We saw the return. Now let's see the revenge.

[thehefner]

If I said, "Name a comic released in 1986 where a superhero loses his job, reputation, home, friends, and family due to the machinations of his brilliant, scheming arch-enemy, who knows the hero's secret identity," you'd probably say Daredevil: Born Again.

But a mere one month before the first issue of DD:BA was released, DC published Batman Annual #10, featuring a story which completely matches the description above. Because they were published so close together, I can only assume this was a coincidence. Both stories reflect something dark in the mid-80's atmosphere that could cause Frank Miller and Doug Moench to write two different stories with very similar themes.

While DD:BA is one of my all-time favorite comics, Moench's is starting to work its way up my list of favorite Batman tales. There are a couple notable differences between the two. One is that Bruce doesn't get driven to a mental breakdown, although Hugo certainly got close in his previous attempt, published three years earlier.

In that respect, this also feels like a story that Grant Morrison had in mind when he created Dr. Hurt and wrote Batman: R.I.P., comparisons to which become even more explicit in the story itself...









The story begins with three businessmen, each of whom are terrorized, intimidated, and threatened (in one case, at the command of a terrifying "ghost") to sell their very valuable shares in Wayne Industries stock. This action has dire consequences for Bruce, and everyone close to him:








Bruce does his best to assure Lucius that the latter's not to blame, but everyone's showing signs of stress... even the unflappable Mr. Pennyworth:








Honestly, if it didn't violate page limitations, I could do an entire post of Hugo abusing Alfred in some way. There have been at least four instances I can recall off-hand, three of which were written by Moench.

While Bruce and Jason rush Alfred off to the hospital, the city faces a rash of thefts and wanton destruction perpetrated by what seems to be... the Batmobile? But our heroes won't learn of that for awhile yet. They have too much on their minds as it is.





Next thing Bruce knows, Lucius Fox has been fired, and he's been given one last order by the mysterious new investors before he leaves:








God, what makes this plan so brutally effective if that the "investors" pulling the strings are also exploiting the grudges from Lucius' own enemies. The best evil plans are the ones where you don't have to do everything yourself. All you have to do is move things into place for others to shoot them down.

The ringing, by the way, is a phone call from a child welfare officer at Jason's school:














I love these pages so much. I kinda regret not using the image of "Hobo Batman" as the teaser to this post.

But while it may be "for the weak," context reveals this to be a startling, surprising, yet entirely logical scene of Batman stripped away of all his gadgets, all his wealth, and every friend in the world. Even his very reputation as Batman is in jeopardy with the news of "Batmobile" crimes around the city.

So what is the World's Greatest Detective to do? Start asking questions, naturally. Batman meets with the old investors while Lucius investigates the mysterious new investors, and--cutting to the chase--Bruce realizes that Hugo Strange must be behind the whole thing. Sure, Strange is dead, but that's never stopped him before.

Batman helps Jason escape from the state-run home, and the two head to the Batcave, where they battle not one but two Hugo Strange robots, just like the Dick and Alfred robots from the previous story.











Oh Jason, you little thug in booty shorts, you.

For those of you who read the grand finale of Grant Morrison's Batman and Robin arc with Dr. Hurt in the Batcave, you'll note that he pretty much cribbed Hugo's style here, right down to the line "Now get out of my home! You're trespassing!" Once more, I wish I could go back in time, find Grant Morrison as he's plotting out Batman R.I.P., and tell him to use Hugo instead.

Hell, know what I just realized? In Batman: R.I.P., Batman claws out of his own grave. In Kraven's Last Hunt (which was originally meant to be a Batman/Hugo story), Spider-Man did the same. A coincidence, I'm sure, but I feel like that must speak to some fundamental similarity between Hugo, Hurt, and Kraven, and how they related to their enemies.

But I have to ask, what exactly is Hugo's motivation here? He asks, "Can you think of better vengeance?" But revenge for what? For foiling his plans to usurp Batman's mantle? That seems like it'd be secondary to his main intent, which would be to ultimately take Batman's place, but that motivation doesn't seem to be on Hugo's agenda. There's just sheer, total destruction, and in that respect, he's about to achieve it more quickly and thoroughly than any other villain had managed.

