Batman #405 – “War is Declared” – Frank Miller/David Mazzucchelli
This is part 2 of the Year One storyline, which redefined (and solidified) Batman’s origin post-Crisis. It starts with Lieutenant James Gordon still trying to clean up the corruption in the Gotham police department. That’s an uphill battle, since the police commissioner (Loeb) is corrupt himself. Gordon gets involved in a hostage situation where a nutcase named Blume has grabbed a kid. The Gotham SWAT team is led by a quasi-fascist named Branden and they’re ready to go in with guns blazing, which will probably get the kid
killed, along with other innocent bystanders. Gordon calls them off and goes in unarmed to talk to Blume, who’s completely incoherent. Gordon manages to take him down and save the kid, which gets a lot of positive coverage from the press. Loeb knows he can’t just kill Gordon when the press (and the public) like him so much, so he bides his time. Gordon’s wife Barbara is getting closer to her due date, and getting pissed off that Gordon is spending so much time at work. Gordon is surprised when he gets the first reports of a giant bat assaulting criminals around Gotham. Yes, Bruce Wayne has taken the bat 
crashing through his window as a sign and made a bat costume for himself, so he can strike fear into criminals. We see him taking down some burglars on a fire escape, but he almost gets his ass kicked when he grabs onto one of the thieves to keep him from falling to his death. Even at this early date, Batman refuses to kill. Gordon wants to catch Batman (as the press calls him) even though he’s only assaulting criminals, because he thinks Batman’s brand of vigilantism is dangerous. Of course, half the criminals in the city are actually cops; Batman even ends up pounding Gordon’s erstwhile partner (Flass), who makes up some story to cover the fact he was supervising a
drug deal. Flass’s embellishments go a long way in establishing Batman’s legend (that he’s bulletproof and uses strange weapons, for example). Batman’s campaign actually reduces street crime quite a bit, but cuts into the profits all the crooked cops and government officials are making. Batman goes to the mayor’s mansion when he’s throwing a party that includes Commissioner Loeb and mob boss Roman Falcone. Batman busts in and tells them he’s putting an end to their corrupt regime. That pisses Loeb off and he orders Gordon (who Batman kind of admires since “all the right people seem to 
hate him”) to catch Batman. Gordon uses his new partner (Sarah Essen, who he’ll end up having an affair with and eventually marrying) and other cops to stage fake muggings, hoping to lure Batman out. But Batman can see through the ruses and ignores them, preferring to strike at real criminals like Roman Falcone (whose Rolls Royce he dumps in the harbour). Gordon goes to see Assistant District Attorney Harvey Dent, who he suspects might be Batman. But we see Batman hiding in Dent’s office, which explains how he knows about all the police operations. Gordon’s not sure about Dent, since he wouldn’t have the money to finance Batman’s campaign against crime. Essen mentions Bruce Wayne, who’s rich and would hate criminals since
they killed his parents years ago. Gordon and Essen see a runaway truck heading for a homeless woman and Gordon jumps aboard to try to stop it. Batman swoops down to save the homeless woman while Gordon is knocked out when the truck crashes. When he wakes up, Essen is holding Batman at gunpoint, but he disarms her and takes off. More cops show up and one of them puts a bullet in Batman’s leg. Loeb orders Branden and his SWAT team to kill Batman, over Gordon’s protests. Batman holes up in a condemned building and the SWAT team drops a firebomb on top of it.
Detective #572 – “The Doomsday Book” – Mike W. Barr/Alan Davis, Terry Beatty, Carmine Infantino, E.R. Cruz/Dick Giordano, Al Vey, Paul Neary
This is a special anniversary issue of Detective Comics featuring the original (and possibly greatest) fictional detective, Sherlock Holmes. I’m not sure if this is meant to be canon or not (Holmes would have to be about 130 years old at this point), but it is presented that way. It starts with another detective, Slam Bradley, meeting a new client named Morgan. Morgan is British and wants Bradley to find his fiancée, who was kidnapped the day before. Bradley thinks there’s something fishy about Morgan’s story, which is confirmed when a bunch of
guys with automatic weapons bust in trying to kill Morgan. Bradley and Morgan take off but get cornered in the alley. Batman and Robin show up to pound the gunmen, but the last guy grabs Morgan and takes off. Batman had a tip from Gordon about these guys (involving the IRA) and figures they’re from England (by their accents), so he decides he and Robin better head over there, telling Bradley he should stay behind. But Bradley feels a certain loyalty to his client (even though no money changed hands), so he starts snooping around Gotham for a lead. Bradley goes to several Irish pubs putting the story about that whoever 
kidnapped Morgan’s fiancée got the wrong girl. He finally gets a hit and records a phone call of an IRA sympathizer warning someone that they got the wrong girl. Bradley tracks the call to Gotham Island and finds the girl. After a tough fight, he rescues her but is stunned to learn Morgan’s real name is Thomas Moriarty … and his fiancée is Mary Watson. The story takes a detour now, with Ralph (Elongated Man) Dibny in London meeting a guy named Waid who claims to have found an unpublished Sherlock Holmes manuscript. When Ralph gets to the Holmes museum (at 221B Baker Street, naturally) he finds some guys trying to kill Waid and rifle the place to find the manuscript. The leader’s
name is Moriarty (the grand-nephew of the original one) and he wants to destroy the manuscript because it contains a clue to whatever scheme he’s hatching. Moriarty manages to knock Ralph out an light the place on fire, figuring the manuscript will be destroyed wherever it’s hidden. Bradley and Mary show up and help put the fire out and Ralph figures out where Waid hid the manuscript (in the gasogene … yes, this section is full of Holmesian references). We now get a presentation of the unpublished Holmes story, called the Adventure of the Red Leech. Holmes meets a client named 
Brewster, a doctor who’s supposed to attend Queen Victoria the next day. But Brewster has been having blackouts, where friends claim to have seen him and his wife at their club, but he has no memory of those evenings. Holmes inquires about his wife and learns she’s American and her maiden name was Crosby. Holmes sends a telegram to Chicago and finds out Patty Crosby and her father both died in a train accident the previous year. Holmes begins to suspect Moriarty’s involvement in the caper, so he and Watson go to Brewster’s place. They find him almost comatose, with a red leech on his chest which Watson throws into the fire. They grab Brewster and fight their way through several thugs before running into Brewster’s wife, who works for Moriarty.
