After a bazillion words on Blind Justice...

...we'll take a bit of a breather, with Kyle Baker's Batman tribute from Detective Comics #599. Have a good weekend!

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80-Page (ish) Thursdays: Detective Comics #600!

The GCD claims this one is 84 pages, but we're going to count it: Detective Comics #600, "Blind Justice, part 3 of 3" Written by Sam Hamm, pencils by Denys Cowan, inks by Dick Giordano and Frank McLaughlin.

Accused of treason, and in a coma; yet things just got worse for Bruce Wayne: Henri Ducard's flight just got in. In just two pages, Hamm absolutely sells how dangerous Ducard is, although he seems to have a certain mordant humor. He wonders, if Bruce doesn't survive, did he waste a trip...?

Meanwhile, the homeless man formerly known as T-Bone is wanted for shooting Wayne; but is now unrecognizable in a suit and cleaned up. Dr. Harbinger took control of his body and set up permanent residence; and having set aside funds in advance, is doing just fine. Next on his agenda: revenge, on his former backers the Cartel.

Bruce wakes up in his hospital bed, with Alfred, Roy, and Jeannie by his side; but says nothing here. As he listens to a doctor tell Alfred about the pins in his hip, Bruce can see the Bat-Signal going unanswered. Gordon makes arrangements for Batman to get public credit for a bust, to cover for his absence. Ducard sees the headline the next day, just as he's wondering how to amuse himself while Bruce recovers.

At Wayne Manor, the feds are running another search of the place, and at least some of them appear to be in with the Cartel, since they're looking not for proof of treason, but for the Harbinger tech. While trying to clean up, Roy accidentally opens the door to the Batcave; as Bruce and Alfred are pulling in.

Meanwhile, Ducard is researching Batman, and doesn't seem impressed:


Jeannie is left upstairs, wondering where the hell everyone is, while Bruce asks Roy to keep this cave business under his hat. Roy wants to help, be Bruce's legman, but Bruce says he wouldn't know a clue if it bit him. But Roy says he might, with the right pilot; meaning Harbinger's gear.

For his part, Harbinger has improved said gear dramatically; no longer needing implanted biochips to induce "more exotic neurological dysfunctions." He has a few laughs using his synaptic field disruptor to convince strangers to give him money, before going "full blast" on one of Riordan's hired goons, paralyzing him completely.

The still-oblivious Jeannie is trying to help Bruce and sort through her own feelings; while Alfred and Roy test out Harbinger's gear. Bruce does not approve as Alfred walks around in Roy's body, but Alfred seems to feel desparate times, desparate measures. Later, Bruce takes Roy out as Batman, a "token appearance to allay suspicion." Gordon is suspicious that Batman doesn't come closer, but appears placated when "Batman" recognizes by scent that Gordon isn't smoking his usual brand of tobacco. He helps capture an escaped thug, but while Roy might be in OK shape, he's not in Batman-shape.

Ducard visits Riordan with his own suspicions, and recounts how a young Bruce wanted to apprentice with him, to learn to penetrate the criminal mind. He notes that even then, Bruce had the deductive and martial arts skills, but no understanding of a criminal's motives. They worked together trailing a terrorist, but Ducard shows Bruce the line he won't cross; by shooting the terrorist rather than arresting him. Bruce left Ducard then, but he knows Bruce wouldn't give up his goals after all that training, and must therefore be Batman. Riordan says great theory, but Batman was seen yesterday, smart guy. It takes Ducard a few minutes to remember Bruce could have the Harbinger gear...

Speak of the devil, Harbinger visits Riordan, using his disruptor to make him "the moral equivalent of George Washington: you cannot tell a lie!" Harbinger also tortures and cripples several of Riordan's goons, so you know he's just as bad, if not worse; but it's not necessarily hard to see how a formerly wheelchair bound man might abuse a newfound power.

