ROBIN #7 - June 1994

Turning Point

Credits:  Chuck Dixon (writer), Tom Grummett (penciler), Ray Kryssing (inker), Albert DeGuzman (letterer), Adrienne Roy (colorist)

Summary:  Tim Drake prepares for the return of his father, and reunites with Bruce Wayne.  After they take his father home, Tim shows Bruce the current condition of Wayne Manor.  When Bruce learns that Jean-Paul, as Batman, killed Abattoir, he’s adamant that Jean-Paul give up the cowl.  They break into the sealed-off Batcave and soon confront Jean-Paul.  He slams Bruce against the wall and leaves.  As Robin, Tim tries to chase him in his Redbird car, but can’t keep up.  Later, Bruce reveals to Tim his plan to retrain his body.

Irrelevant Continuity:  Bruce Wayne is walking again, although none of the stories in this collection explains how that happened.  Tim also mentions that Bruce “brought back my father,” which is another reference to events that are not reprinted.

Review:  After around sixty comics or so, the Knightfall trades finally get around to reprinting an issue of Robin, which I think leaves Legends of the Dark Knight as the only Bat-title not represented so far.  I have a random collection of Dixon’s Robin issues from the ‘90s, and the overwhelming majority of them are quite good.  He took the initial concept of Tim Drake as the more “intellectual” Robin and ran with it, essentially turning him into Peter Parker as Batman’s sidekick.  We see a few elements of this during the issue as Robin is placed in awkward secret identity situations, and deals with the guilt of abandoning his feeble father in order to play superhero.  The only action in the issue comes during a chase scene, which doesn’t do much to advance the ongoing storyline, but reminds anyone who’s missed the past year of stories that Jean-Paul is too reckless to be Batman.  (Seeing him drive against oncoming traffic while escaping Robin actually is kind of cool.)  

This is the last issue reprinted in the second Knightfall trade, which gives me another invitation to complain about what isn’t in the book.  More specifically, I’d like to gripe about what is included instead.  The Joker and Catwoman storylines do nothing to advance the major plotline, but I suppose they’re significant as the new Batman’s first meeting with the iconic characters.  While it’s hard to cut anything from the Joker arc, surely we didn’t need all four chapters of that Catwoman crossover.  At the very least, the first chapter in Catwoman could’ve been easily skipped.  Any issue of Shadow of the Bat could be dropped without disrupting the continuity, except for the debut of Jean-Paul’s new costume.  Dropping Bunny and Gunhawk wouldn’t hurt the flow, either.  And that Abattoir arc…yeesh.  Just spare us and reprint the first and last chapters.  Now, wouldn’t this leave plenty of room to explain why Bruce Wayne can walk again?

DETECTIVE COMICS #675 - June 1994

 

Midnight Duel

Credits:  Chuck Dixon (writer), Graham Nolan (penciler), Scott Hanna (inker), John Costanza (letterer), Adrienne Roy (colorist)

Summary:  Gunhawk holds a hospital hostage, demanding his girlfriend Bunny be treated for her gunshot wound.  He responds violently to any efforts by the police to intervene, leading Batman to directly confront him.  After an intense firefight, Batman tackles Gunhawk down a staircase and knocks him unconscious.

Irrelevant Continuity:  The new weapon created at the end of Shadow of the Bat #28 was apparently a shuriken shooter that works like a machine gun; or perhaps the new creation was intended to be the flamethrower Batman debuts this issue.

Gimmicks:  An foil-embossed cover of the issue was also shipped.

 

Review:  Inserting the resolution to the Abattoir arc in-between the two chapters of this story does it no favors, although Dixon tries his best to make it work.  My favorite example is a nurse asking Gunhawk why he’s waited two days to take Bunny to the hospital.  “We were kind of on the run, y’know?”  Meanwhile, the death of Abattoir has apparently freed Jean-Paul from whatever inhibitions he previously held, as his narration now seems even more Punisher-esque.  Once again, the shift towards standard vigilante and away from crazed loon brainwashed by an ancient religious order makes Jean-Paul a more tolerable protagonist.  While Gunhawk remains a one-note villain, Dixon is able to get some material out of the obsession with weaponry he shares with Jean-Paul, and the scenes focusing on how the police deal with a hostage situation at a hospital are pretty interesting.  This is also one of Nolan’s strongest issues, as he excels at drawing relentless action scenes and the somewhat plausible, but still comic booky, weapons used during the fight.  I’m still not convinced this arc needed to be reprinted at the expense of more “significant” issues, but it’s entertaining on a very basic level.

SHADOW OF THE BAT #28 - June 1994

The Long Dark Night

Credits:  Alan Grant (writer), Bret Blevins (pencils), Bob Smith (inks), Todd Klein (letterer), Adrienne Roy (colorist)

Summary:  The Gotham police implicate Batman in the Abattoir’s death, and eventually locate the body of Graham Etchison.  A disheartened Commissioner Gordon decides to confront Batman.  When Batman responds to the Batsignal, Gordon accuses him of being a different person.  Batman defends his actions and boasts that he will continue to protect the city as he sees fit.  He leaves and quickly takes down a street gang led by a punk named Vermin.  Later, he designs a new weapon in the Batcave.

