Covering Batman: #441-442 and The New Titans: #60-61

DC Comics

Writers: Marv Wolfman

George Perez: Batman: #442

Artist: Jim Aparo #441-442; George Perez The New Titans: #60; Tom Grummett The New Titans: #61

SPOILERS

In the wake of the death of Jason Todd, Batman, without Robin, began to slip. He became much more brutal, angry, more physical than mental. In short, the detective took a back seat to the vengeful urges that still lurked underneath Batman’s surface. Batman, Year 3 showed us the terrible psychological aftermath, and a hint of redemption as Nightwing and the Caped Crusader successfully defeated Zucco and Taft, but now we continue the story and find that Batman is still not healed. We find Batman at his most reckless, and Nightwing trying to rediscover who he is and having resigned from the Titans. There is a new threat to their lives and a new mysterious character who is tracking their every move. The threat to their lives has never been more real, nor more personal.

How does one cope with the loss of a loved one when one is notorious for burying one’s feelings and rarely showing any emotion? Without the catharsis of friends or family to talk to where does one go? Drugs and alcohol are easy outs and not the style of this particular person. One emotion would surely rise to the surface: anger. Batman is angry. He is furious with himself and blames himself for everything that has happened recently. The death of Jason Todd has truly taken nearly everything that was good in this man’s heart and wrung it dry on the damp stone of the Batcave’s floor.

We find Batman fighting the Ravager on the edge of a dam. He is wounded but does not heed the pain. He fights as if he is simply a weapon, with no thought nor planning, just reactions. And, from our view, there is a very strange narrator and a series of clicks and whirr that disturbingly interrupt the action. We are forcibly removed from the fight and asked to question who is actually telling this story, and who is it about from the very beginning. It isn’t just Batman that isn’t right, we, the readers, are also pushed askew. The fight ends, with the Ravager gone into the river, and Batman wounded, speeding away in the Bat mobile towards home. It is only then that we are introduced to the source of the clicks and whirr. A camera is stored into a knapsack, and the unknown actor rides off on a bicycle, of all things, but that isn’t what really gets our attention. It is something we very likely would miss as we read what he is saying. This person knows who Batman is, and states his name, Bruce Wayne. Further, he mentions that he now is off to find Dick Grayson.

This shocking reveal is the first of many to come. That someone would figure out that Bruce Wayne is Batman, as well as hint just with that knowledge that he knows who Dick Grayson’s alternate person is, is something that is unnerving. But we depart that scene very swiftly and move to a city townhouse that is having construction work done on it. The tenant is home this night, and listening to the radio. He’s listening to the radio actually speak to him. We, as readers, are reeling with the confused madness going on here. Batman is out of control. There is a photographer on a bicycle that knows who Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson are. Now, we find a guy talking to himself, or to the radio, or both. The entire world has turned sideways on us. We find that it was this mad man, talking to the radio, that hired the Ravager to try to kill Batman, and now that mysterious voice in the radio is offering Batman’s itinerary for a full week…in order to facilitate his murder.

Returning to Wayne Manor, Batman stumbles in and is half-carried by Alfred to bed. Alfred administers care the best he can as Bruce is in the throes of a fever from the severity of his wounds. This gives Alfred time to reflect, and we learn that this sort of behavior has been going on since the death of Jason Todd. Even after the Year 3 events where we catch a glimpse of hope, Batman’s obsession with self-blame has not relinquished its hold on him. Alfred is clearly defeated and exhausted with having to care for Bruce and having his warnings and admonishment go unheeded. Batman again, despite his wounds, drives off into the night. We switch scenes and see the man with the radio talking to a mob boss and setting up a heist, then returning to his townhouse to talk with the radio and confirm that this is the heist which was set up just to assassinate the Batman.

Before the action of the heist can commence, we find ourselves outside Titans Tower as our camera-wielding mystery man watches the Titans disperse after a meeting. He again unnerves us with his knowledge as he indicates he knows that Starfire and Nightwing are living together. Who is this guy? We find him next peering into their apartment with binoculars, and noticing that Starfire is alone which goads him into action. What action we are left to find out as we again change scenes to the aforementioned heist. The crooks are ready for him, though, and begin shooting at Batman. Batman, while struggling with these would-be killers, seems to recognize the truth in what Alfred has been telling him. For the first time since the death of Jason Todd we, the readers, see Batman realize that he needs to use his mind more than his fists.

It is with great relief that Batman comes to this conclusion and simply incapacitates the criminals and, in an homage to the old days, just ties them up and leaves a note for the police and walks away. After the failure of this hit, we finally see who the radio guy is, and understand what is going on. It is Two-Face who is behind these killings, and Batman realizes this as well. He informs Gordon from a windowsill, I mean who uses a door anyway, and is off into the night. Switching to Starfire’s apartment we hear the bell ring, and she opens it to find our mystery man asking Kory about the whereabouts of Dick. She confirms that he left the Titans a week ago, but is not sure where he is, nor that she should tell him regardless. He thanks her and rushes to Dick’s own apartment and no one is home. But he does find a clue. Haley’s Circus is closing. There is a photograph of the Graysons and a young boy with his parents at the Circus there, and our mystery man knows where he must go. He needs to go to the circus to find Dick Grayson.

