[Heir to the Bat]
- Twin headstones. Bruce wants to quit Batman.
- Gordon goes to take him in.
- One month earlier...
- Batman and Robin on the trail of animal mask merc's. Meat factory with tampered cattle, branded with horned demon star to indicate contaminant. Dark Tower + Lone Star brands.
- Demon Star as indicated in the Leviathan Strikes Special is the name for Algol in the Perseus System which means Demon's Head, the Eye of the Gorgon...
- Animal-masks maneuver Damian into trap but Goat-Boy fails to kill him.
- Goat-Boy has his own backstory: down on his luck assassin who needs money from Damian hit to take care of kid.
- Branded Cow added to the bat-animals, Bat-Cow.
- Bruce and Damian are on on the rocks after Damian killed Otto Netz and Nobody during N52 B&R's Born To Kill arc.
- Talia opens Monarch Theater restaurant with west side Gotham crime bosses, usurps Grimm Brothers. Feeds one of them to the other and then drops him from the skyline in front of Batman.
- Damian's wearing the hood...
- Dead Heroes Club! Everybody attacked by Netz survived, faked their deaths, and rendezvous at Bat-Cave West in San-Fran. Hood, Gaucho, Outsiders, Batwing, and the new Wingman!
- Confirmation that the big guy was Matron who shot at Hood.
- Outsiders survive because of Metamorpho's move from 1997's JLA #1!
- Pretend they're dead to have advantage over Leviathan.
- Bruce says it's good that Leviathan is in Gotham because it's his playing field advantage.
- Goat-Boy apparently succeeds in killing Damian, even presenting photo proof to Talia and Heretic. He claims he needs protection from Leviathan for killing Robin...
- But Damian's hood was on before Batman arrived, his hood was on in the photo, and we can definitely assume that Batman convinced him to play along with the ruse in order to get Talia off their backs for a little while.
- Daddy issues!
- Ra's meets Melisande at Live Aid. Fascinating how Talia ends up taking the eco-terrorism of her father to the Nth degree with Leviathan's infiltration of society itself instead of just an attempt to bring it down.
- Talia confronts her father in his mountain headquarters, though I'm not sure exactly why he doesn't want her to wage war against Batman. Does he have his own plans? Is it a pride thing? Has Talia gotten too big that her actions would destabilize he world?
- The flashback to Jungfrau's peak was referenced way back in Batman #670!
- Batman always underestimates Talia: she's the anti-damsel, the beast behind the beauty.
- Netz guided her new persona along with the Leviathan iconography. The red and black, Kali Ma, Tiamat, Medusa. All of these bad mommies referenced in B&R #3 by Professor Pyg! Could she be the Wire Mommy or have had some hand in his creation...
- I love all of the astrology/onomy that Morrison involves.
- Talia has had everything, but she fulfills the prophecy of the scorned woman, just like her mother. The one thing she can't have, the thing she never will: a family.
- In the eyes of the Gorgon, all men are lying devils. Spiral subversion of underestimation, of 'the act', is the way to win.
- Ra's gives Talia the secret headquarters beneath London + Submarine that we see during the Batman & Son arc.
- Lazarus Pits, a declining resource...
- Burnham and Morrison retell Detective Comics #411!
- "You would never tire of me" : I love this page, the spiral sun in the background, the Eye of the Gorgon that ruins.
- "Why is it your kiss always chills me to the marrow?" = Batman #243.
- Ra's always wanted Talia and Bruce to have a kid so he could inhabit its body! Just like in Resurrection of Ra's Al Ghul!
- Duel in the desert! Batman #244.
- Their child to be a new Alexander; Alexander killed his father/led his father to death... many implications and parallels to Damian... and 666...
- Talia was a driving factor behind the Secret Society during Infinite Crisis, though I'm assuming that E3 Alex Luthor found that pretty convenient since it all ended up fitting into his plan.
- General Malenkov was Talia's mole in the Black Glove! Reiki to the rescue!
- The chess symbolism is so potent in retrospect now, the Red Queen and the Dark Knight.
- Talia knows Damian is not dead!
- Confirmation that Heretic was born out of the Whale carcass in The Return.
- Talia has turned Ra's to stone, she has his attention after all these years.
- Look and learn...
- Horrifying human replacement as Leviathan sinks its tendrils into the education system, the courts, and the GCPD!
- Matches Malone is back! Funny how his return to the underworld operates in tandem with Batman's.
- The bar Three Eyed Jack's is the same one we saw Goatboy in #1. Possible reference to One-Eyed Jacks from Twin Peaks?
- Lumina Lux! Her song of a scorned woman, death in flames of Joan of Arc, pearls, and the Hanged Man! Bruce was identified as the Hanged Man back in ROBW #6.
- Matches comes to Small Fry for info on Leviathan; they're at an homage to the Brother's Grimm who Talia + Heretic killed in #1.
- El Bastardo, Bulldog, and Ogo! Gaucho, Hood, and Batwing have some of the funniest make-over's ever.
