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scans_dailyCatwoman and the crew she'd put together for the occasion had got him away from the Orgham family in issue #1079.
She and Jim Gordon had him in the back of a van, speeding towards the Gotham waterfront - forces led by the Orgham retainer Neang following close.
Neang and his men cornered them eventually, demanded the surrender of Batman to them so that they could finish his ritual execution and the formalization of their power over Gotham.
Catwoman refused. Neang made to take the Bat -
- and then a sniper shot downed one of his men.
(Harvey was impressed into the Orghams' service back in #1063 - #1068-1069 had Two-Face taking control and breaking them away from that.
Looking back at those pages, Two-Face in these pages being visually lifted from The Dark Knight stands out.)
" Go on, Catwoman.. get him out of here. "
Neang and his men faced Two-Face and his: " You think your snipers can stop all of us before we get to you? "
Two-Face's planted bombs, set up in advance - Catwoman'd purposely driven that way - went off.
She and Jim hotwired a car and got away with Batman under the cover of the conflagration.
Back where Batman'd been hung, Arzen Orgham remarked that even without Batman's corpse, they'd still achieved what they wanted: " Gotham thinks Batman is dead. "
His mother Dariah invited him to a celebratory drink.
(Hub City in comparison to Gotham works because of the characterization it got in the late 80s Question series.
Star City, less so - it's only ever been an unremarkable setting for Green Arrow stories, which collectively only ever gave it as much character as you'd find in the corresponding DC wiki entry.
Dariah's betrayal of her husband was backstory related in #1071.
Arzen's betrayal of his family because of the regard he'd developed for Bruce Wayne while being the public face of the Orghams in Gotham was in #1076.)
Arzen collapsed, frothing with the drink's poison.
" .. I know it was you, child.
" They couldn't possibly have known our plans if someone hadn't told them in advance.
(She genuinely feels something about poisoning the son that she trusted, but she also feels completely justified in doing so.)
Catwoman and Jim brought Batman to Gotham's docks, where Talia al Ghul waited.
Talia's men loaded Batman - mentally wracked by one of the Orghams' azmers, physically having survived a hanging only through a plot device drug - onto her boat.
" .. to wait and hope. "
Talia set off.
Orgham men followed, nipping at her heels time and again.
There were also natural forces, the ones unconsciously threatening - her ship was caught in a " terrible storm ".
In Gotham, the disappearance of Batman's body after his " execution " was turning out to be sufficient for the Orgham family and their Reality Engine.
' No one questions the absence, the hole in Gotham's heart.
(Cassandra Cain and Jean-Paul Valley, echoing the Bat.)
(#1076 teased Doctor Hurt's interest in Batman's internal conflict with " Barbatos " during this run - this is that being fulfilled, with Eduardo Flamingo alongside.)
Back in Gotham, police commissioner Renee Montoya was contemplating a side effect of Batman's capture by the Orghams in #1075 - the death of one of the detectives she'd sent to take Batman into GCPD custody (after what the Orghams'd manuevered him into in #1072).
Everything she didn't know about Detective Fielding's death - the killer, the motive, the potential of other parties' involvement - nagged at her.
She went asking for satisfactory answers.
(" Speak to me, Gotham " suggests the mid-2000s " urban shaman " Question, who's fair to invoke when the villains of your story want metaphysical power over places.)
That was the main story - the backup was a tale of Damian Wayne, following from that flashback in #1064 where Talia'd told him a story of the " Grim Soldier ", Farhad I Parethes.
An image from that story - Farhad's love Aleasa, who'd died under the sun waiting for him to come to her - had stuck with him. In his dreams one night, that image pursued him, magnified many times into an enormous death's head in red.
He asserted himself against the nightmare, made himself Robin - and still she came.
" You were meant to stop. I am in control. "
" It matters not, child -
(Talia's point in #1064 was " even a great hero will eventually break down ", but that still fits Aleasa's " those who stand will inevitably falter ".)
" I'm better than you. " he said, conceiving of himself as Batman 666.
That got him out of her grasp - he awoke.
" I win.
" I won again. "
Aleasa loomed.
(Pagecount's 7 and a little more than 3/10ths from 22 from the main story of Detective Comics #1080, and 2 and a little under 6/10ths of 8 from the backup. #1081 came out this week.
Writing on the former's Ram V - art's Jason Shawn Alexander and Mike Perkins. Colors're Dave Stewart and letters're Ariana Maher.
Writing on the backup's Dan Watters. Letters're Steve Wands, colors're Triona Farrell, and art's Christopher Mitten.
