[The Batman of Japan!]
- Batman unto mythology!
- Back to the basics: primordial origin story glimpsed in ROBW #6. Back to a fusion of Frank Miller + the OG story.
- The eyes of Bruce and the eyes of the Bat, judging... The symbol that resurrects!
- Yemen!
- Leviathan, Hussain... Farouk...
- Crime vs Idea of Batman, a better idea!
- Bruce changed after returning from the end of time, changed after being brought back from the dead...
- Internet 3.0 announced by Wayne-Tech. Babs will be ghost in the machine.
- Steph supposed to go to finishing school in England...
- Bruce gets Lucius to use old GI Robots for Batman's war on crime, remote controlled, 1000+ units...
- Mentions of next spring...
- Batman jet-suits...
- Farouk finances illegal meta-experiments. Corpses of dead meta-bodyguards; failed experiments, cannon fodder.
- Big secret mystery project for client...
- Dead whale carcass... a cradle
- Traktir of the super-collective, Spidra...
- Everybody killed by the Heretic... the Fatherless...
- Heretic knows Damian, but the day will come when they will battle...
- Damian and Dick will remain as B&R!
- "She can't be happy..."
- Bruce saw something in ROBW...
- Tokyo to Argentina...
- Selina! Steal a superweapon from supervillain...
- Leviathan controlled Yemeni facility, they made Heretic.
- Child brainwashing!
- Who is Leviathan?
- Damian planted a bug, Bruce heard the whole thing! GAME ON!
- Lord Death Man!
- Kills Japanese crimefighter Mr. Unknown. Protege Jiro Osamu gets away.
- Bruce and Selina nab mystery diamond thing from Sivana, but it's not a diamond...
- Project X... superweapon safer with Batman...
- American military trying to grab the diamond...
- Shiny Happy Aquazon, Poseidon Crown Jewels.
- Bruce saw the big picture...
- Came to train Unknown, add to Batman INC. Worked out his secret identity.
- Unknown was working on a case; murder of three john does...
- Jiro was the body double, possibly the crimefighter while the one killed at the beginning was the former Unknown?
- Daisuke, Misaki...
- Selina and the squid!
- LORD DEATH MAN LIVES TO TAKE LIFE, AND HE'S ONLY JUST BEGUN!
- CAN BATMAN SOLVE THE REAPER'S RIDDLES?
- OR WILL CURIOSITY KILL THE CAT?
- What upgrade did Lord Death Man get besides the yoga technique?
- The john does Unknown was investigating, three unknown men buried alive...
- So Jiro was the acting Unknown while the OG did the 'Alfred' type stuff.
- LDM's secret...
- What will you do when Batman's enemies come after Bruce Wayne...
- Jiro fakes death to become Batman Japan! Swear on the candle like Dick in Tec #38!
- LDM shot up to satellite purgatory!
- Of course Selina came for the jewels haha!
- Long live Batman Japan!
[The Spyder's Web!]
Batman Incorporated (Vol 1) #3 - "Scorpion Tango"
- Dedalus! Such a good issue!
- Dedalus: as well as a literary-reference side, since this particular spelling is shared with James Joyce fictionsuit Stephen Dedalus from Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man and Ulysses.
- Metalek in Dorset, Dedalus was there, he's always there...
- Falklands War! Lighthouse...
- Victory V's, British super-team, Cyril's dad Percy, the OG Knight.
- Mr. Albion, Iron Lady, Captain Carnation, Faydar!
- Mr. Albion's "hammer of Weyland Smith" is named after Wayland the Smith from Germanic mythology, although I'm not sure how that relates to the hammer "burning cold," and the Iron Lady's insistence on retreat is "the lady's not for turning," a Thatcherian catchphrase that pretty well sums up a lot of why the Falklands conflict was a disaster.
- The never ending ring... snake eating its own tail?
- Something causing Knight memory/mind donk after confrontation, could this have caused his mental breakdown?
- Dedalus, world's most dangerous super-spy turned double-agent...
- Spyral...
