I hope you've got some time and a snack, because this one is going to be super long, as the events that follow span from late 2019 to last week. As per the rules, all names are altered herein.
Ok, so here's the backstory. My STBXW was my high school sweetheart. We started dating in 1992 when we were both 17 (we're both 45 now) and have been together ever since. She's the only woman I've ever been with my entire life. We married 5 years later at 22, fresh out of college. A year later, we had our 1st of two children, both boys. (22 and 17) 23 years I gave to her. Built her a house. Worked my ass off to give her the life she wanted. Sure, we had rough patches, but what marriage doesn't? Even in the worst of times, we found a way to pull through and come out the other side better. Which made the discovery of her affair that much more jarring.
Flashback to March 2020, when I 1st got the feeling something was "off". For a good 2 months prior, we were in a funk. I was on the mend from reconstructive knee surgery (blew out my ACL fall 2019) but still lacking in movement. At the time I only had about 55% range of motion on my knee. This took a toll on quite a lot in the house. I was out on worker's comp, as I had been injured on the job, and I was unable to do my usual household duties, so a lot got backed up. My sons would do what they could, but tasks only I was capable of doing had to be put on the back burner, or my wife had to do, which she wasn't pleased with. Things also crawled to a stand still in the bedroom between us. It had already slowed down prior to my injury, but in the state I was in at the time it completely stopped.
During these months, she (we'll call her Sue) was spending more time "hanging with co-workers" after work. Between November 2019 to March 2020 it was a regular occurrence for her. Naturally, I thought nothing of it. I've never in the 23 years I'd been with her had any reason to worry or not trust her. She has her friends, I have mine, and we have mutual. I'd go hang out with my friends all the time and there was no issue. It was all above board. It was around January of this year that I noticed something odd. Sue started getting noticeably distant with me. Sure, we were in a funk, but she'd never deny me affection to that point. The usual hugs and kisses she'd give me came to a halt. Her phone was attached to her hand long before my suspicion grew, but she'd always share and show me things she'd discovered on the web. DIY ideas and recipes on Pintrest, memes, all kinds of stuff. But she was now being guarded about her phone. Even her interactions with me became more snippy, as if she couldn't be bothered.
So we're now in March. Covid has arrived and New York City is locked down. Our chosen careers fall under the "essential" designation, so neither of us have to work from home. I'd just been recently cleared to return to work after 5 months on the shelf, and I was eager to get back after it, as 5 months on my ass rehabing my knee and not being able to do physical stuff drove me nuts. (For context, I enjoy physical activities. I'm an avid martial artist and I'm typically in the gym 4 days a week, on top of all of the home projects I did.) Within a week or 2 of the lockdown, my STBXW alerts me that she's going to have to start putting in extra hours. Again, I think nothing of this because of her field. Of course, I was under the assumption it'd be every other day, but no. It was every day. And not just an hour or 2. She'd come home 3 or more hours later, and go straight to the shower, spend a little time with me, a little time with our 17 y/o (22 year old lives with his GF crosstown) and then go to bed. As I'm able to support myself on my knee better, we started getting intimate again, but as you'd probably guess she wasn't mentally or emotionally present for it, which I noticed quickly.
So by early April, the picture started getting clearer to me. All of the signs were pointing to the idea that she was having an affair. That's when I decided I needed to find answers. So I scoured the internet on things I should be looking for. Signs of infidelity in one's partner, and sure enough she was pretty much ticking all of the boxes on such behavior. So then my search inquiry advanced to how to I find proof. I started with her social media. Looking at her FB entries from months prior, it's pretty much the usual. Pics of us and our sons, pics with her and her friends, and a more then a few pics of her nights out with co-workers. In these pics, it's a mixed bag of her closets friends from work, and a couple folk I've never met from her work. But I see one recurring thing in a number of these pics, one guy. In every picture he's in, he's rather uncomfortably close to her. His arm is around her shoulder, or his hand on her lower back. WAY to close for a guy I've never personally met. Needless to say that put a sour taste in my mouth.
But that wasn't the worst of it.
No, no, no. The worst was the fact that apparently, this dude is a friend of hers on FB and followers her on IG. So I go to look up his FB account and wouldn't you know it, I'm blocked. Why the hell am I blocked from seeing this guy's FB account, but he's friends with her on FB. Yep. Now I'm in Batman detective mode. At that point, I wasn't even trying to deny it. I knew she was cheating on me with this guy. My mission was to find out for how long. And over the course of April and May, that's what I did. You know I never had any clue the depth of info you could secure from phone, text and email records up until then. We have a family plan cellphone package, and I was able to pull up quite a bit of data. My STBXW's data history was telling. The 2 most frequent numbers she had interacted with from October 2019 to April 2020 was my own, and a number I'd never seen before. Take a wild guess who's number it was? A quick check on google and I confirmed it was the dude from the photos who blocked me on FB. (We'll call him POS, cuz that's what he is.) Again, the picture becomes even clearer at this point. But a lot of their messages and texts were disjointed, which meant she was deleting a lot of them. I knew she was cheating on me with this guy, but nothing in the data could serve as a smoking gun. I needed more evidence.
It's at this point that I tell my best friend Oz what I had found. He asked me did I confront her with what I had, and I said no because I felt like it wasn't enough. That's when he told me about an app that I could download to apparently spy on her communications in real time. I won't say the name as I don't know the rules on that here. I got it installed, sync up my data plan, and waited. Within days of doing so, I finally saw it. A text string between the 2 of them talking about how much fun they'd had the previous night, and making plans to do it again that weekend. Boom. Gut punch. To say I was completely devastating was an understatement. I guess that moment counts as my "D-Day", and for the next 2 days after I was just broken. I actively distanced myself from her those 2 days immediately after d-day, which she was noticeably shaking by. She'd try to console me and ask me what was wrong, but I'd brush it off and leave her presence. I couldn't even look at her. This woman, who I gave 23 years of my life to. Who I have given everything I could and more to as a husband, and she stepped outside of our marriage for a guy just 5 years older then our eldest son. By the 3rd day, I wasn't even sad anymore, I was pissed.
I contacted Oz to let him know my suspicion was confirmed, and he asked me had I confronted her yet. My answer was no, and I told him I wanted payback. I didn't want to just divorce her, I wanted to destroy her. I wanted to leave her life in shambles and fucking ruin her. It was going to take time to do so, and I devised a plan. In my readings and research on infidelity, I had saw a quote that resonated with me that went "the enemy of infidelity is unpredictability". Or something to that ilk. That was going to be the basis of my plan. I was going to make her life hell on wheels, while also secretly planning my exit strategy.
So we're now in early June, and I've still got the app installed. Pretty much every night, I'm gathering as much data as I can seeing their back and forth messages. They're talking like it's a full blown relationship they're in. Sexting, lovey dovey romantic stuff, nudes, the whole fucking bag. At that point I had stopped looking at any of it, I was just collecting info and cataloging on my private FPS server. Meanwhile, I start doing things "out of the ordinary". I start going out at odd times. I start coming home even later then she does. In her presence, I'm on my phone a lot more then usual and when she asks "what are you up to?" I just simply say "just stuff" and put my phone away. I'd also changed my log in info on everything, so she couldn't access any of my stuff. Mind you, for our entire marriage, we'd never hid anything from each other. But right around I'm assuming the start of her affair, she'd changed her password on FB, as well as on her phone stating "she had to because of the security breaches in recent months." Yea, really nice cover for hiding your affair from your husband. Anyway, I'd clued Oz in on my plan, as well as telling my older (and only) sister and two more of my closest friends what was going on. These are people I trust with my life, and I swore them to secrecy. (For context, Oz and I have been friends since we were kids. The other of our friends Joey and Nina we've known since High School. Make note of Nina, she comes into play down the road.)