In the Batcave, Bruce plans to use the Harbinger gear not on Roy, but on another frequency, for one of the many other biochips out there. Channeling into a "volunteer Bonecrusher," Bruce watches Harbinger questioning Riordan. Harbinger loads up a batch of equipment, and tells Riordan to get him the details on the Cartel. Bruce plans to jump Harbinger, but as Bruce's body appears to twitch and shudder like a seizure, Alfred panics and changes the dial of the machine, putting Bruce into another body. They also discover Harbinger must have disabled the chip in his new body, to prevent anyone from overriding him. Still, now Bruce knows what he looks like.

Bruce and Alfred are interrupted by a visit from Ducard, who offers Bruce a chance to pay him off. He'll change his story, and cough up his knowledge of the Cartel, and all he would need would be cash and a new body via Harbinger's machine, which he knows Bruce has used to play Batman. Bruce says nothing, and Ducard gives him time to think it over.

The end approaching, Bruce sends a sketch of Harbinger's new face to Gordon, then as Roy tells Jeannie not to fall for Bruce. Riordan is getting worked over by the Cartel for losing the equipment, and they don't believe Harbinger's alive; but he still can't lie. With his new face outted, Harbinger is forced to jump to a new body, leaving a bomb to destroy his old one and his gear.

In Roy's body, Batman hits the Cartel's secret lab, where Harbinger has taken a Bonecrusher's body, and has several more for backup. Using his synaptic disruptor, he plans to unmask, then kill Batman; but since Roy is "remote-controlled" the disruptor doesn't work. Batman fights the lot of them, as Harbinger tries to get away.

Now, here's where this one gets tough for me. Harbinger leaps to the elevated train tracks. Batman follows, but either lands wrong or a plank snaps, breaking his ankle. Harbinger turns to finish Batman, and Bruce realizes it's the same body he controlled back at the lab, when they were testing the machine. Screaming to Alfred through his communicator, Bruce has him change the biochip frequency so he leaves Roy's body and takes over the Harbinger/Bonecrusher.

This puts Roy back in charge of his body, confused, untrained, and in pain; as a train is headed down the tracks. Bruce tries to get to Roy, so they can use a cable from the utility belt to get away, but all Roy sees is a Bonecrusher that he thought was Harbinger, and he tries to take him with him. Hit by the train, both fall several stories, to their deaths. Shrieking, Bruce returns to his own body.

As Gordon and the police find "Batman's" body (and the documents exonerating Wayne) Bruce has to tell Jeannie what happened to her brother. Even though Roy knew what could happen to him, Jeannie is less than understanding. She won't tell anyone about what she knows, but she is done with Bruce, telling him to "Burn in hell" as she leaves. (I mentioned that the middle chapter maybe could've stood to be 80-pages like the others, and that might've fleshed poor Jeannie out a bit: she basically there to fall for Bruce then dump more guilt on him.)

Along with the evidence Harbinger gathered to use against the Cartel, the feds have a star witness: Riordan, who still cannot tell a lie, and spills on their activities. Ducard doesn't get to testify against Wayne, however he was going to play that, but he does pick up a paying gig: assassinating Riordan.

Alone, save Alfred, Bruce continues his painful rehabilitation; and is visited by Commissioner Gordon, who wants to ask how Bruce's guest Roy ended up in a Batsuit. Gordon saw Batman and Roy together, and knew they couldn't be one and the same, and also knows Bruce won't really answer him. He offers an out: he could keep quiet, let the world think Batman was dead. He also surmises that Batman must've used Roy as "some kind of pawn" to get Wayne off the hook, and must be feeling "pretty low" right now. Has Batman earned a rest? Bruce tells Gordon it's his call. Tellingly, Gordon says "Get well soon."

Ducard is forced to leave the country after his job, but writes Bruce a little note, letting him know how impressed he was with his solution: sacrifice Roy to get Harbinger. Ducard also knows Bruce's other secret, but they can talk about that some other time.

In the cave, Bruce has Alfred torch Harbinger's machine. Roy Kane enters the ranks of the dead that Wayne trusted and trusted him, specifically the recently deceased Jason Todd. (Like Stephanie Brown, Roy never got a display case, either!) Bruce's nightmare haunts him now asleep or awake. Why? The answer strikes Bruce: "That's how Batman wants it." Batman's job is to help the weak, and mete out justice: "We get what we deserve." But, if there was justice, Bruce wouldn't have to suffer like he does, he wouldn't have to be Batman.