- Make sure Dedalus never leaves the lighthouse...
- Note the team's job here is to lock Dedalus in a tower, echoing the actual myth of Daedalus in which he was locked away in a tower to protect his knowledge of the Minotaur's Labyrinth.
- Black smoke & mirrors, he kills all of them except for Knight. They succeeded in trapping him.
- Mysterious symbol, eye in web...
- Argentina! Papagayo, weapons manufacturer. Working with Scorpiana, and someone else...
- Papagayo here originally appeared in Batman #56, "Ride, Bat-Hombre, Ride!"; his name means "parrot."
- Three blind kids kidnapped.
- Super-Malon, Latino heroes, Cimarron, in disguise as Black Miguel.
- Cimarron is a member of the Super-Malon, Argentina's premiere superhero team, created by Chuck Dixon in Flash Annual #13.
- Federico Garcia Lorca: the duende, the thrill of life when close to death...
- The Lorca quote comes from a lecture he gave three years before his assassination; a translation, with thanks to Zachary Jean Chartkoff for his translation:
- Basically, love means nothing without the possibility of pain. The duende is a concept central to many Spanish arts, especially the flamenco, of which the tango is a form - and indeed, a tango with a scorpion (providing closeness to death) could have much duende.
- Papagayo falls to his death, Parrot says Oroboro...
- Santiago Vargas! Gaucho!
- Bruce dances with Tristessa Delicias, tango de la muerte... danse macabre...
- Ouroboros ring, she tried to poison Bruce. Gaucho thinks Batman was posing as Bruce haha.
- Gaucho doesn't want to join Batman Inc, still skeptical after the whole Mayhew thing from the Club of Heroes arc.
- Preparing for the fight of my life...
- Tried to kill Bruce as a way of baiting Gaucho...
- Super-Malon sent Cimarron on orders from UN Intelligence operation...
- Here comes the Borges!
- Florida Group of Avant-Garde writers (including Borges) make up fake author called Espartaco Extrano, publishing real books under his name like "Oroboro" about a sinister manipulator called Doctor Dedalus. Espartaco was killed by three blind assassins in La Casa D'Oro, but it was fake since he's not a real person!
- Casa D'Oro = House of Gold.
- La Boca = the Mouth.
- Espartaco Extrano = Strange Spartacus.
- Likely a joke about the fact that his name is several men at once. Much like Extrano's life, the Florida group was itself an artifice, the product of a manufactured literary feud between itself and the "Boedo group," which was intended to be the pulp antithesis of the hoity-toity ivory tower work of the Florida group. Borges himself didn't even want to be in the Florida group, and wanted to write "common" literature - which certainly lines up with the pulpish-sounding vibe of Doctor Dedalus.
- The reference to Chatterton and Rowley refers to Thomas Chatterton, a forger of medieval poetry who claimed to "find" works written by a fictional fifteenth-century poet named Thomas Rowley. I wish I could get a look at the pre-lettered art, since there's clearly an excerpt from the fictional book on the screen in the lower-right panel; only the last line is really visible, and "So it was to begin, but the end came first" certainly fits in with the timelessness of the snake eating its own tail.
- Three kids, three assassins, three letters (O-R-B)
- Casa D'Oro is booby trapped by El Sombrero who survived after being hung by the Joker! He's with Scorpiana!
- B for Hebrew letter Beth, meaning House.
- Being paralyzed, Sombrero found Patron + Commission...
- Is this from himself? Did he set this all up? Or is the Patron someone else? Is there a higher boss ordering Sombrero and Scorpiana...
- Taser gauntlets, sensors, stop the other's heart and free the drowning kids!
- WHICH KILLS FASTEST?
- THE BITTER KISS OF THE SCORPION?
- OR THE POISON STING OF BETRAYAL?
- Yes Yes Yes!
- Doctors come every day to visit Dedalus on his lighthouse prison. Same questions, same answers...
- What has he started... who is the prey he's reeling in...
- The perfect plan and the ring around the world... and Oroboro...
- Dedalus controls everything, even the weather...