July comes, and my STBXW is in full paranoia mode. She's texting and calling me a lot more frequently now, asking me if I'm going to be home when she's gets home, when am I coming home while she is and I'm not, asking me what am I up to, the works. I can see the seed planted in her head the month prior is starting to sprout, especially in her communication with POS. She's confiding in him her doubt and confusion. Telling him that I'M getting cold and distant. The fucking nerve of this woman!!! In the interim of these interactions with POS, she suggests that maybe they should stop meeting up at our house because she has no idea if I'd just show up, confirming that yes, she's had this fuckwad in my home. Thanks, Sue! POS asks her in that specific communication was she worried about me potentially cheating on her, which actually pissed her off. I can't even begin to describe the level of joy and how many laughs I got out of reading that exchange. My cheating wife arguing with her affair partner over if she's mad her husband could be cheating on her. Oh the fucking irony. Now bare in mind, I'm not hooking up with anyone. When I leave, I'm usually at Oz or Joey's throwing back some booze, watching fights and spending time with my bros, or at my big sis' house hanging with her and my BIL, who's like an older brother to me. My sis is 52 and her hubby is 58. She had told him about my STBXW's infidelity, but not of my plan. Couldn't risk it as he's a bit of a blabber mouth.
We'll fast forward now to October. That's when things seriously pick up. I've been in my "faux affair" for 3 months now, and Sue is hyper aware of the fact that I'm actively pulling away from her. It's been as long as the day I enacted my plan until the day she "confronted" me, October 20th, 2020 that I'd even touched her. No hugs. No kisses. No initiation of intimacy. Nothing. Not like she needed it, she was still fucking POS, just at his place or at motels. So that afternoon, she calls me at work, which wasn't rare before all this began, but certainly hadn't happened in a while and asks me to come straight home after work saying she had "something important to tell me." I'm not gonna lie to you all, I half believed she was going to come clean about her infidelity, but she of course didn't. Instead, I get home to her asking me was I unhappy with her. The. Fucking. Nerve. She sights the fact that I've been spending way to much time away from home, I don't show her affection anymore and our sex life has completely died. She tells me she's worried I'm pushing her away because I was resentful of how she treated me the months I was rehabbing my knee. And then came the punchline. She fucking asked if I was cheating on her. Folks, I fell out on the floor laughing hysterically. And when I say hysterically I mean Joker laughing gas hysterical. On the surface it looked like (to her assuming) it was me laughing off the notion of being unfaithful, but it was of course actually me laughing at the sheer irony of what was happening in front of my eyes. I'm tearing up, pounding on the floor in complete hysterics for a good 2 minutes before I compose myself enough to answer. I sit up and look her in the eyes for the 1st time in months shaking my head, but I don't give her and answer. I stand up, brush myself off, kiss the top of her head and go about settling in for the night.
Later that night, as I'm in my office I decide you know what? Given the brevity of what happened, I wanted to see what she was telling him. So I fire up the app and sure enough they're actually texting in real time. She tells POS "I know he's cheating on me. I asked him tonight and he literally laughed in my face. He fell on the floor and laughed for like 5 minutes. (It wasn't 5 minutes obviously.) He doesn't even care how I feel anymore. I don't know how or why, but he's gone. I know I've lost him. This is karma, I know it." The smile I had on my face reading that must've resemble the Cheshire Cat. She was breaking. POS attempted to console her, saying that if I cared enough for her, she wouldn't have had come to him to give her what I wasn't giving her, but the tone of her responses told me she was having doubt now. She had the nerve to step out of our marriage because I was unable to fulfill my role as a husband due to legitimate injury, and kept the affair going for at that point nearly an entire year, but the idea of her losing me to another woman was enough to make her waver? What a fucking weakling.
Now, during all of this I was also exacting the 2nd part of my plan for payback, getting all of my affairs in order financially. In September, I had met with a family attorney to get the ball rolling on divorce paper, with the mountain of evidence I'd piled up to that point. New York is an "at fault" state as far as Divorce, and the overwhelming amount of proof I'd gathered displaying Sue's infidelity pretty much solidified I could nail her to the fucking wall in a divorce case. My lawyer instructed me to get all of my financials in order in preparation for whatever division of assets might come as result. I went one better then that, secretly pulling all of my money out of our joint account and putting it in my personal account. I also started shopping around for an apartment as part of "phase 2".
We're now in November, and I've not changed my behavior. In fact, I've ramped it up. This is where my friend Nina comes into play. For context, Nina and Sue have never been what you call "close". I met Nina freshman year of high school 2 years before I met Sue. Even way back then, Sue has seen Nina as a "threat", as she's my closest female friend. There's always been an implied "I don't trust her" from Sue regarding Nina. She's never addressed it directly, but it's obvious to anyone who pays attention. Conversely, Nina's never been a big fan of Sue. Early in me and Sue's relationship, Nina called to attention to me how Sue was pretty much imposing herself into our little "square" of friends, whereas I didn't do the same with Sue's set of friends. That irked Nina because she knew why Sue was doing it, her. Among Sue's circle even now, there are no male friends...aside from POS. Whereas Nina is the only girl in my "square".
Nina had been "stuck" overseas due to the virus, and finally returned to NYC November 3rd. Oz, Joey and I decided we were gonna celebrate her return with a night at Joey's house for dinner and drinks. (There was only 5 of us, Oz, Joey, Joey's wife...who is also Nina's sister, Nina and myself. Sticking to CDC guidelines. We take the rona VERY seriously.) Nina, being the evil mastermind she is, comes up with an evil idea to trigger Sue. She suggested we take some photos in the same vein of the photos I discovered of Sue and POS months prior...and post them to my FB. And that's just what we did. It wasn't until the 5th that Sue got wind of it, as I'm guessing a few friends noticed my updates and saw how "uncomfortably" close I was with Nina. This really fucked her mind up, because she still believed I was cheating, and I can almost guarantee she "wanted" to accuse Nina, but she knew that Nina had been stuck in Europe for the majority of the year. Still didn't stop her from attempting to dress me down that night for being so as she said "handsy" in the pics. I saw this as a golden opportunity to deliver the the lead jab for my knockout blow. I say "So what about the pics with you and POS from last year? He was pretty handsy in them. But did you see me get bent out of shape over it?"
Dear in headlights. It was the 1st time I even mentioned the dude's name throughout all of this. The hamster wheel in her head started reeling in real time as she tried to to explain away those pics. To that point she hadn't even known I saw them, that's little I use FB. When I actually do post something it's like an event to people, which is why the pics with Nina specifically got so much traction among our circles. And explain away she did. "He's that way with everyone." "He's just a really friendly guy." "I can see how it looks, but there's nothing their." "I'm sorry if those pics hurt you. I'll delete them." No, no...the pics aren't what hurt me. The year you've been fucking the dude whilst lying to me that you're working extra hours and hanging with friends is what hurt me. But vengeance, as Lt. Comm. Warf from Star Trek: TNG so famously said "is a dish best served cold." From that night, Sue was being extra specially clingy and attentive to me. Like, annoyingly so. She's try to initiate affection and intimacy with me and I'd stonewall her at every chance. All the while, I'm still archiving everything she's saying to POS. Mind you by this point I'd long since gone numb. Any desire I might have had to save my marriage was dead. I'd checked out the day I enacted the 1st phase of my plan.
She's confiding in him that I've gotten worse. That she doesn't know what to do, and she feels like I absolutely hate her. (I do.) Then comes the bombshell. She says she can't see him anymore. The guilt is to much for her, and she feels like karma is suffocating her. She can't risk losing me. She says that she loves POS deeply, but she "still in love" with me, and she has to save her marriage before she loses me. No, my dear...you're about 8 months to late for that. POS loses his shit, saying such lovely things as "He doesn't love you the way I love you." and "You're making a mistake, you can't just throw me away like this." That text chain would be the last they'd have until about 3 weeks ago. Throughout the remainder of November into December, Sue is tuck in limbo. She's trying to gauge where my headspace is and is still unable to tell if I'm actually being unfaithful. Meanwhile, POS is steadily blowing her phone up daily, but she's not responding to him. I'd see her check her phone often, the quickly put it away. Meanwhile, phase 2 of the plan was now officially complete. The divorce papers were done. I'd found me a studio apartment in Co-Op City (New Yorkers will know the area) and signed a 2 year lease on it. All of my money was in my personal account. I was ready to throw my haymaker.
So we're now at Thanksgiving. My oldest and his GF were hosting a small gathering of our immediate families. So them (Oldest and his GF), Oldest's GF's parents (she's an only child) myself, Sue and our youngest. We have a great night. My oldest's GF is studying to be a chef, and she did all the cooking herself. The girl can fuckin' cook lemme tell ya'. As I had to keep up appearances of nothing being wrong between Sue and I, I initiated affection with her several times that evening. Kisses on the cheek. Cute lil' hugs. Wrapping my arms around her shoulders from behind. The gestures didn't go unnoticed by her, as she reveled in it. Bare in mind, this was the 1st time I touched this woman since I kissed the top of her head the night she "confronted" me in October...so just about 2 months. Not gonna lie, I felt repulsed doing it. But I had to. I couldn't risk the plan, and me being distant to her in the face of my boys, my oldest's GF and her parents would set off alarms. So my youngest decides he wants to stay over with his big bro for the night, so Sue and I head home. On the drive home, she thanks me for being so good to her, and says "I don't know what you're going through, baby. But I'm here for you." I had to hold off busting out in maniacal laughter again, and responded saying. "I know. I just need time."