Publisher's DC.)
She and Jim Gordon had him in the back of a van, speeding towards the Gotham waterfront - forces led by the Orgham retainer Neang following close.
Neang and his men cornered them eventually, demanded the surrender of Batman to them so that they could finish his ritual execution and the formalization of their power over Gotham.
Catwoman refused. Neang made to take the Bat -
- and then a sniper shot downed one of his men.
(Harvey was impressed into the Orghams' service back in #1063 - #1068-1069 had Two-Face taking control and breaking them away from that.
Looking back at those pages, Two-Face in these pages being visually lifted from The Dark Knight stands out.)
" Go on, Catwoman.. get him out of here. "
Neang and his men faced Two-Face and his: " You think your snipers can stop all of us before we get to you? "
Two-Face's planted bombs, set up in advance - Catwoman'd purposely driven that way - went off.
She and Jim hotwired a car and got away with Batman under the cover of the conflagration.
Back where Batman'd been hung, Arzen Orgham remarked that even without Batman's corpse, they'd still achieved what they wanted: " Gotham thinks Batman is dead. "
His mother Dariah invited him to a celebratory drink.
(Hub City in comparison to Gotham works because of the characterization it got in the late 80s Question series.
Star City, less so - it's only ever been an unremarkable setting for Green Arrow stories, which collectively only ever gave it as much character as you'd find in the corresponding DC wiki entry.
Dariah's betrayal of her husband was backstory related in #1071.
Arzen's betrayal of his family because of the regard he'd developed for Bruce Wayne while being the public face of the Orghams in Gotham was in #1076.)
Arzen collapsed, frothing with the drink's poison.
" .. I know it was you, child.
" They couldn't possibly have known our plans if someone hadn't told them in advance.
(She genuinely feels something about poisoning the son that she trusted, but she also feels completely justified in doing so.)
Catwoman and Jim brought Batman to Gotham's docks, where Talia al Ghul waited.
Talia's men loaded Batman - mentally wracked by one of the Orghams' azmers, physically having survived a hanging only through a plot device drug - onto her boat.
" .. to wait and hope. "
Talia set off.
Orgham men followed, nipping at her heels time and again.
There were also natural forces, the ones unconsciously threatening - her ship was caught in a " terrible storm ".
In Gotham, the disappearance of Batman's body after his " execution " was turning out to be sufficient for the Orgham family and their Reality Engine.
' No one questions the absence, the hole in Gotham's heart.
(Cassandra Cain and Jean-Paul Valley, echoing the Bat.)
(#1076 teased Doctor Hurt's interest in Batman's internal conflict with " Barbatos " during this run - this is that being fulfilled, with Eduardo Flamingo alongside.)
Back in Gotham, police commissioner Renee Montoya was contemplating a side effect of Batman's capture by the Orghams in #1075 - the death of one of the detectives she'd sent to take Batman into GCPD custody (after what the Orghams'd manuevered him into in #1072).
Everything she didn't know about Detective Fielding's death - the killer, the motive, the potential of other parties' involvement - nagged at her.
She went asking for satisfactory answers.
(" Speak to me, Gotham " suggests the mid-2000s " urban shaman " Question, who's fair to invoke when the villains of your story want metaphysical power over places.)
That was the main story - the backup was a tale of Damian Wayne, following from that flashback in #1064 where Talia'd told him a story of the " Grim Soldier ", Farhad I Parethes.
An image from that story - Farhad's love Aleasa, who'd died under the sun waiting for him to come to her - had stuck with him. In his dreams one night, that image pursued him, magnified many times into an enormous death's head in red.
He asserted himself against the nightmare, made himself Robin - and still she came.
" You were meant to stop. I am in control. "
" It matters not, child -
(Talia's point in #1064 was " even a great hero will eventually break down ", but that still fits Aleasa's " those who stand will inevitably falter ".)
" I'm better than you. " he said, conceiving of himself as Batman 666.
That got him out of her grasp - he awoke.
" I win.
" I won again. "
Aleasa loomed.
(Pagecount's 7 and a little more than 3/10ths from 22 from the main story of Detective Comics #1080, and 2 and a little under 6/10ths of 8 from the backup. #1081 came out this week.
Writing on the former's Ram V - art's Jason Shawn Alexander and Mike Perkins. Colors're Dave Stewart and letters're Ariana Maher.
Writing on the backup's Dan Watters. Letters're Steve Wands, colors're Triona Farrell, and art's Christopher Mitten.
Publisher's DC.)