- Kate Kane!
- Johnny Valentine, three dead marines, ouroboros ring-keychain left behind at crime scene...
- Kathy Kane's Kolossal Karnival...
- Agent-33 is Santiago Vargas! Before becoming El Gaucho, he worked for Spyral, the same symbol we saw last issue in the Knight's hands.
- Kathy Webb-Kane married to Bruce's uncle, Nathan Kane. She worked for intelligence agencies before...
- Agent-Zero, leader of Spyral, Doctor Dedalus. He rebuilt the dept.
- Kathy Kane wants to flirt with death now that she's a widow: similar theme to the Duende last issue, the spice of life in the face of the reaper, thrill-seeking adrenaline junkie nature of super-heroics.
- The Curse of Kane, exemplified in ROBW #5. Nathan Kane was heir after his parents died, but he couldn't escape a stroke.
- Ariadne's Sewing Machine, Mirrorrorrim, Plague Afternoon, Innana Unbound...
- Actor (Mangrove?), rockstar, brilliant scientist (Carter?)...
- She accepts the thrill of discovering Batman's secret identity!
- In Casa D'Oro, Bats plans for them to stall until they can break through to free the kids.
- Scorpiana reveals some info to duende up the trap: Gaucho is responsible for Kathy's death since he set her on Spyral's mission! Gaucho was also in love with her!
- Kathy was murdered by Sensei's men back in Tec #485, she was involved with Batman as a part of her mission thereby causing her death.
- Three dead marines, sniper killings, bullets intentionally placed to form braille letters (blind Borges!): Oscar + Roger + Bravo = ORB = three letters in Oroboro!
- Who is Johnny V's boss?
- In the ghost train, a woman dressed as Kathy Kane Batwoman!
- Kathy Kane Batwoman was a psy-op on Bruce! Seems like she knows his secret identity...
- Same panels from Batman #682!
- Dick skeptical about the newfound Bat-Family of the 50's/60's, he recognizes her circus slang... so Bruce and Dick know she's Kathy Kane.
- Kate's circus training -- which she uses to daredevil effect here, planning to "flirt with death until his bony heart breaks in two" -- was established in her very first appearance, Detective Comics #233, where her use of the terms "scratch-rider" and "trap-artist" give her away as a former circus performer; the terms are recognized by Dick Grayson, Robin, a former circus performer (and trapeze artist) himself.
- Retelling of Batman #153! Same panels from #682 with the whole experience brought upon by hallucinatory chemicals! We see a soldier with an ouroboros emblem...
- The two admit they love each other, but Batman calls her by her name...
- Agent-Zero! Doctor Dedalus! Masterspy! Otto Netz! Spinner of Snares!
- He's pissed her cover is blown and they still don't know Batman's secret identity, but Kathy threatens to reveal Agent-Zero's secret...
- KATHY IS THE DAUGHTER OF DEDALUS, WHO HIMSELF IS A NAZI MASTERMIND!
- Bruce and Kathy dance the Tango Del Muerte! The final duende, the end of the relationship, the end of the thrill! The break-up sex! She gives him an excuse about getting too old. The Bat's heart is broken... AND SHE CALLS HIM BRUCE!
- Who is the winning team...
- Thread in the dark, Ariadne in the Labyrinth of Daedalus... Advanced Meta-Materials, Nazi scientists, British Super-spy The Hood...
- Three marines killed by Argentinian crew, Johnny V was her lead.
- Batwoman impersonator is recognized by Kate...
- This is the biggest thing ever...
- Oroboro = military codename for ultimate weapon...
- Something in the south Atlantic, Argentinian prison of Dedalus...
- Reopen the Kathy Kane murder case!
- International incident, three countries into war (Britain, United States, Argentina?)
- Gauntlets short circuited, heartrate monitors stopped, security disabled!
- Dedalus on the shore with the three doctors I presume... vision of the future concluded like a muted orchestra only he can hear...
- Snow means he is on his way, they are coming to free him...
- The maestro! They are working for someone... Scorpiana leaves Sombrero behind.