So for the 1st time realistically since Springtime, we had sex that night. I figured fuck it, with what I'm about to do, may as well get some action before I delete her from my existence. I won't go into detail, but it wasn't "love making". When I was finished she was a lump of flesh laying their trying to figure out the direction of the truck that ran her over. No cuddling or anything after. I just got up, showered and and went to go sleep in my office. To her confusion though, I used a condom. 1st time 2 damn decades I did. She was definitely perplexed by it, but she didn't ask questions. (Sure as hell wasn't going raw in her knowing that she'd been doing so with POS for months at that point.) I wake up the next day and check my handy dandy spy app, and for the 1st time in weeks, she responded to POS. Dude went full novella. He professed his love for her. Said she was wasting her time trying to rekindle a flame in me that died. That she'd been "in a prison" with me for 23 years and deserved to experience the love and affection of a man who would cherish her. Mind you, this dude is 27 fuckin' years old. Five years older then our oldest son. And he's THAT sprung on a 45 y/o married mother of 2? What a grade-A, high quality SIMP. She chose to blow up our marriage and destroy the home we'd built for this dude? Pretty boy with a "soft side"? HAAAA!!!
She responded saying pretty much the same thing she said when last they talked. That she loves him, and enjoyed their time together, but she can't lose me. I'm still the love of her life, but she'll always have a place for him in her heart. That they can still be friends if he chooses, but the physical relationship between them is over. He begged her to see him one last time that week, and yep...you guessed it, she said yes. One more for the road, right? Who am I to say anything, that's what I did to her the previous night. Of course I added all of that to the archive I'd compiled. December 4th is when phase 3, the final phase of operation "Shinobi Ghost" started. The divorce papers where in hand. My new place or residence was set up. Now I had to slowly start moving me stuff out of the house. But 1st, I had to break the news to my boys. I called my oldest to the house that Friday night, had them join me in my office...and laid everything on that table. Not the specifics, but that there mother had been cheating on me for over a year, and I was going to be filing for divorce soon. My 17 year old was especially shaken up by this, because he himself had recently experienced his 1st taste of infidelity. Yep, his 1st GF had cheated on him just 4 months prior. Seeing his heart broken a 2nd time at the idea that his own mother was capable of doing this hit him hard. My oldest took it a lot better, and suggested taking his brother in to live with him until this blows over, to which I agreed.
We packed up some of his stuff, and he asked me was I gonna be ok. I told him "Yes, son. I'm going to be alright. And so are you. We're going to be alright. I promise." And then they were off. The hardest part was now over, and it was now time to arm the nukes. Over the next few weeks, day by day Oz would help me get a little of my most sensitive stuff out of the house. Gave him a list of all of the definite stuff to grab while Sue and I were at work and left him the spare key. This was all stuff Sue wouldn't notice was missing unless you told her it was gone. I'd also gotten a new phone and phone number, and told everyone who needed to know (Oz, Joey, Nina, My boys, big sis and my mother) my new contact info. Meanwhile, I'm keeping up the rouse with Sue and she's non the wiser. trickling bits and pieces of affection to her just to keep her off of the trail, whilst she's still in contact with POS. Not to the extent that they'd been prior, but there's still an emotional thing happening. The fog is feint, but it's still there. All the while, I gather everything, and I do mean everything. Every bit of data I've archived since I started the plan, call logs, texts, pics, emails...everything, and start making printouts. Folks, I must have spent over a $1500 on staples supplies. Printer ink, paper, binders, the works. And I cataloged everything in order, from the beginning of the affair until that last bit 2 weeks ago, December 16th in the binders. 14 of them.
I then put each one in a box, and gift wrapped each, addressing them to various people. My mother (my father passed 7 years ago), her parents, her 2 sister, her brother, her HR department (Did I forget to mention POS works for the same company, and there's an expressed rule against inter-company relationships because of the nature of what she does?), several of her friends, POS AND POS's parents. Lugged all of those fuckers to the post office and shipped them all out December 16th. ETA for delivery, December 22-24th. PERFECT. So we're now at Christmas Eve. Sue comes home around the usual time, no idea if she'd seen POS, I'd stop tracking her on the app the 18th. Figure I'd gotten all the mileage I needed from it. As per usual, she showers, hangs out with me a bit, I blow her back out on the living room couch (I know, I'm a fucking asshole) and she turns in for the night. The final phase was upon me at long last. The nuke I'd been arming since June was finally about to launched. In the middle of the night, I woke up and wrapped up one of the 3 remaining binders, with the divorce papers taped to the inside cover, and set it on my side of the bed with a note note that said "Merry Christmas" on it. Next to it I left my old phone, and the business card of my lawyer. I packed up the remainder of my most needed items, enough to fill 2 backpacks, and I left my home...that I spent 23 years in, for the last time.
That my friends, was one week ago. To Sue I am completely off the grid. Gone. Shadow ghosted. She's blocked on FB, but still hasn't blocked me for some reason, so I'm keeping tabs on the fallout. It's absolutely glorious. My packages have reached everyone I sent them out to, and Sue is getting crucified. Her youngest sister completely dressed her down. Both of her parents have condemned her. My mom absolutely destroyed her. Like holy shit, I know my mom has a mean streak...but the things she called Sue were un-fucking-holy. She's been frantically trying to find out if anyone knows where I am, but those that due, aren't saying a word. All over her FB feed she's desperately trying to reach me, because I'm guessing she knows I'm likely looking. But I'm not saying a fucking word to her without my lawyer present. That'll be the next time I share oxygen with her. She's got no way of spinning the narrative to paint me as the bad guy, because I've exposed her to everyone who matters to her. And from what a mutual friend who works in the same company as her, she and POS apparently are being put on administrative leave as of tomorrow, so yea...chances are she'll be going into 2021 unemployed. As for the the final 2 binders, well...one has been turned over to my lawyer as my final bit of evidence for my impending divorce, and the last one I put in my storage unit to be burned in Joey's fire pit when the divorce is final.
Do I feel guilty about this? No. Not even in the slightest. 23 years I did right by this woman. I gave her the home she wanted. I gave her the family she wanted. I gave her the life I felt we both deserved, and I loved her unconditionally. Never have I faltered. Never have I strayed. Never have I even entertained the notion of breaking my vows. When an issue came up that I felt was effecting our marriage, I came to her and told her, and we sorted it out as best we could. She opted to find comfort in another man's bed. Rather then come to me and say she was unhappy with our sex life at the time, she decided to step out with a young punk who gave her the tingles. So no, I have no sympathy for what I did, or for her. She can burn in hell for all I care. The most I stand to lose is my house, a car and maybe a couple hundred bucks a month in alimony, but seeing as the divorce is filed under the statute of adultery and NYS is At Fault, that might get waved with the insurmountable about of evidence I've provided. As far as I'm concerned, she's dead to me and I'm never looking back.
TL:DR - Wife of 23 years had a 1 year long affair with a co-worker 18 years younger then her. Pretended to be in an affair myself while collecting evidence of hers for the majority of 2020. Had divorce papers drawn up early Fall. Compiled all the evidence in early December. Shipped binders full of the evidence to everyone near and dear to her to arrive around Christmas Eve. Left one binder with the divorce notice attached inside on my pillow, as well as my phone and lawyer's card as she slept Christmas Eve. Completely went off the grid on her as her life completely imploded the following days after Christmas.
Quick edit: NYS is not fully "at fault". Under certain circumstances a divorce can be filed at fault, of which my lawyer has informed me my case falls under. I'll be meeting the STBXW with her lawyer tomorrow. I'm guessing I'll just update here.
2nd Edit: To the guy on Youtube and in my PM who said I got cucked for over a year, and all of my evidence will not be submittable in court claiming he's a "retired PI" with 20 years experience, you can fuck right the fuck off. Had a quick word on the matter with my lawyer earlier today (1/5/21) and everything provided outside of the phone calls are valid. Find something better to do with your time then harassing me, buddy.
UPDATE: https://www.reddit.com/useKermit_Defrogg/comments/ksuv4t/update_fooled_my_cheating_stbxw_into_thinking_i/
UPDATE 2: Shit jus got even worse...
STBXW of 23 years just tried to kill herself last night : Kermit_Defrogg (reddit.com)

