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It ends the arc that started back in July 2022 with issue #1062 and ran for about two years, interrupted only by 2023's line-wide " Knight Terrors " crossover.

Issue #1088 had Batman fighting Dariah Orgham, impetus of the Orgham family's work to take physical and metaphysical control of Gotham City. He'd overpowered her in combat as those on his side had beaten her servants.

She wasn't beaten yet - the power that she wielded afforded her a monster form, which she took on and threw at Batman.

Batman's answer beat Dariah back - she had reach and maybe durability on her side, but not especial strength.

To her minions, she cried " Kill him!

" .. over the consequences of your actions. "

The consequences of Dariah's murder of her son Arzen - who'd betrayed the family for Bruce Wayne and died for it - came home to roost.

Talia al Ghul, carrying on her father's opposition to the Orghams, had brought Arzen back the Lazarus way in #1088. She and he were there - he had a music box of the kind that affected his family's abilities, which he used to revert his mother's transformation.

Orgham son and mother fought.

Outside the broadcast studio that the Joker's Daughter had taken from the Orghams, Jim Gordon pulled up with the Maestro.

(In #1085, Batman'd approached the musically inclined villain to develop a more permanent counter to the Orghams' controlled-by-sound azmer minions.)

Inside the studio, Jim didn't run into the Joker's Daughter - and neither did some Orgham-employed goons looking for the villain who'd decamped.

They consoled themselves with a swing at Jim, who fought back.

The Question, Renee Montoya, jumped in to help him.

(After Batman'd saved her from the Orghams in #1087, she'd assumed her identity - and then set out to the place villains were broadcasting from in the chaos of Gotham.)

Having dealt with the goons, Jim and the Question went on to " the production studio ".

Oracle's button push broadcast the Maestro's composition, calming the azmer-possessed Gothamites the Orghams'd turned on the city.

It also showed the people a murder the Orghams'd committed in solidifying their control over Gotham - the one that the Question'd set out to solve, the one whose truth she'd resolved from ambiguity.

' .. return to a memory of comfort and mettle in the cold of night. '

The only control Dariah Orgham had left was her Reality Engine, primed to use Jonathan Crane's mind as a reference to write subservient fear into the fundament of Gotham City.

It was behind a locked door - and Catwoman was behind it, having snuck in behind the Batman's attack in #1088.

She opened the door from the inside as Arzen struck down his mother.

Dariah laughed at the idea that the Engine could be stopped - Talia, examining the device, confirmed that.

" .. the Batman must kill him.. "

" .. and know the thing you truly fear. "

(This is " the only thing the Scarecrow fears is Batman ", scaled up by the state he's in as a compliant battery of a metaphysical plot device.)

The Engine went off, sending impressions of Batman through Gotham.

Mr. Freeze felt Batman triumphant at his " eternal winter " machine, which Batman'd convinced him to deploy in Gotham's defense (cold being an inhibitor of the Orghams' azmers).

(That's a statue of Nora starting to melt.)

Two-Face felt Batman asserting himself over the Orghams as he bandaged up the wounds he'd suffered defeating the Orgham retainer Gael Tenclaw.

" Two ideas are colliding..

" No. This is synthesis.

" The city is his again. "

His coin turned through the air like his mind, over and over.

The Ten-Eyed Man felt Batman's eyes on him and conducted himself accordingly.

Azrael, who'd joined Batman against the Orghams in #1086, felt Batman as he was at the mercy of Orgham goons whose numbers'd finally told on him.

He felt Batman formally re-instating himself.

The Orghams were completely defeated.

Batman and Catwoman looked over the immediate aftermath.

(After Azrael riffing on the Parable of the Prodigal Son, Catwoman asking " [Are they] what you died for? ")

' I found new friends.. and made new enemies. '

(Arzen's still alive at the end of this, which means Batman has an acquaintance who can be reductively described as " guy Talia ".)

(Love how this ending with there still being things for Batman to clean up complements the fact that this summative conclusion is also just the last issue of a run which will be - and has been - followed by the start of a new one.)

(Pagecount's just under 7 and 1/3rd of 22 from the main story of September 2024's Detective Comics #1089 and just above 2 and 1/2 of 8 from the 8-page interlude.

Writing on the main's Ram V, art's Guillem March, colors're Luis Guerrero, and letters're Ariana Maher.

Writing on the interlude's Dan Watters, art's Christopher Mitten, colors're Triona Farrell, and letters're Steve Wands.

Watters is the current writer on Nightwing, succeeding Tom Taylor - the prominence of " Blüdhaven " in that one interlude panel might imply a destination for the man who took a baseball bat to Dick Grayson once.

Publisher's DC Comics.)