Comics Reviews: Batman 415, Detective 582, Outsiders 27

Batman #415 – “Millennium” – Jim Starlin/Jim Aparo/Mike DeCarlo

As you can tell from the title, this is a crossover with the Millennium mini-series (as were the first two issues of every DC comic in 1988). This was a company-wide event designed to get people to but comics they normally wouldn’t bother with, just so they’d have the whole story. Basically, Millennium involves the Manhunters, who were created by the Guardians of the Universe a long time ago (pre-Green Lantern Corps) but went rogue. Now the Guardians are planning some big event (called the Millennium) that involves ten humans. But the Manhunters want to stop the Millennium and they’ve planted robotic spies around every superhero, so the big twist is that theoretically anyone (even a long-established character like Lana Lang) could end up being a Manhunter robot in disguise. This story illustrates that point perfectly, as Batman is attacked by Commissioner Gordon at police headquarters. Batman’s been briefed by the Guardians, so he knows this isn’t the real Gordon, but the robot gets away. Batman figures out that Floronic Man is one of the ten special humans, so he heads to Arkham Asylum, hoping to find the robotic Gordon. Meanwhile, Robin has been assigned to locate and observe Scarecrow, but he decides to be a little more pro-active … he smashes Scarecrow’s vial of fear gas, causing Scarecrow himself to lose his shit. When Batman gets back to the Batcave, he’s not happy to find the whacked-out Scarecrow and a sheepish Robin trying to justify his actions. They head for Arkham, with Robin disguised as Scarecrow and Batman as his doctor; Gordon checks under Scarecrow’s mask, but doesn’t give the doctor a second look, so the Dynamic Duo successfully gets inside. They use Scarecrow’s fear gas to sow panic among the inmates and take the guards out with sleep darts. They finally confront the robot Commissioner, but he’s stronger than expected and they have to blow him up to stop him. Batman knows he has to find the real Commissioner Gordon, so he takes the robot’s head back to the Batcave for analysis. He extracts information from its memory that indicates Gordon is in Louisiana, so he prepares to head down there.

Detective #582 – “Sole Survivor” – Jo Duffy/Norm Breyfogle/Pablo Marcos

This continues from the above story, showing us that Commissioner Gordon left Gotham willingly, responding to a message from his old friends in Naval Intelligence (which is why he couldn’t tell anyone) … not knowing he was replaced immediately by a robot. Batman tracked him to Louisiana, but determined he was okay and started following leads on the Manhunters instead. Gordon is met by one of his old colleagues (Liu), who tells him another of their friends (Rosenfeld) has been on a deep-cover assignment lately but has suddenly gone silent. Their other friend who went to meet Rosenfeld wound up dead, so Liu wants Gordon to help find out what’s up. Gordon notices a car tailing them to their motel, but soon realizes the driver is Batman in disguise. Batman tells Gordon about the robot that replaced him and warns him that the call he got might be a set-up. Gordon meets with Rosenfeld and finds out his assignment does involve the Manhunters. They’re attacked by a Manhunter robot, but Batman shows up to slice it with a laser. The robot shoots Rosenfeld before Batman can decapitate it and tap into its memory banks. Gordon stays with the dying Rosenfeld, while Batman follows a lead and runs into Jim Corrigan (who used to be the Spectre’s human host) following a Manhunter robot. The robot spontaneously destructs, but the guy it was stalking tells them where the Manhunters are hiding out … a big temple in the bayous. Batman sends Kim Liang to help Gordon, while he and Corrigan invade the temple, finding a bunch more wrecked Manhunters on the way. (Corrigan has an idea of what might be causing the robots to self-destruct, but he doesn’t share it with Batman … or us.) They split up and Corrigan finds the detention area, which is guarded by fully-functioning robots. Batman runs into a woman who’s sitting on a pile of explosives; she doesn’t give a name, but mentions being from the Suicide Squad and going by the art, I’d say it’s Karin Grace. She says she was duped into working for the Manhunters and this is her way of paying them back, which Batman seems to understand. He and Corrigan go to free the prisoners and when they’re surrounded by Manhunters, the robots suddenly destruct. They get the prisoners out right before Karin blows the temple to hell. Meanwhile, Rosenfeld dies, but not before mumbling a vague warning about the President being in danger. It starts snowing outside and we see President Reagan in the White House being informed of the unusual weather … and we see that Nancy Reagan is really a Manhunter in disguise.

Outsiders #27 – “Robot Tyrants of Kadeyland” – Mike W. Barr/Erik Larsen

This one starts with the Outsiders confronting Dr. Jace about her allegiance to the Manhunters. Jace isn’t a robot, she willingly chose to work with the Manhunters because she admires their logical, emotionless ways (which apparently has to do with a failed marriage in her past). She reveals that when she was “helping” Metamorpho become more human, she actually implanted some kind of suggestion in him and now he obeys her commands. He pounds his teammates, who can’t fight back with their full strength for fear of hurting him, and they’re all captured. Jace straps them all onto a big metal table and the story takes a weird left turn into an Atomic Knights tale. The Atomic Knights are post-World War III soldiers who fight threats to humanity as it tries to rebuild. The whole thing as revealed as a fantasy inside Gardner Grayle’s mind, so I’m not sure how seriously we’re supposed to take this. Just as they’re trying to reunite the fractured United States, Grayle tells his fellow Knights that a guy named Kadey has decided to secede and form his own country, with robot enforcers to keep the peace. (The parallels with the Nazis are pretty explicit.) Grayle wonders if the people of Kadeyland really elected Kadey of their own free will and leads the Knights (and his girlfriend Marene, who usually has to stay behind) to check things out. They run into the Outsiders (except Metamorpho), who can’t remember where they’re from or how they got their (and have no memory at all of World War III). Windfall does think Grayle looks familiar (she’s always had a crush on him), but he doesn’t recognize them. They’re ambushed by Kadey’s men and pound them pretty easily. Using Looker’s mental powers, they convince the soldiers they defeated the Knights and have them take the “prisoners” to Kadey’s headquarters (with the Outsiders hiding inside Halo’s distortion aura). But as soon as the “captured” Knights are brought to Kadey, his robots reveal that they were originally programmed to rule humans, not work for them. Now that their main opposition (the Atomic Knights) have been neutralized, the robots show their true colours and try to take over. The Outsiders and Knights destroy the robots, but Kadey tries to blow them up with a grenade. Grayle chooses to save Windfall instead of Marene, saying he does seem to recall her from somewhere. Looker uses that to break whatever mind-control Jace was using and snap them out of their dream state. Yeah, the whole thing was part of Grayle’s dream, but he chose reality instead. They bust loose, but Jace still controls Metamorpho, so he attacks them. Looker uses her powers to make Metamorpho think she’s Jace and Jace is her. When Metamorpho goes after Jace, she blows him apart, killing herself in the process. They wonder if Metamorpho can somehow pull himself together eventually, but right now it looks like he’s gone. Windfall thanks Grayle for choosing her over Marene, but he still thinks Windfall is too young for him.