Grant Morrison Corner: Batman and Robin Book 1: Batman Reborn (#1-6)

"Crime is doomed" - Dick Grayson

Well after all the rape in last months Alan Moore offering, it's time to delve into Grant Morrison Corner instead.  And today we find... Batman and Robin! Now this is going to get a bit complicated.  Grant Morrison had just done the acclaimed run of Batman issues "Batman R.I.P" which took Batman apart physically and mentally.  Then the Grant Morrison event series "Final Crisis" happened round about the same time, and in it Batman, exhausted from the events of R.I.P is captured by New God Granny Goodness and sent to Command D to be broken.  He escapes (because he's the Goddamn Batman) and using a Radion bullet, shoots Darkseid, but falls prey to his Omega Beams.  He is thought dead, but in fact he's been transported back in time even though a body that looks like him appears to have been left in the present.  So the Batman we are following in this series is in fact Dick Grayson who has taken up the mantle, because Gotham needs a Batman, and his Robin is Batman's son (with Talia Al Ghul), Damian Wayne.  A smug and arrogant little bugger, but endlessly entertaining in how he kicks against the rules both Batmen hold him to.  This is just prior to The New 52 2011 reboot so don't confuse it with the Batman and Robin title of The New 52 (although I believe it's a pretty good comic in its own right).  There are two arcs in this volume, on art duties are long time Morrison collaborator Frank Quitely for arc one, and Philip Tan on arc two.

BATMAN REBORN: It begins with Mr. Toad and his gang driving very fast, Toad says the pursuers would need wings to catch them, "they'd need to be Batman - and Batman's as dead as the sky is black".  Then a flying Batmobile flies up alongside the car.

Inside Damian says sniffily, "I told you so". Dick says he's sorry for doubting him and they disable Toad's car.  But it catches fire, so they clamp the Batmobile on top and fly to the river where they drop the car.  They are both waiting as Toad climbs out muttering, "Pyg better be pleased".  Batman and Robin both combo punch him and knock him out, he is carrying a bagfull of dominoes.  "What kind of drug dealer gets paid in dominoes?" muses Dick.

Mr. Toad's wild ride.

Toad wakes up to find him blindfolded and hanging from the Batmobile over what he thinks is high up.  Dick asks him what bought him to Gotham and to tell him before he loses his grip.

Toad: "I'm telling you nanti! Where's my dinari!"

Dick says that's all he needed to know and drops Toad who was actually only a foot or so above a roof.  They leave him for the GCPD to pick up.  As the Batmobile flies off, Toad yells "You wait until Pyg comes!  You'll all wish you'd never been born!"

In the Batcave Alfred asks Dick if he is having second thoughts about taking on the mantle. Dick says no, he always knew this is what he'd do.

Dick: "I just didn't want to face it.  This was my worst, worst nightmare when I was a kid".

He wonders what he is letting himself in for with Damian.  Alfred reassures him that he is difficult but under the bluster is "the inheritor of his father's courage, his determination, his desire to do what is right".  And if anyone can bring out the best in him, it's Dick.

Alfred: "Master Bruce was always proud of you sir.  I know he'd be especially proud of you now".

Later, Alfred serves supper to Dick and Damian while they are working.  Dick says Toad was speaking European circus slang.  He confesses about being Batman that he wishes "I could shake the feeling I was wearing a shroud."

Heading for GCPD.

Damian tells him that if he doesn't think he's up to it, he should make room for someone who is.  "Maybe one day" says Dick, then they fly out in the Batmobile.  Toad is in lock-up at Gotham PD, ranting about how everyone will pay when Pyg comes.  Commisioner Gorden and a couple of cops are shining the Bat signal in the sky.

The cops thinks it's useless and despite Toad's stories about seeing Batman and Robin and a flying car, Batman and Robin are gone.  "Hope springs eternal" says Gordon.  And Dick and Damian paraglide down to them.

Outside the station a car pulls up and a man with his head on fire falls out.  The cops run to help, but the man attacks them setting them on fire.  Elsewhere a man called Niko who was part of Toad's gang is hurridly packing while his daughter Sasha asks why?  Niko says he escaped from Batman today and you don't do that twice. 

Before they can make their getaway some creepily masked, silent figures push their way into the flat.  Later Niko wakes up bound to a table.  Sasha is being restrained by two more of the "Dollotrons".  Professor Pyg says he wanted Niko to be awake for his transformation, and gets out a mask, he intends to do it to Sasha next.

Pyg: "Pyg will make her perfect.  Pyg is here to make everything perfect."

The next chapter begins with Dick looking despondant back in the Batcave.  Alfred asks him what happened, and we flash back to them landing on the roof of Gotham PD.  Gordon says "been a long time.  A whole lot of rumours".  Dick says they've been upgrading their operation.  He asks if Mr. Toad is talking yet?  He comes from an "extreme" circus - "Le Cirque D'Etrange".

DickBats feels like a failure.

Then the front desk calls up to say there is trouble, and Dick and Damian run off to investigate.  One of the cops says to Gordon didn't Batman use to be taller, and doesn't he sound different now?  "Different maybe...but familiar" muses Gordon and they leave the roof.

Downstairs the flaming head man - Rex - is setting cops on fire and another car with some baddies in it pulls up.  One is a grotesquely obese man in a tutu packing a gun, the other is conjoined triplets.  Batman and Robin arrive on the scene and fighting starts.  Damian takes the triplets on first, before Batman steps in and finishes them. Damian ignores his order to stay together and goes after the fat man.

Dick is fighting Rex and calling for help from Damian, he finally manages to disable Rex temporarily with a fire extinguisher and shouts "Damian!  Where the hell are you?"  He ties up the triplets, then goes to find Damian has rammed a bucket on the fat man's head and is hitting it yelling "Explain!"  Dick pulls him away and Damian shouts at him:

Damian: "His boss is planning some kind of attack on the city.  I almost had it out of him!"

Then attention is drawn to Mr. Toad lying dead in his cell.  Gordon is most annoyed that a suspect was killed under their noses.

Damian takes on the triplets.

Back at the Batcave, Dick and Damian are still arguing.  He tells Damian he has to play by the rules, "step over the line and Gordon won't hesitate to hunt us down."  Damian is pissed enough he can't kill, now he has to be nice to cops too?  Dick says there is more to batman and Robin than fighting alone and thinking with your fists.  He needs to hone his detective skills and learn to obey an order.

Damian: "This pathetic impersonation of my father makes a mockery of his memory".

Dick says Damian is only ten and has a lot to learn.  Damian marches off saying "I'll find a teacher I can respect." And he departs the Batcave.

Damian rebels.

Dick asks Alfred if he was such a brat at that age.  Alfred points out he and Damian had very different upbringings.  Dick says no one believes he is Batman, it was insane to try and replace him.  He is even having trouble with the cape, the first thing he dropped when he became Nightwing.