Irrelevant Continuity:  I’m not sure if Alan Grant knew the exact details of the previous chapter while writing this issue.  He doesn’t seem to know Batman was physically incapacitated while the Abattoir fell to his death, and instead writes the scene as if Batman consciously decided to leave Abattoir to his fate.

Review:  At least the covers are starting to get pretty good.

After months of buildup, Gordon finally confronts Batman and accuses him of being an imposter.  And while Alan Grant does a nice job with Gordon’s first person narration throughout the story, the actual confrontation just feels anticlimactic.  Gordon and the new Batman probably should’ve had this face-to-face much earlier in the storyline, and it would also be nice if there were real ramifications to their falling out.  Maybe that’s where the story’s heading, but as of the end of the issue, Gordon’s just kind of bummed that the Batman he knew is gone.  I think setting up an antagonistic relationship between Batman and the GCPD earlier in the storyline, something akin to what Miller did in “Year One,” would’ve helped the overall event immensely.  And spending more time on Gordon’s reaction to the new Batman, and perhaps investigating what happened to the original, could’ve also helped to break up the monotony.

Regarding Jean-Paul, he actually gets some of his best scenes in this issue.  Grant thankfully downplays the mental illness angle and simply allows Jean-Paul to defend his point of view with a fairly reasonable argument.  It’s the old “why let a villain live who’s only going to escape and kill more people” defense, and while it’s hardly original, it makes Jean-Paul more sympathetic than he’s been so far.  I’m not sure why the creators emphasized the brainwashing angle over the cold logic that popular characters like the Punisher have been using for years.  I would much rather read about a driven man, straight out of the pulps, who has a moral code but is also absolutely intolerant of murderers replacing Bruce Wayne.  Jean-Paul’s personality usually begins and ends with “crazy.”

BATMAN #508 - June 1994

 

Mortal Remains

Credits:  Doug Moench (writer), Mike Manley (penciler), Joseph Rubenstein (inker), Ken Bruzenak (letterer), Adrienne Roy (colorist)

Summary:  Batman races to a warehouse owned by the Etchison family, while Robin uses the Batcave computer to research Abattoir’s most likely hideout.  Robin arrives just in time to see Batman chasing the Abattoir into a foundry near the warehouse.  Inside the foundry, Batman leaves Abattoir dangling above a vat of liquid metal.  Batman has a vision of his father and St. Dumas arguing over Abattoir’s life.  Paralyzed by indecision, he doesn’t move as Abattoir falls to his death.  Robin watches below.  Later, Graham Etchison is killed by Abattoir’s torture device, while Batman weeps in the Batcave.

Review:  Batman’s inner monologue assures on the first page that “Gunhawk can wait.”  This week, he’s back to chasing the Abattoir.  Reading all of these issues in a row, it’s hard not to laugh at Batman’s sporadic interest in the Abattoir case.  Of course, he’s only veering back and forth because one of the titles isn’t participating at all in the story, while the other is only doing so halfheartedly, but it’s still a clumsy transition.  I don’t understand why this arc couldn’t have been contained to Batman while the other books pursued other stories, unless DC simply felt that tighter continuity between the titles would help to sell the overall event.  (And judging by the finished product, the continuity is far from “tight.”)

Moench opens the issue with yet another reminder that Jean-Paul is not qualified to be Batman, as he nearly runs over a prostitute while en route to the Abattoir’s hideout.  And, just a few pages later, Robin helpfully points out that Jean-Paul either doesn’t know or care that he’s leading more people into the Abattoir’s path by chasing him into the foundry.  But I guess the final nail in Jean-Paul’s career as Batman comes when he allows Abattoir to die during one of his schizophrenic freak outs.  When Robin finally rats Jean-Paul out, this is the offense that turns Bruce Wayne against him.  Perhaps this story has meandered so long in order to reach this point in this specific month, allowing Abattoir’s death to be fresh on the readers’ minds as Bruce Wayne returns in this month’s Robin.

As the breaking point in Jean-Paul’s career as Batman, it’s pretty weak.  We already know Jean-Paul is seeing visions, and we already know he’s cavalier towards human life, so this doesn’t seem like much of an escalation.  If anyone had to die due to Jean-Paul’s incompetence, thank God it was the Abattoir!  And it’s not as if Jean-Paul even decided to go Charles Bronson on the twisted serial killer; the guy died merely because Jean-Paul was having a psychotic episode, not out of willful malice.  I think Jean-Paul’s worse crime is not investigating the warehouse and finding Graham Etchison -- the person he’s been allegedly trying to rescue for the past three months.  And even if Jean-Paul’s too out of it to search the place, why didn’t Robin?  It seems to me that he has more to answer for than Jean-Paul in this case.