These various takes on Hugo's motivations don't necessarily contradict each other, as even in Strange Apparitions, he was shown having subconscious respect and admiration for Batman, saving Bruce's life even as he auctioned off his identity to other villains. Even in that Earth-Two story, he was in denial of his true motivation: not to destroy Gotham as he said, but merely to force the heroes to end his own wretched life.

Is Hugo Strange so unhinged that he's unaware of his own true motivations, hidden within his subconscious? Are they what are ultimately his undoing? I'm genuinely wondering, as I have no answers.

After a thrilling and climactic car chase, Batman gets Hugo to crash the Batmobile. Hugo is out cold, but they're not out of the woods just yet. As Commissioner Gordon drives up, Batman tells Robin to just follow his lead:





Those blood tests reveal that he is indeed the real, human, genuine Hugo Strange, and according to Gordon, "he should be waking up any time now..."





While Bullock taunts Hugo over the theft, extortion, assault, fraud, bribery, and other charges he'll be facing, the Professor of Crime is lost in his own mind, unsure if this is all part of a larger game or if he's actually going mad.





Really, that's the best way to defeat a chessmaster villain: cast their own reason into doubt and keep them second-guessing in a loop. Not sure how effective this plan could be in the long term against Hugo, but it's certainly effective for the present, and far more creative and satisfying that him dying or something. Besides, we all know that method never takes.

So instead, we should savor this victory for the time being, especially with the good news delivered by Kurt Vonnegut Commissioner Gordon (and really, that "if you should happen to run into a mutual acquaintance of ours" like is virtual proof that Jim knows, which makes his booking of Hugo all the more poetic), that Alfred has made a full recovery and is ready to come home.

Or at least, whatever's left of home, after the explosive battle with Hugo.





For my money, that's a pitch-perfect ending to this story: a graceful way to express the well-worn trope of the best things in life are neither material nor monetary.

It's something that could easily have been trite, but I think Moench pulled it off. And I say this as someone who is not generally a fan of Moench's Batman, with a few notable exceptions. One such exception is will be the focus of the next post, where Moench takes his version of Hugo and ushers him into the rebooted continuity after Crisis and Frank Miller's Batman: Year One.

Coming up next: Batman: Prey.

Comments

[q99]

I'm loving this series, I never really knew much about Strange before this week.

[thehefner]

That means a lot to me, thanks! As with the Two-Face posts, these are a labor of love, and I was sure they'd be of even LESS interest than the Harvey ones. I tend to go for niche characters and stories because I have a passion for finding these gems and giving them more exposure. So thanks for reading, and thanks for saying so! :)

[destroyed]

I'll second that. Your first post made me go look up Prey, then get a hold of it, read through it, and now Strange is the surprise boss to our game. (We'd deemed Joker too cliche, but Ra's Al Ghul is a really complex spriting job.) Thanks for turning me on to the character.

[thehefner]

You were able to track down a copy? Awesome!

Which game be this?

[destroyed]

This be the mugen game we're making, "Gotham Knights." It's basically a love letter to Batman, and old school cps2 fighters like Darkstalkers and SFZ.

I'll be posting about it soon. Here's an old teaser pic, but a few of the character designs here have changed since then:

[thehefner]

NICE! Looking forward to it!

[eightleggedbeast]

Gorgeous :D

[q99]

The big characters I already know after all, the small ones less-so ^^

[jlroberson]

Ah, the most memorable one of all. God, I love this story.

Oh, and you do realize I've been tweetin' and Facebookin' your ass.

We need more Moench here. He doesn't get his damn due. I wanna see some AZTEC ACE, for example.

That's personal bias though--The guy who drew it, Michael Bair aka Hernandez, is the guy who first, in person, taught me anatomical proportions when I was a teen fanboy, at a convention, with a drawing of CG from AMERICAN FLAGG, in exchange for that year's OVERSTREET guide(the one with Captain Marvel crashing through a wall on the cover).

[thehefner]

Y'know, I've owned this issue for years, but it wasn't until I started planning out this project that I sat down to properly read it. I guess I was shallowly put off by the shoddy print quality, plus my general distaste for Cowan's art and how he draws Hugo in particular (all the more so because they subsequently chose him to draw Hugo's Who's Who entry):





Doesn't really capture the menace of the character, I don't think. YMMV.