Alfred says Dicks roots are in showbusiness, so think of Batman as a performance and "the spotlight is on you now."  Dick thanks him and leaves the Batcave as well.  While this was going on Damian tracked down Pyg's circus, but he is quickly overwhelmed by Dollotrons.  He is in big trouble and driving the new Quad-Bat, Dick comes racing to find clues as to where he is.

Dick is driving the Quad-Bat at high speed, holding Rex just above the ground and telling him to start talking which Rex does.  Dick brings him back to Gordon who isn't happy about what Dick did.  But Rex tells them Pyg is going to release a sickness in Gotham.

Pyg says... something.

Damian wakes up bound to a chair, in Pyg's circus tent lab.  He also has Sasha tied to a table.  She has a mask on but has retained her identity. Damian sneers, "So.. whose neck do I break first?"  Pyg rambles some nonsensical stuff that probably means something to Grant Morrison but which I cannot parse.

He starts up some music and begins dancing pervily round Damian who is surreptiously freeing himself.  He leaps out of the chair and takes out the Dollotrons who were about to put a face on him and he double-kicks Pyg in the face.  Dick meanwhile has encountered some Dollotrons who spit out a germ ridden phlegm to spread the sickness.

DickBats fights more Dollotrons.

Damian frees a terrified Sasha and promises not to leave her.  Pyg grabs the Dollotron who was her father, so she rams a lit bunsen burner into his chest setting him alight.  He runs away up onto the rollercoaster with Damian in hot pursuit.  Sasha screams:

Sasha: "Don't leave me in this terrible place!  Don't leave me!  You promised!"

Pyg and Damian crash into the ground and Pyg knocks him out with a stick.  He is about to start beating Damian when Dick rams him with the Quad-Bat.

Pyg begins to freak out saying "I wasn't doing anything wrong!".  Damian has recovered and the two of them fight more Dollotrons.  Dick says Damian did a good job even if he went in without doing his research first. 

Pyg's lair is burning, Damian says "There was a girl... Did... did you just save my life?"  Dick manages to retrieve a vial marked antidote from the burning lab and says to Damian no one was in there, she must have got out.

Gordon and the GCPD come to mop things up taking Pyg and the Dollotrons into custody.  Gordon says Batman has his full support, and was all this about the sordid drug trade?  Dick says Pyg invented a drug that destroyed the victim's personality and the gangs wer using it to control women.

But Pyg then realised what he had, that he could hold a whole city to random with it.  And he tosses Gordon the antidote vial.  Gordon wants to know if this is all over.  Dick doesn't think so, he found a domino which was the next in sequence after Toad's.  So who did kill Toad?

Meet The Red Hood.

The Dollotrons are being cared for in hospital, but when the masks are removed it takes the face off underneath.  Sasha finds her Dollotron father and smothers him to death.  Two security guards confront her, but someone shoots them.  It is The Red Hood.

Red Hood: "You need a friend right?  And me, I'm looking for a partner to help me wipe the vomit from Gotham once and for all.  Well?  You have anything else planned?"

And that brings the BATMAN REBORN arc to a close.

REVENGE OF THE RED HOOD: The arc begins with a supervillain called Lightning Bug being chased by Batman and Robin.  He is cornered in a dark alley where Red Hood is waiting.  Thinking he is Batman, Lightning Bug surrenders to him.  He says he needed the money for a medical treatment for a condition he has. 

"It's called dying" says Red Hood and slashes his throat.  Then he shoots him saying "Let the punishment fit the crime!" Lighning Bug is tossed burning through a wall and Red Hood leaves.  Batman and Robin find a red card at the scene and Dick says "Third time this week. Who are these people?"

Covering for Bruce's absence at a society do.

Later Dick and Damian are at a party at Wayne Tower.  Lucius Fox asks after Bruce Wayne, Dick says he's working to clear his name in his own way (during the events of Batman R.I.P lies were spread about him and his family).  Dick is then introduced to a masked crime fighter from England called Oberon Sexton, "The Gravedigger".  He says to Dick, "it seems we have a mutal interest in crime".  Then Alfred calls Dick and Damian away.

At their base, Scarlet (Sasha's new name) is regarding her mask.  She tells Red Hood she is afraid to take it off in case it rips her whole face off.  She says she can't go to the doctor because they have killed people.

Red Hood: "So keep it. It's scary, modern, edgy, whatever.  You give the brand that genuine nu-face chic those try-hard Gotham wannabes just can't muster.  They'll all be imagining the beauty beneath the creepy mask."

She asks what about him?  What's dress up all about?  What is a Red Hood?  He says it's about fighting crime at a new level but mainly "this is about the revenge of one crazy man in a mask on another crazy man in a mask".

Red Hood and "Scarlet" make plans.

Batman and Robin are waiting on a roof spying on a get together of various Gotham criminals including the Penguin.  They are talking about the Red Hood and a man in what looks like a purple KKK outfit called Mr. Santo says his boss "El Penitente" has taken and interest and is sending "Flamingo" or "the man who eats faces" to deal with him.

He goes on to say El Penitente has indentified Gotham as the "perfect testing ground for the next generation of narcotics."  One of them says the mob wants in on this and he mentions a man called "Bullet Nose" who is mostly likely already involved and should be here at this meeting.

Red Hood crashes the meeting saying he stuck a gun up each of Bullet Nose's nostrils and blew his brains out through the top of his skull.  He and Scarlet then start attacking them and Batman and Robin arrive on the scene.  Penguin begs Batman to protect him and Red Hood says to Scarlet who is filming it, "Batman shielding a known felon".  Dick recognises his voice.  "Jason?" he asks.  Red Hood ignored him shouting "Red Hood and Scarlet say 'Let the punishment fit the crime!'"

DickBats, Damian finally meet Red Hood and Scarlet.

A quick bit of background.  Red Hood is Jason Todd, the second Robin.  He wasn't very popular with readers and there was a phone in vote carried out as to whether he'd live or die in a coming storyline.  He was voted to die and the Joker beat him half to death with a crowbar before blowing him up.  He stayed dead until 2005's Infinite Crisis where Superboy punching reality caused history to change.  Jason Todd was bought back to life this time in a Lazarus pit and became Red Hood who is not afraid to use lethal force, mainly to piss off Batman.

We get a peek into Sasha/Scarlet's thoughts.  How she always sided with her father growing up, though in retrospect her mother was probably right.  She says that was what she was thinking when she suffocated her father.

Sasha: "My name is Sasha.  My face is no longer my own.  I have made something of myself.  Something new.  Something strong and unafraid.  My name is Sasha.  But not tonight.  Tonight I am Scarlet."

She and Jason argue with Dick and Damian.  Jason tells Damian, "you're only the latest in a line and don't expect job security". Penguin goes crashing through a window and uses his umbrella to land safely. 

Jason Todd is a prick.

Dick says to Jason to stop talking in slogans, he just killed their main connection to the man in Mexico they are after.  Jason says this person in Mexico won't send anyone else after this little demonstration.  Dick asks what the point of all this is.

Jason: "Batman is dead.  I'm taking this mission to the next level.  I'm doing what we should have done years ago and no ones going to stand in my way."