DETECTIVE COMICS #674 - May 1994

Outgunned

Credits:  Chuck Dixon (writer), Graham Nolan (penciler), Scott Hanna (inker), John Costanza (letterer), Adrienne Roy (colorist)

Summary:  Assassins Gunhawk and Bunny target a millionaire at a social event, killing him from a mile away.  Harvey Bullock solicits Batman’s help, and after quickly identifying the man who hired the hit, Batman investigates anyone who could’ve made the shot.  He suspects a former Marine named Liam Hawkleigh.  Meanwhile, Gunhawk and Bunny return to Gotham to steal an experimental gun from a gun show.  Batman is unable to stop them, but after Bunny is hit by one of the audience members, Gunhawk carries her away.

I Love the ‘90s:  Bullock lectures Batman about not checking his "E” mail.

Review:  I have no idea what the inspiration behind Gunhawk and Bunny is.  I suspect it might come from an old movie, but have no evidence to back it up.  The concept of a husband and wife (or boyfriend/girlfriend) assassin team, the man an aggressive alpha male and the wife a flighty blonde, just sounds like one of the old romantic pairings from the 1940s transposed to modern times.  And I guess nothing said “modern” in 1994 like Cyclops visors.  Regardless of the origin, they’re played as joke characters, although slightly more deadly than the Killer Moth or Calendar Man.  There’s a good joke about them being dumb enough to rob a gun show, but other than that, I’m not sure if they’re particularly engaging.  The rest of the issue merely consists of the new Batman beating up criminals and continuing one of his monologues about the animals of the city that must be tamed.  Nothing new, making me wonder again why stories like this are reprinted in place of ones that actually advance the main plotline.

SHADOW OF THE BAT #27 - May 1994

Creatures of Clay - Child’s Clay

Credits:  Alan Grant (writer), Bret Blevins (pencils), Bob Smith (inks), Todd Klein (letterer), Adrienne Roy (colorist)

Summary:  After Batman electrocutes Lady Clayface, she reveals to him that the Abattoir kidnapped her baby after he discovered their hideout.  He’s ordered her and Clayface to kill Batman and kidnap Graham Etchison before they can see their child again.  Batman races to Clayface and Abattoir’s meeting place, just as Clayface turns on Abattoir.  Their fight is interrupted when Clayface’s son attempts to grow wings and fly off the nearby fire escape.  Batman is forced to allow Abattoir to escape in order to rescue the baby.  Clayface is taken into custody and his son is sent to STAR Labs.

Review:  Okay, five issues later and Abattoir is still on the loose?  This is ridiculous.  I think it’s fairly obvious that Grant has no interest in this Abattoir storyline, and is merely using him as a plot device for the Baby Clayface story he was going to tell anyway.  Judging the Shadow issues on their own, it’s actually a defensible move, since Abattoir’s story has nothing to do with this book and he’s capably filling his role as the true villain that’s brought the Clayfaces back into crime.  But if you’re trying to read the entire Abattoir arc in its entirety, watching him constantly get away is just tiresome.  Regarding the Clayface story, I think Grant is still doing a admirable job of giving the relapsed villains some depth, and I guess Bret Belvins’ Baby Clayface is kind of cute.  I don’t know if this arc is typical of Shadow, which I assumed to be the “gritty” more realistic Batbook, but I enjoyed it.

SHADOW OF THE BAT #26 - April 1994

 

Creatures of Clay - Diary of a Lover

Credits:  Alan Grant (writer), Bret Blevins (pencils), Bob Smith (inks), Todd Klein (letterer), Adrienne Roy (colorist)

Summary:  While searching for the Abattoir, Batman is ambushed by Lady Clayface.  Meanwhile, Clayface invades a therapy session Leslie Thompkins is holding for the children who witnessed the Abattoir’s fight with Batman.  He demands Graham Etchison turn himself over.  While fighting Batman, Lady Clayface flashes back to her life with Clayface.  She recounts Clayface’s escalating pain, which can only be alleviated by touching another person and passing his contagion on.  During a respite from his pain, she was impregnated.  Following her flashback, Lady Clayface regains the upper hand on Batman.

Irrelevant Continuity:  The Clayface in this story is Clayface III, Preston Payne.

Total N00B:  My only knowledge of Clayface comes from the ‘90s animated series and the recent video games.  Consequently, any image of Clayface with an oatmeal can head and supervillain cape just looks wrong to me.  And I have no idea who Lady Clayface is.

Review:  This Abattoir storyline certainly has its share of detours, doesn’t it?  Alan Grant has apparently been roped into the Batman arc (which even Doug Moench doesn’t seem too enthused about finishing), and has decided to use it as a springboard for…a Clayface/Lady Clayface story.  Sure, whatever.  The second chapter of the story makes the connection clear, but at this point, the Clayface material comes across as a totally arbitrary diversion.  However, even as a diversion it’s still more entertaining than anything directly related to Abattoir.  Grant does a good job of making the Mr. and Mrs. Clayface sympathetic characters; more sympathetic than the person who’s actually Batman at this point, to be honest.  And the mystery of why they’re simultaneously trying to kill Batman and kidnap Abattoir’s cousin makes me curious enough to read the next issue.  So far, this is the best Shadow issue reprinted in the Knightfall books.