Although Ducard made his way into the regular continuity, the rest of "Blind Justice" is almost apocryphal. Maybe it's because Hamm was a screenwriter, and this could be seen as fitting in more with a movie-Batman than the traditional comics version; I kind of do. But, more likely writers had a hard time reconciling a Batman that's lost another soldier and a Gordon that unambiguously knows Bruce Wayne is Batman. How many Robins or Roys could Bruce lose and keep going? Is Bruce subconsciously willing to let people die to protect his secrets? Does he still have secrets, since at least two more people know by the end here? It also occurs to me that Jason is mentioned here, but Dick is never mentioned; and you have to figure he would've at least offered his support. Still, there's enough going on already without that.

I'm not positive Roy deserved the trophy case treatment like Jason Todd had; but he does make yet another "Batman" corpse in the streets of Gotham.
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I know "Citizen Wayne" is too tempting a title not to use. Try.

Sometimes, giving a story more of a page count is less an opportunity to flesh out characters or let events breathe; than it is a chance to pad it out. Could "Blind Justice" have used another 80-page issue, instead of a normal-sized middle? Would an additional 30-odd pages of story have helped or hindered it? We'll never know, but let's look at Detective Comics #599 anyway: "Blind Justice, part 2 of 3" Or Chapter 4, "Citizen Wayne" Written by Sam Hamm, pencils by Denys Cowan, inks by Dick Giordano and Frank McLaughlin.

The issue opens with "Brouhaha," a news program recapping the previous issue. With Butcher on the right and Baker on the left, it's not subtle, but the TV commentators trick had been done in Batman comics many times before and since; and Cowan doesn't phone it in with the little screen-shaped panels. Bruce is soundly pilloried, as the Cartel has both planted evidence that he signed off on unwilling human experiments with biochips; as well as drawn the wrong conclusion from Bruce's extensive activities out of the country: traitorous sell-out to foreign powers.

Bruce has lawyered up, but these guys might as well be cardboard cutouts: we don't know them, nor does Bruce take them into confidence. And the lawyers don't know what to make of him, either. One name associated with Bruce is Chu Chin Li, one of the many martial arts masters he trained with. Li also trained Chinese diplomats, soldiers and mafia; before being beheaded. Bruce dryly notes at least he won't be testifying against him; but it's the first of several guilt-by-association questions.

Back at the Batcave (I'm sure Bruce had to surrender his passport, but somehow wasn't considered a flight risk) Bruce has the prototype of Dr. Harbinger's biochip controller. He intends to get to Harbinger's assistant, but Harbinger kills him first. Still staying at Wayne Manor, Jeannie and Roy want to help, but have no proof; Bruce dejectedly admits he can't even prove himself to them.

As the Cartel gets nowhere on Harbinger's technology, Riordan gleefully plans "another nail in Wayne's coffin." Meanwhile, the lawyers go over another martial arts master, and still can't figure out why the seemingly useless Wayne was training so much: "Pathological fear of muggers?" They are correct that with his dead family, huge sense of loss, and vast fortune; Wayne would've been a huge get for any brainwashers, but they aren't even close on anything else. Bruce should've just said he was addicted to opium for ten years.

Trying to prepare Bruce for what the prosecution will throw it him, the lawyers pull another name: Henri Ducard. (This would be Hamm's lasting contribution to Batman lore, since a version of the character would appear in Batman Begins.) You can almost feel Bruce cringe internally, but he has a story prepped about 'accidentally' meeting the "freelance troubleshooter" in Paris. The lawyers say, that's how Ducard started, before becoming an arms dealer, middleman, internationally wanted criminal. Who is willing to testify against Bruce, in exchange for some charges being dropped: the nail Riordan mentioned.