Irritated, Damian attacks, Jason bashes his head on the floor and tussles with Dick.  Then Scarlet gets a hold of Damian and holds a knife to his throat and threatens to cut out his brainstem.

Jason tosses a red card and says "we'll kick your ass another time" and they leave.  Dick holds Damian back, Damian recognises Scarlet as the girl from the circus he tried to save.  One of the criminals is still alive and holding a domino.  They find the Penguin down on the pavement and escort him to the police station to give his statement.

Next day the news is discussing the Red Hood's antics, Jason has leaked the footage of Dick and Damian protecting the Penguin.  Oberon Sexton is being interviewed to point out they were protecting him from two killers.  "My father made some very strange choices when it came to partners" comments Damian and a poll on the Tv shows a majority supporting Red Hood's approach.  Mr. Santo is in hospital being interviewed by Gordon but all he says is that the Flamingo is coming.

How superficial he is.

At the Red Hood's base, Jason is looking at himself in the mirror and mumbling about zits and going bald.  He tells Scarlet his grey streak is from when he crawled out of the Lazarus Pit.  Scarlet wonders if there will be repercussions for what they did tonight.  He says doesn't her generation want to stand up for something?  They are going to put every Gotham criminal in the dirt.

On a plane which has landed in Gotham, the police have been called because inside are several women dead, minus their faces.  One survived and said the man - Flamingo - skinned and ate only their faces.  Gordon reports this to Dick, who says "it looks like the Red Hood's antics attracted the wrong kind of attention".  They fly to the hospital where Jason is pouring bleach into Mr. Santo's drip bag.

Dick and Damian attack and as they fight Scarlet thinks of a way to hurt Damian, she yells he promised to save her and he freezes up.  Jason unloads his guns into the reinforced kevlar plate behind the Batman logo on Dick's chest stunning him and Scarlet knocks Damian out.

We cut to them leaving with Red Hood saying let them try to get out of that with their dignity intact.  Then he is shot.  Scarlet sees who did it and thinks back to how her uncle and father were scared of a man who had his brain cut away until he was the perfect killing machine:

Sasha: "The King of Killers.  The Ace of Assassins. On that day Flamingo became Death.  And so Death comes to Gotham."

Dick and Damian come to and discover they have been stripped naked and have a webcam pointed at them with a message from Red Hood telling the public one million calls will activate the webcam to see Batman and Robin naked.  Damian says someone might have beaten them to revenge on Jason, he heard gunshots outside.

Flamingo (cover art by Frank Quietly)

Jason is incapacitated and Flamingo is beating Scarlet with a whip.  Jason manages to get up and tells Flamingo to leave her alone, it's him he wants.  He shoots at Flamingo and hits him in the shoulder, but Flamingo just laughs. 

Dick and Damian free themselves and get dressed up, then activate the webcam and tell the viewers to "get a life!".  Damian admits he feels guilty about the girl, "that's a first" says Dick.  They discover the Red Hood HQ is a van which is why they couldn't locate it.  Dick calls Alfred and asks about Flamingo, Alfred advises him to "proceed with the utmost caution" and that he has alerted Commisioner Gordon.

Scarlet attacks desperately.

Jason and Flamingo are fighting and Flamingo shoots Jason in the leg.  Jason yells at Scarlet to "run! get out of here!"  He shouts at Flamingo:

Jason: "So shoot me!  Do it!  I'll come back!"

Then Damian appears and fires a grenade behind Flamingo and makes the un-PC comment, "I was expecting scary, not gay".  Then Dick appears from out of the smoke and attacks Flamingo.  They fight and Dick is knocked over the edge of a cliff but uses the Bat-grapple to stop his fall and climb back up.

Flamingo smashes Damian into a wall and shoots him in the back, but Scarlet jumps on his back and stabs him in the face.  He knocks her away then Jason scoops him up with a mechanical digger and dumps him along with a lot of rubble, over the cliff edge.

Dick arrives back at the top and finds Damian is paralysed from the waist down.  Jason says to him, "you see what I just did?"  Dick angrily says what he did was bring a monster to Gotham.  Jason says Dick doesn't have the stones to protect Gotham.

Dick: "Look at yourself Jason.  You're a mess.  Everything's a mess.  Stop all this and let us help you."

Jason says it is too late for him. He tried to be like Dick but the world had other plans for him.  Gordon and the cops arrive to arrest him saying Batman is allowed to operate because he stays on the right side of the law.

Not the last we'll see of Jason Todd, sadly.

Damian's mother's paramedics have arrived to take him away for treatment.  As Jason is dragged away he shouts that Dick recovered "his" body, why haven't they used a Lazarus pit on him?  He says Batman is dead because Dick, "couldn't stand the fact you were always going to be in his shadow!"

A tired Dick tells Gordon they should look for Jason's partner.  Gordon says she won't go far with a face like she has.  But as Dick says it's time to go home, it's been a hell of a night, we cut to Scarlet driving the Red Hood HQ out of Gotham.  The mask peels itself off and falls away, "And Scarlet was gone".

The arc ends with El Penitente calling Oberon Sexton saying his sins have found him out and he wants him to deal with some unfinished business and a score to settle in Gotham.  Then we get a shot of Batman staggering down to where Bruce's body is being kept, for the next arc is a tie-in to the mega crossover "Blackest Night".  And that finishes the REVENGE OF THE RED HOOD arc.

Dead Bruce Wayne teasers the next volume.

This is a very enjoyable volume that doesn't require a massive amount of knowledge of what was happening during Batman's convoluted history at the time.  Knowing that stuff adds to the enjoyment, but pretty much all you need to know is conveyed in the first arc.  Dick and Damian make and enjoyable Batman and Robin, with Dick making a lighter, more falliable and more optimistic Batman than the overly grim "Bat God" that to be fair was also of Grant Morrison's making.  Batman's son as Robin could have been awful and self-indulgant but Damian is handled so well, that he was very well received by fandom.  Ironically the first attempt at a Robin with attitude was Jason Todd and well we can see how that turned out.  Given the lemons of his return, Morrison makes lemonade by contrasting his supposedly more "modern" approach with Batman's "old fashioned" values.  But crucially does retain sympathy for him in the end.  It's possible that Jason Todd as Red Hood has been as popular as he has been since, with (awful) New 52, DCYou and the DC Rebirth titles starring him mainly due to Grant Morrison's work with the chracter.  So thank you very much Grant, YOU MONSTER! Both artists do a fantastic job, portraying the kind of mad villians that could only come from Morrison's mind.  Philip Tan's work is great, but I'm a huge Frank Quitely fan and his coreography of the fight scenes especially is good stuff.  This volume gets the Batman and Robin series off to a great start and there are two more volumes before The New 52 cut it short and was rebooted into a different title, although Damian still stayed the current Robin.  Definitely worth checking out if you're a fan of how Morrison handles the Batman archetype, or if you just like good comics.

