Welcome to part 2 of my recap of Detective Comics Volume No. 1: The Rise of the Batmen. If you still need to read part 1, click (here). Today I am covering issues #938-940. Time to see what our Bat-fam is getting up to now.
Rise of the Batmen, Part Five: Enemy at the Gates: We start with a Jacob Kane flashback, many years ago Colonel Kane is being promoted thirteen clearance levels. No rank increase and no recognition and the unknown guy talking to Kane gives him some files that say League of Shadows and the Court of Owls. Before the man can finish, Kane gets a page and walks out, his daughter being more important than anything else in the world.
At what looks like Arlington Cemetery, we see a young Kate visiting her mother's grave. She has been missing for a day because she walked to the grave. We learn this is six months after the death of her mother and sister. Kate asks her father how he keeps going and doesn't just spend every day at her grave crying. Jacob tells her that he is one of many and it is his job to make sure that nothing like what happened to his wife and daughter ever happens again. He further tells her that he still has a girl to take care of. He then asks her what she wants. She tells him that she wants to be a soldier and fight with him.
Now, Kane's men are trying to drag him away from the fight. He resists for a moment, but the larger mission is at stake. Once in the elevator, he looks sad as he realizes this is not how it was supposed to go. Our crew is fighting all of the Batmen soldiers. Batman does have a moment to tell Batwoman that he shouldn't have brought them. She respectfully tells him to shut up. She then proceeds to lay into him, even calls him a, "damsel in distress" which I love. She also knows that this is not a fight they can win, so she orders them to stage an escape.
Batman tells Red Robin that Kane is targeting Gothamites and the data is in their central computer. (I think when Batman was snooping before Ulysses showed up, he saw on the computers that Kane thinks the league of shadows has a bunch of sleeper agents. That is what he means when he says they are targeting people in Gotham.) The team on the lower level is fighting their way out, while they send Orphan to the upper level, because she is the big gun.
Red Robin has found the computer and is a tiny bit impressed. Ulysses shows up and tries very poorly to take down RR, but he is no match. Ulysses thinks he beat Red, but he didn't and now Ulysses is impressed with Red Robin's suit that is also a supercomputer. Looking at the map of Gotham there are a lot of red dots and there is no way the government would be okay with a large-scale attack of its own people. Before RR can get anymore info, Ulysses triggers a trap door to get away right as a group of Batmen soldiers show up.
Before they can start fighting, all the grenades in their belts start beeping. The soldiers all freak out and toss the belts right as they blow up. Spoiler is there to knock Red Robin out of the way and take credit for triggering the grenades. Back on the lower level Clayface is really enjoying beating up a bunch of Batman look-a-likes, he apologizes to Batman. Batman is chill, but tells Clayface to make a bridge to get them out. While they are literally running up Clayface, to the upper level, Batman explains how the League of Shadows is a myth and they are about to kill a bunch of innocent people. Red Robin adds that the bosses don't know that Kane has gone off the rails.
They get up to the top level and of course Orphan has taken out many men, but before they can be too happy Batwoman gets hit in the face, knocking her mask off. Her father, along with Ulysses, and many men are about to fly off, but he tries one more time to win her over. She gives him a hard no. Kane orders them to be subdued, but Red Robin has other plans. He has reprogramed all the Batmen helmets to high static, so not only can they not hear but are in too much pain to do anything. Batman uses this chance to drop some smoke and the whole team clears out.
Ulysses tells Kane it will take hours to fix the suits and in that time Batman will be able to report what they are up to and all this work will have been for nothing. Ulysses does still have a way for them to achieve their objective, he has been working on some upgrades that Kane said no to. Turns out he ignored Kane and did the upgrades anyway. So even though they have a ton of suspects and no proof of any wrongdoing, Kane orders the attack of more than a thousand people.
Rise of the Batmen, Part Six: The Thin Red Line: We flashback to the funeral of Thomas and Martha Wayne, Jacob is pissed at Thomas. He blames Thomas for walking down that alley and getting his sister killed. Further up Bruce is sitting alone, until Kate joins him. She reminds him of a time they were playing together, she skinned her knee and cried a little. She tells him it is okay to cry. Their dads didn't seem to like each other much, but they are family and when things are tough you should be there for your family.
Now, our crew of heroes has taken back the Belfry. Alfred is relieved, he was about to call on their friend in Metropolis. Batman tells him he might need to make a call on the "Black Line." Batwoman and Batman go off to talk, while the rest talk about cleaning up. Red Robin isn't worried though, he figured the place would get messy and has a plan. They have two of the Batmen soldiers to put into holding and question.
Tim tells Stephanie that he has made up his mind. He wants to go off to school and take a break from being Red Robin. (This won't be good. Heroes are never allowed to retire...) She is happy for him and he loves that his plan of a self healing Batcave in the heart of Gotham will be his gift to the team. She asks when he is going to tell Batman and he says he will right after all this Colony stuff is over.
Elsewhere, Kate is mad that Batman didn't tell her about her father. He claims to only have suspected, but she calls bullshit. He admits he knew that the person running the drones was very interested in her. They argue about crossing lines and Batman was worried how she would react. She feels betrayed, like she has no family left. Bruce assures her that she still does. Kate gives him a look and an ultimatum, that he never lies to her again. He agrees. Alfred interrupts with news that the black line is ready. The black line is a direct line to the president it seems and Batman is about to dismantle the Colony from the top down.
Red Robin is at his computer feeling a tiny bit impressed with Ulysses again. He quickly learns what the Colony is about to do and calls everyone to him. He tells everyone that there is a second drone fleet that is heavily armed and heading for Gotham. They figure that at least 600 people are being targeted and Red Robin can't shut them down remotely. Batman is not having it, all these innocent people are going to live.