BATMAN #507 - May 1994

Ballistic

Credits:  Doug Moench (writer), Jim Balent (penciler), Frank McLaughlin (inker), Willie Schubert (letterer), Adrienne Roy (colorist)

Summary:  The Malevolent Maniaxe burn down the warehouse, forcing Batman and Ballistic to rescue the unconscious smugglers while they escape.  Batman and Ballistic then travel to a nightclub owned by Raf Luxor, another figure from Abattoir’s past.  They run into the Maniaxe again, and during the melee, Luxor is killed.  Batman forces one of the Maniaxe to reveal who placed the hit, which leads to Batman and Ballistic confronting Henry Etchison’s lawyer.  Batman takes a list of Henry Etchison’s properties from the lawyer, while Ballistic collects the bounty and decides to leave Gotham.  The lawyer is left for the police as Batman continues to hunt the Abattoir.

Total N00B:  I can only assume that Raf Luxor played a role in the previous Abattoir storyline.

Review:  Thankfully, this moronic digression with Ballistic and the Maniaxe is over.  Even though there’s a lot of running around, the plot’s barely advanced as the same characters just end up confronting each other under the same conditions, followed by more pointless fight scenes.  Ballistic exits the story when he simply steals the blood money without completing the job, contributing absolutely nothing to the plot.  If this was supposed to be the showcase that decided whether or not Ballistic got his own series, he didn’t fare any better than Joe Average or whatever the last loser’s name was.  Moench does virtually nothing to make the character likeable or even slightly interesting.  As a straight man for Batman’s cruel, dismissive one-liners, he’s good for one solid joke throughout the entire storyline.  Having accomplished that, he needs to be returned to Extreme Studios.  And, ugh, there’s more of the Malevolent Maniaxe to tolerate this issue.  Painfully unfunny and just flagrant page filler, I pray that no one revives them before this event is over.

BATMAN #506 - April 1994

Malevolent Maniaxe

Credits:  Doug Moench (writer), Mike Manley (penciler), Josef Rubinstein (inker), Ken Bruzenak (letterer), Adrienne Roy (colorist)

Summary:  Graham Etchison’s father orders a hit on the Abattoir from prison, attracting Ballistic and the punk group turned street gang, the Malevolent Maniaxe.  Batman searches for the Abattoir by tracking down his former accomplices, a plan that puts him in the path of the Maniaxe.  They meet at a warehouse, where the Maniaxe pick a fight with a group of smugglers.  Shortly after Batman enters, Ballistic crashes through the wall.

Irrelevant Continuity:  

• Ballistic is another enduring creation from DC’s “Bloodline” annuals.
•  A few subplot scenes remind us that Mayor Kroll is still pressuring Commissioner Gordon to support Batman’s new tactics, Bruce Wayne has rescued Tim Drake’s father but now must find Shondra (none of these events ever appear in this reprint collection), and Tim Drake is continuing his career as Robin without Batman.
• Batman must physically return to the Batcave to retrieve his files on the Abattoir, ignoring the updates to his costume that have already occurred in Shadow of the Bat #25.

I Love the ‘90s: Stolen VCRs are being smuggled through the warehouse.  The Malevolent Maniaxe are also referred to as the remains of Gotham’s answer to “Seattle grunge.”

Review:  After conveniently forgetting about the Abattoir for the entirety of Shadow of the Bat #25, Batman has returned to this critical mission.  And he’s joined by some of the lamest characters to wander into this storyline so far.  Ballistic is an ex-cop who now takes mercenary jobs to make ends meet, but feels obligated to only take out the people who deserve it.  This might sound like a respectable premise for a new character, but Ballistic looks like such a dumb collection of ‘90s clichés it’s impossible to take him seriously.  (OMG!  Prime’s gone tribal and stolen Cable’s guns!)  I don’t know if he was intentionally designed as a Rob Liefeld parody or not, but placing him in a Batman story just doesn’t work.  The other new characters congesting the story are the Malevolent Maniaxe, a dimwitted group of failed musicians turned criminals.  The joke is that they’re a punk band that looks and acts like the Three Stooges…a joke that Doug Moench doesn’t tire of, even though he runs it into the ground three pages after their debut.  Three Stooges tributes used to periodically show up in mainstream comics, although I don’t recall ever laughing at any of them.  That brand of slapstick doesn’t exactly translate into a series of static images, and honestly, what on earth is a Three Stooges parody doing in the middle of a story about a serial killer methodically murdering every member of his family?

BATMAN #505 - March 1994

Blood Kin
Credits:  Doug Moench (writer), Mike Manley (penciler), Bob Wiacek (inker), Ken Bruzenak (letterer), Adrienne Roy (colorist)

Summary:  Batman, while investigating the murder of a family, is suddenly beset by images of his father and St. Dumas.  They argue over Jean-Paul’s loyalties, and eventually St. Dumas stabs his father.  The vision ends, and Batman proceeds to investigate the murders.  He deduces that the killer is Arnold Etchison, the Abattoir.  Abattoir targets members of his own family, leading Batman to follow Abattoir’s cousin, Graham Etchison.  Etchison is attacked by Abattoir while doing charity work with orphaned children.  Batman rescues Etchison and the children, but is forced to allow Abattoir to escape.