Gotham By Midnight Book 1: We Do Not Sleep (#1-5)

"This is a bad one.  Bigger than it seems.  I've got a feeling" - Jim Corrigan

Well at least this is a series I can't complain about being cancelled in the upcoming DC Rebirth... because DC cancelled it months ago, hah take that DC!  Oh wait. Damn.  Because this is really good quality stuff and once again proof that the office within DC doing the best and most consistently good work is the Bat-family office.  Like Black Canary which I picked up on the strength of the art, I impulse bought this in Forbidden Planet because I really like Ben Templesmith's artwork, he's best known for his vampire tale "30 Days Of Night" but I have covered his work on the excellent "Dead Space" mini-series on this blog.  Luckily the writing by Ray Fawkes matches the brooding quality of the artwork as we are introduced to the "Midnight Shift" of the Gotham City Police Department, a group of misfits who deal with the paranormal assaults on the city.  Cleverly this first arc introduces a "Scully" to the "Mulders" of the unit in the form of a man auditing them, through him we get to see the Unit at work as they take on a powerful and frightening force that just might be too much for them to handle.  All the characters are new bar one, Jim Corrigan, the human vessel for The Spectre.  The Spectre is basically the Wrath of God given angelic form and bound to a dead human, and Corrigan's struggles to hold the Spectre at bay become central to this arc as it unfolds.

The story begins with our skeptic, a sergeant Rook, arriving at the headquarters of Precinct Thirteen, the Midnight Shift. He's from Internal Affairs, who is querying their very existence, they have two officers and two consultants on the payroll working under Lieutenant Weaver.

Rook: "I hear crazy rumours about weirdo supernatural investigations, crazy stuff.  Smells like accounting fraud to me.  I'm going to ask you outright, what exactly is it you do?"

Weaver introduces their consultants, forensic specialist Doctor Szandor and Sister Justine, "expert uh.. in things".  Rook says his investigation is just a formality, he's going to shut them down no matter what.

Weaver, Rook, Szandor and Justine

Elsewhere Detective Corrigan is meeting with Batman.  He hands him some paperwork saying he can't send stuff digitally because electronics "react poorly to my touch.  Spirit images burnt into the screen".

Batman asks if Corrigan's colleagues know about The Spectre.  Corrigan replies, "it's complicated".  Then Detective Drake pulls up in a car, she calls Corrigan over saying I.A. are sniffing round the Precinct so he leaves with her. In the car they chat about what they wanted to be as kids.  Corrigan says he wanted to be a firetruck. Drake says she always wanted to be a cop, ever since she saw one save a kid from drowning and thought "how good it was.  How pure."

Back at Precinct Thirteen, Rook is still dismissing what they do, even after being shown a person who turned into salt.  Sister Justine says to him:

Justine: "Look closely sergeant.  The truth is here.  We have nothing to hide.  It's you people who deny what you see."

Then Corrigan and Drake arrive at the Precinct saying they've got a case.  A kidnapping of kids from Gotham Heights.  Rook says that case is closed, the kids were runaways who returned home a week ago.  Corrigan invites Rook to ride along with him, "I bet you change your mind in one night".

Corrigan, Drake and Rook go to Gotham Heights and note "some kind of ritual mark" on the porch wall.  Inside are the worried parents of the girls who came back wrong.  They are speaking a language no one understands.  Corrigan asks if they still have the clothes the girls disappeared in.  They do, they kept everything as they were.

Corrigan investigates the girls.

Corrigan examines the clothes while Drake checks the girls over.  Corrigan then tells her to bring Sister Justine over and record everything the girls say.  Corrigan asks for reports of missing kid in the past few days and is told fourteen have gone missing from Gotham Heights since yesterday.

Corrigan tells Rook the ritual mark was "black flowers from Slaughter Swamp".  It was a sign.  He and Rook drive out to Slaughter Swamp to investigate, Rook tells him he is "this close to citing you all for misappropriation of funds and recommending psychiatruic evaluation".  Corrigan says that in their own way the Midnight shift are "serving and protecting when nobody else can.  When nobody else knows."

They arrive at the Swamp and get out of the car.  Corrigan says this can't be the worst place Rook has visited.  Rook says the worst he saw was a wine cellar with a multiple homicide in it.  They see black flowers.  Corrigan says he has a way of reading the world of the dead, and asks if Rook is a religious man.  Rook dodges the question but Corrigan says:

Corrigan: "You feel that?  In your gut?  That's your soul saying... uh oh"

And they stumble upon a large wooden shack.  At Gotham Heights, Sister Justine arrives and the girls start screaming.  Corrigan and Rook venture into the wooden shack and they find a school room with the missing kids in it and headed up by a monstrous figure dressed as a nun.  "...it's a hell of a job" says Corrigan to Rook upon making this discovery.

The evil nun.

The monster nun attacks Corrigan and Rook. Corrigan yells to the freaked out Rook to get the kids out of ther while he deals with the creature.  He starts to glow green with Spectre power, but holds it in for now.

Corrigan: "I'm the expert here.  I can handle her.  I have to handle her or we're in more trouble than we know."

Rook starts getting the kids out, meanwhile at Gotham Heights, Justine leaves the apartment where the girls are hysterically freaking out at her.  She sits in the car and has a flashback to when she discovered something weird going on at the seminary.  She spotted altar boys drooling green goo into a sleeping man, so she reports this to the Father in charge.

The Father asks if she went to confession that day, then he turns into a monster and says he'll have to "initiate her earlier than expected".  The nun with him says Gotham is sick "this city is a dirty place.  A mad place.  It needs us as well".

Spectre power is go!

In the present, Corrigan has unleashed some Spectre power at the monster and blown its head apart.  It lifts him up and speaks the same strange language as the girls were.  Back in Justine's past, Corrigan arrives on the scene just as the monster Father is about to do something to her.  He says, "this is no garden variety possession.  Sorry I didn't get here sooner."  He tells Justine he hopes she did go to confession today,"It's about to get biblical in here." And he disintegrates the monster Father and nun.

In the present, Rook has got all the kids out of the building.  He is understandably scared by what he has seen, "I'm not equipped to deal with this" he says to Corrigan.  Corrigan says he did want to see what they do.  Then he uses his phone to play the bells for the end of the school day and the monster nun blows apart permanently.

Corrigan: "Ghosts.  You won't get anywhere fighting them.  Sometimes you have to tell them time's up."

In Justine's past, Corrigan says she is safe now but everyone else in the building is dead. She is OK because she is a "bona fide pure soul".  He asks her not to tell anyone about seeing The Spectre, and offers her a job as he thinks she can be of help to him.

Wanna job?

In the present Corrigan calls her and orders a bus to come collect the children, who are all speaking the same weird language.  He and Rook talk about what happened, Rook says he isn't exactly sure what he saw.  Corrigan invites him for a drink and they drive back to the precinct.

There, Doctor Szandor and Sister Justine are examining the recordings of the language the kidnapped girls were speaking. Justine recognises some of it as what she heard when she first met Corrigan.  Corrigan says this was just part of a heavy case, the kids need to be quarantined.

Corrigan: "Everyone on this, gang.  Something big and bad is moving into Gotham.  Something that has either got five names, five bodies or both."

