Ten Year Anniversary: Fear Itself

[espanolbot]

For the party, I bring one of the best tie-in stories to the DCAU version of Batman, and one that oddly enough doesn't even really star Batman...

It begins with someone dreaming of the iconic murder of the Waynes, only this time from the perspective of the gunman, who all these years later is still paranoid about being caught. To the extent that he's plagued by constant nightmares and begins hallucinating Bruce Wayne's face everywhere, as he worries that by leaving him alive that there's a chance he might recognise him.

Turns out that the reason why he wasn't caught is that he ended up getting arrested for an unrelated charge, and because he obviously didn't want to go from being imprisoned for a relativelty petty crime to getting punished for killing essentially Gotham's version of the Kennedys, he kept quiet about it.

Later, he's buying a sandwich when he sees on the tv an interview with a cop that managed to singlehandedly capture Killer Croc, even after the villain had incapacitated Batman (via a lucky shot dropping an engine block on Croc).




Naturally, the idea that this single button could connect him to his captial offence doesn't do that much for his paranoia, so he does the next logical thing: Buy a gun to kill the cop, and destroy the button just in case it can be used to link him to the crime.

Meanwhile, Batman drops in on the detective to thank him for saving his life, and implictly also to thank him for not giving up on solving the Waynes murders some twenty years after the event. He also mentions that Croc has put a bounty on the cop's head for his part in the arrest, and that he ought to be careful for potential assassins...

This leads pretty much where you think it does.

A thoroughly out of practice Joe Chill, goes to kill the detective, only to find Batman there waiting for him. The two grapple with each other, Chill getting a few hits in due to Batman not having recovered from the injuries he got fighting Croc earlier. He even manages to shoots him in the side. And then, while the two are fighting, Chill manages to damage Batman's mask...

Comments

[venatosapiens]

"Why was he so afraid to take my hand?"

Bruce, scaring the living shit out of criminals is like your entire deal. This should not come as a shock to you.

[icon_uk]

Scaring them, yes. Terrifying them to the point they would literally rather die than let him save them, not so much.

[masterdick161]

How has the world's greatest detective not deduced who shot his parents? Wasn't it public knowledge in like 90% of origin stories anyways? I mean yea i know they Metallo thing they had going on in Batman/Superman (eh..). Bruce should be like "So lucky he died, or else my career as Batman would be over!" haha...

[espanolbot]

An anonymous gunman who disposed of the weapon killed two people in a dark alley, at night, and the only witness is a nine year old boy who is obviously psychologically damaged by the trauma he endured.

Forensically, the amount of what there is to go on varies, as does the competance of the people investigating.

Here they at least provided the excuse that the reason why Chill wasn't caught is that Joe was in jail on a seperate charge and missed the potential sweep of suspects. Murder investigations can take years to complete (if they ever actually do), to it's not entirely unreasonable that if he was arrested for a seperate crime (particularly a nonviolent crime, like pickpocketing, credit card fraud, burglary or whatever) Chill might not even have come come across in the sweep of potential suspects. Particularly if the Waynes' mugging/murder was a spur of the moment thing rather than a premeditated dealie or a crime committed with a criminal with a record for that kind of thing.

[grazzt]

This is my favourite of the Joe Chill stories, with the possible exception of the Brave and the Bold one.

[lbd_nytetrayn]

Ooh, please tell me we have that one. =)

[grazzt]

Sorry, it's an episode of the Brave and the Bold cartoon. It was adapted from a Jim Aparo story, though.

[lbd_nytetrayn]

Ah, I see. I've been wanting to get caught up with Brave and the Bold on DVD when I get the chance, so I guess that's something I can look forward to. =) Thanks!

[lego_joker]

I haven't watched "Chill of the Night" (the BnB one) in its entirety, but something about it just didn't sit right with me. I think it was the fact that they basically upgraded Chill to being some big-time arms dealer that could hold court with all the other Gotham supervillains. There was a rather disagreeable implication of "a small-time punk wouldn't be WORTHY of creating the Batman" to it, which just rubbed me the wrong way.

That moment basically soured me on the idea of BnB doing serious stories at all. This is probably illogical on my part, but I just can't associate the grand, epic, sweeping scope of BnB with anything except mindless action and fun. "Serious" stories, IMO, should always be small-scale and personal in nature.

[grazzt]

To be fair, I thought the only reason he was holding court with the supervillains was because he had worked out Batman's identity and was auctioning it off. And he is quickly in right over his head. Taking credit for having created Batman in front of his assembled rogues' gallery, including the Joker, takes a special kind of stupid.

Also, the concept of Phantom Stranger and the Spectre (voiced by Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill, respectively), fighting over Batman's soul is really cool. It doesn't even need to be a Joe Chill story at that point to rank pretty highly.

[jaybee3]

As much as I like this story and the B&B one with Joe Chill (which I like the best) I've always wondered why we never got a story where Chill tries to finish the job and kill Bruce. You could have him attempting it several times along the years and failing (the dude was no David Cain after all). A repentant Chill never sat right with me. This was a man who cold-bloodily gunned down a defenseless man and woman in an alley (and never even got what he robbed them for) and (in most versions of the story) only didn't kill Bruce because his gun jammed/the police were coming/some other reason.

[starwolf_oakley]

Indeed. Joe Chill being repentant makes as much sense as Tony Zucco being repentant. One of the "Zero Issues" from last year had Chill meekly telling Bruce Wayne "I didn't mean it."

[daningram.insanejournal.com]

This Joe Chill hardly seems repentant to me. He feels no remorse for his crime, only for the fact that he left a witness alive who had the ability to have him sent to the electric chair if their paths crossed. He's living in constant fear of discovery, to the point that he's seeing Bruce out of the corner of his eye all the freakin' time.

I mean heck, he's there trying to kill the Detective who is still working the Wayne's case. Only says remorse to me.

[espanolbot]

In one of the pages I wasn't able to post, it had Chill thinking to himself that he should have gone back and killed Bruce years ago, as now it's too late as he's a "zillionaire with fences and guards".

Yeah, this version isn't sorry for what he did, more worried that he might get executed for it all these years later... even though he wasn't in any danger, as he dies without anyone actually knowing what the heck his damage was.

[lego_joker]

This issue had a lot of great moments, but I felt it was far from perfect. Rick Burchett's art could get really, REALLY silly and over-the-top at times (especially in the facial expressions), and his storytelling technique never quite sat right with me. The way the panels flow just feel far too rushed (though admittedly, it's not as bad as the death-of-Clayface story that took place a few issues earlier).

Also, there was a part earlier in the issue where Batman is in the middle of a fight with Croc, and yells at an officer to put away his gun because "You might hit me!"

I can never imagine Bruce, especially DCAU!Bruce, saying something so... self-centered.

All the moments with Joe Chill's internal monologues, though... those were pure gold.

[arilou_skiff]

Aww, while this one is good, the best Batman Tie-in comic is the one where he has to fight crime with a baby.