Bruce is in a bind, since he knows Ducard will badmouth him something fierce just because its funny; but is actually smart enough to maybe figure out he's Batman. Commissioner Gordon takes a moment to talk to Bruce as they pass in the hall: he knows things about Bruce, but that he's no traitor, and if it comes down to it he'll speak out. Bruce plays dumb, saying he'll fight his own battles.

Outside the courtroom, Roy and Jeannie watch as Bruce is swamped by reporters, and Roy sees his friend from his homeless days, T-Bone. Ignoring Roy, T-Bone pulls an AK-47 and guns down Bruce and his lawyers. Nearby, Riordan is asked if this was his idea, but he admits he wishes he'd thought of it. T-Bone escapes, the lawyers are DOA, and Bruce is in critical condition; as Gordon orders the Bat-Signal shut down. "I don't think he's coming."

Blogging these issues, I do appreciate how jam-packed they are: in the age of decompression, this one alone could've turned into a trade. And like the other issues, there's also Tributes to Batman at the end: this issue features pin-ups from Kyle Baker and Mike Mignola!




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80-Page Thursdays: Detective Comics #598!

Today's a book I had at the time, and probably still have; but I found all three issues for ninety-nine cents each and bought them to read all at once: from 1989, Detective Comics #598, "Blind Justice, part 1 of 3" Written by Sam Hamm, pencils by Denys Cowan, inks by Malcolm Jones III. Billed as "the 50th anniversary adventure," this issue and #600 would be 80-pages (well, the GCD says #600 is 84, but...) yet #599 was normal sized.

Hamm is best known for writing the screenplay to the 1989 Batman movie, and was invited to write for the comic. At the time I might not have recognized Cowan's work, but he would draw almost the entire run of the Question--in fact, that was running at the same time. I wanted to say I was a little disappointed when this came out, since Alan Grant and Norm Breyfogle were already on fire early in their Detective run, but then looking it up Breyfogle was out the last few issues, since #594. They would reteam for a ton of issues, starting with #601, a three-parter with the Demon that I love to death, but compared to "Blind Justice" is so light-hearted it could be a Harvey comic. So, yeah, I find "Blind Justice" a bit dark...

Bruce is having nightmares, par for the course, except now he sees the laughing fiend that ruined his life: a gun-toting Batman. Willfully shrugging it off, Bats answers the signal, and joins Commissioner Gordon at the morgue to check out Gotham's last atrocity: a security guard, more-or-less liquified by an unknown weapon. While they investigate the crime scene, a young woman arrives in town in search of her long-lost brother, not realizing he was one of the homeless men discussing tinfoil hats that she passed on the way in...

As Bruce puts off Waynetech business to focus on his investigation; Jeannie, the young woman, visits Waynetech herself, since her brother had worked there. Waiting for a personnel manager, she instead finds Riordan, the director of research, who tells her there must have been a mistake, since they have no record of a Roy Kane.


That night, as Batman works a tip about a drug shipment, he catches a break: the Bonecrusher hits the dealers, armed with sonic pulse weapons. Although huge, he doesn't appear to be much of a fighter, and while his weapons are devastating, they're also fragile, and break during the fight. Somewhat nonchalantly, Bonecrusher lets himself fall into power lines rather than be captured; leaving Bats and Gordon with questions, but case closed. Meanwhile, Roy's friend T-Bone and another homeless man realize they're having the same dream of being gassed, while Roy had a dream about fighting Batman.

Jeannie tries to hire a private detective at a family-finding agency, but is running out of money; so the detective takes her to one of their funders: Bruce Wayne. Taking her on a tour of Waynetech, in the medical R&D department, Dr. Harbinger recognizes a photo of Roy, and points out Roy accidentally hit Bruce with a frisbee at the company picnic. Sheepishly, Wayne realizes he's seen him--Batman usually has a better eye for that. (Unseen, a sweating Riordan makes a call to superior...) Jeannie, charitably, is just happy to have a lead. Bruce offers to take her to the opera that night, but as they discuss Harbinger (suffering with a degenerative nerve disease) the Bat-Signal lights up, and Bruce ditches Jeannie curbside.