Drake and Corrigan go to the hospital having been invited there by a Doctor Patel. They have a girl in an isolation ward.  He tells them to look at her shadow wich appears to be moving independantly of her.  Also she has smallpox, despite having been vaccinated against it. 

Drake undercover.

We flashback to Drakes past, she was working undercover for narcotics.  She is pretending to be high as she is driven to a meeting with some dealers with a male companion.  They have a job they want her companion to do, they have Corrigan bound and gagged in the boot of a car and they want him killed.

Back in the present, Szandor and Justine are working on decoding the mystery language while Rook checks through their records.  Corrigan calls them up and summons Szandor to the hospital:

Corrigan: "Over here we've got an autonomous human shadow with an articulated heart tha looks like it's made of fungus or mold or something.  The heart might be sentient."

Szandor rushes off. At the hospital, Drake and Patel are suited up in protective gear and go in to examine the girl more closely.  Patel approaches her but the shadow rears up and attacks him through his suit, killing him immediately with the smallpox type disease.  Then it escaped through the door and starts killing staff close by.  Drake confirms Patel is dead and that the disease isn't smallpox it just looks like it.

The killer shadow.

In Drake's past, she pulls a gun and reveals she is an undercover agent.  But one of the gang members sneaks up behind her and puts a gun to her head.  She lets out a blood curdling shriek that knocks her attacker down.  And then she shoots the dealers.

In the present, Szandor has arrived.  Drake asks the girl if she can control the shadow which is still attached to her, but she can't.  Szandor speaks some of the mystery language to it, and it pauses in it's killing spree and talks back to him.  Corrigan says to Szandor to keep it busy while he thinks of how to deal with it.  Drake decides to try shining a light directly on it, but has no idea if it'll work.

In her past, she frees Corrigan and asks him not to tell anyone what he saw her do here today.  He asks if she knows what she is, why she screams the way she does before someone dies.  She wants to know, having lived with it all her life.  He says he is setting up a taskforce and could use a partner.

Drake deals with the shadow monster.

We return to the present and the light separates the shadow from the girl.  They realise they are all going to have to go into quarantine because they are surrounded by diseased bodies.  Szandor says the shadow says it's name was "Ikkt".

Szandor: "Gotham is under attack.  And after seeing what this one alone almost did.. I shudder to think what's next."

Corrigan and Rook are in a Gotham bar getting drunk.  Corrigan comments that this is the oldest bar in Gotham, dating back to eighteen-twenty-something.  Rook makes to leave saying he knows that, his ancestors lived in the first Gotham town.  Corrigan says stay, he knows Rook wants to bring them up and charges and thiks they are all nuts, "it can't mean we can't be friends".  Rook disagrees, they are both pretty wasted by now.  Then a tentacle monster attacks them both.

Monsters are such buzzkills.

Drake and Szandor are driving through Gotham and come across several dead bodies.  Szandor says he wants to tell Corrigan something chemically weird is going on in Slaughter Swamp and that he thinks the monsters they have been dealing with come from there.  They examine the bodies, "bluish cast to the skin.  Smells of alcohol", and there are leech like things on them.  Then the leeches suddenly grow into huge tentacle creatures and Drake and Sazandor dive back in the car.  In the bar, Corrigan grabs one of the tentacles, and the creature says it is "Amodr".

Corrigan: "What did you come covering for me?  After I took care of your buddies? Ovovo in the swamp and Ikkt in the hospital?"

Szandor gets through to him and Corrigan holds out the phone so he can hear what Amodr is "saying".  Szandor confirms it is the "ghost langauge".  Corrigan says Amodr is trying to poison them with alcohol.  Outside the tentacles all start lashing out and killing everyone around them.  Drake puts her foot down and drives her and Szandor through them.  But Corrigan has other problems, Amodr has triggered the summoning of The Spectre, "judgement" is coming as he manifests himself in the bar.

Meet The Spectre.

The Spectre: "Foul creature.  Hellspawn.  You shall find no purchase here.  I am The Spectre.  I am Heaven's Blade.  Behold, the Whirldwind of the Lord goes forth in Wrath.  Swirling down upon the heads of the wicked.  I am the Storm and you... Abomination."

And he destroys Amodr.  However outside Gotham, the blackness of Slaughter Swamp has risen up and is advancing on the city.  Szandor is trying to speak to Corrigan over the phone still, saying he knows enough of the ghost language now to know that the creature was asking him if he knew what Gotham was?

Ikkondrid manifests.

He believes the creatures want judgement.  He has realised that it all makes sense now, stealing children and returning them speaking a different language from their parents, infecting people with smallpox and now poisoning them with alchohol.  These are all the things the founders of Gotham did to the indigenous tribe that originally lived there.

Szandor: "These things are the progeny of their great sins.  The psychic remnants of genocide... They want Gotham City to be judged!"

Drake is overwhelmed by premonitions of death and lets out her banshee scream.  As a now huge Spectre walks through the streets of Gotham to confront the living swamp, Weaver and Justine set off to find Corrigan.  Szandor still trying to reach Corrigan begs him to call the Spectre off, "what if we are judged and found wanting?"  And the Spectre and the swamp monster clash epically as Batman arrives on the scene in his plane.

We then get a two page spread of the Spectre holding the Swamp creature at bay, "while he decides whether he agrees with it.  While he decides whether we all live or die."  Drake and Szandor find Corrigan in the bar, he is slumped unconcious with heavenly light streaming from his eyes, nose and mouth.  Rook is there as well, his heart stops, but they shock him back to life.

Corrigan while The Spectre is manifest.

Corrigan narrates that when The Spectre manifests he doesn't mentally pass out.  He leaves his body and goes with him, "and then I have to watch".  The Swamp tells The Spectre who and what it is:

Ikkondrid: "I am Ikkondrid the Corpse.  I am Gotham's caul, torn from the city at the moment of it's first breath.  Betrayed.  Murdered.  Cast into the swamps.  I am not from the Unnatural Order.  I am the village tha once was and is now forgotten.  My children and I have summoned you that you might hear our plea".

Weaver and Justine arrive at where Corrigan, Drake, Rook and Szandor are.  Weaver is about to shoot Corrigan believing it to be the only way of stopping The Spectre.  Drake lets out another banshee scream which stops him cold.

Drake's banshee scream.

Batman fires missiles at Ikkondrid which have no effect.  His plane is showered with black flowers which cause the plane to crash.  Drake takes Weaver's gun away from him saying he won't shoot Corrigan, "he's my damn partner."  Weaver starts to beg the insensible Corrigan to regain control saying the city is "riddled with sin".  Outside by the crashed Batplane, Sister Justine makes her appeal directly to God.

Justine: "Please Lord.  If I am a pure soul, as Corrigan says.. though I don't believe I am... please spare this city".

Ikkondrid and The Spectre are still grappling with each other.  Ikkondrid says the village were fooled by words of friendship, their children taken and had the langauge of the ancestors beaten out of them, they were poisoned by disease and poison, and the founders of Gotham "folded their crime into the shape of a city".  And The Spectre stops fighting it, and turns to regard the city...

