between Year 1 and Year 2, but after the above events -- Batman switches to the yellow chest symbol (Presumed since he has it in Detective Comics #575, the beginning of Year 2). The Joker begins his career (presumed from the end of Year One in Batman #408, though this jibes uneasily with the events of Year 2, which suggest the Reaper is Batman's first major villain) after falling into a vat of chemicals while pursued by Batman as The Red Hood (assuming the Joker is telling the truth in The Killing Joke, though even he casts doubts on this). Jim Gordon is promoted to commissioner (Batman #475).

Sometime after Year 1 -- Jim Gordon begins to foster his niece, Barbara Gordon, after her parents die. Jim Gordon's wife divorces him and moves to Chicago with James Jr. at some point afterward (Secret Origins #20).

Year 2 -- The Wayne Foundation building is constructed. Batman fights The Reaper, who is implied to be the first major villain he has fought (Detective Comics #575-578).

Between Year 2 and 3 -- Batman returns to the original chest symbol, at least temporarily (as seen in flashback in Batman #436).

Year 3 -- Dick Grayson's parents are murdered by Anthony Zucco. He is initially sent to St. Jude's orphanage under the care of Sister Mary Elizabeth (Batman #426). He is taken in by Bruce at age 12, becomes Robin at age 13 (presumed, working backwards from Batman #416). Tim Drake witnesses the death of Dick Grayson's parents at the age of 2 and follows Batman and Robin's adventures from that point forward (Batman #441).

Year 3-8 -- Most of Batman's rogues gallery is active for some time prior to Dick's retirement, but presumably not until after the events of Year Two (since it's implied that Reaper is Batman's first majro villain), including Two Face, Penguin, and Joker (Batman #408 and Detective comics #575-578)

Year 8 -- The first Robin is retired at age 19 and presumed dead by the general public (assuming Year 3 counts as a full first year when Dick tells Bruce he fought by his side for six years in Batman #416).

Year 9 -- Bruce takes in Jason Todd. Dick attends one year of college, leads the Teen Titans, drops out, becomes Nightwing, and "started a new life as leader of" the New Teen Titans (presumed from the timeline provided in Batman #416, which seems to imply that Dick formed the New Teen Titans after becoming Nightwing and never led it as Robin, yet Batman Annual #13 indicates that he did initially lead it as Robin).

Year 9.5 -- Jason becomes Robin six months after Bruce takes him in (Dick confronts Batman about Jason being the new Robin 18 months after his retirement in Batman #416; the preface for Death in the Family states that Jason became Robin 18 months after Dick retired). The general public believes it's the return of the same Robin (Batman Annual #13).

Between Years 9.5 and 10.5 - The Mike W. Barr run, featuring a younger, less jaded/impulsive Jason Todd (Presumed, though it is debatable whether this run counts in Post-Crisis continuity at all, especially since it includes a clearly pre-crisis Catwoman)

Year 10.5 -- the events of Batman #416 (takes place one year after the confrontation between Dick and Bruce over Jason becoming Robin, which occurred 18 months after Dick retired), the events of "The Cult" (indicates that Batman has been active for 10 years, presumably takes place after Batman #416).

Year 10.75 -- Originally intended to be the present day of Post-Crisis Batman continuity (Batman #436 indicates that it has been two years since Dick Grayson was retired as Robin, and numerous behind-the-scenes comments indicated that Batman had been fighting crime for 10 years by this point, but a change was made sometime between Batman #437 and #441 which I explain here. What follows is in keeping with that revision to the timeline)

Between Years 10.5 and 14 - Never fully revealed, presumed to occur between Batman #416 and #425 (3)

Year 11 -- A flashback in Detective Comics #617 shows Batman and the Joker facing off at a conference on symbolism during this time. We have no other information about anything that transpired in Year 11.

Year 12 -- A flashback in Batman #472 shows Batman saving The Queen of Hearts from death, even while she begs him to let her die because she will inevitably kill again.

