Why am I just doing 8? This is a one-off, standalone issue. Also, it's the last one before the crossover "Night of the Owls." This one will be a quickie. There are two stories in here.
The first story opens with Batman chasing Catwoman. This isn't their normal "chasing," and Batman makes reference to the events in Catwoman where they're having a rough time of it these days. Catwoman, however, is having a really bad night herself. She's been dosed with fear toxin and is likely to get herself hurt if he doesn't do something. He does, and because of a time limit has to leave her alone after he gives her the antidote. She was apparently stealing not an antidote, but a vaccine against Scarecrow's toxins. Batman gets the name Digger Jones as her client, and is on his way. He has to hurry because Scarecrow said he will hurt a hostage if Batman doesn't accomplish three tasks in an hour. One down.
Digger Jones is running a dogfighting ring. Batman takes him out easily, and finds out that he was going to provide the vaccine and test dogs to a guy at an abandoned private school (seriously, Gotham's urban decay is almost as bad as Angel Grove). Scarecrow tips his hand though and Batman catches him. Turns out the kid isn't Scarecrow's hostage, but is in danger over at the school. Batman races off to the school to find a bunch of henchmen in Scarecrow masks. Batman takes them out and finds the mastermind behind this operation: Eli Strange, from that previous comic. He's now working for his father, who shows uncommon concern for his son when Batman and the police are en route.
Side note (and burns): Seems Strange is now sporting mutton chops. We're waiting for the full beard, DC. Make it so.
Batman realizes that the kid in the photo is actually Eli Strange years ago. We get some background about Eli, and we find out that yeah, this kid is ridiculously smart. Unfortunately, he's not very interesting.
I don't have much to say. This speaks for itself: 2/5
The second story involves Two-Face stumbling into an underworld doctor with a bullet and strange black lines of corruption on his bad side. Is this part of his new design? We never find out. We get a flashback to him talking to someone working for the prosecutor's office. He spins his coin and slaps it down, making the other guy freak out over which side it landed on. The guy says that all charges against Harvey are being dropped. Two-Face thinks if that happens, he could get his job back as DA. Well...maybe...I guess...Look, Harvey, don't get your hopes up, 'kay?
We're given a bit more of a background of Two-Face here through conversations. Apparently he's been embarrassing the corrupt prosecutor by repeatedly getting his cases thrown out. I like that Two-Face seems to be a legal wizard in this version. It's so bad that Two-Face thinks he might be trying to set him up for murder by saying charges have been dropped. So he tortures the messenger for a while to see if the charges actually have been dropped, then when external sources prove they have, he walks in and lets the guy go. HE orders his minions to not only let him go, but bandage him up and drop him at the ER. The coin fell on the good side.
This one is a little better. It's far better than my description due to the atmosphere and the dark, moody artwork. This is an interesting direction for Two-Face, so I'd like to see where they take this. Still, it's a rather light and meatless story, so 3/5.
Well that was disappointing.
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