Uh oh...

While Weaver keeps begging Corrigan, Justine says to God that the people of Gotham are worth saving "will you take me in their place?"  And The Spectre is called off by the Voice of God.

Corrigan: "I don't understand.  Maybe one of us got through somehow.  Maybe one of us was heard.  Ikkondrid turns to the swamp.  I don't know why.  The Spectre knows, but it's somehow too big and nothing was forgiven here... this doesn't make sense to me..."

He catches a thought just before The Spectre vanishes, "something about remembering the innocents sacrificed for us.  Something about paying respect."  And Corrigan comes too finding the others and Batman standing round the body of Sister Justine.  It was her death Drake predicted.  Corrigan tells Batman they are safe for now.

Corrigan: "...but we paid.  It's not over. And damn, we paid."

Awww no..

Considering all the mad stuff that goes down in Gotham daily, having a unit of the Gotham PD dealing with the supernatural stuff feels like an idea that is so obvious it's amazing it hasn't been done before.  Fawkes and Templesmith bring us a team of likeable characters with two cool female ones, the brash banshee Drake and the meekly devout Sister Justine.  I was a little sad Sister Justine died, because although she died saving the whole city by offering up her soul in return for it, I felt like she still had more to offer as a character.  Still she went out a massive hero proving superheroes come in all guises, even only the Midnight Shift know about her sacrifice.  Corrigan and The Spectre fit beautifully into this set-up and this incarnation of The Spectre is definitely the most awesome and frighteningly judgemental I've seen since his appearance in Alan Moore's Swamp Thing run.  The fact the haunted past of Gotham CIty given form actually wanted The Spectre to manifest itself because it knew The Spectre would judge Gotham and find it wanting was a clever twist, and it was a humble nun that saved the day, not Batman in his Batplane with his Bat-missiles. The incidents leading up to the climax are also creepily effective, especially the haunted smallpox shadow. Templesmith excels at horror, his frantic line work and splashed inks imbuing everything with a sense of chaotic menace and he gives us a very impressive take on The Spectre as well, towering above the city shining with Divine Radiance, and we truly we get to see how The Spectre embodies the whole Good Is Not Nice trope here, only instead of going after petty evil doers, he's been manipulated into nearly destroying a whole city.  Unfortunately I believe Templesmith is gone from this series for the next (and final) volume, but the characters and concept are so appealing I shall be picking it up regardless and you can expect coverage of it on here when I do.

Gotham Academy Book 1: Welcome To Gotham Academy (#1-6)

"I don't know where I'm going to end up, but right now, this is where I belong" - Olive Silverlock

So.. my last post got a bit aggrieved and ranty towards DC and the New 52, I shall not apologise for that but maybe it wasn't fun to read.  It certainly wasn't fun to write, I prefer to accentuate the positive.  I'm a hugely loyal person and my loyalty to DC had been sorely tested since The New 52 began with so little of worth either coming out of it or sticking around when it did.  But this book has restored my faith in the company.  It feels like DC tracked me down personally and said "sorry, maybe you'll like this a little better" and thrust it into my hands. Then DC stroked my hair and left me to read it in one sitting. I wasn't sure what to expect but what I got was a hugely enjoyable blend of the best elements of manga influenced western comic art set in the most vibrant of DC's various locales, The Batverse. Gorgeously written by Becky Cloonan and Brendan Fletcher and beautifully illustrated by Karl Kerschl, in six issues it gives us a fantastic cast of characters and oodles of potential for cool adventures and character revelations still to come.  Although it began under The New 52, that label is noticably missing from the trade paperback's cover.  It feels far more in tune with the post-Convergence freshness of the DCYou and I wonder if the success of this and the relaunched Batgirl were big factors in taking bigger risks with the tone of their properties. Set in the boarding school which gives the series its name, it is an appropriately gothic inspired setting for the various mysteries that our main characters investigate, all the while as principal character Olive tries to remember what happened to her the previous summer that had such a dramatic effect on her personality and why she hates Batman so much.  Let's begin.

It's a dark and stormy evening.  Sat inside a darkened room are Olive Silverlock, a white haired and moody girl.  And Mia "Maps" Mizoguchi the sister of Olive's sortof ex boyfriend Kyle, she is a bundle of unfettered joy and geekery.  They are meeting with the Headmaster Hammer, the tells Maps that because she missed orientation she is likely not aware "all first year students are assigned a 'nanny' to help them acclimatise to campus life."

Headmaster Hammer, with Maps and Olive.

Olive is to be Map's nanny and he tells her to show her round the grounds later, but to avoid the closed and "structurally unsound" North Hall.  As Olive and Maps return to the classrooms, Olive thinks about how trapped she feels, "stuck with people who don't understand me and don't like me."  She alludes to something that happened during summer but does elaborate, only that it is part of what is keeping he there.

Olive bumps into a snooty girl called Pommeline Fritch who snobbily takes a verbal swipe at Olive being there on a Wayne Foundation scholarship.  Olive then attends her first class, The History Of Gotham 201.  They are set the book "The Diary of Millie Jane Cobblepot" to read.  Olive reflects that she has practically memorised the book because Millie Jane didn't fit in either.  A boy called Colton Rivera throws a paper shuriken at her head, "this is my life." thinks Olive.

Colton (left), Pommeline (right)

Later at lunch Olive reflects that the whole school is talking about rumours that the place is haunted.

Olive: "If there is a ghost at the academy, I'd trade places with it in a second.  What I wouldn't give to just disappear."

Maps is confused as to why Olive isn't sitting with her and Kyle at lunch, but Olive blows her off.  She then sneaks up on and surprises Colton making him drop the fireworks he has, getting him into trouble and them confiscated.  Back in her shared dorm room, she moodily stares into the mirror until her roomate snaps, "I liked you better last year when you were normal."

Olive then returns to Maps and asks if she would like to skip assembly and check out the creepy parts of the old chapel instead.  Maps grins.  Once inside they decide to climb to the belfry with Maps chattering away as to how this is similar to an rpg scenario she once oversaw.  When it looks like they can't get further up the stairs she reveals she has a grappling hook and rope in her bag.

They don't need it yet and reach the roof.  Outside the Bat signal is shining, "Ugh. I hate that thing" says Olive.  The big bell then rings and in surprise Maps falls off the roof and ends up hanging off a gargoyle.  Olive uses the grappling hook and rope to hang down and get her, then they get swarmed by bats and rappel further down ending up hanging outside a window which Bruce Wayne is giving a talk to the school in front of much to the rest of the school's amusement.

Maps and Olive crash the lecture.

They are bought inside and when Bruce Wayne comes towards her she cries out:

Olive: "No! No! Get away from me!  You're not taking me too!"

The history teacher calms her down and Olive is not sure why she reacted like that.  She returns to her dorm later, feeling a little better about the place and finds her roomate Lucy terrified because she thinks the ghost is spying on her.  Olive promises she will stay all night with her, no extra-curricular exploration for now.