- Turnip Twins want Lumina Lux to sing at the Brother's Grimm wake, but she wants illegal drugs for payment.
- Dick back to impersonating Bats! Love it!
- Pine flooring in Man-Bat commando claws, five locations in city with that kind of flooring. This will most likely lead Batman to the Monarch Theater restaurant they were in Leviathan Strikes & #1.
- Damian is alive of course. Grounded for the time being for his safety.
- Talia's Web! Most intrigued by the Professor Pyg connections...
- So Leviathan has always been at the center of Morrison's Batman run! Could Talia have been behind Doctor Hurt too?
- The Demon Star Dark Tower hormone they mentioned in #1 is connected to Pyg's drugs! Mind control!
- The Assassin's League, here in Gotham to hunt for Damian!
- Operation Kill Box...
- Damian believes that the price on his head is Talia's way of separating them two so Bruce is vulnerable. Robin has always been the shield that protects Batman, the one who saves him.
- Leviathan religion, goat sacrifices to Kali... Lilith, Dark Mother, Tiamat, mythology put in place to make Leviathan the hyper-idea of crime infesting Gotham.
- Matches goes to Goatboy on info regarding the Leviathan secret base AKA the Monarch Theater restaurant.
- Heretic is a Frankenstein's monster made from Batman's DNA. This all but confirms that he's the second Damian clone from B&R #12.
- Alfred is ready to take Bruce to Target #1 (Leviathan HQ), but Lumina Lux lures him to Target #2 (House of Assassins).
- Horned Star, three eyes, goat's head. It's a trap! Lumina Lux's own eye of the Gorgon. But Batman knows it's a trap...
- Damian escapes the cave with a new persona; like Dick became Nightwing after Robin, Damian becomes Redbird!
- Goatboy was in on it too! Gave the location of the Monarch Restaurant as a trick, then relying on Lux to lead him to the HOA.
- Three sacrifices: Small Fry, Matches, who is the third?
- Small Fry hanging looks like the street lamp on crime alley.
- Jack Ketch, the Hangman! Creepy ass Judge too.
- Jack Ketch, the hangman from the show, is based on a real, famously incompetent or particularly bloodthirsty, executioner who lived in the 17th Century. The giant heads worn by Matches' captors resemble the classic interpretations of the Punch and Judy characters, and recall similar masks worn by some of the townsfolk in Robin Hardy and Anthony Shaffer's The Wicker Man.
- Alarm goes off in the House of Assassins: Redbird is here!
[Heir to the Gorgon]
Batman Incorporated (Vol 2) #4 - "Kill Box"
- Love that they call it Zorro's Restaurant!
- We know it's not about Damian, it's about Bruce!
- So Heretic is definitely a Damian clone.
- Matches! You can actually see the gunpowder trail in the closing pages of last issue! (I definitely had to go back and check haha).
- Batman INC must have set some charge at the base of the trail outside the the front door.
- This issue is perfect btw. Burnham's choreography and layout of the House of Assassins is second to none.
- A lot of these assassins were seen during the Resurrection of Ra's Al Ghul.
- Gaucho & The Hood!
- Wingman & Redbird!
- Phase 2! We can see the assassins dining at the actual wake for the Grimm Brothers.
- So Talia is wired in the entire House, allowing her to have dialogue with Bruce.
- Batwing uses ultrasonics to take out the Man-Bat commandos! Takes a sample of the Were-Bat serum...
- So Goatboy's three were Robin, Small Fry, and Matches, but he failed so he's using Lumina as a back-up.
- So Batman obviously offered to pay back in #1 for the ruse of Robin's death, but Talia knew and offered him more to join the war against Batman.
- Lumina never had a sister, the drugs were for her. Batman lets her off.
- Assassin's League is broken. Batman wants Talia to end the war and meet with him.
- Wingman is Jason Todd! How did Talia know?
- So the fact that he let Jason back in is seen by Damian as hypocrisy: how can Bruce judge Damian for saving his life when Jason has been a stone cold murderer since his return? Bruce is using Jason as a point of redemption for Damian?
- Why is Talia so keen for Bruce to spill the beans as far as Wingman's identity goes? Is it because Jason symbolizes so much that Damian is not allowed to be? A murderer; a self-righteous vigilante who answers to no authority but his own? In a sense it's more meta than that as well - Jason represents how little any of it 'matters'. Even if Talia and her cadre of elite assassins succeeded in killing Damian, why not just bring him back via the Lazarus Pit? He's the example that makes a mockery of all of the lessons Bruce is trying to teach Damian, and a living if somewhat more moderate embodiment of his mother and grandfather's ideals.
- Bruce tells Damian that his time as Robin is over because Talia has put them in a war they can't win with an unavoidable future...
- Damian must return to his mother, or else the world will fall...
- And Damian will be the one who causes it!!!
- 666 BABY!
- The revelation of Bruce's vision of the future: the world in flames...
- Talia wanted Damian to join Bruce as Robin as a way to sabotage him and replace him as her agent. Because where Bruce always wins, Damian always fails.