Year 14 - Batgirl retires and is paralyzed by the Joker (occurred in The Killing Joke prior to Jason Todd's death in Batman #426), Jason Todd is killed in Death in the Family, the present day events of Year 3 occur only a few weeks later (Batman #436 occurred ten years after Year 3, Nightwing indicates Jason has only been dead a few weeks). A Lonely Place of Dying. (Tim Drake is 13 and confirms he was 2 during Year 3 in Batman #441) Depending upon how you interpret some conflicting information provided in the Secret Origins tpb and Batman #404, Bruce is anywhere from 35 to 42 years old at this point.

Year 14.5 - The events of Batman #450 (said to occur "several months" after Death in the Family)

Year 14.5 or 15 - The Post-Crisis Batman finally encounters an updated and in-continuity Case of the Chemical Syndicate (originally the very first Batman story) in Detective Comics #627 (the version written by Marv Wolfman clearly establishes itself as existing within current continuity).


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(1) According to the Secret Origins tpb, Bruce is 8 when his parents died. According to Batman #404, this occurred 18 years prior to year one (making Bruce 26 in Year One). Yet the Secret Origins tpb also shows that Bruce was "in his early twenties" when his training concluded, and we know from Legends of the Dark #1 that Bruce became Batman a very short time after. Thus, the idea that Bruce was 8 years old when his parents were murdered AND that this took place 18-19 years prior to Year 1 is up for debate. However, much of the timeline I have constructed is based upon this assumption.

(2) Batman #431 stated that Bruce began his training ten years prior to Batman #431, and Batman #433-435 indicate that he'd done all of his training in one year, but Detective Comics #600 stated that he'd trained for more than ten years before becoming Batman. None of these statements appear to be correct. However, the final assertion is close to true if you count college.

(3) At no point is it suggested that a gap of time has occurred between Batman #416 and #425. However, references to time in Year 3 indicate that an extra 3.5 years occurred somewhere, and this is pretty much the only place those 3.5 years could go without conflicting with previous references made to the post-crisis timeline. Meanwhile, "The Cult," written by Starlin at the same time, MUST occur in Year 10 because it mentions that Batman has been active for ten years within it. At the time, O'Neil had intended the present day to be Year 10, which is why this mention was made, but Year 3 later required the present day to be changed to Year 14; thus "The Cult" remains in Year 10 while Starlin's regular run advances to Year 14.

Why Bruce Wayne Can't Be Socially Conscious (an opinion)

Bruce Wayne has been portrayed as a wealthy socialite from his very first appearance in 1939. Based upon the pulp hero The Shadow, Batman's wealthy man-about-town alter ego kept him above suspicion and also provided him with the limitless resources and time with which to fight crime.

Unfortunately, over the years, this wealthy alter ego has presented a problem to the Batman franchise, as people generally aren't fans of wealth inequality and generally don't feel entirely comfortable rooting for someone who is super rich without having earned it.

I'm not sure how long this sentiment has been wide-spread in America, but we certainly see writers making attempts to address it as early as in the 1960s when, amidst the counter culture phenomenon that the Batman TV show attempted to be responsive to, Bruce Wayne was presented, from his very first moment on camera in the first episode, as being socially conscious and generously donating to charity in order to make Gotham a better place where what happened to his parents would never happen again.

When Julie Schwartz initiated Batman's soft reboot at the end of the decade, he and his writers did even more to ditch the perception of Bruce being undeservedly wealthy, now having him leave Stately Wayne Manor and making his management of the family business a full time job that received adequate attention in the comic, all while his attention to social issues and commitment to charity was further emphasized. Ultimately, Doug Moench felt the need to point out how impractical it was to have Batman run a multi-million dollar company by day and fight crime by night, but the point was still evident: the perception of Bruce Wayne sitting on a ton of cash without having earned it and without explicitly working to give it away bugged people.

Now, in this post-Crisis continuity in which Bruce spends some time running his company (according to Marv Wolfman) but generally just happens to have gobs of cash lying around, we see Wolfman address the issue again briefly in Batman #447 and then see Alan Grant once again use social consciousness and charity to throw off the idea that Bruce is somehow a passive participant in wealth inequality in Detective #614, but this ultimately poses a larger problem than just having the guy sit back and be rich.

Truly, if Bruce Wayne's primary motivator in life is to eliminate crime and prevent what happened to his parents from happening to anyone else, and if he understands that poverty creates crime (so explicitly understanding in Detective #614 that the poor generally only become criminals because they've been given no other choice) then why keep devoting so much time and resources to fighting crime? Using his wealth and energy to fight poverty is a much more beneficial practice that is likely to yield greater results, whereas just punching people who have already fallen through the cracks while more continue to do so is just putting a very tiny band aid over a much larger problem.

