At Amir’s Tea in Gotham, Alfred Pennyworth tells his daughter Julia he’s taking an indefinite leave of absence from MI6 to stay in the city. He explains his decision to stay is due to a young operative he encountered: Bruce Wayne, aka Absolute Batman. “But recently this young man has lost his way,” Alfred tells Julia. “Powerful people have him fighting phantoms. He needs my help.”
“He needs your help. Sounds like the son you never had,” you can almost feel the sarcasm masking the repressed fury in Julia’s response and you can’t blame her. Alfred barely knows Bruce yet feels compelled to help him but he couldn’t be bothered to stick around for his own daughter and wife?
Instead of acknowledging that Julia is at least somewhat justified in how she feels, he doubles down by claiming that he was out protecting her and everyone else. Julia scoffs at his excuses. She warns him that fighting for powerful figures only leads to targeting phantom enemies, which can endanger those closest to them.
Strained Ties and Broken Alliances
Elsewhere, Harley Quinn is fixing her mallet. She’s still furious with Batman for destroying it after she warned his paranoia is making him fall right into Scarecrow’s trap. When a member of the Red Hood Gang approaches her about teaming up with the vigilante again, Harley outright refuses, declaring that the group is done with Batman.
At the Robin Program’s headquarters, Robin-1 (Dick Grayson), Robin-2 (Jason Todd), Robin-3 (Tim Drake), Robin-4 (Stephanie Brown) and Robin-5 (Duke Thomas) are relaxing. For a moment, they seem like regular young adults and not a paramilitary, anti-vigilante task force groomed by their foster father Joker to defeat Batman.
When Dick talks about cheating on their meal plan, he mentions how that pizza from Jansen and Varley is called the Robin Pie in honor of the group with five different types of cheeses to represent each member. There’s another place that sells free Robin Eggs with little red and green garlic knots. There’s an online poll where people can vote for their favorite Robin with Tim at the top spot while Dick is dead last. The Robins have become local celebrities in Gotham City, a source of hope for a cynical city haunted by its crime rate.
While they enjoy their reputation as budding icons, tension between Dick and Jason simmers. Ignoring protests from Dick, Stephanie, and Duke, Jason insists on going back out to look for Batman down with only Tim agreeing with him. “I’ll say it again,” Dick says. “This mission is about more than just hunting down Batman. It’s about making Gotham better, helping its citizens believe in a brighter future.”
“And right now that means hunting down Batman,” Jason counters. “Slade thinks so and so do I,” he says as he walks out the room.
Meanwhile, GCPD Commissioner Harvey Bullock visits officer Barbara Gordon’s apartment with flowers and condolences for her father Jim Gordon’s murder. Everyone in Gotham believes Batman killed the former mayor, but Barbara isn’t convinced. She asks Harvey to add more detectives to her dad’s case. But when he refuses to investigate further, she sends him on his way.
Intervention in the Batcave
Inside the Batcave, Bruce is going over information he believes will help him figure out what’s going on with Scarecrow and his “Batman Project.” He’s convinced that Scarecrow is working with Joker to target him in some elaborate scheme. He also believes his father Thomas Wayne is somehow alive and didn’t die when he was shot by Joe Chill all those years ago. He just needs to figure out where his dad is being held, along with what else Scarecrow and Joker are up to.
His friends Waylon Jones (Croc), Harvey Dent (Two-Face), Oswald Cobblepot (Penguin), and Edward Nygma (Riddler) arrive to intervene. Bruce furiously accuses them of not understanding what’s going on, linking various corporations, research sponsors, and awards back to Joker’s monikers and shell companies.
He goes so far as to claim that the positions of where everyone was standing when Joe Chill attacked the Zoo match up with how they turned out as adults. Waylon was by the croc pit. Ozzie’s body was turned towards the penguin enclosure. Eddie was near the monkeys, the smartest animals in the zoo. And Harvey was by the petting zoo where they kept the rams. Rams are the favorite animal used in sacrifices to the Roman god of duality Janus. And as for the bats, they were imported from Bolivia which must be where they’re hiding his father.
Instead of enlightening his friends, Harvey takes it as a sign that Bruce is too far gone. His friends try to tell Bruce that Joker and Scarecrow are conning him, but Bruce accuses them of being compromised.
Things escalate when Bruce’s mother, Martha Wayne, enters the Batcave with Alfred. Martha reveals she knew Bruce was Batman thanks to a letter from Jim Gordon. She tries to break through his paranoia, assuring him his father is dead and the “Batman Project” is a delusion. However, Bruce fixates on Martha’s past connection to the Court of Owls, viewing her as the missing piece of his puzzle.
When Martha refuses to talk about her past with the Owls, Bruce flies into a rage. Bruce towers over his mother, his 6’9″ frame partially hidden in shadow. He’s actually trying to intimidate his mother into talking but she won’t budge. To her, Bruce is too deep in conspiracy theories and she won’t feed into his delusions.