- Things have changed since #700, we thought that tomorrow belonged to the Batman but we were wrong.
- Gotham is on fire. Laughing Death in the city. The Bat-Cave invaded. A child with the antidote.
- Great homage to the bat through the window in Year One.
- Everybody's held up in Arkham, the last citadel.
- President wants to nuke Gotham.
- As we'll see later in the issue, given who their top man is it's clear that this group advising the President is the new inner circle of the Black Glove.
- Damian believes that if he fails, there is a higher power against him, or a lower power...
- Jackanapes says that everything is the Devil's plan, preparing the world for a final battle!
- The baby's a carrier!
- So Hurt claims that by Damian leaving his mother, by Batman rejecting Talia way back in #658, Damian led to the conflict with Doctor Hurt. He was in the dream of the Three Ghosts...
- Batman dies at the crossroads. It's all Damian's fault. He opened the devil door, he carved the Hole In Things. Gotham was marked by Talia, mother of the beast of bedlam, Damian!
- Babs is gone, she's full Killing Joke mode. One bad day of joker venom ruins noble spirits.
- Hurt convinces the President to nuke Gotham!
- Could he be smiling in all the panels because of the Joker Venom in B&R #16?
- So even if it was indirectly, Talia is the cause of the 666 future, the Ruin that Comes to Gotham. Damian is the beast, the Third Ghost, and his becoming of the Batman will always be cursed, never good enough.
- Is Bruce saying that Damian acting as Redbird saved someone (Jason?) from dying, or is he saying that luckily Damian as Redbird didn't cause anyone to die?
- Nobody knows the future. But Bruce believes he needs to send Damian back to his mother.
- Target One: the Zorro Restaurant, though I'm not sure why they call it a homeless shelter. Maybe the restaurant is supposed to be inside the Monarch Theater across the street?
- The pine flooring, the hidden frequency Batman used to communicate with Talia last issue, it's all a trap!
- The Kali Ma, the bad mommy, the annihilation of Batman Inc!
- Immediately continued from the end of last issue. The hostage situation at St Malphas, a homeless shelter financed by Bruce Wayne now used as Leviathan's HQ under everybody's noses.
- GCPD ineffective due to Leviathan's infiltration. Even Gordon knows this.
- Ro-Bats join Batman into the fray.
- With its top floor destroyed by the explosion last issue, the St Malphas building is a pretty close visual analogue to the Tarot card The Tower, often symbolizing fear, ruin and catastrophe.
- Zen parable of the Goatherd (instead of the Ox) of course because of Goat-ham, Baphomet, the Devil Black Thomas...
- Ten stages of understanding, pursuing the goat up the mountain of enlightenment.
- Its a series of pictures that illustrate the 10 stages on the path to enlightenment, often accompanied by a short poetic passage. They're not something you can really pin a specific 'meaning' on, being as they are a tool for meditating on achieving an enlightened state. The first picture on the floor here is "In Search of The Bull - aimless searching, only the sound of cicadas".
- The second picture, leading Batman deeper into Talia's lair, "Discovery of the footprints - a path to follow". The goatherd (Batman?) pursues the goat (Talia/Leviathan?), up the mountain of Enlightenment (the interior of St. Malphas).
- Outsiders are merc'd. Hate to see the gang absolutely annihilated.
- Batman is on a bender since #3, non-stop feats that will inevitably drain him. He's running on empty.
- Jason returns to the Bat-Cave. Damian still doesn't rock with him since the Revenge of the Red Hood arc.
- Alfred gets Damian the cat that will be named after him!
- Did Talia hack the Batman INC frequency or the Bat-Cave? Or is Tim just transmitting what Bruce can hear in the building?
- Phenomenal double spread: the dummy-torsos have the faces of those replaced by Leviathan in #3. This whole thing is so totally Dedalus it hurts.
- As Batman tries to get out of the tea room, all of the clocks strike 10:47 - the time Bruce's parents were killed.
- Talia still plans to use Otto Netz's oroboro meta-material to replace energy in the NewAl Ghul Order.
- Is Gotham actually burning or is it just another one of Talia's tricks, meant to evoke the 666 future? But then again how would she know?
- The seventh picture - "The Bull Transcended - once home, the bull is forgotten, discipline's whip is idle; stillness"
- Behind the Talia dummy, an empty circle - picture number eight - "Both Bull and Self Transcended - all forgotten and empty"
- Picture number nine - "Reaching the Source - unconcerned with or without; the sound of cicadas"
- Are these hostages all homeless of the shelter, or could they be the originals replaced by Leviathan?
- Beryl's brought back just as Cyril is taken from us. Heart-breaking. We've barely seen The Heretic and I already want him pummeled to oblivion.
- Talia claims Heretic to be the Third Ghost of Batman!
- The three Robins go to save Bruce, telling Damian to stay behind, but he'll obviously not listen.
- Batman falls, Gordon and the boys are attacked by the Leviathan mind-controlled kids. Everything becomes helpless in the blink of an eye. That is enlightenment that Talia reveals, that you were never winning, Batman.
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