The media in Gotham is spreading a lie. TV screens across the city are broadcasting the horrific news that sixteen-year-old Tim Drake is dead. The footage makes it look like Batman did it. The truth? We know from issue #23: Clayface transformed into Batman and murdered Tim in front of the cameras so Batman would be blamed for it.
At Grimm Manor, Joker Grimm and Scarface are watching the news play out. Scarface thanks Grimm. Grimm offers him a ride, a car, jet… whatever he wants. Scarface appreciates the offer but decides to walk barefoot to his destination. Leaving Gotham City, whistling a tune as he leaves.
Meanwhile, Bruce Wayne is in a bad way mentally. He’s hiding out in the bat enclosure at the Gotham Zoo, completely broken. Doubting his mission, his mind, and his past after everything Scarecrow put him through. His mother, Martha, finds him there.
Bruce apologizes for getting aggressive with her earlier, but Martha understands. She explains that Scarecrow and the Court of Owls did the exact same mind games to her generation when they were young idealists. They had everyone in Gotham convinced they were secretly wealthy elites controlling everything. That’s where the famous nursery rhyme Martha told Bruce came from:
“Beware of the Court of Owls that watches all the time, ruling Gotham from a shadowed perch behind granite and lime.”
Martha gives Bruce two things to help him move forward:
- The Owls’ intel file on Scarecrow, which includes his secret escape routes in and out of Gotham.
- A brand-new, untraceable identity so he can run away, hide, and live a normal, happy life if he wants to.
She kisses him, leaves the choice up to him, and leaves the enclosure.
While Bruce sits there processing everything, Barbara Gordon is frantically trying to reach him on the radio. Bruce finally answers and tells her to go to the “original technical tunnels junction 359,” telling her that if she wants Batman, she will find him there. He’s not meeting her there, though. He’s giving her the location of his hideout.
There is a brief flashback to when Bruce decided to be Batman. He has a similar decision now. Bruce packs up the Scarecrow intel his mom gave him, gets into a truck, and drives past the same “Now Leaving Gotham City” sign Scarecrow walked past. He’s choosing to fight.
The World Reacts to Tim Drake’s Death
While Bruce is on the road, the rest of the cast is dealing with the fallout of Tim’s death:
- In London: Alfred Pennyworth stands before his superiors, asking for a leave of absence so he can work directly with Batman. They deny his request and order him to accept a reassignment far away from Gotham. Alfred refuses to back down. He tells them straight up that while Batman is reckless and unpredictable, he has inspired a fearlessness in Gotham, and in Alfred himself. Alfred calls Batman what he truly is: a boy who suffered a horrific childhood trauma and chose to face his fear every night instead of giving in.
- The Robins: Dick Grayson and Jason Todd get into a physical fight over who is to blame for Tim’s death. Deathstroke steps in, breaks it up, and tells them there is only one person to blame: Batman. He rallies them to hunt Batman down.
- Bruce’s Friends: Over at a diner, Waylon Jones (Croc), Oz Cobblepot (Penguin), Eddie Nygma (Riddler), and Harvey Dent (Two-Face) are watching the news saying there is a reward for turning Bruce in. Oz believes the footage and thinks Bruce has truly lost his mind, while Eddie suspects it was digitally faked. Harvey speaks up as a prosecutor, warning them if Bruce gets caught, he’s going straight to death row, so maybe it’s better if he disappears.
Batman vs Scarecrow
Scarecrow is casually walking through a tall cornfield along a railroad track outside the city. Suddenly, a squawking crow warns him. Scarecrow pulls back the stalks and finds Batman standing right there in a gas mask.
Scarecrow tries to gloat, saying Batman has already lost because the city views him as a monster now. Bruce doesn’t care. He flicks a lit match into the field, referencing a game called “matches” he used to play as a kid, and sets the crops on fire. He uses his cape to slice Scarecrow’s ankle and drags him through the dirt.
Scarecrow cuts himself free with a knife and sprints into the burning field. He uses the smoke and flames as cover, darting around super fast and bragging that he isn’t just a man, he is fear itself. He slices off Batman’s gas mask, forcing Bruce to inhale what’s left of the fear toxin.
Under the toxin’s influence, Scarecrow morphs into a monstrous, multi-armed demon. He repeatedly stabs Bruce while taunting him, claiming he dragged Bruce’s father through this same field years ago on the way to a dungeon where he still lives today. Scarecrow tells Bruce that his father screamed in terror, and demands that Bruce scream for the crows too.
As the fear toxin starts wearing off. Scarecrow shifts back into his human form. With knives sticking out of his back, Batman grabs Scarecrow by the arm. Scarecrow panics and tries to bargain, threatening to withhold the “truth” about Bruce’s father. Bruce isn’t buying his mind games anymore. He kicks Scarecrow to the ground, grabs one of Scarecrow’s own daggers, and pins his arm to a wooden post.
When Scarecrow tries to keep talking, Bruce simply says, “Shh.” He takes the loose thread from Scarecrow’s stitched-up mouth and pulls it tight, sewing his lips shut.
Bruce pins Scarecrow up on a wooden cross like a scarecrow using his own daggers. As Scarecrow mumbles helplessly, Batman tells him, “You’ll be fine. After all, you’re only made of straw.”
Barbara Gordon Becomes Bat
At that time Batman and Scarecrow are fighting, Barbara Gordon pushes open a heavy access panel marked with a yellow ring symbol in Gotham’s sewers. She goes inside and finds Bruce’s “Batcave”, his underground hideout filled with his gear and her father Jim Gordon’s old jacket hanging on the wall. Realizing what Bruce has been going through, tears stream from one eye.
Down in the hideout, Barbara puts on Jim Gordon’s jacket, puts on the Batman cowl, and packs a round into a giant gun. She’s decided to be Bat.
As Batman walks away into the burning field, Barbara’s voice comes through: “Batman, are you there?”
Bruce answers her: “I am now.
“Well, it’s about time,” she says.
Batman apologies for being away and asks her if she found it. She said she did and asked where he was. Batman said he doesn’t know (the stalks are too tall for him to see past them) and he says: “I know where I’m going next.”
The final panel shows Grimm’s mansion. Batman is coming for the Joker.
Unanswered Questions
- In the previous issue, we saw what is supposed to be Bruce’s father in a dungeon, undressed, but allegedly very much alive. Martha told Bruce, and was adamant, he was dead. In this issue, Scarecrow mentions Bruce’s father again. Who is the man in the dungeon and where is he being held captive?
- Clayface appeared and disappeared after Tim’s death. In my issue #23 breakdown, I theorized that we saw Clayface when Batman dug up his father’s grave, making the grave seem empty. Where is Clayface?
- When Scarecrow is found, how will this help Batman? There is no proof of the crimes Scarecrow committed. Would Grimm dare to add Scarecrow being unjustly assaulted to the list of “crimes” Batman committed? While it probably helped Bruce mentally to deal with Scarecrow, it does not help his situation of being framed for two murders (Gordon and Drake).
