MORRISON BATM-ANNOTATIONS: THE BLACK GLOVE PART I

THE BLACK GLOVE PART I

[The Black Glove Act I - "Impostor Syndrome"]

Batman #664 - "Three Ghosts of Batman"

• Pennyworth blue rose, opposite of the black and red flowers we saw last issue.
• Jabari and Diallo, bodyguards of Jezebel Jet.
• Jet's father was assassinated because of what he believed in...
• DeShawn, pimp in Gotham.
• More Zur En Arrh graffiti.
• Roxy, prostitute.
• Batman gives Ellie a job as a reception girl.
• Chasing old leads, missing street girls, GCPD cover up, monsters...
• Battle of the alpha males, Batman as the ultimate man, the true super-human.
• Bat-Bane. Connected to the Bat-Cop from #655.
• Black Casebook... series of locks opens in his head...

Batman #665 - "The Black Casebook"

• Three ghosts, three impostors. Bat-Cop, Bat-Bane, and some mystery Bat. Damian with his hair in the shape of horns is there as well, "The Third Ghost is the worst of them all..."
• Bat-Bane designed to trigger Bruce's worst fears, he smelled his fear, alpha male animal kingdom battle of egos. Monster serum and venom...
• Black Casebook: a compilation of all the weird stories from the synthetic era of Batman. Vampires, flying saucers, time travel. Alfred equates this to Bruce and Dick's exposure to Joker venom and Scarecrow fear gas.
• Batman has apparently encountered the Three Ghosts before...
• The third sold his soul to the devil and destroyed Gotham...
• Tim Drake is set off by the last arc, feeling he has to prove himself to Batman. Once more playing into the alpha male theme...
• ALPHA MALE PLUS! BATMAN BEATS JAMES BOND BABY!
• Batman kicks the absolute crap out of Bat-Bane, but why are the cops covering up for him...
• Why is the mayor leaning on Gordon to leave the Bat-Bane case alone? Who's leaning on him?
• Talia survived and Damian barely, organ harvest will get him back. She's jealous of Jezebel Jet...
• Bruce kisses Jet, but someone watches from afar, with black gloves...

Batman #666 - "Batman in Bethlehem"

• The futcha baby!
• Damian Wayne, Batman! Interesting that he was engineered to kill and replace Batman...
• Apparently, Batman dies at some point while Damian is Robin, is it caused by Damian or somehow his fault?
• Candyman...
• Commissioner Barbara Gordon, taking up the mantle after her pops died...
• Yeats's Second Coming referenced; the Devil nears...
• New Batmobile!
• Professor Pyg and his Dollotrons. Killed and crucified upside down.
• Alfred the Cat!
• Two Batman costumes, so the Batman who died was Dick Grayson?
• The real killer of Pyg and Candyman, the third ghost, the anti-Christ who will return on the eve of Armageddon's battle.
• Damian's wound is smoking...
• The demon star at zenith...
• Climate change and global warming, summit in Gotham.
• Damian has met some form of the devil, made a bargain with him on the night that Batman died.
• Phosphorus Rex, Loveless...
• Killings of five crime bosses to sign a Satan signal on Gotham.
• Babs says that Damian is responsible for the death of a good friend, most likely Grayson or maybe Tim drake?
• Bat-Devil, anti-Christ...
• Twins (Nikolai + ?), the Weasel, Max Roboto, Jackanapes, Flamingo...
• Bat-Devil suffered to earn the mantle of Batman, but he's a son of the devil as well.
• So Dick Grayson is the Batman who died.
• Bat-Devil and Batman have had an encounter before this future. He was anointed by the devil, the dragon of revelation, the old man who anointed him messiah.
• Devil made bargain with Damian when he was 14, Damian's soul in exchange for Gotham's survival. But the dragon has not returned to claim the soul yet.
• Immortality granted by the bargain; Damian cancels the apocalypse until he says so!

[The Black Glove Act II - "The Club of Heroes"]

Batman #667 - "The Island of Mister Mayhew"

• A man is strung upside down while another man holds a blade...
• The Black Glove, criminal organization of rich dicks betting on games of murder and corruption.
• Roulette wheel, black and red. Good and evil.
• Mister Mayhew from World's Finest #89, Club of Heroes, Batmen of all Nations.
• Apparently, there was another meeting after that issue, Batman didn't even show up.
• Man-of-Bats + Raven Red, Wingman, El Gaucho, fat Legionary, Musketeer, Dark Ranger.
• Musketeer sold his Watchmen-esque fall from grace into a book and movie pitch that made him rich overnight.
• Mayhew's movie called 'The Black Glove', starring Mangrove Pierce and Marsha LaMarr.
• Dark Ranger got an upgrade from cowboy expy while Wingman's become his own insecure Batman knock-off, claiming he came up with the concept a year before Bats.
• So apparently the man being skinned is John Mayhew, and some villain, possibly the narrator from the first page, is wearing his skin! Some kind of gothic painting behind him...
• All of the planes are blown up.
• Legionary killed like Caesar, stabbed on the forum. A note is dropped next to his body, 'Et Tu Morte?'
• Maybe this whole thing is being televised: a big contest for the Black Glove, placing bets on the lives of heroes.