What, you have? You haven't friended me, have you? Hell, please do! And LJ too, if you'd like. I've always liked your opinions, even when I've disagreed. So yeah, no stalkin' from you. :)

Now, right away, we may come up with some disagreement, because I grew up with Moench's Batman run, and I dislike the vast majority. There are a handful of his works that I adore, like this, Prey and Batman/Dracula: Red Rain. The rest either fall flat for me, or make me groan. His Scarecrow stories particularly come to mind. He's pretty much written the same Scarecrow story four times... one of which I'm actually going to post, as it's the sequel to Prey! Man, talk about Moench and Gulacy trying and failing to catch the lightning in *that* bottle!

Aztec Ace, however, is something I've never read. And even taking your personal bias into consideration, I'm now curious to check it out.

Do you still have the Flagg drawing?

[jlroberson]

Sadly, I do not think so and that PISSES ME OFF. It was neat too--he left the pencil framework deliberately under the ink to act as something to study. I'm not sure if he or I suggested CG, but good choice. (I was such an early-indie comics geek) I do talk to Bair a little though, through FB. As I recall I pestered him that entire day back then. Fortunately he doesn't hold a grudge.

I also somewhere buried have a page of VITRIOL that Dave Sim redrew (well, sketched) on a piece of typing paper to suggest ways to think about how I could have done the layout. My anti-collector instincts sometimes work against me with mementos.

Your posts get a lot of "likes." Just so you know.

What are you called on FB?

AZTEC ACE was often thought of as very confusing, but in the age of Ware I don't think it is so much anymore. It's basically in premise as if Moench did DOCTOR WHO, but much more expansive and funny, combined a bit with Indiana Jones and with one of the better Bettie Page analogues of the 80s, and lots of great banter and wordplay, thrown in for good measure. And the floating head of Freud. It also included art by Dan Day and, I think, some of Gene Day's last work.

[thehefner]

God bless comics professionals who are patient and kind toward excited, nervous youngsters and fans. God, I blush to think about the day I ever see Dave Johnson or Charles Vess again...

Oh! I thought by "tweetin' and Facebookin' your ass," you were actually following me there. What did you mean, then? You've been posting them yourself? Either way, I'm John Hefner. You might be able to guess which one I am, but just in case, I'm the only John Hefner who's dressed as the Riddler.

[jlroberson]

Posting, yes. I amuse myself between what I should be doing by posting an eclectic cacophony of links, and your Strange posts have been among them. I think I Dugg the first one.

[thehefner]

Oh awesome! Wow, thanks! :)

There. Friended back. The ghastly business is completed.

[perletwo]

Maybe it's just me being partial to Jason. But it seems to me kinda cruel for the millionaire to be talking up the virtue of simple living and 'it's just stuff' to the kid he took off the streets with nothing to his name not so very long ago? If I were Jason and I saw my benefactor losing the house and the fortune and custody, I'd be going apeshit at this turn of events. Granted, it's not like Jay didn't know how to cope with living on a bare mattress in an open belfry, but still.

[thehefner]

Hell, Jason could have probably given Bruce tips by that point!

[perletwo]

Oh sure he could. It's just ... well, one hesitates to use the term "meal ticket," but ... that's kinda what Hugo's screwing Jason out of here. Hence the going apeshit.

[badficwriter]

Theories I've read suggest that the connection of family, biological or manufactured, is more important to children's psychology. While Jason was no doubt alarmed at losing 'all the stuff', he was probably more concerned about Bruce *keeping* him, and the butler, who is also family.

Which makes me think of Red Hood. Sigh.

[sistermagpie]

This is fantastic! I remember somebody once saying that the thing with Batman is that he's great with either everything or nothing--either give him all the tools of his trade, or drop him naked in the Amazon with a toothpick and he'll triumph. But when he's inbetween like here, in regular society but with no money, it's great to watch him struggle!

Gotham Child Services is pretty scary. Is Jason not adopted at this point? It makes it seem like they take kids away from poor people! (Ironic since Jason started out with no means of support!

[thehefner]

Totally. It's one of those great aspects totally lost with him as Bat-God.