DISCUSSION: Why do people question Batman going after Superman in BvS but not question him going after any other villain in any other movie?

Batman & Robin #1 - New Gotham

DC Next presents:

BATMAN & ROBIN

In Return of the Caped Crusaders
Issue One: New Gotham
Written by AdamantAce
Edited by JPM11S & PatrollinTheMojave

Next Issue > Coming Next Month

Writer’s Note:
Check out Gotham Knights #1-20 and Gotham Knights Annual 1 to see how we got to here! ~Adam

Dick Grayson stood in the charred remains of Wayne Manor on an unremarkable day. The sun was low in the sky, not that you would be able to tell through the thick clouds and wintry fog. A long black coat kept him warm, a grey and blue scarf pulled tight around his neck as he searched through the remains of his family’s home with his eyes. He had lost a lot in his life: parents, mentors, friends, and he liked to think that made losing his home easier. The manor had been in the Wayne Family for generations. He only remembered the manor as the cold, stuffy castle he found himself in after his parents died, and then as the warm home where he had forged new familial bonds, their base of operations as he and that family saved the city countless times. But it was just stone. There would be another home like it, Dick knew, he just had to make it.
He wandered around the ashy remains of the manor. The place was so grand that even in its immolated state, the walls remained mostly intact. But passing from room to room, finding soot and debris where there was once lavish luxury felt to Dick like he had stepped into a parallel universe. Fortunately, even in this state, it wasn’t hard to recall the same memories the young man had cherished - Alfred teaching him how to play piano in parlor, getting to know Garth in the armour room, studying for his high school finals with Babs in the library. They were all safe.
“Dick?” a boy’s voice rang out. Dick turned, lifted out of his trance.
“Tim,” he smiled, seeing Tim Drake, his younger brother and successive Robin, having appeared in what was once the doorway at the front of the house. He was in a red sweater, a black canvas jacket zipped up over it.
“Thought I’d find you moping here,” Tim jabbed, walking in to meet his brother and minding where he stepped.
“I don’t mope!” Dick cried with a laugh.
“No, of course,” Tim replied. “Dick Grayson’s finally remembered he’s too good for that!”
Tim was 14 when Dick first met him, when a disaster pulled him back to Gotham and away from the Teen Titans in New York. Dick was 21 at the time, and mightily surprised to see that Bruce had dressed yet another kid up as Robin in his absence. Dick was initially less than impressed, while Tim was starstruck to meet his hero. Luckily for them both, their perspectives changed with time. Dick came to appreciate Tim’s cunning and intelligence, while Tim had just about begun to take Dick off of that hero pedestal. All in five years. In truth, they had really not had that long together, but it didn’t take long until Tim was yet another powerful familial bond.
“I guess… it’s kind of like paying my respects,” Dick spoke.
“To the house?” Tim raised an eyebrow.
“I did have Alfred make some calls to put together a whole funeral procession,” Dick jested, “But then I decided that’s probably too much.”
“Just a bit.”
Dick watched as Tim took his own last look about the place. Unlike Dick, Helena, and Jason, Tim never lived at the manor. He had a room but seldom used it, living with his father over the hill in Burnside. Back then at least, before he had left Gotham and come back, with everything that had happened in between.
“I sent Alfred to the new site,” spoke Tim abruptly. “To supervise some of the contractors, make sure they don’t go snooping. In a mask, of course.”
“I can’t imagine what they’re thinking,” Dick shook his head, “Doing a job for Batman.”
“It’s good to keep Alfred busy too.”
“I keep telling him we don’t need waiting on. That he can relax, or even consider retiring.”
“Alfred Beagle will retire the day Hell freezes over!” Tim cried out.
Dick shrugged in jest. “I’m not sure he will.”
Tim pulled out a thin smartphone. He unlocked it and quickly brought up a series of images he showed to Dick of the new site they had been working on. Each showed a different angle of the new site, metallic and gothic, the limited sunlight pouring in from out of sight as workmen moved heaved materials back and forth, a slender man in a suit and a white theatre mask directing them. “They said they could black out the windows if need be,” Tim explained, noting the abundance of light from the daytime. “For when it gets bright in the summer.”
“Shutters,” Dick nodded. “We can put them up in the summer, but a little sunlight now and then never killed anyone.”
“And I was talking with Alfred, wondering if we should install sleeping quarters,” Tim continued. “Might be more efficient than living in a townhouse all the way in New Gotham and commuting to the other side of the city.”
Dick shook his head. “Just cos we’re used to living above where we work doesn’t mean we have to,” he explained.
Tim blinked. He was putting his all into the development of the new site, and only wanted to get things right. “I thought it could be like Titans Tower.”
“Titans Tower was a clubhouse with a crime lab, not a barracks with a lounge.”
Tim shrugged. “I’ll note that down as constructive criticism.”
Dick put his hand on Tim’s shoulder. “It’s a good idea, Tim,” he smiled. “Let’s have some bunk beds, a kitchen maybe, but let’s not make a point of using them.”
“Right,” Tim nodded. “Let’s go downstairs.”

