The Batman Who Laughs is here, and he’s bringing hell to Gotham. There’s only one thing that can stop him: another Batman Who Laughs? That’s what the Joker seems to think. At the end of the last issue, Joker attempted to kill himself in order to release the toxin in his blood upon Batman. With Batman poisoned and about to become the very monster he is seeking to defeat, what can his next move be?
(Spoilers Incoming)
As Alfred attempts to perform surgery to save Joker’s life by Batman’s order, he states that he wouldn’t mind letting Joker die right there in the Batcave. All we see of Batman at first is red eyes glowing in the darkness. He tells Alfred, “I know how badly you want this man gone. But you will not let him die. To be frank, right now we have a bigger damn problem than the Joker, and the only way we beat this monster…is by staying true to who we are…whatever the hell it takes.” The light hits Batman to reveal what looks like one of the devices Bane uses to inject his body with Venom, but it is pumping the antidote for Joker toxin into Batman. Unfortunately, based on what Batman tells Alfred, this is only a temporary fix and will only hold off the transformation for around a week. To make matters worse, Batman already seems to be snapping a bit, as he yells and curses at Alfred when questioned about what happens when that week is up. At that same time, we see a man falling from the sky and crashing into a car on the street. After, when the GCPD arrives, it is revealed that this man is yet another Bruce Wayne. As Jim Gordon and Harvey Bullock inspect the scene, they begin throwing around ideas about how this is connected to the Batman Who Laughs. Then Jim reveals that Bullock is actually on vacation, and the man with him is Batman in disguise. After going over the crime scene, Batman determines that the Batman Who Laughs is creating a serum to infect the city and turn the citizens into nightmare versions of themselves. At that moment, a cop runs up to “Harvey” and begins discussing how they all think this will be the one that kills Batman. In response, as a result of the toxin in his blood, Batman snaps on the officer and berates him in front of everyone. Batman then tells Jim that he needs to show him something. He shows Gordon a map of Old Gotham and tells him the story of a failsafe that was put in place in the 1780s. This failsafe would destroy the entryways into Gotham to vaccinate the city of any infection. After discovering this years ago, Batman came up with his own version of this failsafe and set up the central hub for the system at Wayne Tower.
Already aware of the failsafe, the Batman Who Laughs arrives at Wayne Tower and begins slaughtering everyone in his way. After the killing of the guards, Batman arrives and takes the fight to his evil doppelganger. Unlike their encounter during Dark Nights: Metal, however, Batman quickly takes the advantage. When it seems the Dark Knight has won the fight though, he is shot in the chest by the Grim Knight. We get a little backstory on the Grim Knight from the Batman Who Laughs at this point. “He’s us if Joe Chill dropped the gun in the alley and we picked it up. It’s not just guns though. No, on his world he has Wayne Enterprises weaponized. Chips in your GPS. Valves in your water filtration. Your minivan drives off a bridge, you never know who killed you.” Then in a fit of rage Batman declares, “You won’t win. I’ll kill you if I have to.” “Kill me…Because I’m you it doesn’t count, eh? Free pass?” asks the Batman Who Laughs. The villain then begins rewiring a panel in the wall to demolish the building. As Batman struggles to keep fighting, his evil twin tells him, “Out of every version of us across the universe, you’re the most miserable. The least accomplished. You don’t understand why yet, but you will. See, to me, to us, you’re the nightmare Batman. The bad joke.” The Batman Who Laughs jumps out of a window to escape, as Batman forces his way up to save the only survivor of the attack. He grabs the survivor and dives out of the window just in time, as Wayne Tower explodes and crumbles to the ground. Upon arriving back in the Batcave, Bruce yells at the top of his lungs for Joker to wake up. Bruce demands to know what his evil double has planned, leading to Joker waking up in a fit of laughter. Joker claims to not know the plan that Batman Who Laughs has in store, but one person does. “Your friend…his great weakness. The one that gets him right…here.” At that time, Jim Gordon enters a grocery store and approaches an employee. He asks this person to help him figure out how to stop the Batman Who Laughs. This person is his son, James Gordon Jr.
As if we didn’t think this could get any deeper, a lot happened in this amazing issue. Batman is barely holding off transforming into a monster like his doppelganger, and the antidotes can only hold it off for a week. The Batman Who Laughs is not only working on a serum to transform the entire city, but he completely leveled Wayne Tower and took away the only hope to stop it in the process. And on top of all of that, Jim Gordon believes the only person that can help him is his serial killer son. Much like the events of Metal, it seems this will be one of those stories where everything goes wrong for the hero. However, unlike other stories, this isn’t some bargain bin villain or someone the hero has beaten dozens of times. This is literally Batman and Joker as one person. To think about everything that entails is horrifying. I truly believe that only one Batman will be left alive by the time this fight is over. Lets’ just hope the defeat of one Batman Who Laughs doesn’t pave the way for another to take the original’s place.