Random Happenstance

Back when this was published, the idea that Gothamites would immediately turn to cannibalism after a disaster might have been shocking; but nowadays we'd probably only be surprised they waited as long as they did. From 1998, the Batman Chronicles #14, featuring "Master of the House" Written by Lisa Klink, pencils by David Boller, inks by Aaron Sowd; "The Lunatic Fringe" Written by Bruce Canwell, pencils by Jim Aparo, inks by Drew Geraci; and "Random Encounters" Written by Greg Rucka, illustrated by Sal Buscema and James A. Hodgkins.

These were all stories set after the "Bat-Quake" Cataclysm event. While she delivers a fun Alfred-defending-Wayne Manor story, Lisa Klink's IMDB page may be more interesting: she had written for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Voyager, as well as being a Jeopardy contestant! Huntress leads the second feature, rescuing a school bus full of children from carnivores moving up the food chain from stray animals to outright cannibalism. Although one of the thugs was bulky and probably needed a lot of protein, it's not really clear if these guys were criminals previously, or just desperate; and one has taken a name from history, Roman general Lucullus. That's a deeply obscure reference for Gotham, isn't it? Although Huntress recognizes it immediately, which also seems iffy.

"Random Encounters" is a prose piece from Rucka, with Renee Montoya's brother Benny telling a war story. He laments the grey areas of morality regular people have to live with, but someone like Two-Face seems to have circumvented: Montoya had his coin, or one of them. I haven't read a ton of Rucka's work, so I don't know if Benny would re-occur, or if this was a one-off.