Irrelevant Continuity:

•  The Abattoir first appeared in Detective Comics #625.  (An “abattoir” is a slaughterhouse, apparently.)  As far as I can tell, in his previous appearances, Abattoir’s cousin Henry Etchinson used Abattoir to kill his wife.  Graham Etchison is Henry’s son.
•  While talking to the image of St. Dumas, Jean-Paul defends his father by saying that the System brainwashed him into becoming a killer.  I have no idea what he’s talking about, but it's possible this is material covered in the original Sword of Azrael miniseries.
•  Jean-Paul meets Leslie Tompkins for the first time, although their meeting is left off-panel.  (She’s in charge of the charity Graham Etchison is volunteering for.)
•  Following his battle with Abattoir, Batman declares that he needs to upgrade his costume.  Using the System for guidance, he begins to design a new costume on the final page.
•  The footnote on the final page says the story is continued in Shadow of the Bat #26.  The next story reprinted is actually Shadow of the Bat #25, which will present a different motivation for Batman’s new costume.

I Love the ‘90s:  One of the police officers arriving at the Abattoir’s murder scene references Unsolved Mysteries.

Review:  The Abattoir is another one of the serial killers introduced in the Batbooks back in the late ‘80s/early ‘90s.  I’ve never heard of him before, and don’t see anything in this issue that elevates him past generic “grim and gritty” status.  His gimmick is that he murders members of his own family, and at this point in his career, he’s down to his cousin’s children.  Moench uses Abattoir’s family issues to segue into Jean-Paul’s own family problems, although this is all very vague for anyone unfamiliar with the Sword of Azrael miniseries. (Or maybe it's intentionally vague?)  The recurring appearances of Jean-Paul’s father and St. Dumas as hallucinogenic apparitions are getting old at this point, to be honest.  It’s already obvious that Jean-Paul is unbalanced, we don’t need to see him hallucinate repeatedly to get the point, and whatever character drama this is trying to develop just feels stale.  The Punisher is a dark, driven vigilante with a psychological profile worth exploring.  Jean-Paul Valley is a lunatic brainwashed into continuing the Crusades (or something) since childhood.  It’s hard to develop empathy for the character, and he rarely brings anything interesting to the stories.  Plus, his “dark nature” seems to be an excuse for the writers to keep wheeling out these monotonous serial killer villains, and that’s also getting old fast.

SHADOW OF THE BAT #24 - February 1994

The Immigrant - Rosemary’s Baby
Credits:  Alan Grant (writer), Vince Giarrano (artist), Todd Klein (letterer), Adrienne Roy (colorist)

Summary:  Batman encounters Rosemary, a woman who’s illegally traveled to America to retrieve the infant she sold earlier in Central America.  Batman researches the case and finds a connection to the Rayo Fertility Clinic.  While staking out Dr. Rayo’s home, Batman discovers a van delivering babies.  He forces the van to crash and rescues the children inside.  Rosemary’s child is retrieved, and Batman pauses for a moment to reflect on his own mother before resuming his crusade.

Miscellaneous Note:  “Rosemary’s Baby” is an obvious allusion to the movie.  This baby is just a normal, innocent child, however.  Unless we get a sequel in the New 52…

Irrelevant Continuity:  “The System” allows Jean-Paul to instantly speak Spanish.

I Love the ‘90s:  The term “illegal immigrant” is used repeatedly, which might not happen today since the phrase is now considered “politically charged.”

Review:  I have to question why any of these Shadow of the Bat issues are included when there are numerous stories that affect the major storyline that are left out of the book.  As a psychological study of Jean-Paul, there’s a solid premise here, but I don’t think anyone would tell you that it’s required reading for this era.  Grant’s constructed a story that touches on Jean-Paul’s knack (and distaste) for detective work, requires him to reflect on his mother (or who he thinks she might’ve been, since he can’t remember her), and forces him to deal with a domestic situation that requires more than punching and kicking.  Hypothetically, this should open the door to a real examination of the character.  Unfortunately, the entire issue is marred by Batman’s decision to attack a van filled with babies.  He literally runs the thing off the road, then acts shocked that the infants might be in danger.  What kind of a moron is this?  This scene, combined with Vince Giarrano’s nasty early ‘90s art, makes the issue pretty unbearable.

DETECTIVE COMICS #673 - April 1994

Losing the Light
Credits:  Chuck Dixon (writer), Graham Nolan (penciler), Scott Hanna (inker), John Costanza (letterer), Adrienne Roy (colorist)

Summary:  The firing squad lined up against Batman realizes the Joker has only provided them with blanks.  Batman uses the confusion to escape and rescue Cindy.  She reveals that she’s an actress who was in on the scheme all along, but never expected to be placed in actual danger.  Disillusioned, Batman chases down the Joker and brutalizes him.  The police arrive and prevent Batman from killing Joker.  After the Joker is taken to an ambulance, he manages to escape while strapped to a gurney.

