THE BLACK GLOVE PART II
Batman #672 - "Space Medicine"
- Bat-Devil arrives at GCPD calling for former Commissioner Vane.
- Officer Farelli, possibly the one Batman argued with back in #665?
- 7:35 last night, the bat signal came on, the sleeper awoke...
- Mayor is still putting pressure on Gordon for his relationship with Bats.
- Bat-Devil says he came from Hell: we're assuming this is the same guy we saw in #666. His daddy is the devil...
- A secret to tell about Batman...
- Jet and Bruce are a media sensation. Vicki Vale, once a flame of Bruce's, hopes he's happy.
- Jet gave up her life to carry her father's work. Alfred advises to proceed with caution in the relationship.
- "We were pals, remember?" So, all the ghosts were cops? Is that why they were covering up Bat-Bane? Yup, he has the badge.
- Branca and Muller, Bat-Bane and Bat-Cop.
- Bruce's previous encounter with the Three Ghosts was something he might have blocked out; he believes it was in a dream.
- Grenade launcher hits Batman square in the chest. Gordon is also hit.
- The GCPD apparently sent Bat-Devil to hell to learn from the devil...
- A Specimen: we see the head of the stone face idol over Bat-Devil's face from Batman #156. The doctor called him a hardy specimen, an isolation chamber experiment for space medicine.
- Bat crashes through the window: red eyes, black wings, Joker's dream in #663.
- Zur En Arrh: the planet Batman was abducted to in Batman #113.
- Cardiac arrest, 5 mins till brain death.
- Bat-Mite returns! What are the eyes behind him...
- My favorite kind of storytelling! Someone get me an Ergodic, stat!
- Joe Chill talks to his guards as he pops pills, he's paranoid.
- Interspliced flashback of Batman in the urban commando years, he's coming for Fortress Chill.
- He's brought the gun that killed the Waynes, the gun Chill dropped in the alley.
- Batman has been coming to Fortress Chill every night for a month.
- Chill built the LSAT comp, a reference to Batman #47, which this is revamping and retelling.
- Chill is motivated by class warfare, a possible motive for killing the Waynes. Little does he know that the child he wishes he killed is the same creature of the night that is stalking him now...
- Maybe Chill believes that it's Wayne who is sending Batman after him.
- He plays with a deck of cards...
- Batman impersonated one of his goons, Frosty.
- One bullet left in the gun when Chill dropped it. A change from the original, Joe Chill kills himself to prevent death at the hands of criminals when they hear he made Batman.
- Flashback to 52 #47, Batman undergoes the Thogal ritual. Yangti: seven-week retreat that simulates death, after death, and rebirth.
- Bruce feels he's having a flash forward not a flashback, could this be him in Nanda Parbat or is it him now during the heart attack...
- Twin Peaks: is it present, or is it past...
- 13th day of silent isolation: everything is normal, this is my life now.
- All of Batman's cases are tracked in black notebooks, Alfred insists on recording.
- 52 #30, back to the empty quarter, the Ten-Eyed surgeons prepare to cut out his fear. There's a black hole where Batman's heart should be, a result of the dark age of Batman. From the Killing Joke until Infinite Crisis, Batman has been destroyed over and over and over again. The surgeons will wound his soul forever, forcing it to jumpstart a spiritual healing process that will make him stronger than before.
- 2 years with ninja shadow masters, 6 months with the Ten-Eyed tribe.
- 23rd day of Thogal: eyes with human intelligence, verbatim from Batman #156.
- Bruce at five years old: the well of bats, the black well inside his heart. The Forever Pit at the center of existence, the awareness of mortality that breaks dreams.
- He sees his own funeral. Bat-Mite speaks to him; embrace the darkness, make friends with the void.
- The Doctor from #156, one of man's most primitive fears is loneliness, the mind plays tricks when in isolation. In that story, Batman's fears of Robin's death self-inflicted PTSD during the isolation experiment.
- Now, Batman is scared of losing Tim too, which is why he's been keeping him at arm's length since he got back (even though he's had some good screen time in the last Club of Heroes arc.)
- A recap of #156 with some new additions: apparently Batman agreed to the space medicine experiment to experience psychotic states. He wanted a glimpse into the Joker's mind.