The next chapter begins with Olive reading Millie Jane's diary again.  She hears a thud and scratches from behind the wall, but before she can investigate further the room is lit up by light from the Bat signal.  As she looks out of the window she sees several hooded figures scurrying across the grounds.

Next day before class begins, Olive sees Pommeline kissing a boy called Heathcliff saying "shhh, our secrets remember."  Annoyed by her staring, Pommeline confronts Olive saying she's heard all about her and the summer break, "I bet you love all the attention..."  She is cut-off by their History professor coming it, who "volunteers" Pommeline and Olive to work on the same history project together. "I think there's a lot you girls can learn from each other" she says.

Pommeline is up to something...

Later at lunch, Olive ignores Map's calling for her to sit with her and Kyle.  Instead she asks a creepy boy if she can sit with him.  She sees he is sketching a portrait of Maps.  Kyle comes up and asks to talk with her privately, but she says she has to go and meet Pommeline in the library.  Maps asks the creepy boy, "can you sketch my Serpents and Spells character?"

In the library the librarian tells them a certain book may come in handy and Olive is sent to find it.  As she searches she comes across a handsome, blonde haired boy with red eyes who startles her.  She collects herself and finds the book.  It's another copy of The Diary Of Millie Jane Cobblepot.  But this edition has lots of handwritten diagrams, maps and symbols on it.  Pommeline takes the book saying Olive has no idea what it means, then takes a shot at Olive's mum being "crazy" and leaves.

The handsome and mysterious boy.

In her chemistry class, Olive is distracted:

Olive: "Ugh.  What's wrong with me?  If I'm not crazy, why do I have a giant blank spot in my head where this summer should be?"

Colton pranks her again and she leaves to go to the tennis courts where she used to watch Kyle play.  She bumps into her History professor who is sneaking a cigarette.  They chat for a bit and Olive confesses she doesn't feel like the same person she was before summer and that has affected how she feels about Kyle.

The returns to her dorm room and find Maps there, who is investigating the noises behind the wall.  She's temporarily swapped with Lucy who is too frightened to stay in the room.  Before Maps can take a hammer to the wall, Olive hears something outside.

Mere walls cannot stop Maps.

They sneak out and follow the sound of eerie chanting through the graveyard.  They find a huge tree and an underground entrance.  Inside are three cultists performing a ritual.  At first she is scared, but then she sees The Diary Of Millie Jane on a shelf nearby and realises the cultists are Pommeline and friends.

She stomps over and grabs the book, Pommeline shouts at her, "Get your hands off that! Get out! You'll ruin everything."  But Olive turns and fire rises up and swirls around her and she says:

Olive: "You have no idea who you're dealing with."

Olive gets scary.

The next chapter jumps forwards in time.  Olive is telling Colton that she has in detention because she went to retrieve a rare book.  She wants to know why he is suddenly so interested in her, he says it's because "last year you were such a drip."  He wants her to act as lookout for when he steals his confiscated stuff back.  Before they can go further they here a loud scream.  Olive runs out and finds it was from Lucy who has seen Millie Jane's ghost which they catch a glimpse of outside.

Pommeline says she summoned her, and had been trying to banish her as well.  Pommeline grudgingly admits Olive might be trustworthy having done a weeks detention and not snitched on her.  They discuss Millie Jane's relationship with the closed North Hall and Pommeline wonders if she summoned the wrong ghost and who is actualy buried in Millie Jane's grave.  Heathcliff comes up and mocks her gently and Pommeline leaves in a huff.

Olive asks why Heathcliff is involved in Pommeline's secret society, The Order Of The Bat.  He says he wants her to like him he guesses.  Kyle comes up and says he and Olive need to talk, so they go somewhere private for a chat.  He wants to know why he didn't contact her all summer. Olive admits it was because of her mum, "she's been in a .. kind of...hospital. She's sick.  And this summer the hospital collapsed."  Now her mum is in a coma and the doctors don't think she'll ever wake up.  Kyle says he'll give her all the space she needs, she can break his heart, "just don't break Maps's heart too."

Kyle, the most understanding boyfriend ever.

Later Maps appears loaded down with snacks saying her and Olive are going to have a ghost hunting stakeout.  In a small tent she has erected on the roof she goes through the various sightings.  Olive says there is something up at the North Hall, "they're hiding something" she muses.  Through her binoculars she spies the blonde, red eyed boy again.  Then she spots two glowing eyes through a window in the North Hall.

Realising they need help to get inside there she invites Colton to come along and Pommeline joins as well.  Colton picks the lock on the North Hall front door and they venture inside. Olive thinks, "I've been here before and I wasn't alone".  Suddenly she thinks they should leave, but Pommeline drags her in deeper.  They find a huge hole in the floor and Olive reaches inside, then a huge green hand suddenly pokes up through the hole and Maps yells "run!" in fear.

The monster in the hole.

Next day during sports, a still freaked out Olive and Pommeline reflect that it definitely wasn't Millie Jane's ghost they saw.  Also the North Hall has been taped off, they know someone broke in just not who.  Olive is then called before the headmaster.  As she waits she overhears Bruce Wayne and her history teacher Macpherson discussing her but before she can hear much she spots the same odd symbol Maps saw before, there in the waiting room as well and the Headmaster appears behind her.

He asks if she knows about the break in at the North Hall, she mumbles she doesn't and she's seen the tape, she'll stay away. "Of course you will" says the Headmaster.  She leaves and as she walks down some steps she opens Millie Jane's diary and finds the odd symobol highlighted inside it.  Then she slips and the blonde haired boy catches her.  He says it isn't the first time he's caught her.  She asks if he means during summer, but he just leaves mysteriously.

Later as Olive and Maps discuss the odd symbol, Olive tries to tell her about the situation between her and Kyle.  But Maps just chunters on and says she saw the creepy boy drawing the symbol in the cafeteria, "Let's interrogate him!" she exclaims.  They track him down, finding out he's called Eric and confront him about the symbol.  He just squeaks and flees, shedding papers as he goes. "Secret papers!" says Maps.  They turn out to be pages from the script of Macbeth.

Creepy Eric.

They go and watch the rehearsal but Eric isn't there.  Olive thinks it's a dead end, but the drama teacher appears and tells them they have a "gifted craftsman at work in the props room".  They find Eric there and he finally admits he saw the symbol in the girls dorm, he blurts out, "I didn't move any stones!"

We then cut to Maps and Olive planning another nights exploration.  Suddenly they see the "ghost" of Millie jane outside the window.  Olive smashes the window and grabs the ghost and discovers it's a fake.  She goes up to the roof and finds Heathcliff and another boy there doing the fakery.  Heathcliff admits he did it to make Pommeline happy, so Olive promises not to tell her.  She then asks him about the blonde haired boy, and Healthcliff says he is an exchange student called Tristan.

As she walks back through the girls dorm, she over hears Pommeline arguing with her mother on the phone about her occult interests.  Olive finds the symbol and it leads to a series of passageways behind the walls.  She investigates further and finds herself behind her dorm room wall, she calls to Maps through the crack who is eager to come and help her.  Olive explores further and suddenly she bumps into Killer Croc, huge and green and still in his Arkham Asylum uniform.  Pommeline says she won't tell anyone why he is here, but she thinks he knows about her mum and she needs him to tell her.