- Today it snows on cue!
- THE FLIES ARE IN THE WEB!
- THE MONSTER SQUATS IN ITS MAZE OF DEATH!
- WHAT HORROR LURKS IN THE LABYRINTH OF DOCTOR DEDALUS?
- Otto Netz, Nazi Scientist, tasked by Hitler to find Oroboro, the 5th element. He who wields it will be master of the world. Special cane made by Hitler...
- Netz finds it but is captured by the allies, intentionally...
- Oroboro connected to King Arthur in England? Seven Soldiers stuff...
- Netz used Hitler? Planned to exploit and betray the allies after war, goes into hiding to fight/learn from heroes and villains, to study them. He was his own "Batman", taking the name Doctor Dedalus from the Espartaco Extrano books. He learned how to break villains and heroes by learning their patterns.
- Emerged from seclusion in Argentina to head Spyral.
- Daddy 8-Legs & Sleipnir are great names.
- Poisoned the doctor, but didn't? Alzheimers? False memories?
- Ring around the world, hangman's noose...
- Promise to deliver a paper with a --- ring to his daughter, Kathy Webb...
- Brit Superspy The Hood! Sent by 'Matron.'
- Batwoman joins him.
- Three marine corps officers murdered en route to the island, the same three killed by the Argentine crew Batwoman was after last issue.
- UK and Argentina about to go to war. Secret of Oroboro with Netz, secret worth going to war over.
- Remains of the containment of Netz we saw in #3.
- Oroboro is a power source that could replace oil and nuclear energy...
- Haha, Hood and Gaucho have racist beef!
- When Hood tells Gaucho he'll "go down like the Bel--" before getting cut off, the end of his sentence is "the Belgrano," a ship shot down during the Falklands conflict that may or may not have already been retreating to Argentina.
- Scorpiana trained the Batwoman we saw last issue in the Ghost Train! Kate recognized her as a Olympic gymnast who'd gone missing.
- Three marines were deep black NATO operatives, killed and replaced before reaching the island: so whoever the three doctors are with Netz are infiltrators.
- Netz calls him the Time Voyager!
- Dead Iron Lady from #3.
- Spyral shut down after Netz was imprisoned, covered by by claiming he died.
- Hammer of Mr. Albion left behind after sacrifice of the Victory V's, Netz turned it into a meta bomb that will detonate, kill the heroes, and start WWIII between UK and Argentina.
- The hammer was left by Mr. Albion after the confrontation with Dedalus in #3, and -- this is pure speculation -- may or may not be the seventh treasure left by the New Gods in Seven Soldiers, since all of the other six played pivotal roles in that narrative, unless the hammer the proto-Arthurian knight Bors used to split the atom and create the world's first nuclear explosion was that.
- Doctor-impostor is a member of Leviathan! He succumbs to digitalis poison now...
- Netz was never speaking, it was a recording!
- Batplane blows the meta-bomb up.
- Hood wasn't just sent to deal with Netz, but actually to infiltrate Batman Inc!
- So Gaucho drove Kathy Kane to her death in Tec #485? It was another attempt to get Batman's identity or something?
- Netz has Alzheimer's, the labyrinth was in his head: but the thing is...
- The recording wasn't on the island, the Netz with them is a blind impostor, the head of the island prison turned crazy by Netz!
- Netz is with Leviathan! Leviathan freed him from the island, possibly the events we saw last issue were the real Netz?
- Everything was planned to lure the heroes into the web, Johnny V dropping the chain, the parrot saying Oroboro, Scorpiana's ring...
- Ring around the Earth: Argentina, Japan, Hong Kong, Australia, England, France...
- I hope you're not repeating yourself Doctor... so Netz could still have Alzheimer's!?!?
- Decipher the mystery of Oroboro... The ring on the paper in the projector again.
- Child indoctrination in Africa, similar to what we saw as the end result in The Return issue.
- The tracer could be the same one Damian left on Heretic in the Return special?
- Batwing, David Zavimbe!