We switch titles from Batman #440 to New Titans #60 to pick up the story. Kory has returned to Titans Tower and enlisted Cyborg’s help to find Dick. It is here that we learn that the mystery man was a kid! How could a kid know so much about Batman and Nightwing, or the Titans for that matter? Calls to Alfred bear no fruit, as he doesn’t know where Dick is, nor do the other Titans at Dick’s apartment looking for clues. But they do notice that there is a picture missing from a scrapbook that Dick kept in a safe. We find Dick walking up to Haly’s Circus and noticing the way it has become run down. He finds his old friend, Elinore the elephant, and just like when he was a kid he starts to scrub her down. It is then he is noticed and accosted by some of the circus residents.

They don’t believe it really is Dick Grayson all grown up, but he soon proves it to them with an amazing backflip and the joy of seeing him again is plain on all of their faces. They begin to walk and talk about the decline of the circus, and Dick goes to talk with Haly himself about just what happened. He’s being pressured to sell, and accidents have started to happen which is reducing the value of the circus. It is somewhat mirroring the episode with Zucco when Dick was young. We switch to later at the circus performance and notice the camera-wielding kid is there looking for Dick. But something is wrong. The lions are not performing correctly for the lion-tamer and one attacks him. One of the clowns jumps into action and with amazing acrobatic feats grabs one of the trapeze nets and succeeds in netting the lion so that she can be sedated.

But Dick was a moment too late, and the lion had done its work, the lion-tamer is dead. Haly is despondent and is sure he will have to declare bankruptcy. The circus seems like it is done for. It is on his way back to his own tent, that Dick encounters the kid with the camera, and claims he knows that the lion was drugged and that Harry the clown, Dick’s “uncle” from his childhood at the circus, is the culprit. Dick isn’t sure and needs proof. We see two of the circus performers confront Harry, only for Harry to discover that it was they who had drugged the lion. As a fight breaks out, we realize that this is not Harry, but Dick in disguise, and with some help of the other denizens of Haly’s Circus and that young photographer, the culprits are captured, and we see that this young kid has a serious case of hero-worship for Dick Grayson, and our curiosity is piqued once more.

Dick finally confronts the young man and reveals he’s becoming co-owner of the circus to save it from collapse. The kid then goes on to show Dick that he knows everything, who the Batman is, who Nightwing is, and disturbingly who Jason Todd was. Dick realizes that Two-Face must be back in town after looking at some of the pictures and the kid convinces Dick to return with him to Gotham to try to help Bruce, the Batman, out of this state he has put himself into.

Now with the major villain known we enter a strange duality in the story-telling. Batman #441 is a masterpiece of mirrored minds, goals, and ambitions, as we read column-for-column, and panel-for-panel the thoughts and plans of Two-Face and Batman. After they have both laid their plans for ensnaring the other, we move to Wayne Manor where Alfred and Dick Grayson confront our young photographer friend. His name is Tim Drake. He explains how he came to meet Dick on the very day that his parents died, and how excited he was to meet him and be there for his performance. This hero-worship is the real deal and began that fateful day. Tim relates his horror of the events, and his fear, at first of the Batman but realizing that he was there to help, that he was a “Dark Knight.”

On the heels of that revelation, we return to the twin stories of Two-Face and Batman as they try to ensnare each other. What is it that’s said about the best-laid plans? They have painted themselves into a corner with their mutual cleverness, and nothing is going as they hoped. As Tim Drake continues his story, Batman finally has had enough of the waiting game and takes action just as Two-Face does the same. They finally take the bait of the other’s trap, but after their prey has flown ending with a null net result. The real important event has taken place at Wayne Manor. Tim has related his tale to Alfred and Dick and has struck a chord in both of them that the Batman needs real help. He needs Robin. Dick is unwilling to re-don the cape but agrees that he must go to help Batman, but as Nightwing.

As we move towards a crescendo in the story, we return to New Titans #61 and see Nightwing leaving to join Batman. Alfred is comforting Tim, but it is clear that he knows that Tim is on to something. Batman doesn’t need Nightwing, an equal for all intents and purposes, but rather Robin, someone who brings out the paternal instincts and caution that comes with needing to get the job done but also protecting one’s own family. This is what we readers realize is really the matter with Bruce. He has lost his family. Dick has grown up and moved out, and his second son, Jason Todd, was brutally murdered at the hands of the Joker. Bruce is reacting by over-reacting. Instead of reaching out to the family he still has, he has forced himself into isolation and in doing so has lost the care and concern with which he used to operate and become careless. Through slow, deliberate steps over the past several issues, even back as far as the beginning of Year 3, we see this same realization dawning on Bruce. It is a slow, painful, and unwanted path for him. He wants someone to blame, someone to punish, and that person is himself. He started this whole endeavor. He brought Dick in, he brought Jason into his doom, this is his fault. Until he is willing to either forgive himself or seek help from his family the future that Alfred feared may come to pass.