🔹🔹 🦇 🔹🔹

Through the foyer and into the parlor, together they moved aside the bookcase that concealed the steps leading underground, the locking mechanism busted in the riot that had left the manor in the state it was in. They moved down the winding stone steps, descending deep below before reaching their destination: the Batcave.
Jagged rock, rushing water, dozens of bats streaking by at a hurried pace. Down below was a series of interconnected platforms, each with their own purpose. One housed the Batmobile, another was the training ring, and another was the home to the armoury, lined with suits from throughout time and an array of gadgets. Once. Now, the Batcave was almost empty, it’s features stripped away, moved elsewhere. No more giant penny, no T-Rex. But what did remain was at the centre-most platform. The Batcomputer.
“It doesn’t look right,” Dick shrugged, overlooking the full view of the cave from the top of the final flight of stairs, atop a catwalk running along the perimeter of the cave. “It doesn’t feel real.”
Tim moved ahead, beginning down the last steps. “It never does when you pack up all your stuff. The joys of moving.” He paused. Tim had moved a lot in the last year and a half. From Gotham to Metropolis. From Metropolis to Palo Alto. And now back to Gotham. Each locale had their own unique challenges. Some more harrowing than others.
Dick saw a look emerge on Tim’s face and interjected. “You don’t have to tell me, I was born in a travelling circus.”
“It’s not a competition!” Tim chuckled. “Honestly, I don’t see why we can’t dress up one of Bruce’s old city-side bunkers in the meantime until the new site is ready.”
Dick followed after him. “We can’t keep spending Wayne money like it’s nothing,” he explained. “Not now everyone’s watching us and the company so closely. We should be grateful Lucius is cutting us the odd cheque for a new Batmobile.”
“And why can’t we just stay here?” Tim asked. “Doesn’t matter if we don’t have the manor up top.”
“Cos we’re rebuilding the manor,” Dick continued. “And dedicating it to the homeless. Babs’ idea.”
The pair reached the foot of the stairs and stepped onto the first of the interconnected levels of the cave. Tim kept walking ahead, turning and walking backwards to keep facing Dick. “So when do I get to meet the next Robin?”
“What do you mean?” Dick replied.
“Well, she spent Christmas at her friend’s, and I’ve been so busy with the construction, and--”
“I promise you, there’s no new Robin.”
“You sure about that?” came another voice. Tim turned around and Dick looked past him to see the padded chair beside the towering array of monitors and machines that was the Batcomputer swivel around, revealing the form of 17-year-old Stephanie Brown, with blond hair and bright blue eyes, wrapped up in a large green sweater, sat cross-legged. Dick’s ward. “Remember we have training tonight, Dick.”
“Training?” Tim turned to face Dick. “Is that training training?”
“Don’t you gang up on me, not already!” Dick threw up his hands. “The house was attacked by armed rioters; she needs to be able to take care of herself.”
“More than I already can?” Steph cocked her head.
“You can never be too good at defending yourself,” Dick reasoned.
“Well, anyway, it’s--” Tim turned back to face the girl in the chair by the Batcomputer. “I’m, er, Tim. Drake.”
“Steph,” she replied, bringing her knees down and extending her hand for his, the cuff of her sweater past her knuckles.
“Steph,” Tim repeated, shaking her hand.
“What are you doing here, anyway?” Dick asked her.
She grinned. “Just getting to know the systems.”
“Right…” Dick conceded. “Well, if you want to get moving, let Tim get set up. We need to get changed for tonight.”
“Tonight?” Steph questioned before her eyes shot open. “Oh shit, it’s tonight!”

🔹🔹 🦇 🔹🔹

The paparazzi was a well-accepted part of Dick’s life. He had been forced to accept it as the subject of rumour and speculation when the richest, most eligible bachelor on the East Coast adopted him at age 9. Suited and booted, he had little to worry about attending the gala to celebrate the rise of Gotham’s new mayor, after the successful second emergency election - even if he was now the subject of a different breed of gossip and rumour. What he did worry about… was Steph.
She entered the rented ballroom close behind Dick, in a belted purple sheath dress of Helena’s. The daughter of a deceased henchman of the Penguin, the crime boss who had killed the late Mayor Hull. Now the adopted ward of Dick Grayson, the far-too-young billionaire, recently former GCPD detective, now ousted from the board of Wayne Enterprises, the man that made no sense. Naturally, Steph’s mere existence invited speculation.
If she was being honest, Steph was terrified, overwhelmed by the hundreds of photojournalists at the doors. But once they were inside, all she had to worry about was the run-of-the-mill Gotham elite. They all had questions for her, and few respected her boundaries. As such, Dick had an evening of interception and deflection onto himself ahead of him.
Later, having survived some dreadful hobnobbing and some not-so-respectful flirting from the snotty heir of Lydecker Aerospace, Steph heard the ballroom’s PA system begin to whine. Sound crackled through the large speakers spread about the place. She looked to the stage set up at the head of the room, where the new mayor stood at the podium. Either side of her stood two resolute, stone-faced cops. Steph wondered if they were old friends of Dick’s.
“Hello everyone, people of Gotham. Thank you so much for attending,” smiled the new mayor. She stood in a black pantsuit, tailored like the rest of the Gotham elite. But her olive skin and tight black curls immediately flagged her a new presence among Gotham’s often stagnant hierarchy. “My name is Sarah Essen, and I am proud to announce that I am your new mayor.”
The room was filled with applause as everyone toasted the politician on the stage. Steph didn’t know much about Essen, just that she was a cop who got booted from the force a lifetime ago for unknown reasons. How Gotham ever elected a cop to be their new mayor following the carnage of the last few months eluded her.
“I know the questions everyone is asking,” Mayor Essen continued. “How will we create new jobs? How will we keep our city safe? And how will we earn back the trust of the common man and woman?”
Murmurs permeated about the room.
“And it’s simple,” spoke Essen with punctuation. “For too long, Gotham has catered only to the elite, to the millionaires. And-- Now don’t get me wrong, our industry is our greatest strength. Without it, we would be nothing. But with some well placed incentives, I believe we can unite the rich and the poor in the furthering of our great home.”
Stephanie shrugged. It sounded to her like keep relying on the rich’ in more words.
“Through subsiding real estate, we have already had several industry leaders commit to a move to Gotham, bringing their factories, stores, and offices with them, along with all of the jobs they will create, and…” Essen gestured to the stage exit behind her, “Here to announce an initiative to redevelop some of Gotham’s most neglected neighbourhoods, Wayne Enterprises’ own CEO: Lucius Fox!”
As Lucius stepped out onto the stage, the audience gave a hearty, respectful clap. It was clear to Steph that the rich folk present were less than enthused by Essen’s plans. And while Steph herself thought they seemed awfully shortsighted, she believed the new mayor was making an earnest attempt to take the city in a better direction.
Suddenly, a voice crackled in her ear. “Robin to Batman: Update - Is the commissioner present?” Was she supposed to be hearing this?”
Over her shoulder, Dick replied down his earpiece. “I haven’t been able to identify him yet, why?”
“Skycams have the Bat-Signal high in the sky,” Tim replied.
Dick took a deep breath and nodded slowly. “On it…” He turned to Steph, shame on his face, and went to speak.
But Steph cut him off. “Don’t worry, I’ll be fine. Go,” she urged him. “Can’t miss your first time!”
Dick nodded and gave an earnest smile.

🔹🔹 🦇 🔹🔹

Commissioner Jim Gordon stood atop the GCPD headquarters, the large modified searchlight that was the Bat-Signal beside him. It was old tech, older than most cops in the department, but it was effective. Some said the same about him, twenty years into a career in a position few had interest in gunning for, bearing an unimaginable responsibility.
Batman had been gone for almost three years, and in that time Gordon had used the Bat-Signal beside him to summon and communicate with what felt like an endless supply of half-baked replacements; children, faceless spies, and imposing figures made themselves known in the city before vanishing without a word. But now, the whole city knew Batman was back. Or rather, there was a new Batman in town. So upon receiving emergency information, the stalwart commissioner had shot to the roof and fired up the Bat-Signal once more. Through it, the large silhouette of a bat was projected onto the very clouds above, cutting through the night for all to see. Jim hoped Batman would see it, that it would bring him to the rooftop for a debriefing, that - whoever he was - he meant business in a way the ‘Gotham Knights’ had not. But, more importantly, he hoped that every criminal out at night looked to the sky and knew that the consequence of their actions was coming for them.
“Commissioner,” a voice spoke out, deep but not quite as much as Jim was expecting.
He turned around, holding his hat in place against the howling winter winds. He nodded as Batman stepped out of the shadows. So he could sneak up on him like the old guy could.
“Batman,” Jim replied. “Thank you for being prompt.”
“I came as soon as I could,” Batman spoke plainly.
“Yeah, yeah, I know,” Jim threw his hand up. “You can cut the dramatism; you’ve made it clear you’re not him.”
“Sure.” Batman said ‘sure’ now. “What is it?”
“A user online - a hacker or mole - has released highly sensitive, dangerous information from one of the businesses flourishing under Essen’s new plan.” Jim made it clear what he thought of the new mayor.
“What information?”
“Access codes and detailed instructions on how to infiltrate the vaults of the new Powers R&D plant.”
“Publicly?” Batman replied, taking a step further out of the dark.
“Exactly,” Jim shook his head. “Which means all the gangs are stocking up to raid the place any minute now. I need you to get there first.”
“When was this information released?” Batman asked.
“Ten minutes before the nightlight went up,” Jim replied. “You do have the others with you, don’t you?”
“Excuse me?” The vigilante raised an eyebrow beneath his cowl.
“Huntress, Batwing, the new Batgirl, ” the Commissioner explained, “The ‘Gotham Knights’ or whatever you call yourselves.”
Batman took a deep breath. Not this time. “I have it handled.”
Jim turned and moved towards the Bat-Signal, ready to shut it off. “Now you go do your disappearing trick before I turn back--” He flicked the switch. “And get--”
“Something wrong, Commissioner?” Batman stood on the edge of the building.
Jim paused. “No, get going. You have a job to do.”
“Sure,” Batman nodded and dove from the rooftop.