A socially conscious billionaire understanding the root economic causes of criminal behavior who devotes his resources primarily to punching criminals at night makes even less sense than a flying invulnerable dude in a red cape. No one wants to read a comic about a wealthy person using their resources to combat poverty, but then if Bruce is going to remain primarily a vigilante, the social consciousness bit has got to go. Like it or not, he makes more sense as a guy sitting on a wad of undeserved cash who is obsessive and blind enough to believe that he can punch crime away. The moment that he understands the root cause of criminal behavior and perceives perpetrators as a byproduct of social injustice, his crime fighting crusade ceases to make any true sense. Sure, he could make Batman appearances intermittently to keep the fear out there that discourages some criminal behavior, but putting his efforts primarily into being Batman just doesn't make any sense in this context.

Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #8

"Gothic, a Romance: Volume Three: The Burning Nun"
writer: Grant Morrison
pencils: Klaus Janson
colors: Steve Buccellato
letters: John Costanza
editor: Andrew Helfer
Ass't Editor: Kevin Dooley

grade: B-

Each time I return to "Gothic," I'm immediately overwhelmed by two things: 1) How professional the book looks/feels, and 2) How batsh*t crazy Morrison is.

If I were Andy Helfer, and my mission was to attract a more mature readership and a new level of respect for both Batman and comic books in general, I probably would have chosen the exact same creative team here, and yet I'd be mildly disturbed by what Morrison was doing, kind of hoping I was the only one noticing.

No, it's not just the excessive need to try too hard to be adult -- the mass nun-raping, the unnecessary untranslated french quote that begins the issue and isn't actually appropriate to the story that follows, the need to refer to chapters as "volumes," etc. Instead, it's the problem that Morrison and Batman think in entirely opposite ways. Batman is the ultimate scientist -- logical, pragmatic, and constantly working under the assumption that proper investigation and preparation are all that is required to do his job. Morrison, on the other hand, is erratic and superstitious. He would believe that accidentally pulling out a tape of his father talking about a lake in Austria while he was investigating a villain from Austria is a sign from the beyond, he would stop to listen to a monk's prattling about the past while on a critical mission and assume the monk would inevitably have information that serendipitously relates to the case, and he would believe that a villain could live for three hundred years by making a deal with the devil (if this were true, why wouldn't more people have done this? And why only 300 years? Why not forever??). Oh, and of course, a line his father offered him in a dream is the ultimate key for unlocking Whisper's plan. But this is not the way Batman thinks, and this is not how a Batman story should unravel unless the writer wants to play to the idea that such an adventure would take Batman far out of his comfort zone and challenge his beliefs about the universe. Morrison isn't interested in doing any of that and, in fact, doesn't seem to understand that none of this is natural for Batman.

Again, the story is well written, but it is trying far too hard to be mature/serious, and it just isn't Batman.


Minor Details:

- The quote in the beginning, from Baudelaire's "The Bad Monk," roughly translates to " My soul is a tomb where, bad cenobite, I wander and dwell eternally;
Nothing adorns the walls of that loathsome cloister." Considering that we have not been given any insight into Whisper's perspective in these pages yet, nor have we been invited to even wonder at his motives (the retelling of his origin outright glosses over his reasoning) -- he's really just a plot device thus far -- this quote isn't even appropriate to this issue, yet the obscure reference to a poem not widely studied in English, as well as providing the original French without a translation, all impede the reader from ever arriving at this conclusion. If Morrison drew inspiration from this quote in creating "Gothic," and that's why he wants to put it here, at least have the courtesy to translate it or even indicate the author so that someone can look it up (I never would have figured all this out in 1990 without the aid of the internet). Beginning the issue with this quote and intentionally leaving it so inaccessible just reeks of smugness. And, of course, when Morrison excludes his readers with the illusion of brilliance and elitism, he impresses them. Don't fall for it, folks.

