Batman #406 – “Black Dawn” – Frank Miller/David Mazzucchelli
This is the third chapter of the Year One storyline that redefined Batman’s origin. Last Issue, Batman ended up in an abandoned building and police commissioner Loeb (who’s crooked) ordered his SWAT team (also crooked) to firebomb the place and kill Batman, who’s declared war on corruption in Gotham. Inside, Batman’s utility belt ignites and he’s forced to toss it, leaving him with limited resources to escape the fire. He does have a lockpick in his glove and gets through an electricity panel into the basement. Across town,
Selina (soon to be Catwoman) Kyle and her friend Holly notice the flames and wonder what’s up. Outside the building, Lieutenant Gordon (possibly the only cop on the force who’s not crooked) knows Batman was wounded while helping him save a homeless woman last issue, but he can’t stop the SWAT team from going into the burning building to make sure Batman’s dead. The building is full of dead winos and homeless people who sheltered there, but the cops aren’t too bothered about their deaths. A squad heads down to the basement to look for Batman and he takes out the men they left behind, dropping a heavy beam on the trap door. Commissioner Loeb is in a 
helicopter nearby, watching things unfold and giving orders to kill Batman on sight. Batman runs into a stray cat that takes off when more cops show up. Batman is down to a couple items he keeps in his boots: a blowgun (with three darts) and a special electronic device that can summon the bats from the caves under Wayne Manor. He hasn’t really tested that device properly, but he triggers it anyway and hopes it works. When the SWAT guys show up, he takes one down with a dart and almost gets blown away. He tosses the cat out a window and stray bullets follow, hitting a cop outside. The cat ends up with Selina, who came to check out the scene. Batman’s losing blood but manages to bring the ceiling down on the SWAT team. He starts pounding
them (beginning with the one who tried to kill the cat) and the crowd outside starts cheering Batman on. The bat swarm shows up and everyone freaks, giving Batman time to get out, steal a motorbike, and get away. Gordon finds out Batman stole some clothes from a nearby store, but left money to pay for them. Gordon starts wondering if Batman is really all tat bad: he’s fighting the same corruption that Gordon is, he took time to save a cat, and he made sure to pay for the clothes he took. Gordon and his partner Sarah Essen are still suspicious of Bruce Wayne, who’s supposedly skiing in Switzerland, and just happened to break some bones in a ski accident … right where the casts 
would cover Batman’s wounds. When Gordon calls to check his whereabouts, Bruce knows he’s getting suspicious, but he also knows Gordon is the only clean cop on the force, so he’d make a good ally. Meanwhile, seeing Batman fight his way past the cops has inspired Selina to change her life, so she punches out her pimp and takes Holly with her, spending all their money on a fancy cat costume. Gordon’s life is unravelling rapidly, as he contemplates cheating on his wife with Sarah and wonders if he’s on the right side, since the cops are all criminals and Batman’s apparently a stand-up guy.
Detective #573 – “The Mad Hatter Flips His Lids” – Mike W. Barr/Alan Davis/Paul Neary
This one starts with Jervis (Mad Hatter) Tetch being released from prison. Batman and Robin warn him to stop obsessing over hats and try to live a normal life, but as soon as they leave, Tetch makes a pirate hat out of newspaper. Soon after, Commissioner Gordon receives an empty hat box at police headquarters and a cryptic note from Mad Hatter. Batman and Robin interrupt Hatter’s first strike (at the Liar’s Club), but he gets away after starting a fire that the Dynamic Duo have to extinguish. Batman and Robin puzzle over Mad Hatter’s choice of
targets until Batman figures out that Hatter is using hat-based themes that don’t actually involve hats. They head to the sports arena (since three goals in a game is called a hat trick) and find Hatter robbing the box office. They pound his men and chase him into the Hall of Sports, which is full of giant displays. They catch Hatter’s men (and recover the money), but Mad Hatter gets away again. Batman decides to lure him out by using his Bruce Wayne persona to run for city council (throwing his hat into the political ring, as the newspaper 
headline says). Gordon’s not happy about some dilettante running for office, but the ruse works. Mad Hatter shows up at Wayne’s fundraiser with hats that are actually remote-controlled buzzsaws. Bruce and Jason change quickly and go after Mad Hatter, pounding his men with some help from the cops. Hatter tries to get away on a flying hat, but Batman uses the buzzsaw hats to bring it down and pounds Hatter. Unfortunately, Hatter gets off a stray shot that hits Robin.
Outsiders #18 – “Rage, Rage Against the Dying of the Light” – Mike W. Barr/Jim Aparo
Last issue, the Outsiders ended up in the island nation of Diablo, where a bunch of cultists were trying to bring Eclipso back. Batman was investigating the cult and ended up running into the Outsiders. Bruce Gordon showed up too, hoping to sever his connection with Eclipso forever, even if it meant sacrificing his own life. But Gordon was captured and Eclipso was revived during an eclipse. Eclipso’s power is now so strong that he stopped the moon from moving, causing a permanent eclipse to insure his continued power. Eclipso sends the cultists to kill
Batman and the Outsiders, but the heroes turn the tables and take out quite a few cultists. They sneak into the temple to find Gordon and he tells them he’s invented a solar pulse that can free him of Eclipso’s influence for good. Eclipso shows up and starts pounding them, his power now so strong that they can’t really hurt him … except Katana. Her mystical sword can slice through Eclipso’s dark energy and can even wound him. But he heals instantly, bragging that he’s the personification of the concept of darkness, which can never be eliminated. But when Batman threatens to kill Bruce Gordon, Eclipso leaves, so he obviously 
does have one weakness. Gordon tells Batman he should just kill him to end Eclipso’s threat forever, but Batman (and Gordon’s fiancée Mona) isn’t willing to do that … at least, not yet. Eclipso does want Gordon dead, but first he wants to hurt him by forcing Mona to be his wife. That doesn’t sit well with the cult priestess (who turns out to be the first lady of Diablo) because she wanted to be Eclipso’s woman, but he blasts her to ashes when she complains. The Outsiders get to Gordon’s lab and set up his pulse gun, but he points out that Eclipso is now too strong for the gun to affect him. When Eclipso shows up, the team combine their powers, weakening him with Geo-Force’s null-gravity, hitting him with the solar pulse, and letting Katana slice him into
pieces. Even that can’t kill him, but when he starts to reconstitute himself, Gordon does the only thing he can … he absorbs Eclipso back into his body. Mona says she’ll stick by him and help him fight off Eclipso’s influence, and Batman suggests he and the Outsiders should keep working together. There’s a goofy little back-up story about Looker being a contestant on a game show where dangerous “accidents” happen to the contestants. After eliminating her fellow contestants as suspects, she (with help from Metamorpho) figures out the host was staging the accidents to keep ratings up.