Bonecrusher, somehow, is back in action; hijacking a truck of nuclear material and getting past a SWAT team with his sonic weapons. But, as Batman fights him, in a homeless shelter across town, Roy freaks out, seemingly acting out the Bonecrusher role in the battle. This time, Bonecrusher blows himself up with a tanker truck; but the cops bring in Roy, who had repeated Bonecrusher's final line: "I am the scheme."

In jail, Roy doesn't even know his own name, but is terrified of Batman. Calming down for questioning, Roy thinks he has memories that aren't his. Bats arranges with Gordon to have Roy released, where Bruce Wayne takes him and Jeannie in as guests, reuniting them. While they are overjoyed, Roy's medical exam reveals a surgical scar, where a biochip was implanted. They are experimental, but some preliminary work as been done, at Waynetech. Some unpleasant pieces of the puzzle are coming together for Bruce...

Roy can't remember anything about his time at Waynetech, except the word 'Sunday.' Using his backdoor access to the system, Bruce investigates, but is blocked and an alarm is sent to Riordan, who makes another call. That night, Roy seizes up, again acting as Bonecrusher, as a third one attacks Wayne Manor. Wayne knows too much, but a simple biochip implant will take care of that. Great plan, except Bonecrusher is shot from behind by Alfred--tranked out, but he self-destructs before he can be unmasked.

Now Roy remembers at least the name of the project he worked on at Waynetech: not Sunday, but Sabbat, and an acronym at that for "remote-controlled killers." Batman goes to Waynetech, where Riordan is having the project moved, and Harbinger has barricaded himself in his lab. Batman finds Harbinger's assistant crying over his body, and takes a moment to read his notes: of course, kindly ol' Doc Harbinger was also Bonecrusher. Multiple Bonecrushers, using the biochips to project his consciousness into their bodies; and using sonic weapons provided by his secret backers, Riordan and "the Cartel."

Although some volunteers were used, several homeless men were gassed and forcibly implanted with the chips. When Roy protested, he was made part of the experiment as well, his memory wiped. The Cartel plans to take the Sabbat project to a secret location, probably leaving Harbinger out to dry, so he plans to permanently transfer to a new body...and make the Cartel "pay for their betrayal."

The next day, Wayne confronts Riordan (and, seemingly lets a lot of the biochip material get shipped off somewhere) but the formerly snivelling toad now seems to be in the driver's seat. There are plenty of fake documents showing Wayne's approval of Project: Sabbat, and Riordan chattily explains the Cartel has their fingers in any number of companies, pushing hi-tech, low-profile, shady research. (Although it's left open to interpretation, there's almost certainly some level of government involvement...) This issue predates that movie, but Riordan should've been played by the late Roy Brocksmith, of Total Recall--you'd recognize him if you saw him, and he played a snivelling toad-bastard well.

Moreover, the Cartel did their homework on Bruce Wayne. What did he do after his parents died? Where did he go? "No doubt you have an explanation. We have one too. It's a corker." Fully knowing he's boned, Bruce refuses to back down. At Wayne Manor, where Alfred, Roy, and Jeannie have been questioned; Bruce is taken into custody...as a communist! That's a pretty good, if super-dated cliffhanger; but I think the agents just use "commie" as an epithet. "Foreign agent" might've been more accurate, but isn't insulting enough.

We'll probably look at the rest of "Blind Justice" some other time--even the anemic, normal sized issue--but I like this one the best. This may have been Hamm's first comic script, but I don't think it shows, save perhaps a willingness to get right in there and break off bits of the status quo: for years, Waynetech or Wayne Industries or whatever was a bland, corporate thing; a slab of drywall scenery. Hamm plants a snake in that garden, but that goes a long way to making it seem more real. In the same vein, his Batman is more fallible: he didn't recognize Roy, and his benign neglect of his business may have left the door open for the Cartel. So, you could maybe draw a line from here, to the uber-prepared, somewhat paranoid Batman often seen today; but that depends on what you take away from this one; as we'll see later.

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