Batman #408 – “Did Robin Die Tonight?” – Max Allan Collins/Chris Warner/Mike DeCarlo
Like the Year One storyline, this is another bit of revisionist history, giving us a new origin for Jason Todd and how he came to work with Batman. Years ago, the original Robin (Dick Grayson) was shot by the Joker. Batman captured Joker and Dick ended up being fine, but Batman realized how much danger he’d been putting Dick (who was just a kid when they first started working together) in by allowing him to be his crimefighting partner. Batman decides it’s time to dissolve that partnership, for Dick’s sake. Naturally Dick resents being treated like a kid and immediately starts
making plans to continue his crimefighting career solo (which he did, as Nightwing), but the fact that Robin is no longer working with Batman doesn’t go unnoticed by the media or the public. Speculation about Robin being dead runs rampant, but Batman ignores it as much as possible (although he does let Commissioner Gordon know Robin’s alive but not his partner anymore). One of Batman’s biggest detractors in the press is Vicki Vale; she’s been writing stories that make Batman look like a fascist vigilante and gets in touch with Bruce 
Wayne, wanting him to lend his name to the effort. Bruce is tickled by the irony, but gets distracted when he stops a trio of pickpockets from stealing someone’s wallet. Bruce could easily pound all three, but has to take a bit of a beating to preserve his secret identity. (He does get the wallet back, though.) Vicki tells him she’s heading to Crime Alley to do a story on Ma Gunn, a woman who has opened a school for wayward boys. Since Gunn’s school isn’t officially recognized, she’s getting shit from the local board, but Vicki figures she’s doing good work and wants to give her some positive press. It’s the
anniversary of the murder of Batman’s parents, so he revisits Crime Alley that night, running into Ma Gunn. They praise each other’s efforts to clean up Crime Alley and show the denizens a better way, but when Batman goes to leave he finds someone has stolen the front tires off the Batmobile (which he finds amusing). The culprit (a street punk named Jason Todd) comes back for the other tires and Batman grabs him. Jason takes off and Batman follows him back to the condemned building where he lives. Batman 
learns that Jason’s father is in prison and his mother is dead, but he’s impressed by the kid’s scrappy attitude. After getting his tires back, Batman promises not to call the cops or social workers, as long as Jason enrolls in Ma Gunn’s school. Jason agrees and Batman drops him off at the school, but after Batman leaves we see the three pickpockets are among Gunn’s “students”, so I guess the school is just a front for criminal activities … and she assumes Jason is a spy sent by Batman to get info on her school. We’ll see what happens to Jason next issue.
Noticeable Things:
- It’s mentioned that Batman has been coming to Crime Alley on the anniversary of his parents’ death for “six years or more”, but later there’ll be a mention that Dick and Batman’s partnership lasted six years. Since Robin first started working with Batman in Year Three,
that means this story is set in Year Nine. - Vicki Vale is sure drawn differently here than in previous depictions of her.
Detective #575 – “Fear the Reaper” – Mike W. Barr/Alan Davis/Paul Neary
This is another story set in Batman’s past, establishing a new, definitive history for the Caped Crusader. But this story won’t be quite as iconic as Year One (and may even end up being apocryphal, which I’ll discuss after the storyline concludes). It starts with James Gordon, the newly appointed Commissioner of Gotham Police Department (way too early—the first problem with this storyline) being interviewed on TV about Batman. The interviewer compares Batman to a homicidal vigilante called the Reaper who killed a bunch of criminals
twenty years ago, but Gordon assures her Batman is nothing like that. Gordon admits Batman cooperates with the police, but isn’t officially working for them. Meanwhile, Batman is pounding some burglars who have broken into an apartment. Elsewhere, a woman named Rachel Caspian welcomes her father home after a twenty year absence and introduces him to her friend, Leslie Thompkins. Rachel and Leslie head out, leaving Caspian to get resettled. Leslie takes Rachel downtown, where Bruce Wayne is overseeing the 
construction of the Wayne Foundation Building. Bruce ends up at lunch with the two women and is impressed by Rachel (who runs a charity and wants additional funding), who tells him she wants to understand the nature of evil so as to find better ways of stopping it. Bruce writes Rachel a cheque and takes her home, but is disappointed when she tells him she’s going to become a nun soon. In the meantime, Caspian has been wandering around and is disgusted by all the crime going on, so he heads home and opens a secret closet to reveal … his Reaper outfit. Yeah, Caspian’s the Reaper and he goes out to waste some muggers. That gets Batman called in and he deduces where Reaper might strike next. Sure enough, Reaper shows up to kill some hookers and
Batman confronts him. But Reaper is wearing leather armour and has plenty of weapons, including guns. He pounds Batman, slices him up, and shoots him. The Caped Crusader finally escapes through the sewers and makes it back to Wayne Manor, where Leslie and Alfred patch him up. Batman admits he used everything he had against the Reaper and still got his ass kicked, so he figures maybe he needs to level the playing field … by using the gun that killed his parents.
Outsiders #20 – “An Ill Wind” – Mike W. Barr/Jim Aparo
This one starts with Halo showing Windfall (the newest member of the Outsiders) around Los Angeles. Halo also shows her the secret tunnel to the Outsiders’ headquarters (although she ends up crashing the mag-lev saucer that takes them there) and brings Windfall to HQ just in time to join the team in heading to Batman’s new Batcave to help set everything up. But as we saw last issue, Windfall is still working with her old team, the Masters of Disaster; she contacts New Wave to tell her about the Batcave’s defenses not being ready and to home in on her location once she gets there. In the new Batcave, an
earthquake buries Metamorpho under a pile of rock and Geo-Force is blown up by some exploding gas, freaking everyone out. Another tremor busts down a wall and the Masters of Disaster attack. (Shakedown was the one causing the quakes.) Halo figures it’s even odds, but Windfall suddenly declares she’s helping the Masters. Halo can’t believe her friend would turn on her like that … and she’s right. The “Windfall” that showed up to join the Outsiders last issue isn’t the real one, just a clone created using the same Nazi technology that cloned Baron Bedlam. The real Windfall is a prisoner of the Masters and 
they bring her in, caged like an animal. But of course Batman is one step ahead of everyone else; he suspected something was wrong when Windfall suddenly showed up, so he’s been monitoring their communications and this while thing was a set-up to draw the Masters in. Metamorpho and Geo-Force aren’t really hurt and that tips the odds in favour of the Outsiders. When the clone tries to kill the real Windfall, Shakedown frees her, not wanting her death on his conscience. The two Windfalls go outside to duel, while the Outsiders fight the Masters in the cave. The fight goes back and forth, but the Outsiders’ ingenuity and
teamwork lets them prevail. Batman reveals that this isn’t the real Batcave West, so the Masters don’t even have its location as consolation. The real Windfall kills her clone, but she’s pretty torn up about it (and about the way the Masters treated her, especially since New Wave is her sister). Halo takes care of her and both Batman and Katana remark on how much Halo has grown up since joining the team. There’s a goofy back-up story about Metamorpho and Geo-Force helping some UFOlogist who’s being swindled by crooks.