Batman #16

[cyberghostface]

So Batman has tracked down Joker in Arkham Asylum (where he's with some of Batman's other rogues) and manages to gain the upper hand when Mister J reveals he has another trick up his sleeve.

 





There's also a back-up story by Capullo after this where the other villains fight over who gets to kill Batman, causing Joker to trap them between some bars.



So what's underneath? I hope it's not one of Alfred's body parts...

Comments

[kenn_el]

Wasn't Raya in prison for participating in Nightwing's attempted murder? There's ambiguity, as you point out, in that Joker need not know her connection to Dick (which wasn't even established as first love, rather than only girl in a group of friends, IIRC). Jimmy seemed to be Clown On Clown crime. And Barbara's mother was largely orchestrated by Barbara's brother, who apparently does in fact know she's Batgirl, but there's no evidence that he shared that with Joker. (The Batgirl issues being rather pointless either way, in that Barbara's father, whom she is significantly closer to, was an early victim, and much more likely to draw her in to a Joker trap, especially if he DID know her secret, as they were the three involved in TKJ.)

[icon_uk]

She and Saiko set out to blow up the circus because of Dick Grayson, not Nightwing, so no, I don't think she was. They didn't even know he WAS Nightwing for most of their plot (They only knew because Saiko tortured it out of Haly, who somehow knew, though the Court of Owls didn't which given his links to them seemed improbable), but they still planned to kill Dick Grayson, not Nightwing.

Dick being sweet on Raya, and she having more than a passing interest in him, was made very clear in all the flashbacks we saw. It was only because he left and had this beaten to death already trait of "Always moving forward" that he didn't stay in touch until they met up again.

Jimmy had played Gotham City before (and hated it), so him being targeted precisely now is very suggestive that it's Dick the Joker was targeting and Jimmy was a handy calling card, especially since the whole plot built around Nightwing has been "knockoffs"; Jimmy as a knockoff Joker, Raya made into a knockoff Nightwing who fought Dick in a factory which had been closed down because it's product was a knockoff of a Wayne design, and Dick of course being seen by the Joker as a Batman knockoff.

James Jr being one up on the Joker seems like a bit of a stretch, and yes, I don't really know how those stories tie together.