The "ghost" revealed.

She shows him a photo of her mother, "Sybil Silverlock.  My mother.  You were in Arkham Asylum with her."  Croc says he was in the cell over from her, she gave him the photo before the place collapsed and he promised to look out for Olive.  As they talk they hear Maps yelling "I'm looooost in the walls.  It's amaaaaaazing!".  Frightened, Croc runs off.  Maps bursts onto the scene and says:

Maps: "Crap!  You won't believe this.  I saw a lizard man! Lots of hit points but never drop anything good."

I love her.  She asks if Croc is "friend or foe".  Friend decides Olive and they follow him deeper into the tunnels.  She muses that all the ghost really was was an escaped Arkham Asylum inmate.  They reach a room with multiple doors and the mysterious symbol carved into the floor.  Maps consults the diary and uses a compass to ascertain the right direction, but when they travel down it, Croc has blocked the way.  The tunnel leads directly to the North Hall. Olive slumps saying she'll never find out more from Croc, but Maps says she has friends who can help.

Maps: "We're all in this together."

She and Maps return to Olive's dorm room where they find Lucy trying on her dress for the dance which is up coming.  She has heard Olive has a thing for Tristan the blonde haired exchange student and that it's "Splits for you and Kyle."  Olive protests it's no such thing, but Maps leaves abruptly saying to be at her room tommorrow at nineteen hundred hours.

Secret plans are planned.

We cut to the meeting. Colton and Pommeline are there as well. They have a map of the North Hall spread out and Maps thinks there is another way in but they need Colton's bag of tricks.  They plan to go there under cover of the dance.  Kyle appears to see Maps and Olive blurts out an invite to the dance with him.  We then cut to it, Maps is in a tuxedo because she is her roomate Katherine's "date" because Katherine couldn't find anyone to go with.  Maps is so damn sweet.

All four of them manage to sneak away and convene outside the headmasters study.  There is a riddle lock on the door, but Maps unlocks it, "what?  I'm good with puzzles."  They retrieve Colton's stuff and rummage through the rest of the confiscated things.  Maps hands Olive a crossbow for protection and off they go to the North Hall.

On the way, Olive is startled by a giant batlike shape flying overhead.  She fires an arrow at it and brings it down.  Horrified by what she might have done she breaks from the others and goes to investigate.  It is Tristan, he is winged and half batlike, he has the Manbat "Langstrom Virus".  Luckily Olive hasn't badly hurt him.

Tristan's illness revealed.

He says his condition is why he is at the school.  He says he saw her last summer walking to the North Hall in a daze.  By the time he got down to her she was inside and "all hell had broken loose."  She was sleepwalking through the fire, which wasn't touching her, but the flames were angry and alive.  When the floor broke underneath her he swooped in and caught her and pulled her out of the place and took her to the infirmary where MacPherson asked him to keep an eye on her for the foreseeable future.

Maps then appears and hugs Olive as Tristan flies off.  Using Colton's explosives and an underground passageway they blast there way into the North Hall where Croc is hiding.  Olive tells him not to run and that they have bought him food. They all sit down together, but before Croc can tell Olive what she needs to hear about her mum, Batman appears. Uh oh.

Batman vs. Killer Croc.

As Croc and Batman fight, Olive watches in a trance.  The others start to run away, but Olive's eyes light up and she sets off the firecrackers in Colton's bag.  This starts a bigger fire.  Olive yells at Batman to "stay way from him! Haven't you already done enough?"  A beam falls and Croc dives on Olive protecting her, then he scoops her up and heads for the tunnel.  The others scarper, Colton yells they'll meet in the girls dorm later.

Down in the depths of the tunnels Croc tells Olive about her mum.  How she had another side to her who "wasn't always so nice."  He says he didn't really belong in the Asylum and neither did her mum.  She was the one who told him about the tunnels under the school.

Croc: "When she looked at me, she didn't see a monster.  And she never stopped loving you."

Olive thanks him.  He says he swore to protect her "but now look what happened."  Olive says she'll be OK and he agrees her friends seem trustworthy.  He starts to swim away and Olive says she hopes they can meet again some day.  Croc says she has a little of her mother's fire, and then he is gone.

A sweet moment between Croc and Olive.

Back on the surface, Maps fully glomps her.  Pommeline then reminds her they have their report on Millie Jane Cobblepot to do for tommorrow.  As she heads back to her dorm room alone, she thinks that she has changed, but "through it all I have to remember who I am". Batman then confronts Olive.  She lashes out at him verbally saying he destroyed her life, "you destroy everything!"

He says both Croc and her mother belonged in Arkham Asylum, "It was the only way."  Gotham needed protection from her, "One day you will understand" he says, then he asks for the special Diary of Millie Jane Cobblepot.  Olive sulkily says she doesn't have it.  When she turns to face him, he's gone.

Next day Pommeline and Olive present their report, somewhat slanted by recent events.  Later at lunch Pommeline laments the fact they only got a C+ for it.  Kyle comes up and tells Olive he knows she was in the North Hall and she can trust him to be there for her when stuff happens.

Then Colton comes up and shows off his A grade.  Maps suddenly realises the mystery symbol is two inverted "A's" joined together, which must mean Arkham Asylum and the Academy have more links than they realise.  Maps decides to create a "Detectives Club" made up of her, Olive, Pommeline, Colton and Kyle to investigate and Olive agrees it's a great idea.  She finally feels that she belongs.  The last three pages detail Damian Wayne, Bruce Wayne's son and the current Robin breaking in and stealing back the diary.  He gives it to his dad in the headmaster's office and the head welcomes him to Gotham Academy. 

The new club, left to right, Pommeline, Kyle, Maps, Olive and Colton.

Wonderful stuff.  Crammed with incident and fantastic character work and with mystery aplenty still to come this still wraps up nicely as a six issue introductory storyline.  I like that Pommeline is part of the gang.  The Queen Bee nemesis stuff can be a little tired so having her come over to the side of the main character is nice, though hopefully she'll still snark at Olive when Olive gets too self absorbed.  I did like the use of Killer Croc here, as I like it when Batman's rogues gallery gets some nuance to it.  Having him agree to watch over Olive was incredibly sweet and it's interesting how this series has so far framed Batman as an brutish, insensitive thug.  So how fantastic that Damian Wayne is going to start attending the school as Batman's eyes and ears within the place.  I have a great fondness for the arrogant little prick and I bet he'll be a major spanner in the works. Although this is Olive's story, uber nerdy Maps still steals every scene she is in, if the difference between the DCYou and The New 52 can be summed up by one thing, it's that a hyperactive, goofy and unrelentingly positive character like Maps can now star in a book.  This is excellent by the way.  I can't say enough good things about the writing and the art, both are really fantastic as I hope you can see.  Really the only bad thing about this series so far is that I have to wait until March for the next volume!