Irrelevant Continuity:  During a subplot scene featuring Commissioner Gordon and his wife, Gordon is once again adamant that the current Batman is the original.  Batman has already established that Gordon has actually come to the opposite conclusion.  The Joker, meanwhile, quickly realizes that this is not the original Batman while watching him fight his flunkies.

Review:  I don’t dislike all of Kelly Jones’ covers, but I find some of them just galling.  This has got to be the worst one I’ve seen so far.  It’s certainly a poor comparison to Graham Nolan’s interior art, which is very well constructed and easy on the eyes.  His layouts are also strong for most of the issue.  The page depicting the Joker’s realization that he’s watching an imposter Batman, featuring a tiny circular insert of the Joker at the bottom of each panel as the “camera” moves tighter and tighter, is fantastic. 

As the first meeting between the new Batman and the Joker, this arc works fairly well.  I question if it really needed to last three issues, though.  The two plot twists this issue (that the Joker doesn’t want any of his goons to kill Batman, and the revelation that Cindy’s an actress) probably could’ve been covered in the last chapter.  Regardless, both of the plot points are used effectively.  I’m assuming it’s already canon at this point that the Joker doesn’t really want to kill Batman because he loves their game too much, so playing on that idea and showing how Joker responds to a replacement Batman is a nice angle to explore.  And while it’s not a shock to learn Cindy’s an actress, the revelation is a smart way to advance Jean-Paul’s growing cynicism about the citizens of Gotham.  One of the better concepts behind “Knightfall” is the emphasis on why Jean-Paul is such a terrible replacement -- not merely because he’s generically comic book crazy, but because he lacks any of Bruce Wayne’s humanity or concern for his city.

DETECTIVE COMICS #672 - March 1994

Smash Cut
Credits:  Chuck Dixon (writer), Graham Nolan (penciler), Scott Hanna (inker), John Costanza (letterer), Adrienne Roy (colorist)

Summary:  Batman rescues Cindy, who the Joker has disguised as Robin.  When he later checks on her in the hospital, he discovers she was discharged to the care of an “Allen Smithee.”  The Joker sends a false clue to the police and media, leading them to the Monarch Theatre.  Batman, meanwhile, investigates an old silent movie studio and finds himself caught in a series of traps based on old movies.  He’s drugged and chained to the wall, feet away from Cindy, who’s trapped inside a water tank.  The Joker is nearby, dressed in an homage to Casablanca.

“Huh?” Moment:  Batman, who’s wearing armor and a full face mask, is somehow drugged by getting hit in the face with pies.

Review:  More parody, as the Joker complains about Batman ruining his three-act structure, before setting up a series of death traps based on old movies.  Dixon even throws in a reference to the old film pseudonym “Alan (or Allen) Smithee” during Batman’s pursuit, which was not a well-known fact at the time, so I’m assuming he’s writing this out of a genuine love for old movies.  And it’s entertaining, but not very deep.  There’s a nice scene that has the new Batman reflecting on why his predecessor obsessed so much over the Joker and cursing himself now for dismissing him earlier, but other than that, the issue covers the same ground as the previous one.

DETECTIVE COMICS #671 - February 1994

The Cutting Room Floor
Credits:  Chuck Dixon (writer), Graham Nolan (penciler), Scott Hanna (inker), John Costanza (letterer), Adrienne Roy (colorist)

Summary:  The Joker convinces studio head Barry Zedmore to finance his film, "The Death of Batman."  Joker sets up a confrontation at the city college, where men in movie monster masks menace student Cindy Brookes.  Batman saves her, and soon finds himself infatuated with Cindy.  He returns to the college to investigate and finds himself in another trap.  He races to Cindy’s dorm room, only to discover Robin’s body being thrown out of the window.

I Love the ‘90s:  Cindy has a Fabio poster in her room.  Joker is also using doppelgangers for Siskel and Ebert as his advisers on the film.

“Huh?” Moment:  Barry Zedmore complains to one of his producers that it’s 4:00 AM in LA when he’s on the phone.  That makes it 7:00 AM on the east coast.  In the very next panel, Joker tells Zedmore and his producers (who are being kept in a cage), that they need their rest for tomorrow’s early shoot.  So they’re going to sleep for 24 hours?

Review:  This marks the beginning of the “Joker Makes a Movie” storyline Dixon has been teasing for months.  Largely a parody of Hollywood, it’s obviously a bit silly, but also a welcome break from the general bleakness of most AzBats stories.  Oddly enough, the Joker’s nom de plume while making the film is Joseph Kerr, which actually is the name of an animation writer.  One that has even written Batman episodes featuring the Joker.  It’s also a bit strange to see Graham Nolan’s interpretation of studio head Barry Zedmore, because he looks a lot like Joel Schumacher, even though I’m not sure if Schumacher was even announced for Batman Forever by this point.

