Someone is out to get Batman. That’s nothing new in Gotham City. However, the difference this time is that Batman isn’t the one being attacked. After the death of Leslie Tompkins and the attack on Alfred, Batman went to Arkham Asylum to see if any of his rogues had any information about the attacks.
(Spoilers Incoming)
We open with a number of Batman’s enemies bloody and beaten in their cells. Unfortunately, no one has any information about the attacks on Batman’s allies. Batman arrives in the Batcave to find that Damian was able to successfully perform surgery on Alfred and save his life. The father and son duo begin to discuss potential suspects for the attacks and come to one conclusion: Henri Ducard. As the man who trained Bruce to hunt people down, he has the ability. And thanks to Damian killing his son, Morgan, a few years ago, he has the motive. As Bruce prepares to leave, he asks if Damian will take a break from the Teen Titans to look after Alfred, to which Damian agrees. Then in a moment that has needed to happen for a while, Bruce says, “When this is over, you and I need to talk. Straighten out this thing between us and make it right.” Damian replies, “If you can keep an open mind…I’d like that, father.”
Batman then travels to Paris to hunt down his old teacher. Using the skills Ducard taught him, Batman is able to locate the manhunter. After years of not seeing each other, after Robin killed Henri’s son, the two finally come face to face. Despite Ducard’s best efforts, Batman quickly closes the gap and grabs him. The two of them talk about their sons, and what happened all those years ago. As Ducard puts it, “Morgan lost, you won. The battle, mind you, not the war.” When Batman hears this, he gets loud and in Ducard’s face. He asks him if this was the start of a war against Bruce and the people he cares about. As the two of them argue back and forth, the creature from the attack on Leslie emerges. Simultaneously taking the form of Batman’s worst enemies, the creature attacks Batman and Ducard. As Batman tries to get answers from the creature, it grabs Ducard. At that point, Ducard uses a grenade to kill the creature and himself. Batman then has a realization: “And suddenly it all fits together…People in my life who made me Batman are being unmade.”
The next target is obvious and leads Batman to the mountains of North Korea. He reaches the summit where he learned from Master Kirigi. However, all he sees when he reaches the summit is bodies and blood. The students of the temple have been massacred. The only surviving student is Kyodai Ken (one of my favorites from the animated series), who immediately attacks Batman. While Kyodai did his best, he was quickly beaten by Batman. At this point, Master Kirigi reveals himself to be alive. Batman and Kyodai immediately stop and tend to Kirigi, then discuss the attack. The attack was committed by the same type of creature that attacked Tompkins and Ducard and only repeated one thing over and over: “The Bat”. Bruce apologizes for the attack and vows to return to help rebuild before leaving to seek out one more mentor that could be a target. This takes him to New Mexico, the home of the original Mister Miracle. However, upon arrival, Miracle immediately tells Batman that this is a trap. Then the entire ground begins to flip over under them, leaving the reader with a loud boom to end the issue.
The mystery continues to deepen as Batman’s former mentors become the targets. But who has that kind of information. Who knows all of these secrets about Bruce Wayne’s training? We aren’t far from Detective Comics 1000 now, and if you ask me, this needs to be the biggest case Batman has ever had. So far, the writing has made that very possible, as Peter Tomasi continues to weave the web of mystery with each page. In addition to the mystery, one thing that I really liked about this issue was the interaction between Bruce and Damian. These two haven’t been on the same page for a while now, so the promise of them trying to reunite makes me excited for the future of Batman and Robin. However, there may not be a future if they can’t solve this mystery and uncover who is behind all of these attacks. Someone is trying to destroy everything and everyone that made Bruce Wayne into Batman. It’s up to Bruce to figure out the who and why before they can drop anymore bodies. How many more corpses will pave the way to 1000?