🔹🔹 🦇 🔹🔹

A sleek, low-to-the-ground blur pulsed across Gotham City, its white eyes and pointed ears leaving it resembling a certain Dark Knight. But its eyes were the silver windshields, its ears were the tall rear tail fins, and the blur was the Batmobile. Dick had been quite the drag racer back in the day, recalling his most rebellious weeks following his arrival at Wayne Manor where he stole one of Bruce’s sports cars and took it for a spin, all at age 9. That fire in him, the love of cars, was one of the ways Bruce had broken through to him, getting the young orphan to help him spruce up some old vintages. Eventually, that led Batman to upgrade from driving a blacked-out sports car to driving a full customised supercar. Despite this, it felt weird for Dick to be behind the wheel of the Batmobile he had himself inspired, especially driving it alone.
But speed was speed, and the one-of-a-kind motor quickly carried him from the GCPD headquarters in Old Gotham to Otisburg up north. There, on Moldoff Boulevard, was the Powers Technology R&D plant on the site of the old Fallbrook Building. One of Dick’s friends in the GCPD had taken down the security information that the hacker had leaked as soon as she could, despite leaving plenty of time for a good few crews to make copies, but Dick had been given access to an archived version that he had been reviewing on the journey. In a hurry, Dick disembarked the Batmobile and began to scale the tower via grappling hook. But he didn’t get far before he saw foul play occurring below. An old pickup went crashing through the front doors of the building.
Forgoing his altitude, Dick moved into a nosedive, deploying his cape at the last minute and slowing his descent to land a kick on an approaching motorcyclist to knock him from his bike, taking him off-guard. Dick landed and counted the footsteps of three more raiders leaving pickup behind him. Dick looked over his shoulder, noting their crash helmets and body armour. The first of them discharged a shotgun at Dick’s back. The new Batman moved quickly, effortlessly cartwheeling to the left and away from the spray of pellets. Then he bounced up, somersaulting through the air and landing behind his new adversaries, putting himself between them and the building. The second turned, levelling a handgun, but Dick quickly smacked it from his grip. Unfortunately, that left him open to the third crook, who successfully got a shot off. Unluckily for that punk, the low caliber round plinked uselessly off of the front of the grey armour plating of the new Batsuit. This earned him a reprisal as Dick lurched forward, taking him by the shoulders and shoving him into his recently-disarmed compatriot, knocking them both into the crashed car. There was a magic to being Batman: You didn’t need to beat every enemy to incapacitation, just convince them it was a good idea to stay down.
The man with the sawn-off fired another shot, but a well-placed Batarang knocked his aim off course and sent the shot into the other criminal’s bike. Luckily for him, his comrade was too unconscious to notice. He tossed the spent shotgun aside, instead brandishing a tire iron, and charged at the Dark Knight.
Dick smiled, rushing forward to meet the thug. He ducked under the criminal’s swing, placing himself behind him. He drove his elbow into the small of the man’s back then he hit him with a high kick, knocking him back as he pushed off of him to earn himself some more momentum. But the thug wasn’t to be beaten, and persisted, whipping round as soon as he caught his balance and swinging again. But Dick had anticipated this and was done playing, converting his momentum to leap into a monster of a roundhouse kick, decimating the remaining foe. In just sixty seconds, they were done.
Upon using a few feet of Bat-line to bind the raiders, Batman continued on through the shattered front door of the Powers Technology plant but was quickly met with a different kind of trouble.
“Hands up!”
From the depths of the out-of-hours foyer moved a half dozen men in pale bodysuits, complete with marble white, black, and silver heavy-duty armour. They were from Monarch Security, a private security firm that had appeared in Gotham in Bruce’s absence. Their equipment was state of the art, which meant their fee was astronomical. Which, in turn, meant that their vow to protect Gotham only applied to the Gothamites with deep enough pockets, such as the newly-arrived Geraldine Powers.
Dick took a step back as the Monarch agents raised their bulky weapons that fizzed with blue energy - apparently they were too good for bullets - but he did not put his hands up as instructed. Batman wasn’t bossed around.
“Oh shit, it’s the Batman,” Dick heard one of them mutter to one of his colleagues beneath his helmet.
“It’s a Batman,” another corrected him.
But then a figure emerged from the mass of them, one with a golden crest on his right arm. He removed his helmet to reveal the case of Commander Ted Carson, the top of the Monarch chain of command. “Easy boys, he’s not our enemy.”
Under Carson’s command, the rest of the agents lowered their weapons. Dick had met Carson before, even if the commander didn’t know it was him beneath the mask. A year ago, he had helped Dick and the Knights in stopping Firefly, a high-tech arsonist who turned out to be none other than the billionaire investor in Monarch, Cameron van Cleer. For that alone, Dick implicitly trusted Carson.
“Thanks for the assist, Bats, but we have things under control here,” said Carson with a swagger.
“With all respect, Commander, Commissioner Gordon seems to disagree,” Batman replied.
“Right, well Monarch protects Powers, not the GCPD, so why don’t we stay in our own lanes?”
Dick sighed. Was he going to be blocked at every turn?
Suddenly, the few lights illuminating the wide foyer blinked off, plunging the room into total darkness. From above, Dick heard an explosion. “Looks like someone already got past you,” he exclaimed and tossed a smoke pellet at the floor. As the room filled with rapidly expanding dense fog, Batman vaulted over the blockade and up a flight of stairs. Knowing he’d be pursued, he then called the elevator a floor up and entered, quickly removing the ceiling panel of the cab - a weakness highlighted in the leaked info - and entering into the naked elevator shaft above. He pulled out his grappling device and soared up several storeys. As he rose, carried by his Bat-line, Dick saw a number of figures struggling to scale the elevator shaft using rudimentary pulleys and bungee cables, all criminals who vastly overestimated their own skills.
Eventually, he reached the level highlighted in the hacker’s info, Level 17G. All that was left was to escape the elevator shaft. To begin, Dick balanced himself precariously on the far-too-thin edge he had to stand on, likening it to tightrope walking. He then produced a Batarang from his belt and forced it into the gap between the two steel doors. With a shove, he drove the edge of the implement deeper through and began to twist, jimmying the doors open ever so slightly. The reinforced alloy of the Batarang started to crack and bend. They were strong but only thin. But no matter. As soon as the space made was big enough, Dick dropped the Batarang and threw in his navy-gloved hands, taking one steel door in each. Then, demonstrating an oft-underestimated strength, Dick forced the doors open, somehow managing to stay upright on the narrow edge. With an effort, he pulled the doors wide and then threw himself through. With a crash, the doors slammed shut behind him, and he had a new set of problems to deal with.
Dick found himself in an office dimly lit with a nauseating green light. Along the floor lay a dozen Monarch agents in full regalia, all beaten, many unconscious. He took a knee beside one of them and spoke.
“What happened here?” he asked. The man struggled to summon the strength to answer, his breathing slow and laboured, the immense weight of his gear making it difficult to move with torn muscles. Though Dick caught a glance at something elsewhere and hurried away to investigate. He moved along the corridor ahead of him to the far end, finding another similar sea of bodies. These were gangbangers from the Scarface Gang, some left groaning, others knocked clean out.
Dick hung his head in shame. He had missed the skirmish. He was lucky none were killed. But he didn’t have long to be disappointed in himself, not when a beast of a man leapt from the shadows around the corner and tackled him to the ground. Dick threw his arms up, blocking the slow, heavy bludgeoning from the man on top of him. He was huge, a grey woollen sweater stretched over his muscles. And… between the punches… Dick could have sworn he had a shark’s head.
Not sure how long he could endure this beating, Dick tensed his core and swung his legs up, knocking the Shark up, over and off of him. There, Dick watched as the Shark’s great weight was his undoing as he struggled to slow himself. Dick peeled himself off of the floor and moved down the bend from where the Shark had come but was met with a cane to his gut. The weapon didn’t do much upon impact, and Dick looked forward to see his new adversary: another man, this one with the face of a fox.
“What--?” the Fox exclaimed behind his mask, striking Dick with the cane once more, this time without much force behind it. The Fox moved back, raising his cane high and gripping it tightly. It crackled with blue electricity, and suddenly his adversary’s panic made sense.
Dick smirked. “Might’ve worked with the old Batman, but my armour’s special.” From beneath his cape, he rapidly drew his weapons: twin escrima sticks. Though, much like the Fox’s cane, these weren’t regular sticks. The new Batman closed his grip around them and sent an electrical current down through the inlaid circuitry in his suit, through his navy gloves, and into the matching implements. Then, they too began to spark and the Fox knew he was in trouble.
Dick swung up and around, moving his sticks together towards the Fox’s side. But the Fox was quick on his feet, hopping backwards and into a rapid parry and riposte. The electrical element of the Fox’s cane did little to faze the Dark Knight, not when his suit was specially insulated to allow for the proper use of his own stun batons, but it was clear the Fox had put more force behind his swing to account for this. Dick took note of his form. He had to be a practiced fencer.
When the Fox bounced back, Dick took the offensive once more, advancing and lunging. The Fox moved once again to parry, but it was a feint, a false move on Dick’s part that left the Fox open. So Dick moved quickly, beginning a flurry of blows to dismantle the fencing Fox that would no doubt have him disqualified for brutality if a referee were present. All the while he forced the two of them further and further down the hallway, putting the Fox on the backfoot. But he wasn’t the only one fighting dirty. As he worked to parry and reflect the Fox’s following strikes, Dick heard the brutish Shark come charging towards him. He stayed calm, continuing to trade blows with the Fox using his right stick. Dick very briefly glanced over his shoulder and flung his left stick as hard as he could at the ceiling behind him. Then, while he refocused his attention on the Fox, fighting to win back advantage he’d lost turning away, his airborne escrima stick ricocheted off of the low ceiling and straight into the forehead of the Shark, shattering his mask and bringing him to the ground. Confident in his abilities, Dick moved in for one last barrage with his remaining stick before shoving the Fox towards the left-open door of the target vault. But before Dick could savour the victory, he realised he hadn’t won at all.
The vault was open, and the pair were moving away from it. And--
Click.
Dick felt the tip of a handgun pressed against the back of his navy cowl. In other batsuits, this wouldn’t have been a problem, but Dick had insisted that his was thinned down as to not hinder his mobility. His approach was to avoid getting hit, the unstoppable acrobat he was. He couldn’t tank a bullet to the head.
“Nice save…” spluttered the bloodied Fox from the ground of the vault, “Nice one, Vulture…!”
But before Dick could deduce how to get himself out of check, smoke began to fill the room. He heard a thwack, and then a crunch, and then the gun was no longer pressed against him. The Fox dragged himself to his feet and screamed, charging towards Dick. But he wasn’t worried about him. All the same, Dick wasn’t able to get a hit off on the bad sport as an attacker lunged from behind him, striking the Fox in the head before Dick could. Fox hit the floor with a thud. His heart pounding, Dick turned around slowly. Sprawled across the floor was Shark, whom he himself had taken down, his discarded escrima stick slowly rolling away from him - and Vulture pinned to the ground. Stood over Vulture was a face Dick was pleased to see, a young man in a new red-and-black ensemble, complete with a black-and-yellow cape and a black domino mask, a bright yellow ‘R’ emblazoned over his breast.
“Did you forget it’s Batman and Robin,” Tim chided, lifting his quarterstaff from the Vulture’s ribcage.
“These guys aren’t exactly the Joker though, are they?” Dick replied with a smirk. “Dynamic Duo meet Terrible Trio!”
Remembering the urgency, Tim moved past Dick, running into the opened vault. There, he found a discarded key card, a counterfeit likely made using the leaked data. In the centre of the room was a small case, left open with the 3D-printed key still in the lock. Whoever this hacker was, they had provided an exhaustive list of every measure needed to get to this case. “It was too easy to get to here. Powers really need to beef up their security.”
But as Tim searched the case, it was empty.
“They got to it!?” Robin exclaimed, turning over his shoulder to look back at the new Batman. “The hacker didn’t disclose what was inside, but the info I… acquired said it was an experimental nerve gas. Where is it--?”
“Not here,” Dick interjected, reaching down to the Vulture’s squirming body. The nerve gas was nowhere to be seen, but shoved into his pocket the Vulture did have a sticky note, the glue still fresh, ornately inscribed with a message. No, an address.

