Tales of Gotham City

Tales of Gotham City

---

Wally watched as Dick stepped out of the pre-mission briefing, touching a finger to the comm piece in his right ear. He could tell Dick was upset, based on the near-constant clenching of his jaw, so he guessed Dick was talking to Batman. He carefully slipped from the briefing room and followed him down the hall. You and I both know where the Joker is.

I'm not going back to Bludhaven. He closed his eyes and leaned against the wall, pinching the bridge of his nose as he exhaled.

Connect with us

The team is ready to head for Bialya and Kaldur volunteered to take point on this one because of…" He trailed off, looking down at the floor. Wally hung back about twenty feet, giving Dick some space. The team was shaken to its core after losing Robin a few days prior, and truth be told, as devastated as he was? Wally also felt guilty for being relieved it hadn't been Dick tortured and murdered by the Joker. The second Robin had been a good kid- really smart, strong and brave, if not a little cocky.

But they all could be, so he'd fit right in and proved himself more than worthy of being on their team. He startled when Dick raised his voice sharply, something he rarely did when talking to any of his superiors, especially Batman.

You may have lost a son, but I lost a brother. Telling me to talk to someone? He abruptly ended the conversation, ripping the comm from his ear and whipping it down the hallway. He turned and punched the wall, his fist going straight through the drywall. Pulling his arm out, bringing plaster and dust with it, he hunched over and rested his hands on his knees. He took a few breaths to calm down before he spoke, his voice weary. He'd seen him angry before, but this was My best friend loses a family member and expects me to pretend everything is fine?

Dick didn't say anything and refused to look at Wally. He was back to clenching his jaw again, but he'd stopped shaking for the time being. But when he started checking his utility belt and gauntlets, taking an inventory, Wally realized he was getting ready to leave. He stepped closer and put his hand on Dick's arm. Dick shook his head and turned to leave.

Batman doesn't know you're going, does he? Sounds like you need one. This is so incredibly stupid and you know it. Wally West, king of stupid ideas.

SELECT CONTENTS LANGUAGE

Dick didn't respond, instead turning and stalking toward the garage. He applied his domino mask as he went. Wally jogged to keep up. I'd do anything to help.

I've got your back. Wally paused for a moment in disbelief, before narrowing his eyes and following Dick. He gave the door an angry shove, knocking it against the wall with a loud bang. Dick was about to get on his motorcycle when Wally grabbed him and pulled him off it. He gripped his shoulders tightly, forcing Dick to look him in the face.

Dick's facade crumbled momentarily, giving Wally a glimpse at how much he was hurting. He glanced down at the floor and shook his head as Wally pulled him into a hug. Dick leaned against him, his arms hanging limply at his sides. As your best friend and teammate, I can't let you do this alone. Wally didn't want it to come to this, but he didn't see any other option.

He took a deep breath and stepped back a few steps. As expected, Dick's posture immediately changed, his back straightening and his hands balling into fists. He turned and took a swing at Wally, the punch sailing wide to his right. He incorrectly assumed Dick wouldn't throw another punch and closed his eyes, shaking his head. Later, when the Crime Doctor and Batman are facing off against each other, the bandage gets revealed, and Thorne lets slip that he put it there — and both men realize they know who the other is. The two wind up trapped, after the men who hired Thorne plot to kill him and leave him at the scene, along with Batman.

Set in a pinball arcade, it deals with a drug runner who is so into his game that he lets a young admirer transport the drugs for him. After the boy leaves, he learns that a rival gang is on the hunt for the runners. In the end he leaves his game, worried about the kid, and rightfully so. The punk sacrifices his life to save the boy.

The Store - Batman: Tales from Gotham City - Book - The Store

Cary Burkett, Jose Delbo and Frank Chiaramonte are behind the Batgirl story in this issue, which continues the story from the previous one. While Batgirl does not have any sort of cave of her own, she does have a friend, Jeff, who runs a garage. He seems to have a crush on Batgirl, and she feels comfortable storing her motorcycle there. Barbara is not above a bit of flirting herself, when she finds out the father of the girl Batgirl rescued the previous issue is single.

She also discovers that the development plans had been altered, and the original plan buried by slum lords who wanted to hold onto their properties. She exposes their scheme, and the new housing is built, and the theatre saved. Colletta Robin story, that deals with a supposed death by hazing, which was really an intentional murder. Dick and Jennifer about to go swimming when they discover the body, and once again Dick ditches his girlfriend to go be Robin.

Considering that their relationship ends next issue, I wanted to include their last really happy moment. The hero has two major concerns in this story. As teacher Jefferson Pierce, he is worried about one of his students, who seems to be having some troubles at home. As Black Lightning, he is dealing with the Slime Killer, a vigilante doling out bloody street justice. Not an entirely happy ending, but a good one.

Good gosh, the Batman Family are really happy about Detective Aug.

