As we saw last time, Batman leaves Thorn in the cemetary, to get home in the Thornmobile or something; while he investigates the only lead, Phillips' car, as it's pulled from the bay. One of the bodies is wearing Philips' death's head ring--do a lot of hospital orderlies wear skull jewelry? Maybe.
Stymied, Batman decides to dive and investigate the bay for clues, taking only the little rebreather mouthpiece from his utility belt, instead of full scuba gear. And swimming in his cape. Batman doesn't have to look long, before finding a plastic sealed snapshot: two men, one older, one a boy, giving Hitler the Nazi salute. Hitler, in person. Must've have been Photo Day for the SS or something. Getting your picture on Hitler's lap was extra.
As Batman checks out the photo, underwater, he's attacked by frogmen and knifed in the arm. Thorn arrives in the nick again to save Batman, taking out the frogmen, who disappear. That could be disappear as in 'flee,' or disappear as in 'watery grave.' Batman doesn't kill, but Thorn doesn't seem to mind a lot, and it's a pretty good trick to blow up a scuba tank without killing the attached diver. Thorn bandages up Batman, and this time Batman gives her a ride back to Gotham. (How did she get there?)
Thorn takes a nap in the Batmobile, and Batman again sees the taped message from Rose Forrest, pleading for the return of her father's body. Batman goes to the hospital, but not to be checked out as Thorn insists, but to ditch her again!
Having no leads again, Bats switches to Bruce Wayne, to attend a speech by "famed Nazi hunter Leon Weiner" on the Holocaust. Afterwards, he approaches Weiner in a diner, to see if he can identify the Nazi in the photograph, which he does: "Gauleiter Martin Bormann! The most powerful Nazi after Hitler!" If he's so powerful, how come he doesn't have a mask glued to his head? Bormann was an expert on chemical warfare, and supposedly was hiding out in the jungles of South America.
The next day, as Bruce Wayne boards a flight to Rio de Janeiro, he notices a woman in black having a coffin loaded on board. As the stewardess informs Bruce that Carnival is about to start, as it always is in comics and movies; we see the woman was Rose. Batman had to see that clue, which is why he's flying commercial again, instead of taking the old Batplane. I miss the 70's, pointy Batplane, which looked like a rocket or hypodermic needle with batwings sticking out of it.
That night, as parade floats pass the reviewing stand, Bruce sees a Batmobile float, which stalls in front of the president and ambassador. Well, Bruce sees it: in a bit of a gaffe, there's not a good establishing shot of the Batmobile float. The fake Batmen on the float are there to assassinate 'el presidente and the yankee ambassador!" but Batman beats the hell out of them, which seems like a really good way to get accidentally shot.
This was probably an easier way for Batman to get in touch with, and a favor from, the American ambassador than just, you know, calling or something. Ah, I've never dealt with the State Department, so yeah, maybe. Batman asks for help finding Bormann, and the ambassador says there's no extradition, so ask for something else. Batman asks for a plane to find Bormann his damn self. He searches the jungle, until he spots a "Luftwaffe Heinkle!" I know it's a big jungle, but if you're in hiding, maybe you don't want Nazi planes patrolling, with German markings still on them? Although, if you shoot down anyone who sees them, I suppose it's not an issue: as Batman follows the Heinkle to Bormann's base/Nazi theme park, he's ambushed by a Messerschmitt and shot down, crashing on the Nazi runway.
Bormann isn't too worried about the captured (and somewhat dazed) Batman, and first greets his son, who had arrived in the Heinkle...was that waiting for them at the airport in Rio? I mean, no extradition is one thing, but that seems a bit much. Rose protests she's kept her part of the bargain, but is brushed off. Bormann and son connect the dots for us: the cannister of Inferno A was brought in the coffin. American neo-Nazi's killed the younger Bormann's "stupid girl friend" and a double, but she had stolen the Bormann's Hitler photo to try to leave a clue behind. The frogmen were sent to recover it (how did they know it was in the bay?), and the authorities were left in the dark when the Nazi's wrecked up several cemetaries, to cover the discovery of the hidden cannister.
(The younger Bormann has a kind of evil you don't often see in comics: someone willing to play the long game. He had to get a job as an orderly at the hospital the Nazi that hid the cannister was at, work there six years cleaning up puke and worse and be a model employee, and have a girlfriend that was probably window dressing for his cover from the start. Admittedly, this is closer to reality than the Joker's gang or R'as al Ghul's huge organization; and that may be why it's creepy.)
Rose, who previously had been freaking out over the theft of her father's body, didn't know any of this: she had only agreed to bring the coffin here to get the body back. The younger Bormann slaps her and tells her he had dumped it in the river. Rose runs away crying into the jungle, where they figure she'll die in short order. Finally, Bormann decides it's time to kill Batman, but Thorn appears to save Batman's ass, for the third time, and mess some Nazis up, blowing up three planes, the Bormanns, and probably a good chunk of jungle in short order.
Batman recovers the cannister (explaining that neither fire or explosions would destroy it) and he and Thorn escape into the river. The piranha-filled river. Thorn covers Batman with an exploding thorn, but is knocked out. Batman drops the cannister, figuring it would be safe enough guarded by the fish, (even though there's any number of people in the DCU that could fish it out, right?) and saves Thorn for once. They surface to see the Nazi base blow up real good, and start the long walk back, but first Batman wants to hypnotize Thorn. Yes, in the middle of the rainforest with no supplies, no water, and a possibly concussed woman; Batman wants to find out her secret identity.
What the hell does Batman have there, a Hansen's Hypno-Coin? Again, in Brave and the Bold, Batman can do anything. Still kind of wondering how the trip out of the jungle went, though...
I liked Thorn a lot in this one, and Aparo does some nice work on her: I like how her face seems serious and determined, except when she interacts with Batman, and it becomes more friendly. Batman doesn't seem as sure as he should be about Rose being Thorn, which should be annoying (if Ralph Dibney can figure out who Supernova is, Batman should be able to see this at a glance) but I kind of like it: Batman seems to almost like Thorn, and it would be fun if he had a relationship with her, but a complete blindspot as to her identity.
The new Rose and Thorn series was recently reviewed here, in a link from When Fangirls Attack! I was kind of considering looking for that one, since Gail Simone's usually pretty solid, but it's a new Rose and Thorn? The hell? Looking it up here, it appears the original Thorn, a Flash villain, killed herself, and Rose and Thorn have just been retconned a little. If I find it, I'll let you know.
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