While Bruce Wayne succumbs to his monstrous transformation in order to defeat the Batman Who Laughs, the Grim Knight is busy dragging Jim Gordon through the Gotham sewers. But on their way to the Batman Who Laughs, the Grim Knight will reveal a story that no one could have seen coming.
(Spoilers Incoming)
We begin in the sewers of Gotham, as the Grim Knight ignores Gordon’s pleas. Gordon insists that if any part of him is like his Batman, he knows that Jim is his friend. The Grim Knight replies by pressing a knife against Jim’s back. Jim then comments that he can smell the sewage but doesn’t know where in the city they are. As it turns out, they are directly beneath Crime Alley. We then see how this all began. Much like the real Batman, the Grim Knight watched as his parents were killed in front of him. As the mugger searches for the broken pearl necklace, he puts his gun down, which Bruce then picks up. Bruce points the gun at him and ignores his pleas before telling him, “Shut up and die.” Bruce then kills his parent’s murderer right then and there. He then begins training with the best assassins and hitmen around the world before one night in Wayne Manor, a bat crashes through the window. Before the bat can land on the bust of Thomas Wayne, this alternate Bruce quickly puts a bullet in the flying creature. This newly christened Batman is then seen attacking a dinner filled with those who keep the criminal operations in Gotham on track. After telling them that their time is up, he sets everyone there on fire.
In the present, Jim continues to question the Grim Knight, asking if he was broken by an enemy like the Batman Who Laughs. As the Grim Knight tells him to stop talking, it is revealed that after the Grim Knight attacked the dinner, the criminals in the city erupted into chaos, but a chaos that could be used. In the chaos, this Batman killed every crime boss in the city. Not only that, but he never ended up with a rogues gallery (although he did encounter and kill a man in a red hood inside Ace Chemicals). However, one man rose to fight back: Jim Gordon. Gordon outfitted his officers with specialized armor and weapons for the sole purpose of defeating Batman. One night, they laid the trap in the form of a Bat signal. Once Batman arrived to confront Gordon, it was revealed that the signal was a magnet that the police used to hold Batman in place. Unfortunately, the WayneTech vests that the police were wearing began to explode, killing all of them except Gordon. He then disarms Jim and dangles him off the rooftop just in time to see the arsenals he sent his officers to raid explode, killing all of the police inside. The Grim Knight then ties Gordon to the rooftop, making him watch as the Grim Knight sends the entire fleet of police blimps crashing into Blackgate and Arkham, killing every single criminal held in the prisons. After that, the Grim Knight assumed control of Gotham City, using advanced weapons satellites to kill anyone who attempted to commit a crime in Gotham. However, it was not just criminals that were afraid. After using one of the satellites to stop a mugging, the family that was saved fearfully thanks Batman and states that he is always watching. At the same time, he orchestrates the death of a child predator and a corrupt judge without even lifting a finger. Alfred then tells him that he is leaving, despite the fact that the Grim Knight implanted a bomb in his neck to keep him around.
Elsewhere, Jim Gordon, who has been hiding out for six weeks, has deduced that Batman is actually Bruce Wayne. He then approaches Mayor Harvey Dent (who the Grim Knight attacked and melted half of his face to teach him to stay in line) and Rupert Thorne with evidence connecting Bruce Wayne to Batman. Despite Thorne and Dent both wanting to just kill Batman, Jim insists that this must be done by the book to prove to Batman that the law works. As Jim and the FBI arrive at Wayne Manor, Bruce initially plays dumb, but changes his tune when Gordon reveals that Alfred helped them gather evidence against Bruce. Before Bruce can make a move, Jim attacks and after a fight, beats Bruce down and arrests him.
Back in the current timeline, the Grim Knight has tied Jim to a chair and reveals that he and the Batman Who Laughs had both Jim and Barbara under observation. The Grim Knight wanted to keep Jim alive while the Batman Who Laughs unleashed chaos on the city, in order to show Jim that his way was the right way to bring order to Gotham. However, the Grim Knight states that this Gordon isn’t as strong as the one he fought, and that there is no way he could handle the horror that was coming. The Grim Knight then draws his gun to execute Jim before being stopped by the Batman Who Laughs. When Jim asks why he stopped the Grim Knight, he says, “Because what I have in store for you is far worse than death.”
I think back to the nightmare Batmen from Dark Nights: Metal, and I think about which of their origins I liked the most. After reading this issue, the Grim Knight is near the top of my list. It’s like the arsenal of Punisher with the mind and resources of Batman combined into one of the most dangerous beings there is in the current DCU. I love the idea of Jim Gordon being the one man capable of standing in the Grim Knight’s way despite the overwhelmingly stacked odds. Now that we have his origin set in stone, we have to ask if he plans on turning on the Batman Who Laughs before this is all over. I think he will try, but whether or not he succeeds is another story. No matter how his story ends, that origin alone cements the Grim Knight as perhaps the most lethal Batman in the Multiverse.