- Though I LOVE Janson's depiction of the Batcave on the first page, it seems far too complete considering that Bruce just started building it in the previous storyline. Are we to assume that "Gothic" takes place a significant amount of time after "Shaman"? I suppose some of the difficulty I will encounter with trying to make any sense out of continuity in this title is that, while these stories are largely not written to follow any kind of continuity, they all feature a Batman who wears his Year One chest emblem. Of course, he did wear it in Year Three too, but not in Year Two. Oh, who am I kidding? NO ONE at DC is paying any attention to these details, so why am I?

- Is Morrison going to go anywhere with the symbolic meaning behind the roses? Probably not.

- If I ran a school that worked furiously to cover up a past scandal that nearly buried the school, and a rich and influential man came asking for a tape that might reveal some of this, I would not explain this concern to him, and I certainly would not give him the tape, no matter how much he offered to donate to the school. Of course, I'm not entirely sure why a recording of Mr. Winchester reading poetry would expose any aspect of his scandal in the first place, but then let's be consistent. Either the tape poses a risk to the school (in which case, it should be destroyed or, at the very least, NOT given to Bruce), or it's harmless and therefore of no concern to the headmaster.

- I also wouldn't admit to a wealthy and influential man who attended school during that time that there had been a scandal. Lawsuit, anyone?

- I understand that Bruce is extremely wealthy, but if he's still just getting the whole Batman gig started (which would take considerable wealth to do), how does he have enough to make a sizable donation to a private school every time he wants to follow an unlikely lead? If he's THAT loaded, then why isn't he doing something with that money -- either investing it or at least giving it to charities or something? Does he have billions budgeted each month to "discretionary purchasing of potential leads"? No billionaire has that much cash just sitting around. You wouldn't remain a billionaire very long if you did.

- I love Morgenstern's style in offing a snitch that was working for him. Morrison gives the guy a lot of finesse where some other writers would have just used a generic characterization in order to further the plot and move onto the core characters in the story.

- If I were Batman, I'd just started convincing the criminal element to fear me, and I was going to go to a different country for my investigation, I'd leave as Bruce Wayne on a private flight so that criminals everywhere in Gotham wouldn't see the Batplane leaving the city.

- For once, Morrison uses a quote correctly. His invocation of Faust's final plea while awaiting his damnation is a very appropriate line for Whisper to be reciting to the young nun. I was starting to think he was just looking through a book of quotes to find something that sounded impressive and vaguely touched upon the subject he was dealing with (last issue's quote from Twelfth Night about music seemed to suggest as much). Of course, I know this because I'm an English teacher and Renaissance Drama dork. To most readers, this is just another inaccessible reference.

- The ghost ship aspect of Whisper's past seems forcibly inserted and entirely unimportant to the story, like Grant just felt like using the image in the dream sequences of the previous issue and then tried to find a way to justify it later.



Plot synopsis in one sentence:

Morrison is more intelligent/cultured than you are, Morrison is more shocking and adult than you are, Morrison knows French (and won't translate it for you) and you don't, Morrison knows Baudelaire, Shakespeare and Marlowe and hopes that you don't, oh...and there was a plot here too, involving Batman visiting his old school to find a recording of the old headmaster indicating that he was Austrian, Bruce accidentally stumbling upon a recording of his father that made him think he should go to Lake Dess in Austria, Batman randomly running into a monk there who conveniently (or was it divinely engineered?) gave him the full back story on Whisper/Winchester who was a monk who sold his soul to the devil in order to live for 300 years and also gang-raped a nun who now haunts his flooded/abandoned monastery as a burning nun, we find out that Morgenstern, a crime boss, is responsible for at least one of the killings that has been attributed to Whisper, we know that Whisper is supposed to give his soul up to the Devil soon, he approaches the nun haunting his new cathedral and gives her a rose, and Batman finds hidden plans for the new cathedral in Whisper's old flooded monastery in a sealed compartment in the wall by remembering to "unlock the rose".

Superman (1987) #44, Adventures of Superman #467, and Action Comics #654

"Dark Knight over Metropolis"
writers: Jerry Ordway, Dan Jurgen, and Roger Stern
pencils: Jerry Ordway, Dan Jurgens, and Bob McLeod
inks: Dennis Janke, Art Thibert, and Brett Breeding
colors: Glenn Whitmore
letters: John Costanza, Albert DeGuzman, and Bill Oakley
associate editor: Jon Peterson
editor: Mike Carlin

grade: n/a

While it's tempting to read and review this story in its entirety, I'm still two years away from these issues in my Superman Reviews Thread, so instead I'll simply be exploring how this storyline impacts the relationship between the Post-Crisis Superman and Batman.

