Batman #407 – “Friend in Need” – Frank Miller/David Mazzucchelli
This is the final chapter of the Year One story that redefines Batman’s origin. As you’ll see, this storyline is just as much about James Gordon’s beginnings as it is about Batman’s. This one starts with Gordon and his partner (Sarah Essen) still messing around, even though Gordon is married and his wife is pregnant. They both feel guilty about the affair and Essen has put in for a transfer, but in the meantime they’re still canoodling. Gordon is in the spotlight because he just arrested a big dope dealer (Jefferson Skeevers), who everyone thinks is highly connected. Gordon’s not happy when Harvey Dent doesn’t contest Skeevers getting bail, but Dent
is working with Batman and figures he can get to Skeevers more easily on the outside. He does, and intimidates Skeevers into implicating crooked cop Flass. Commissioner Loeb (who’s also crooked) doesn’t like Gordon getting so close to him, so he shows Gordon photos of him and Essen to make him back off. Gordon still thinks Bruce Wayne might be Batman and goes to visit him, bringing his wife along because she’s past her due date. Bruce plays the drunken dilettante well, but Gordon still wonders. On the way home, Gordon decides to tell Barbara the truth about him and Essen, to remove the 
blackmail threat. Flass’s indictment goes ahead (despite an attempt to kill Skeevers) and Barbara gives birth to a baby boy. Selina (Catwoman) Kyle is pissed off that Batman is getting credit for some of her capers, especially robbing Loeb’s penthouse. She decides to go after Roman Falcone and leave some scratches on his face so everyone knows it wasn’t Batman. As she pounds his guards, Falcone assumes she’s working for Batman, but the Caped Crusader is actually there spying on Falcone. He helps Catwoman take out the guards and leaves her to give Falcone a scratch or two. Batman’s surveillance of Falcone tells him the mobster is going to make a move
against Gordon, so he heads for Gordon’s place. Gordon is lured away by a phone call, but sees someone (actually Bruce) on a motorbike going into the parking garage of his building. He heads back and finds some thugs holding his wife and baby. He shoots the guy holding Barbara, but takes a bullet in the shoulder. The others take off with the baby and Gordon shoots Bruce (assuming he’s one of the kidnappers, since he’s wearing a helmet that conceals his face) and takes the motorbike. Bruce follows and catches up to them on a 
bridge where Gordon forces the car to crash. Gordon ends up fighting the last thug, but the baby is tossed over the side of the bridge. Bruce jumps down to save the baby as Gordon and the thug plummet into the river too. Gordon thanks Bruce for saving is son and tells him to leave before the cops arrive. Gordon has lost his glasses and claims to be blind without them, but I can’t help wondering if he recognizes Bruce; Barbara got a quick look at Bruce in the garage too, so it’s possible they know Bruce is Batman and are being willfully blind … or maybe they really don’t know. I think it was meant to be
ambiguous. In the aftermath, Flass rolls over on Loeb, who’s too connected for charges to stick but resigns as Commissioner (to be replaced by Grogan, who’s even worse). Essen transfers to New York and Jim and Barbara try marriage counselling. Falcone gets into a gang war with his sister, and Gordon is promoted to Captain. He also starts working with Batman, their first big case involving someone called the Joker threatening to poison the water supply …
Detective #574 – “My Beginning … and My Probable End” – Mike W. Barr/Alan Davis/Paul Neary
Last issue, Robin was shot while fighting Mad Hatter and this issue opens with Batman bringing him to a clinic in the slums of Gotham to be treated by Leslie Thompkins. Leslie is the woman who helped Alfred take care of Bruce when his parents were killed and she knows Bruce is Batman. We get another recapitulation of Batman’s origin interspersed with scenes of Leslie taking care of Robin and giving Bruce shit for his
vigilante lifestyle. It also hints at a revamped origin for Robin, making him some junior criminal that Batman mentored and turned around, instead of an orphan whose parents were wasted by Killer Croc; maybe they realized that origin was too similar to Dick Grayson’s. We get a few insights into Bruce’s childhood, with Leslie trying to give him a normal life but his obsession with avenging his parents cutting him off from any possibility of that. Turns out Leslie is a lot like Bruce, running the clinic (which is funded by 
the Wayne Foundation) where she treats gang members and addicts without any expectation that she’s changing their lives. She says she does it because she has to and Batman is the same way … he has to keep fighting crime, whether it seems to be making a difference or not. Jason ends up all right and Leslie tells Batman she’s glad he’s around because Gotham needs him.
Outsiders #19 – “The Winds of Change” – Mike W. Barr/Jim Aparo
This one starts with Rex (Metamorpho) Mason and his wife Sapphire at the doctor, trying to figure out why they can’t have kids. Sapphire is fine, so Rex figures it’s his fault because he’s technically not human anymore. Sapphire doesn’t care, but Rex wonders if her father can do something to help. In Markovia, the Masters of Disaster are getting pissed off about their continuing confinement. King Gregor promised to help cure their conditions, but he’s not moving fast enough so they bust out and take off. In Los Angeles, Looker is still hot for Geo-Force
after their brief fling, but he wants to work things out with Denise and tells Looker she should try to fix things with her husband. Gregor calls to let Geo-Force know about the Masters of Disaster escaping and he alerts the rest of the team. They don’t hear anything about the Masters for a few days, so they pass the time by checking out their new headquarters; now that Batman has rejoined, he’s designed a new structure that he calls the Batcave West. Things are going pretty well for the team: Batman and Geo-Force are getting 
along, Looker has transferred her affections to Batman, and Halo is still bothered by her braces. They get an alert from Dr. Jace about terrorists taking over an office building and head out to intervene. The terrorists have nerve gas and although the Outsiders take them all down, they manage to release the gas. A whirlwind from out of nowhere funnels the gas away harmlessly and it turns out to be Windfall, the rebel Master of Disaster who saved Halo’s life in Markovia. She tells them she wants to help against the Masters and they invite her to join the team. Halo is thrilled, but Katana isn’t, since she ends up having to look after Windfall as
well as Halo … two teenage girls would be enough to try anyone’s patience. But things are probably going to get worse, as we see Windfall contacting her sister New Wave to tell her she’s successfully infiltrated the Outsiders. There’s a goofy back-up story (by Barr/Spiegle) where Halo has a dream about being a big superhero with Katana as her sidekick. It’s obviously modelled on the Batman/Robin dynamic (specifically the one from the 60s TV show), so it gets pretty weird at times.