Both Dixon and Moench have apparently decided this month to explore Jean-Paul’s budding sensuality, although Dixon is much more subdued than Moench.  In this story, Jean-Paul is merely developing a crush on a co-ed and engaging in slightly inoffensive stalking.  In Batman, Jean-Paul is driven into hormonal overdrive merely by meeting Catwoman for the first time.  (The implication being that he needed a change of the Batsheets.)  I think Moench got more mileage out of the concept, although in fairness, Jean-Paul’s discovery of women in just one aspect of Dixon’s story.  The bulk of the issue is spent mocking Hollywood, and right down to the Joker’s ponytail, it’s pretty amusing.  One advantage of the multi-title, shared continuity format is that one title can go a little crazy for a few months while the other books carry on the “important” storylines.

CATWOMAN #7 - February 1994

Body Chemistry
Credits:  Jo Duffy (writer), Jim Balent (penciler), Dick Giordano (inker), Bob Pinaha (letterer), Buzz Setzer (colorist)

Summary:  Catwoman escapes from the police, leaving behind the Benzotrilene.  Before leaving, she also tells them where to find the stolen Xyklon-C.  Later, Professor Underhill is kidnapped by rogue Alliance members Marv and Doogie.  Catwoman summons Batman with the Batsignal and convinces him to help her find Underhill.  They rescue Underhill, but not before Doogie makes his way to the trade conference.  The gas he creates, however, is harmless tear gas, because Underhill gave him the wrong formula.  Catwoman exits on a helicopter, warning the businessmen to follow a stricter set of ethics.

Production Note:  I would be curious to know the release schedule of this Catwoman/Batman crossover.  Since Batman has the two chapters in the middle, was the crossover released in the proper order, or did it go Catwoman-Batman-Catwoman-Batman?

Review:  I can’t believe this crossover was stretched out over four issues.  I can understand why the first meeting between the new Batman and Catwoman would be viewed as a big deal, but four chapters about rogue environmentalists, stolen canisters, and a trade conference with literally faceless industrialists is just tedious.  Given that all of the Catwoman supporting cast members disappear during the Batman chapters, and that one of the Batman chapters was an issue-long fight scene, I can only guess that Doug Moench wasn’t even fully aware of what this crossover was supposed to be.  The structure goes:  1) introduce convoluted plot device, 2) have Batman meet Catwoman, 3) Batman fights Catwoman, 4) Batman and Catwoman team up, more with the plot device, story finished.  It’s kind of a mess, although I still think the second chapter is fun.  I could easily live with only the Batman chapters being reprinted in this book, given what had to be left out.

BATMAN #504 - February 1994

Dark Dance
Credits:  Doug Moench (writer), Mike Manley (artist), Ken Bruzenak (letterer), Adrienne Roy (colorist)

Summary:  Batman pursues Catwoman, and finds himself unable to defeat her.  Meanwhile, the police are notified of their fight and race to the Tuscany Building.  Batman and Catwoman fight to a stalemate.  When the SWAT team enters, Batman points to the canister, which he believes to be Xyklon-C, on the floor.  He implicates Catwoman in the robbery and leaves.

Review:  This is an extended fight/chase scene between Batman and Catwoman, and really...that’s it.  Jean-Paul’s internal conflict isn’t as engaging as it was in the previous issue, and there’s nothing added here that the last chapter didn’t cover.  The action looks great, though, and Moench tries to liven the story up with explosions, colossal Sprang-esque props, and a giant gargoyle statue crashing through a police car.  As one chapter in the trade, it’s fine, but it’s an unusually thin plot for a Batman comic of this era.

BATMAN #503 - January 1994

Night Becomes Woman
Credits:  Doug Moench (writer), Mike Manley (artist), Ken Bruzenak (letterer), Adrienne Roy (colorist)

Summary:  Batman spends the night consumed by thoughts of Catwoman.  The next day, Commissioner Gordon asks him to protect the trade summit from terrorists.  Batman suspects Catwoman is involved, following her previous robbery of the chemical warehouse.  He tracks her down and, to his surprise, finds her to be his physical match.  She exits the fight, after stealing Benzotrilene, a harmless chemical than could double for the deadly Xyklon-C.  Batman vows to stop her.


I Love the ‘90s:  The story makes a few references to the 1993 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center.  Later, we’ll see that the trade summit is happening at the Gotham equivalent of the Twin Towers.

Review:  I have to admit that Doug Moench gets a lot more out of Jean-Paul’s first meeting with Catwoman than I would’ve expected.  It’s obvious that Jean-Paul’s “programming” is intended to have some thematic links to Christian doctrine, although the creators have been careful to avoid any overt religious bashing.  This issue explores Jean-Paul’s repressed sexuality, which is absolutely enflamed after his first meeting with Catwoman.  Apparently unaware of how to deal with “those” kind of feelings, Jean-Paul finds himself reverting to the type of twelve-year-old who's obsessed with, say, Jim Balent’s Catwoman.  “I did dream about her…all the way to darkness.  And the dreams were…shameful.”  And this isn’t the first double-entendre.  The story’s filled with them: “Maybe I’ve fallen, and fallen hard…but she still goes down.”  Batman’s also going to “penetrate her mystery” and “make the cat howl.”  I love the idea that Jean-Paul isn’t even consciously aware he’s doing this; anyone somehow unaware of the sexual connotation of these terms would take this as typical Batman dialogue.  And, oddly enough, this does work in humanizing Jean-Paul a bit.  He’s not so far gone that he can’t develop a crush, which makes him more interesting as a lead.