We switch to Titans Tower where a cryptic transmission is sent to them, specifically for Nightwing, causing some alarm. The Titans search the area where the call was mad from, and also spread out over Gotham in hopes of finding Nightwing. Ultimately, Raven uses her magic to find Nightwing and transports herself, and a memory card with the transmission, one made specifically for Nightwing’s wrist computer, and offers the Titans’ help should it be needed. After a bit of detective work, Nightwing finds Batman overlooking the townhouse hide-out of Two-Face.

In the final chapter of the story, Batman #442, despite calling for Nightwing’s aid, Batman insists on doing things his way, without any real changes from the way he’s been acting lately. He must be the one going in the front door, alone. Not the two of them together, nor switching it up to see if they can throw a wrench in Two-Face’s plan, but straight in almost without planning. Instead of working together, it’s as if they are working at opposite ends with Nightwing trying to find a way to tackle the problem as a team, and Batman insisting on a solo act with a little bit of backup. It is a plan that seems destined to fail and does. Two-Face defeats the both of them and catches them in an explosion that levels the building. Nightwing had turned on his tracker, though, and Alfred and Tim rush to the Batcave to see what might be done.

Alfred and Tim, mostly Tim, make an important decision to help Batman, but the Batman must have a Robin. Tim Drake takes the Robin costume by hand, and we switch to the townhouse basement with Batman and Nightwing covered in rubble. Tim and Alfred are racing to the scene and Tim dons Robin’s mask as they do so. They arrive just as Two-Face is enacting a coup de grace by truly demolishing the whole structure with an explosion. After a fight where Tim shows his stuff, Two-Face is defeated and Tim must try to save both Batman and Nightwing. While Tim is saving the original Dynamic Duo, Two-Face slips away. Batman is ready to pursue but is adamant that Tim should remain with Alfred. This is where we see Tim’s true mettle. He is not the most physical of the Robins to ever don the tights, but he might just be the smartest. He crafts an emotional argument to state his case to the Batman.

This change in tactic is a brilliant strategy. Throughout the previous episodes in this story, and in Year 3, Batman has had it argued with him that he should accept some help by Nightwing as an equal to an equal. He has had it admonished to him by Alfred as a parent-figure to a stubborn child. Now he is being shown to him through crafted statesmanship. To the detective inside Batman, this is what makes some sense, and he relents. Together, Batman, Nightwing, and Robin all go off to confront Two-Face one more time. Batman tells himself to start to think with his heart and not cold logic, and we can see the beginnings of a new Dynamic Duo dawning.

The final fight is less a climax than a denouement with the outcome a certainty. Two-Face is good, but he can’t cope with three bat-opponents. He is defeated and the trio returns to Alfred at Wayne Manor. Batman’s crisis of identity is on the way to mending. No longer is he trying to single-handedly bear the weight of two heroes but will have a partner to train and mentor and face these dangers with him. The final twist in the story is one that shocks the reader. We finally see the face behind the radio, as it were. It wasn’t Two-Face’s dementia creating the other voice, but it was the Joker pulling the strings the whole time. The Joker who has finally recovered enough to join the quest of the defeat of Batman once again. The same Joker who killed Jason Todd, who ripped a Robin from Batman’s heart and hearth, but ironically was instrumental in the finding of a replacement.

A Lonely Place of Dying is a powerfully emotional story-arc diving into the recesses of Bruce’s pain both as a man and father-figure and as Batman, detective, and crime-fighter. It is a story of catharsis, the overflowing of emotion as a resolution is neared. It happens with Alfred as he recalled Dick’s youth and Jason’s early death. It happens with Dick as he relived that day his parents died. It happens to Tim as well, as he is able to finally help those who have given him so much strength and inspiration. It is a story of a man who learns that family is more important, no matter the manner in which it came to be than the fear of failure. That Batman is once again willing to take that chance to be hurt, deeply and emotionally, is his great step towards the return of the man he was, and will be again, that Dark Knight that a little Tim Drake saw come to comfort a devastated and angry boy who had just lost his parents at the circus.

This arc may be mostly remembered for giving us Tim Drake, the third Robin, but I remember it more as giving us the Batman that has his image seared into our public consciousness. Here we have Batman, able to do it all on his own, at a price, but for one thing. He had forgotten the very humanity that made him into the great detective and crime-fighter he has become. This story arc returned that humanity to Batman, and it is that touch of the very fragile that becomes the hardest steel in his greatest perils.

Writing: 10

Artwork: 10

Overall: 10-