🔹🔹 🦇 🔹🔹

While Robin secured the vault at the Powers building, making sure the ‘Terrible Trio’ were handed over to the police, and that any further heist teams were suitably dissuaded, Batman headed over to the address found on the note left in the nerve gas’ case. That led him to an apartment in the Narrows. The Narrows was an awful place to live, a cramped, often forgotten neighbour built on its own narrow island in the old Morrison Harbor, between Somerset and Old Gotham. The small, man-made island was originally created as a site for affordable housing in the sixties in an initiative led by Patrick Wayne. And while this did give affordable homes to a tightly-knit community of survivors, being bound by two bridges connecting the two greater islands hemming it in had seemingly doomed it to being looked over, neglected by the rest of the city.
Upon reaching the address and climbing the fire escape, Dick deftly cracked open one of the windows of the apartment and climbed inside. He moved silently through the darkness with no idea what to expect, and found a real mess. Broken glass was strewn all over the floor. A fallen bookshelf had emptied its contents - mostly wads of paper - onto the mottled carpet. He kept moving, exiting the disused bedroom he had found himself in and moving down the ensuing corridor. Along there, Dick noted a series of poorly filled-in holes in the drywall, each the size of a softball. Or something else. The more he explored, the more it saddened him. The cracked windows, the stained floors, the overturned furniture all about. A total state of disrepair. Having swept through every other room in the apartment, the Batman came to one final door. But, as he reached for the doorknob, it twisted open, and the door opened inward ever so slightly. Out through the narrow gap in the door scurried a young girl who shut the door behind her, placing her back against it. She looked up to the vigilante towering over and hissed under her breath. “Not here! Talk on the roof?”