Batman #668 - "Now We Are Dead!"

• Twelve Years Ago: The second meeting of the Club of Heroes, Percy Sheldrake the Knight confronts John Mayhew and engages in fisticuffs with Legionary...
• 23 wounds. Red and Black.
• Apparently, Cyril has disappeared since the ending of last issue.
• Man of Bats saw someone running from the crime scene. Legionary's blood is on his hands since he checked his body.
• Tropical storm around the island.
• Knight's a recovering drug addict after his pops died, Beryl saved him, and they became the revamped Knight and Squire. The gorilla mind control is a reference to JLA Classified. Apparently, Cyril has motive to kill Legionary because of what happened in the flashback.
• Charlie Caligula, nemesis to Legionary.
• They find Cyril in the library, forced to swallow a ticking bomb, the same way his father was killed by enemy named Springheeled Jack.
• Library locked from the inside, no light, just books, some kind of secret door?
• Robin and Squire escape into the library as it locks down, Bats Gaucho and Musketeer take on the knights. Tim hears a scream. Dark Ranger joins the other party, Robin and Squire find a secret room behind the bookshelf and Raven Red is there...
• Pierrot Lunaire, enemy of Musketeer.
• Scorpiana and El Sombrero, enemies of Gaucho.
• On the day of the second meeting, the Club of Heroes was exposed as a sham: who had the most to lose with its disbandment? Could the reunion be a machination of a Club of Villains?
• Wingman is dead, his visage charred and his corpse hung.
• The stakes are raised, the villains have the children, but the Batman does not yield the advantage so easily...

Batman #669 - "The Dark Knight Must Die!"

• We return to the flashback: Percy claims Mayhew killed some woman, never got evidence to prove he did it, and Percy met his end due to losing his nerve.
• Man of Bats gets the bomb out. Batman doubts the death of Wingman, he was too good to let this happen...
• King Kraken, enemy to Wingman.
• Batman and Gaucho follow Robin's trail to find El Sombrero with a rifle and a complex death trap: Raven will be consumed by piranhas unless Robin and Squire support his weight.
• Batman deduces that Dark Ranger is actually Wingman, he swapped costumes after he killed Ranger. His plane was booby trapped, he arrived before the storm.
• Wingman wants revenge since the Club of Heroes was his big break and the Knight ruined it. The Black Glove took him seriously.
• Wasps are set on Tim and Beryl. Tim's shoulder was dislocated back in #665. Man of bats saves them just in time.
• Apparently, Mayhew's wife (Marsha LaMarr?) was having an affair with her costar Mangrove Pierce. Mayhew had her killed and Pierce jailed unjustly for the crime. This is who Percy confronted Mayhew about in the flashback.
• Wingman is killed by Sombrero, who is actually John Mayhew! So, who was skinned in the opening sequence...
• The primary target was Batman, who Mayhew failed to kill: advantage good.
• Mayhew was jaded, unfulfilled, poisoned by consumption. He joined the Black Glove to get his kicks.
• He escapes, but the Black Glove cements his loss by detonating the explosives on the island. Mayhew dies in the explosion. Batman commandeers the Beechcraft and gets all the heroes off the island.

[The Resurrection of Ra's Al Ghul]

Batman #670 - "Lazarus Rising"

• I-Ching!
• Ra's Al Ghul's spirit is back, inhabiting the body of one of his former bodyguards, Sam Tang. However, the body is poisoned with radiation, so it's rejecting Ra's soul.
• Evil spice girls: Silken Spider, Tiger Moth, Dragon Lady. They distract bats as Talia extracts Ra's in Tang's body at the hospital.
• A sect of the Assassin's League broke off after Talia took control, led by the Sensei. His students are the Seven Men of Death.
• Ra's proves his identity to Talia by recounting the memory of holding Talia at the summit when she was an infant.
• Ra's wants to use Damian's body to host his soul until he can get to the city of Nanda Parbat and restore himself fully. Damian of course says screw alladat and dips.

Batman #671 - "He Who Is Master"

• Ra's spares the Robins if Batman agrees to take him to Nanda Parbat.
• Bats knows the way since he came during 52 #47.
• They get there and Rama Kushna guides Batman's abilities to disable the Seven Men of Death in mere seconds.
• His battle with Sensei is not so fortunate.
• Sensei is the father of Ra's and wants to kill him for his failure in leading the Assassin's League.
• Batman gets his ass whooped, but since Sensei is old af, he can only last for two minutes max. Batman outlasts him, and the two fall in the fountain. It burns Sensei, but heals batman.
• Ra's dies in his current body, but a monk touches him, and Ra's possesses the monk.