Bruce swings his fist at her. Martha ducks as her son’s fist slams into the wall with enough force, pieces of it fall over Martha’s head onto the floor. Bruce raises his fist again but this time, his friends grab a hold of his arm to restrain him. Before things can get even worse, Alfred shoots Bruce with a non-lethal modified rifle. A shaken Bruce walks out of the Batcave as Waylon tells Alfred to let him go.
A Flashback into Bruce’s Past
Years earlier, a young Bruce worked for the Falcone Crime Family. Assigned his first major hit, beating a man named “Matches” to death with a baseball bat for unpaid debts, Bruce was promised a full spot in the syndicate if he went through with it. Despite a note from his mother asking him to “be more than this,” Bruce took the assignment.
At a motel, Bruce cornered Matches, who begged for mercy and claimed he had simply lost his way. As Bruce raised his bat, he remembered the day his father died, and how Thomas Wayne had carried a young Matches to safety during Joe Chill’s shooting. Realizing Matches was the same boy, Bruce hesitated. When Falcone’s hitmen ordered him to finish the job, Bruce turned his bat on the gangsters instead, allowing Matches to escape.
“You made one helluva last mistake, Bat Boy.” The gangster turned his gun on Bruce and shot at him twice. But that didn’t stop Bruce from slamming his bat down on the gangster’s head. He limped his way out of the motel as the gangster yelled that he’s finished.
A Fatal Encounter
In the present, Jason Todd patrols Gotham in his giant mecha suit investigating sightings of Batman walking around Gotham carrying an axe, but he starts to think it’s a false alarm. Until he notices he just walked past Batman and immediately goes back.
“You! Freeze!” Jason yells. “I got you dead to rights, you pointy-eared freak!”
Batman drops his weapon and surrenders, stating he isn’t there to fight. Jason restrains Batman with bolas and celebrates catching Gotham’s most wanted vigilante. Tim shows up on his bike, who’s just as excited for his partner. While Jason contacts Dick to gloat, Batman notices a flock of crows gathering around him. “Listen to me! Scarecrow is here. You’re not safe!” Bruce begs the two boys to run but they ignore him.
A strange, brownish clay-like substance slithers down Jason’s mech while the two Robins are completely oblivious to its presence. The clay (which is Absolute Clayface though nobody knows that yet) materializes into a perfect replica of Batman. Clayface neutralizes both Robins by covering their entire bodies with his clay. While keeping the Robins encased inside of him, Clayface lifts Tim up and kills him by piercing the boy’s body with his spikes, then drops his body down to the street below.
Enraged and heartbroken, Batman breaks free from his restraints and attacks Clayface. Everytime Batman asks Clayface what he is, the hulking abomination resorts to repeating Batman’s questions like he’s some kind of parrot. Batman kicks him in the torso only for his boot to phase through its body. He swings his axe and chops off its head, but even that’s not enough to kill him as his body simply reforms.
“I told you to take me instead,” Batman says.
“I am taking you.” So Clayface is capable of normal speech. That just makes things worse because it proves Clayface isn’t some mindless thing following orders. He’s playing with Batman, throwing his insecurities right back at him to break what’s left of Bruce’s sanity.
Batman prepares another strike with his axe but Clayface overpowers him. He absorbs Batman into him just like he did with the Robins, then he lets Batman go as he walks through him.
“You don’t get to leave!” a worn Batman snarls to Clayface.
“No. You don’t get to leave. Ever,” Clayface says as he slips through a sewer gate.
Batman rushes to Tim’s body to cradle him in his arms. That’s when Scarecrow appears to coldly comment on the boy’s death before vanishing. Just as Scarecrow leaves, Jason wakes up to find Tim dead in Batman’s arms. Blinded by grief, Jason accuses Batman of murdering Tim.
“You’re going to pay for this, Batman!” Jason screams as Batman leaves. “You hear me?! This isn’t over!” Not once does it occur to Jason that maybe Batman is telling the truth. Or that it was impossible for Batman to be the one to kill Tim since he was bound and on the ground while their assailant attacked them from above. Also, Batman isn’t made out of clay. But Jason is just like everyone else in Gotham. Why think critically when tragedy strikes when you can just blame Batman for everything? Joker taught his foster son well.
Batman escapes into the shadows once again, while Gotham gains yet another reason to view him as a monster.
My Theory: We’ve Seen Clayface Before
In #23, when Clayface appeared with Scarecrow, first the crows appeared then we could see the clay on the mechs.
Where did we see that before?
I think the empty coffin was Clayface and the “dirt” we see on the ground and Batman’s hands as he watched his “father” naked in a cage, alive, was Clayface’s “clay”.
Which would mean Martha (and everyone else) was right: Bruce’s father is dead. His coffin is probably lower in the ground under Clayface.
But then… who is the man in being held captive? And if Thomas is alive, why?