CATWOMAN #6 - January 1994

Animal Rites
Credits:  Jo Duffy (writer), Jim Balent (penciler), Dick Giordano (inker), Bob Pinaha (letterer), Buzz Setzer (colorist)

Summary:  Members of the Friends of the Earth Nature Magic Alliance contact Catwoman, warning her that industrialists are scheming to use the new neurotoxin Xyklon-C to kill animals in the rainforest, thus opening the area for development.  She also discovers that one of the Alliance’s members, Professor Underhill, inadvertently created the toxin.  Underhill is targeted by kidnappers, but is rescued by Batman.  When Underhill returns to the group, he explains that Xyklon-C is inert until it’s mixed with Atrophane.  Two rogue Alliance members, Marv and Doogie, steal Underhill’s notes and leave to find a supply of Atrophane.  Catwoman attempts to head them off by robbing a chemical warehouse, unaware Batman is watching her.

Irrelevant Continuity:  I don’t know if this was the regular status quo for the title, but in this story, Catwoman treats Selina Kyle as a fabricated public persona, putting on a blonde wig and pretending to be a ditzy clutz.  She’s also a “part time” member of the Friends of the Earth Nature Magic Alliance.

Review:  The early ‘90s Catwoman series is probably best remembered as the most flagrant example of mainstream cheesecake during the era.  Even Wizard magazine had to comment on the outright insanity of Jim Balent’s anatomy (of course they still put his rendition of Catwoman on the cover, and made sure to reproduce as many of his drawings as possible in each issue).  I don’t recall anyone ever discussing the actual storylines, any attention the book received was more along the lines of “Can you believe DC is publishing this?”  And not necessarily asked with outrage; a teenage boy probably followed that question with a high-five.

So, was Catwoman any good?  I only have a few issues to judge the series on, but they don’t give me a lot of hope.  Someone in the early ‘90s thought it would be a good idea to remake Catwoman as an animal rights activist (remember her early appearances in the cartoon?), which I guess Jo Duffy has taken to the next level by having her associate with an eco-terrorist group.  The “Friends of the Earth Nature Magic Alliance” just sounds like a parody, and based on the physical appearance of several members, I can only assume that’s what Duffy is going for.  An affectionate parody, since Duffy certainly seems to be siding with the group.  Yet, she also has Catwoman point out that several of them have a bloodlust that rivals the industrialists they’re fighting.  (The story doesn’t draw attention to this, but it’s also obvious that the group is more concerned with the rainforest animals that will be killed by the gas than the indigenous people.)  By the story’s end, we see two of the goofiest members steal the gas so that they can use it against the comically evil businessmen who created it.  Marv and Doogie are such ridiculous characters, it’s hard to believe that their actions are going to be the inciting incident for this Batman crossover, but here we are.  

All of the talk regarding the neurotoxin, and there’s a lot of it, mainly serves as a setup for getting Catwoman to steal something while maintaining a pure motive.  I don’t know if the series had to do this often, but it seems like a lot of energy is wasted on finding reasons for Catwoman to steal things.  I’m assuming this had to be done because Catwoman was at least somewhat reformed by this point, but that doesn’t make the lengthy setup any less boring.  And all of the Captain Planet material feels out of place in a Catwoman story anyway.  Couldn’t she just steal from other criminals?

DETECTIVE COMICS #670 - January 1994

Cold Cases
Credits:  Chuck Dixon (writer), Barry Kitson (penciler), Scott Hanna (inker), John Costanza (letterer), Adrienne Roy (colorist)

Summary:  Detective Montoya is left to guard a frozen body that’s been taken to the morgue.  The body unexpectedly comes to life, pursuing her and the coroner, Colleen.  Batman overhears the gunshots nearby and enters the morgue.  They soon discover the body is Mr. Freeze, who is hiding in one of the refrigerated rooms.  Batman defeats him, but has to be stopped by Montoya before killing Mr. Freeze.  

Irrelevant Continuity:  

• I believe this is the first time Renee Montoya appears as a detective, unless her promotion occurred in a story not reprinted in the Knightfall trades.  
• Mr. Freeze was apparently left a frozen slab after a confrontation with the Joker.  I believe this is a reference to one of the original Robin miniseries.

Review:  The attempt to make Jean-Paul slightly more likable last issue is walked back, as he stands idly by and lets a couple get mugged while Christmas shopping.  They needed to be taught a lesson about “the jungle,” you see.  This does work, as a quick scene meant to establish just how cold and un-heroic Jean-Paul can be, I just wonder if everyone was on the same page regarding how Jean-Paul should act, of if he’s intentionally written as erratic.  Anyway, this issue is essentially a horror story, using Mr. Freeze as a stand-in for Alien.  It’s a decent change of pace from most of the recent issues, although I don’t think Barry Kitson’s art lends itself to horror.  Mr. Freeze is also a dull villain at this stage, as his animated series revamp has yet to make its way into the comics.