The two have met at least three times before, in Man of Steel #3, Action Comics Annual #1, and Adventures of Superman #440. However, this is the storyline where their post-Crisis friendship is first established. In their Pre-Crisis first meeting, they accidentally learned each other's secret identities at the same time, thus forcing them to trust one another and become allies. As an interesting contrast, Ordway, Jurgens, and Stern emphasize that, in knowing each other's identities (as of Adventures of Superman #440), each clearly makes the other feel vulnerable by doing so.

In the conclusion to this storyline, in which Batman has come to Metropolis in search of the reason why a ring made out of a radioactive jewel (it's actually Lex Luthor's Kryptonite ring) has come to Gotham from Metropolis and what its purpose was (okay, this seems a little unimportant for Batman to pursue so vigorously, but anyway...), Bruce and Clark arrive at the beginning of some kind of kinship. After proving, by discovering and entering the Batcave, that Clark has as much ability to catch Bruce off-guard as Bruce has to Clark, Clark says the following:

"I'm not in the habit of barging in on friends unannounced. But then, we're not exactly friends...are we? You know, there are many who still think that The Batman is a psychotic vigilante, no better than the vermin he hunts down. I think they're wrong. I think The Batman is simply a very sane man who tries to bring justice to an often insane world. We are very different, you and I--but I like to think that we're working for a similar cause."

He then gives Batman the Kryptonite ring for safe keeping, trusting him to be the one to take him down should he ever become a danger to others -- a final sanity check and balance on his powers.

Okay, it all feels forced. DC was finally realizing that Batman had become DC's #1 selling property and that Superman wasn't doing anywhere near as well as they would have liked him to, so they created this three part marketing event designed to bring all the new Batman readers over to the Superman titles (note: it worked on ten year old me). Batman here is depicted more like his Year One and DKR self than anything Wolfman or Grant were writing over at the Bat Office because it was the characterization that sold to fanboys and because money was more important than consistent characterization across offices, and Batman and Superman arriving at an odd mutual appreciation at the close felt a bit unnatural (though Bruce clearly had Clark at his mercy in the final act and spared him, which, I suppose, was the beginning of trust). Still, Ordway, Jurgens, and Stern finally found common ground for two characters who were destined to become unlikely friends, no matter how much Frank Miller felt otherwise.


Continuity Alerts:

-- Superman and Batman become hesitant allies, respecting one another as a result of being forced to trust one another with their secret identities and vulnerabilities. Again, there's a possible nod in doing this to Superman (1939) #76: the very first meeting of Superman and Batman in the Pre-Crisis.

-- Superman entrusts Batman with Lex Luthor's Kryptonite ring in case he should ever become a danger to others. A kind of nod to DKR seems implied here, or maybe an intended inversion. In DKR, Miller set out to prove that Superman and Batman could never remain on the same side, and in that story, Batman synthesized Kryptonite after years of work. In this continuity, Superman entrusts Batman with Kryptonite, laying groundwork for a different future with such trust.

-- Bruce Wayne has been evading any dealings with Lex Luthor prior to this point. Adventures #467 marks their first meeting. Even Luthor points out how unlikely their not running into each other prior to this point has been. If Luthor's been the leading force in technological innovation since the '70s (see the Post-Crisis Superman Timeline), and Bruce has been back in Gotham and (presumably) running Wayne Enterprises for 14 years now (see the Post-Crisis Batman Timeline), then this is pretty hard to believe, especially since, if Bruce's reason for avoiding Luthor is that he believes he's crooked and harmful to society, then why hasn't Batman tried to take him down yet? He'll go all the way to Metropolis to find out why a radiation-filled ring has killed a bum, but not to stop a megalomaniac bent on world domination through corrupt business practices? Attending a meeting with Luthor or one of his parties would be a perfect opportunity to investigate his empire and its dealings. And, surely, in the right hands, some of Lexcorp's cutting edge technology would be immensely beneficial to Gotham, and wouldn't Wayne Enterprises need to keep up with innovators in the field? Sorry, Luthor, we're not going to use your 4x as fast microprocessor that every other company is now adopting. We'll proudly remain in the incorrupt stone age!