- 50 days of Thogal, but those days were last year, while the iso-chamber was years ago.
- Batman's hallucination was brought about cardiac arrest, but Bat-Devil resurrects him with the defibrillator.
- The isolation experiments were a precursor to further experimentation by this Doctor Hurt, the army doctor we saw in #156. The GCPD and military joined forces to create replacement Batmen in the event the real one died, all while Gordon was demoted to patrolman and replaced himself by Vane. Of course, it was a fiasco.
- Three were chosen: Josef Muller, ace marksman, Bat-Cop. Hands were broken by Batman.
- Branca, obedient family man, Bat-Bane. Injected with monster serum and venom, killed his family in state of psychosis.
- Michael Lane, family killed by 'Satanists', Bat-Devil.
- Farelli was part of the program but didn't make it to the top three.
- As Bruce blacks in and out during Bat-Devil's torture, Bat-Mite claims the PTSD that almost made him give up the Batman role in #156 was a post hypnotic command implanted by Doctor Hurt.
- All the iso-chamber stuff from #156 as well as the replacement Batman program happened in the sealed off basement of the GCPD.
- "These are the secrets we teach of death..."
- Mite also says he came from Zrfff, capital city of the 5th Dimension within Space B, an idea created by Morrison in 52 #47 when Buddy Baker used it to return to Earth. "...to prepare your passage."
- Bat-Devil burns Hurt's notebook containing post hypnotic keywords implanted in Batman and his three counterparts. Every secret he needs to save himself and Gotham is turned to ash.
- Farelli claims the officers covered it up out of loyalty to their traumatized brethren.
- Batman wonders if his repression of the Three Ghosts to a dream was manufactured by this Doctor Hurt, this ultimate mastermind playing the final game of 5-d chess.
- Hurt believed that trauma was the driving force behind Batman, so he orchestrated replicant suffering in the lives of the Three Ghosts before setting them upon Batman, who of course beat all three in combat.
- A panel I still think about on page 12: we see Michael Lane's origin, smoke and fire emerging from the corners, followed by Hurt pointing a remote and surrounded by police aiming their weapons, while similar smoke and fire emerge from the corners of his panel. Could this be him at the scene of the Lane family murders and his dialogue referring to Lane, or is it the GCPD turning on him while he refers to footage of Batman? Is the smoke and fire an effect symbolizing the sequence as a secret of the burning notebook Lane has placed on Batman's chest?
- Lane claims Hurt is not human, but the devil we've seen referred to in this arc and Batman #666.
- Hurt is the villain Batman has always feared, the unimaginable evil with a design no one could see coming.
- Batman escapes his bonds and chases Lane. Branca is killed by Farelli. Gordon goes to finish his talk with the Mayor.
- Lane escapes, leaving behind a black glove...
- Bruce resumes his position in the dumpster to cover up his absence to Jet.
- Meh issue.
- Dick and Tim take on crime while Bruce has a day off.
- Bruce has dinner with Jet who gives him an ultimatum: take the relationship to the next step or she's done.
- Alfred continuity weaving: was an army doctor before becoming an actor as Alfred Beagle (the OG name for Alfred in the golden age E2 continuity).
- From Bruce's POV it's almost as if we see Jezebel's background change to red against her black skin... black and red...
- She can see something underneath the surface, she knows that Bruce Wayne is the mask...
- Just before he deflects her, they're attack by the Nine-Eyed-Man, an exiled member of the Ten-Eyed-Tribe turned terrorist.
- Meanwhile in Talia's mountain base: she's jealous of Bruce's relationship with Jet and sends Merlyn to take care of her. Merlyn finds out that they've been captured by terrorists, but Damian and Talia see through this as some kind of facade. Someone is out to get Bruce, and they need a plan to stop it.
- Tim and Dick take care of a villain called the Ray-Gun Raider. Dick remembers Batman #156 but hasn't been filled in on what happened during last issue.
- Bruce snaps into Batman persona and makes quick work of the villain, but Jezebel discovers that he's Batman.
- This seems too easy... could this be a ploy to cement Jet and Bruce's relationship just as he was about to let it go? Is him revealing his identity a way to feed the beast and get closer to the mystery closing around him? Does he think Jet is part of the Black Glove?
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