Batman: Tales from Gotham City

Smiles a mile wild. The Human Target is less happy, falling out of his awkwardly shaped spot, but the clear star to the cover is the Red Tornado, never before or since considered either a member of the Batman Family, or a detective. Batman faces off against the Riddler in this story by Cary Burkett and Don Newton, which also introduces a new hero, the Swashbuckler. That was all Batman needed, and he is on the trail of the Riddler, following him to Texas. The story winds up taking place in Houston, using actual locations. Batman runs into a local hero, the Swashbuckler, who claims to be the nephew of Greg Saunders, the Vigilante.

The amusement park next to the Astrodome is one of the locations the Riddler leads the heroes to. His big crime is teased by him saying he was going after the only person who is a bigger riddler than he is. But why is Red Tornado starring in a Gotham City story when the character has never been a part of this milieu? The pressures of being Robin, academic life, his relationship with Jennifer, and his job on the university paper get to be too much for him.

Stressed, Dick leaves and heads for Gotham. Neither Bruce nor Alfred are at the penthouse, but he does run in to Lucius Fox. Dick heads back to the old Batcave. Changing to Robin, he leaves, and runs into the man in black. Dick gets that taken care of. The Human Target gets his last solo story in Detective, although he makes a few more appearances in the book. As usual, Len Wein and Dick Giordano helm this tale of a murdered trucker.

It works, but the victory is not all the widow hoped for, as she learns that the hired killer was just doing it for the money, hired by a rival trucking firm, and there was nothing personal in any of it. It begins with a spat between her and Roger Barton over rival housing development plans. Barbara goes to inspect the site of the theatre in question, and is surprised to find the protestors not interested in the theatre at all. Her attention gets drawn by a nearby fire, and she changes to Batgirl, and winds up saving the little girl who had been held hostage by Cormorant, and was still living in fear.

The split cover for Detective June might be considered a metaphor for the variable quality of the stories it contains. It begins with a Wayne Foundation scientist showing Bruce Wayne some actual gold cloth he had created — before gunmen burst in, kill him and steal the cloth. Bruce does his best to pursue them, but most of them get away.

Batman slips up, not knowing the plans, and Maxie knocks him out, and escapes. Batman has the grace to stop this, but provide a different gift for the girl. This gets followed by another great scene. We learn that Jaosn grew up in a small town, the son of an alocholic, abusive, criminal father, and a long-suffering mother whose suffering was cut short when the father killed her.

After being discharged from the army because of his wound, Jason became a detective, in the hopes of one day finding and apprehending his father. He does find him, and the man is even worse than Jason remembered. Still, he is not pleased when his father dies in a shoot out. I wish he had done more Jason Bard stories. I should have mentioned in the last post, that starting with the last issue, Robin notices that he, and Dick Grayson, are being followed by a mysterious man in black.

He will pop up in each story until his character is explained. This story deals with a killer on campus, and evidence that points to a black basketball player with anger management troubles. Robin realizes the guy is just being framed, and finds the real killer. I remember reading this as a kid, and expecting that this story would see the boy he was trapped with gain his powers, but nope, nothing like that. But the spell did not give her son powers, just removed those of the hero. Crime boss General Scarr debuts, upset that Batgirl has returned to Gotham, and figuring that she will be a menace to their plans.

He has brought in a hired killer, Cormorant, to kill Batgirl. Meanwhile, Barbara Gordon has started a new job, as the head of social services, for the Human Research and Development Centre, which sounds very vague yet progressive.

Bestselling Series

She meets a couple of her co-workers, a handsome but rude man, Richard Bender, and an unattractive but pleasant and brilliant one, Roger Barton. Cormorant lures Batgirl to the roof of a building by dangling the dummy of her from a flagpole, as seen on the splash page. He holds a little girl hostage, demanding she stand out in the open and allow herself to get shot. We appear to see her fall to her death at the end of the story. Obviously not, and it continues next issue. Batman fights Lurk for the second time, following their encounter in a DC Special from a couple of years earlier.

In later years, it would be established that Ubu is more of a title than a name, so Lurk would be the second Ubu, really. Checking the fault lines, Batman figures out that the goal must be a high level peace conference being held in an estate on the line. Batman has to fight his way in, and warns the men to leave before the earthquake hits, and is less then impressed with one religious leader who refuses to go, saying it would be bowing to terrorism.

Talia shoot Batman with a tranquilizer, and takes him away, as his father and the Sensei have their standoff in the mansion.

It gets destroyed in the earthquake. The Sensei, however, may well have died, as his next appearance is in the Deadman mini-series, set years earlier. The story concludes as Batman and Talia relax in a garden as she tends to his wounds. The big battle with a bit of a let-down, but the ending is strong, if only because it is such an untypical, happy ending. In order to keep an eye on the potential victim, Barbara goes undercover as a ballerina. Probably wise, as the murder attempts just keep coming.

• Little Sister
• Night Time is the Right Time, The
• VIEW FROM THE HAMMOCK: “The Key West Citizen columns”
• Teaching Challenging Texts: Fiction, Non-fiction, and Multimedia
• The Adventure of the Copper Beeches - Annotated Version (Focus on Sherlock Holmes Book 12)
• From counterrevolution to revolution to collapse: The approval of the 1956 uprising and its effect on the transformation process in Hungary