Minor Details:

- Ordway, in particular, draws one heck of a Batman!

Detective Comics #616

“Stone Killer”
writer: Alan Grant
pencils: Norm Breyfogle
inks: Steve Mitchell
colors: Adrienne Roy
letters: Todd Klein
assoc. editor: Dan Raspler
editor: Dennis O'Neil
creator: Bob Kane

grade: C


It wasn't so long ago that Grant and Breyfogle were the red-headed step-children of the O'Neil Bat Office. Denny didn't much care what they were producing, and they weren't briefed on much of what his office was planning in the core Bat title either. That all changed with the summit amongst Jeannette Kahn, Denny O'Neil, Marv Wolfman, and Alan Grant to lay out what 1990 would look like for Batman. As a result, for the first time, O'Neil's office is tightly coordinated. It's the kind of oversight I've been wanting to see all along. Unfortunately, it's weighing on Grant's writing like an albatross.

This is one seriously confused issue. It should be about some undead satanic serial killer (though, honestly, it's not a particularly intriguing story, and it's held together by quite a few dramatic conveniences), but it also goes overboard in trying to connect itself to what's happening in the Batman title to the point that the story becomes a schizophrenic mess.

At first, the inter-title continuity references work quite well. Grant gives a lot of attention to describing the enormity of the destruction caused during The Penguin Affair, which was largely glossed over at the time. It's good to finally see a story that goes out of its way to depict such an aftermath – Gotham doesn't just return to normal immediately because the Penguin has been captured.

But then Grant apparently got the directive to lay groundwork for the coming Joker storyline and so, smack in the middle of Batman trying to track down a deadly killer who is two steps ahead of him, he overhears that there is a "red hooded gunman” on the loose, and suddenly the story spends an awkward amount of time with Batman considering that the Joker didn't really die at the end of A Death in the Family. It's a total disruption to the plot.

Worse yet, at the conclusion, when Batman has just unmasked C'th and discovered that he is, in fact, supernatural and terrifying, and then tricks him into flying out a window into the rocks and waters below, we expect there to be a part two to this story – this was just Batman's first confrontation with a foe who is obviously coming back. Falling on a rock shouldn't kill an undead fallen god who was buried under the Earth for countless eons. It sure seems that way as Batman reflects:

”There is a black cloud inside me. A portent of doom. Might just have been meeting that freak. He oozed bad feeling. But deep inside, I know the truth.”

We then flip to the last page and see that he's been referring to his concern that The Joker is back, the iconic clown face painted across the sky, as Batman proclaims, "He is alive." No further attention given to the super villain he just met who we have no reason to believe has been defeated.

sigh.



Minor Details

-Much attention is given to a piece of graffiti outside of an apartment where C'th does one of his killings. It reads, “Peter Roche lived here. I killed him.” This seems vaguely familiar. Did it appear in a previous Grant/Breyfogle story that I am not recalling?

-Awfully convenient that an expert on the C'th's flight path would stumble upon Batman at the exact right moment.

-Awful convenient that Wayne Manor is on that flight path

-Awfully convenient that the expert's house is on that flight path as well.

-Breyfogle's work on page 5 is positively breath-taking. His depiction of Batman almost suggests the Azrael Batman costume we'll be seeing in a few years' time.

-I always wondered what would happen if, just once, Batman told a thug to stay put and wait for him and the thug tried to take off. Well played, Grant.



plot synopsis in one sentence:

The villain unearthed when an airplane crashed into the Earth last issue during The Penguin Affair is now on the loose, committing ritualized serial sacrifices, Batman learns that a “red hooded gunman” is on the loose and immediately has Alfred take Tim out of town for safety, he somehow finds the site where the undead monster first emerged (this is never explained), an expert on the very energies that are attracting the killer stumbles upon Batman at that very moment, they quickly figure out its flight plan, which includes Wayne Manor and the expert's house, Batman stops the monster by making it dive after its magic rod, causing it to fall to its entirely too easy death, and Batman reflects that the Joker is out there, alive.