We see all the drones approaching the city and Kane and his team are in a flying fortress following them. Kane even has the gall to pray that this goes well, because he seems to genuinely think he is doing the right thing. The Bat-fam team is on the move trying to help as many people move to safety as they can. There is a brief moment while Spoiler is helping a group of people, one of them looks really shady. (I am going to guess maybe this whole League of Shadows thing is more complicated than Batman thinks.)
Kane is pissed and wants to know how they are one step ahead of him. It is Red Robin of course. Ulysses wants to target Batman and Batwoman, but Kane says no, to go for the next set of targets. Red Robin has a plan for that too. He can't shut down the drones, but he can change the targets. Stephanie tells Batman to get the heck back to Tim, because he has made himself the only target the drones are targeting. Batman goes while Batwoman heads to the airship to talk to her father.
Batman tells Alfred to send everything they have to the Belfry, but Alfred tells him that it will take at least ten minutes. Tim is standing in the Belfry trying to figure out what to do next, if anyone can solve this math problem, it is him.
Rise of the Batmen, Part Seven: The Red Badge of Courage: In Kane's airship Ulysses plays Batman's message calling for all help to head to only Wayne Tower (the Belfry). Kane is out of his mind in anger, but Ulysses can't do anything. Before Kane can pummel the poor kid, Batwoman arrives. Kane tries to explain that he never wanted to hurt her or her team, he was trying to do good. She calls him on all his shit and then punches him right in the face. He continues to try to justify his actions, but she is just disappointed. She tells him this is over and he will be court-martialed. He is confident that he won't.
At that moment ARGUS (a government group with a silly acronym name) is there to arrest Kane. They can see their base (The Cave) is also being raided. Kane tells Ulysses to activate Black Flight Protocol (these people really love naming shit). The protocol is some kind of alien teleportation device. Kane tells Batwoman she needs to get off, but she is not having it. She grabs him and jumps off the air ship, right before it disappears. She then punches him in the face again before checking in with Batman.
Everyone is trying to get to Red Robin. For his part, Tim is doing a really good job taking down drones on his own. Well he is still holding on anyway. Poor kid looks up only to see so many more drones coming. Tim tells Bruce to tell everyone how sorry he is and how much they all meant to him. Tim then privately says goodbye to Stephanie, telling her that he loves her. (Look....this is fucking brutal if I am honest.) Tim gets destroyed. We also see everyone's reaction to it, from shock to sadness and for Batman, anger.
Batwoman finds Batman holding Tim’s fighting bo staff. (There is literally nothing of Red Robin left.) He asks her about her father. She reports that he is unconscious one roof over and that she plans to turn him over to ARGUS. Batman says no, that Kane will have to answer to him.
Later in her apartment Stephanie is crying. Batman shows up to make sure she is safe. He then goes on to tell her that Tim chose this life and that he saved hundreds of lives. Tim will be remembered and was one of the greatest heroes. She hands him an envelope. He reads Tim's acceptance letter and then drops it. The pain on his face is palpable and after a moment him and Stephanie embrace both crying.
There is a small flash of light and a bruised and battered Red Robin lands on the ground. He asks out loud where he is. Someone who looks familiar (like the guy from Superman...Dr. Oz) tells Tim that he was reconnecting threads that could not be reconnected. He had to be taken off the field. As Oz leaves Tim shouts that his friends will come for him. We see that Tim is in some kind of prison cell.
They almost killed me with this volume. I really thought Tim was dead guys, as dead as any comic book character ever is I should say. This is a lot to unwrap. I am hopeful that Jacob Kane has not totally lost his mind, but it doesn't look good and Kate punched him in the face...twice. It does feel like a huge character shift so I hope there is more to it. I should point out that I am a huge fan of a team and the Bat-family is my favorite team, so them all working together is my jam. I even enjoyed Clayface running around helping out. I'm digging all the ladies in this volume. Obviously Batwoman is a badass and a great leader. Stephanie is super smart and adds some fun levity. Cassandra is one of my favorite characters period and this version of her is her at her best.
The writer for this volume is one of my favorite DC writers. James Tynion IV, (Twitter Link) has written stories about Batman, Red Hood, Constantine, and is currently writing a fun DC vs Vampires story that I am looking forward to reading. I believe he is the writer for at least the next couple of volumes and I am excited to see where this story is going.
I love the art in this volume. I definitely added a few extra shots of it, because I think it is great. Eddy Barrows (Twitter Link) and Eber Ferreira (Twitter Link) did the pencils and inks respectively as well as the main A covers for issues 934, 935, 939, and 940. For issues 936-938 we had Alvaro Martinez (Twitter Link) and Raul Fernandez (Twitter Link) coving the pencils and inks respectively with some help from Al Barrionuevo on issue 938. All of the B variant covers were done by Rafael Albuquerque (Twitter Link) and man do I love his stuff. You might remember him as the main artist in the Batgirl volume I covered recently. Rafael's cover below is my favorite this week. (Quick note: I am putting the twitter links this way so it is super clear what the links go to, as opposed to just linking people's name.)
It is always nice when I have a few options for the best line in the volume. Stephanie had a few and really it is what Cassandra doesn't say that makes her so great. But today my favorite line goes to Clayface. He is asking the important questions. Just how the hell is he supposed to fly like all the others?
Last Week: Batgirl and The Birds of Prey Volume No. 1: Who is Oracle?, Part 1
Batgirl and The Birds of Prey Volume No. 1: Who is Oracle?, Part 2
Next Week: Batman: Night of the Monster Men
Note: All images belong to DC™
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