She ends up dead and they get Brewster out and leave him with the police before heading to Buckingham Palace. There they find a fake Dr. Brewster trying to kill Queen Victoria with another red leech and Homes captures him. Later, he explains how he suspected a double and the complicity of Brewster’s wife and put all the pieces together. We get back to the main story with Batman and Robin showing up and joining the others in London. Batman reads the manuscript and figures Moriarty’s descendent is going to go after the Royal Family like in the story. Mary assures Batman that Thomas Moriarty was trying to stop his 
cousin, which is why she was kidnapped. Batman also has information that Moriarty is planning something at Greenham Common, so he sends Bradley, Ralph, and Robin (and Mary, who refuses to stay behind) to deal with that while he goes to warn the Queen. At Greenham Common, Moriarty hijacks some nuclear missiles and wants to shoot them at the United States and cause an international incident, letting his cousin take the rap for it (which will still bring the name Moriarty back to prominence). Robin and company pound Moriarty’s men, but he manages to launch the missile … with Robin and Ralph going along for the ride. While Bradley captures Moriarty, Ralph removes the missile’s guidance system and payload, parachuting back to
the ground as the missile explodes. Meanwhile, at Grimsby Castle, the Queen is dedicating a version of the Doomsday Book, but Moriarty has booby-trapped it and the Inspector in charge of security (Foxborough) is one of his men. Batman sneaks in and saves the Queen, but Foxborough takes off. He’s stopped by an elderly gentleman who turns out to be the actual Sherlock Holmes, still alive thanks to distillations of royal bee jelly and the rarified air of Tibet. Holmes meets the others and explains how he’s been helping behind the scenes. Ralph goes all fanboy over Holmes, but Batman pulls him back, saying Holmes has earned his privacy.
Outsiders #17 – “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” – Mike W. Barr/Jim Aparo
This one starts with Batman staking out a museum to catch thieves that have been stealing South Pacific artifacts. He runs into the thieves, who are dressed in strange costumes and led by a priestess, who’s looking for specific artifacts to bring someone back to life. Batman has a pretty good idea who that someone is, and his suspicions are confirmed when the priestess shoots a beam of blackness at him. Batman ends up getting captured and the thieves get the tablet they were after. Later, two of the Outsiders (Geo-Force and Looker) are visiting
the embassy of a South Pacific island nation called Diablo, when the embassy is attacked by the priestess and her goons, who re looking for an idol. The Outsiders (soon joined by their teammates) fight the invaders, but have trouble dealing with the black light projected by the priestess. The thieves get away with the idol and the ambassador tells them about a cult called the Children of the Dark, who worshipped some dark power on Diablo until an American named Bruce Gordon showed up and killed the cult leader. Now Gordon has returned to the island and the cult is active again, so the Prime Minister asks the Outsiders if they’ll go to Diablo and stop the cult before things get out of 
hand. They agree to try, but when they arrive in Diablo and meet Gordon (and his fiancée Mona Bennett) he gets pissed off and tells them to get lost. They pretend to leave, but actually hide elsewhere on the island. There’s an eclipse coming up and Gordon has some kind of plan, which he thinks the Outsiders would stop him from carrying out. Gordon has rigged up a solar-pulse machine that he thinks will get rid of Eclipso forever, but using it could be a huge risk for him. Before he can activate the machine, the cultists show up to stop him. The Outsiders were hanging back because Black Lightning suspected Gordon might be the cult’s leader, but when they see the cultists attacking him they jump in to help. They do pretty well at first, but the priestess uses her black light to take them all out. They wake up encased in black light cells, with
Gordon chained up nearby. Gordon is taken by the cultists for their ceremony to bring back Eclipso and the Outsiders realize Batman is in the dungeon with them. He busts them loose and they go to stop the ceremony, but they’re too late; the eclipse occurs and Eclipso returns from the energy form he’s been stuck in since Green Lantern 186. Batman and the others retreat, figuring they can just wait for the eclipse to finish and kick Eclipso’s ass, but Eclipso uses the artifacts the cult stole (especially some gems hidden inside the idol) to cause the moon to stand still, making the eclipse permanent and assuring Eclipso of maximum power.