[badficwriter]

Real Life child services is pretty scary. Depending on the state, you can call Child Services and complain about a child's neglect and they WILL do a home visit, just based on your uninformed phone call. It gets worse if you have a connection to the family or some vague authority over the child--it's assumed that you do know best, so they'll step up the home invasions.

Dirty dishes in the sink and hampers of dirty laundry are, in certain states, evidence of child neglect. God help you if your child is a slovenly teenager.

Basically, it's an incredible weapon if you dislike someone who is a parent. They do investigate the callers, but it's tricky to prove the caller is simply malicious.

And I'm talking about biological children. Nor is this a worst-case scenario, as I've read far more horrifyiing accounts. I don't mean to defame the department here. Just noting that malice and lack of care can make even government agencies ill fit.

[badficwriter]

This is TOO close. Moench and Miller had to have been talking, or both cribbing from the same book of literature. I suppose it's not impossible that Moench heard about the upcoming plans for Born Again (they were setting it up for months, in preparation for Miller's returning opus) and did his own version.

It's well done, in any case!

[thehefner]

There's got to be a list somewhere of all the times DC and Marvel put out similar stories around the same time. Like the timings of Jason and Bucky's returns, Bruce and Steve's deaths and rebirths, and the release of Identity Crisis with Identity Disc. This story should go on there, coincidental or not.

[badficwriter]

Sometimes it's stealing from each other, but they DO talk as colleagues.

[psychopathicus_rex]

This is pretty harrowing stuff, all right. It's interesting how much we take the Wayne fortune for granted - Bruce being an astonishing zillionaire is just one of the things that keeps the series running. It's rather poignant and harrowing to see him essentially reduced to a bum on the streets, with only enough money left for one meal and a hot plate. (Also, the bit where he stumbles over the words 'money is no object' is rather touching - he's obviously realizing that this time, he actually might not be able to come through for his friend.)
This is also a nice illustration of the close friendship between Wayne and Fox. Lucius is clearly deeply guilty over the fact that he's dragging his friend down, and Bruce feels bad that his friend is put in such a position. Their relationship is generally shown as a bit more impersonal than this, but this is a good way of showing how deep their friendship actually is.
Also - wow, Hugo has quite the beard here. I mean, he's always been bearded, but it's usually a bit more restrained than this - that thing is BUSHY.
And - 'puttin' hurt on my own mug'? I've GOT to use that somehow.

[thehefner]

It's funny to read these older stories and see how much of a visible supporting character Lucius used to be. One would think that his elevated presence in the films would translate to the comics. It's a friendship that deserves exploring, I think.

*ala Brock Samson* Seriously, Jason, where do you get this stuff? I never see him watch TV. It's like he channels dead crazy people!

[psychopathicus_rex]

I'm guessing DC Editorial thinks Bruce Wayne standing around talking business is boooooooring, so it's been downplayed of late. Pity.
I think it's supposed to be street slang from his previous life that he's dredging up for the occasion.

[thetrue-monster.livejournal.com]

You know reading this series on Hugo Strange, has made me realize how badly wasted his character was on Batman: The Animated Series. There, he was just pathetic conman/blackmailer instend of the dangerous and brilliant mastermind in the comics who can fight Batman on equal terms, both mentally and physically.

[thehefner]

The only plus side to that version is that it yielded the tragic, sympathetic Hugo from the TAS comics, which I'm gonna try to post here if I can also find a good balance of the Bruce/Dick/Selina stuff. On its own, yeah, it really didn't do justice to the character. Hell, even the direct homage to the "identity auction" comics missed the point, because comics!Hugo was playing a more crafty game in doing that than TAS!Hugo was.

[timgueugen]

Reading the intro and then looking at this I can't help but think of Tony Stark's problems in the '70s and '80s, when he lost control of Stark International to Midas and later Obadiah Stane. It wouldn't surprise me if those plotlines influenced this one.

[lonewolf23k]

Oh, I just wanted to say, it's great that you've been posting all of these Hugo Strange-related scans, considering that Hugo Strange seems to be presented as the main villain of the upcoming Arkham Asylum game sequal, Arkham City.

[thehefner]

I know! Between that and all the (probably bogus) rumors of Hugo being in Nolan's film, I picked a really appropriate time to do these posts!