This past Saturday was BATMAN DAY so I made my way to the best comic book shop in Greensboro North Carolina The United States THE WORLD, Acme Comics to get a new stack of comic books.
I'm 60 years old. I really should stop.
But not yet because I want to see how this event plays out: Batman/Catwoman: The Gotham War.
So here's the deal: Bruce Wayne has been asleep for 8 weeks due to the recent Night Terrors event.
That's one hell of a nap and I'm a bit jealous because I do love my naps.
Well, Bruce isn't exactly coming out of this nap well rested due to the machinations of the Night Terrors big bad called Insomnia. And there's a ton of shit he's been through since Chip Zdarsky took over as writer like Failsafe and Red Mask. The loss of his right hand and it's robotic replacement is a trauma Batman refuses to deal with.
And inside his head Zur-En-Arrh, Batman's emergency back up persona is active in his mind, poking at him, poking at him, poking at him. Batman insists to himself he is in control.
He's not in control as much as he thinks he is.
And something strange is going on in Gotham City.
Crime is... down?
And what crime is happening is being done by formerly low level henchmen now committing high level crimes. I mean high level like stealing stuff from the ultra rich in their penthouse towers.
While the Bat was away, the Cat was getting down to business.
Selina Kyle, the Catwoman, is the crime boss of Gotham City. Under her leadership, she has taken in the low life crooks whose only recourse was working as henchmen for the Riddler and the Joker and that crazy crew and given them a new avenue for advancement.
Selina is training them in cat burgarly skills and setting them out into Gotham with a specific set of rules such as:
- No killing.
- Steal only from the very rich.
- Donate 15% of their gains to charity.
The upshot is that Gotham City has experienced a drop in crime over all.
- Violent crime is down
- Petty theft is down.
- Street level crime is down.
Fewer bodega owners with guns thrust in their faces with demands for the paltry dollars in their cash registers.
And the big bads who cause so much trouble for Gotham like Two Face and Mr. Freeze can't pull together enough henchmen to do shit 'cause Catwoman has cornered the market on henchmen.
No Arkham escapees threatening Gotham's water supply.
Catwoman wants Batman and his family to look the other way.
Batman doesn't like it.
He's all old school conservative "a crime is a crime" no matter who is being stolen from.
Catwoman's shades of grey perspective on crime clashes with Batman's black & white morality. Bruce's absolute recalcitrance in accepting any part of Selina's strategy is on one hand in keeping with the absolutist nature of Batman's mission, to wage war on ALL criminals. But is disappointing that he cannot see that her results are real.
Of course, Zur-En-Arrh may be fucking with his brain.
From Bruce's internal narration, we can tell he is not firing on all cylinders right now.
Also are Selina's results sustainable? How long will it be before the crazy chaos gods who have tormented Gotham City for so long decide they want their playground back?
Professor Pyg, the Mad Hatter, Mister Freeze, Two Face and more have gathered together to figure out how to make Gotham theirs again.
And the Riddler is scheming on his own.
Selina's got a good thing going on here.
A shame everything's going to happen to it.
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