Dick Grayson stood atop the apartment building facing the young girl. He was expecting some kind of mastermind, a career criminal working in the Gotham underworld. Not… her. She was thin, remarkably so, skinny enough to see her cheekbones through her pale skin. She couldn’t have been older than seventeen. She had blue eyes with dark eyeliner encircling them, but that wasn’t what grabbed Dick’s attention. No, that would be her hair. She had a long fringe that fell to her chin, and a mess on top, in contrast with her shaved back and sides. Not only that, the hair she did have was bright blue and purple. There was no way a girl as young as she was, looking the way she did, could keep a low profile in the Gotham underworld.
“I’m sorry,” she spoke a bit louder this time, her voice rougher than he was expecting. “My brother’s sound asleep. He doesn’t do that often.”
“Where are your parents?” Dick asked her, commanding the still nature of Batman.
“Dead,” she replied plainly. “Well, Mom is. Dad’s out, luckily for him.”
“What’s your name?” he continued.
She took a deep breath, stirring beneath the baggy hoodie she had wrapped herself up in. “Harper. Row. I, uh, I’m sorry for the mess.”
“I…” Dick wasn’t sure what to say.
“At Powers, not in the house, I mean,” Harper interjected, realising her mistake.
“So it was you,” Dick affirmed.
“Yes.”
Dick took a step forward and Harper instantly threw up her hands.
“I-I-I- I can explain!” she cried out. She reached into the front pocket of her hoodie, in which she had been keeping her hands warm previously, and pulled out a silver canister marked with a red label. She held it out to the vigilante.
Carefully, Dick approached her and took the canister from her. Reading the label, it was clear that this was the stolen nerve gas.
“Since Mayor Essen brought all these big companies to Gotham, they’ve rolled out this huge internship program,” Harper began, shuddering as she did. “Meant to help poor kids get a taste for real careers. Anyway, since I’m only two or three points off being as marginalised as they come, I got selected. So I got to intern at Powers Technology.”
Dick nodded, wondering where this was going.
“Turns out they didn’t have much for me to do; they only took me on as part of the deal they made with the mayor. So I had a lot of free time. I got curious, went snooping maybe where I wasn’t supposed to,” Harper continued. “It wasn’t very hard to fake an ID card, give it the proper clearances, cos the IT is so out of date. And the security cameras were far too easy to bypass. So… without trying very hard at all, I basically stumbled on to everything Powers are working on. Not just the nerve gas, but weapons that’d destroy the city if they got onto the streets. And I thought… if I could get to them as easily as I did… so could any ol’ crook.”
“So you helped them?” Dick exclaimed. “You gave them everything they’d need.”
“Actually, I went to the police, submitted an anonymous tip,” Harper interjected, this time with more force, not to be pushed around. “But they did a fat load of nothing with that one. And I knew those crooks would figure things out soon enough, or they’d buy someone else working at Powers and he’d tell ‘em. So I just sped things up.”
“Why?”
“It’s not like there’s a Bat-Signal app!” Harper exclaimed. “You said we could depend on Batman, on you, to protect us, but you get your calls from the GCPD. So if they weren’t taking the threat seriously, I had to make them.”
Dick couldn’t believe it. This from a teenager in the Narrows? “So you leaked info to the gang to get them to try and steal from Powers… to get my attention?”
“To demonstrate that Powers security isn’t safe,” Harper pleaded. “I don’t want dangerous weapons on my streets.”
“And then you replaced the nerve gas with your address!” Dick exclaimed. “You know that means if we didn’t stop the criminals that got to the vault, they would have come for you. They would have killed you, and your brother, and they would have gotten the nerve gas.”
“But they didn’t.”
“Right, by chance.”
“By a good chance,” Harper shook her head. “I knew you would beat everyone else there, or stop anyone who got their first.”
“How could you know that?” Dick replied, lost.
“Because you’re Batman,” Harper smiled, replying plainly. “And, despite what the Joker mobs would have you think… a lot of people in Gotham trust you, and are depending on you.”
“I... “ The new Batman was lost for words. “I don’t know what to say.”
“Well…” Harper held out her wrists together. “I think you can start with ‘You are under arrest’.”
“No,” Dick replied. “You did a public service. I’ll see to it that these businesses lock up their gear better next time, or get out of the city.”
Harper’s face turned. For all her good intentions, she fully expected this night to end with her in cuffs. “Are you sure?”
“Just answer me this,” Dick replied. “Was Powers’ security the only thing you wanted to bring to my attention. You and your brother, and your…”
“No.” Harper snapped. “You can’t. The second we hit foster care, me and Cullen will be separated.”
“You don’t know that.”
“And neither do you.”
“I…” Dick felt as if it was his responsibility to protect her. Despite what she wanted, she was a child, and now he knew her father was a threat. If he did nothing and something happened to her and Cullen, it’d be on him. That was the curse of Batman, responsibility for every shadow you could see. But Dick also knew something else. He wasn’t a machine; he wouldn’t lose his compassion to the cape and cowl. “Okay, but in the future, you won’t have to try so hard to get my attention.”
“What does that mean?” Harper asked.
“It means we’re trying something new,” Dick explained. “No more secret cave. We’re done hiding. You’ll see.”
Harper tilted her head, not seeing the full picture. Slowly, the new Batman approached the edge of the building and then briefly turned back.
“Stay safe,” Batman smiled. “And thank you.”

Next: Things get chilly in Batman & Robin #2 - Coming February 17th

Appreciation for the Burtonverse

Batman: Three Jokers – After-issue Post 3 – Final Breakdown and Theories - (SPOILERS)

Three Jokers
This is Part 3 of my After-Issue posts:
After-Issue Post 1
After-Issue Post 2
I wasn’t sure if I was going to make this at first, but after reading the final issue, I just had to. Like the last two, I’ll break down the issue, find some references/easter eggs, theorize and give my thoughts.
I thought there wouldn’t be much left to theorize but fortunately for me, there’s still quite a ton. I recognize that reception is a bit more mixed, but I personally really enjoyed this book with a few minor disappointments IMO. I’ll get into that.
This’ll also be my big farewell to this series after theorizing on it for almost two years. So, I know I’ve said it before, but this is the biggest post I’ve made, ever.

I. The Briefing

The issue begins with the trio, after a brief fight, putting aside their differences and finally focusing on detective work. Something hinted at last issue with Bruce looking into his leads on the Jokers.
Credit to u/XxRambo-ApocalypsexX for the following image from his post:
https://www.reddit.com/DCcomics/comments/jj7ixa/comic_excerpt_flashbacks_batman_three_jokers_3/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf

Flashbacks
First let’s break down each.
The first we see is the Criminal, who Bruce confirms is the first he encountered and points out his more serious and focused personality. A calculating mastermind indeed.
The flashback is from a panel in Batman #1 (1940, the Joker’s first appearance), specifically the very first Joker story (there are two in this issue).
If you’ve been following my posts, this should be familiar as I pointed it out in the first post as Jason Fabok teased this on Twitter earlier this year.

I called it!
As I said last time, this means that the original version of their encounter takes precedence over Man Who Laughs retconned version. Dick Grayson is now once again already Robin, so the Criminal likely stole jewels as well as murder his victims. His conflicts with organized crime may also be back.
Next up is the Clown, and we once again see a reference to Gaggy (the Original Court Jester and Sidekick of the Joker) and his first appearance in Batman #186 (1966). The way Bruce describes him of course matches what we know, and also very much reminds me of Mark Hamill’s Joker. Like I said in the first post, he’s my personal favorite, even if he’s the least in depth as a character.
But finally, here we have the Comedian.
Credit to u/WarWolf343. It is the obvious choice, and that actually adds a lot to the Comedian in the end which I’ll get to. Of course, that means that Rebirth image was inaccurate after all.
The implication of this of course is that Scott Snyder’s run IS considered canon to this story (which is a given if this is in main continuity), meaning Zero Year is canon. The story featuring a new version of the Red Hood gang, with Red Hood One being a true criminal mastermind, not a decoy, leading several Red Hoods. This could explain how there could be more than 3 Jokers if Bruce only had 1 encounter with RH.
Bruce points out a level of sadism under his smile that’s different from the others. I can see where’s he coming from. To me, that smile just looks fake compared to the Clown, who looks genuinely happy. Just my thoughts.

II. The Confrontation at the Monarch Theatre

\"Joker The Immortal\"
Next up we have the climax taking place in the Monarch Theatre, the cinema Bruce watched Mark of Zorro in with parents that fateful night.
Sound familiar?
We’ve had similar Joker confrontations happen in both Arkham City and recently in Joker War.
Jw’s wasn’t quite a climax as it took place in the middle of the arc, and there’s also a horde of zombies that Bruce sees as Jokers (and so fights them blindfolded). Funny similarities there but I doubt any of this is intentional. 3 Jokers was written long ago and Jason Fabok and James Tynion IV both support the idea that Joker War was made without any knowledge or consideration of 3 Jokers.
However, I’d like to talk more about Arkham City.
This was also the big ending of the game. I still remember playing it for the first time. Here, the Joker died after accidentally preventing Bruce from curing him. This was after it was revealed that he was still poisoned and that there was a second healthy Joker which was Clayface in disguise.
Hmmm. Sounds familiar.
Does this live up to those two?
IMO? Absolutely. Jason Fabok and Brad Anderson make this a fiery climactic battle while Geoff Johns does, IMO, a great job tying up what he’s set up since #1 (get to that in a bit).
The Joker’s death in AC was of course more impactful than the Criminal’s, but his and the Comedian’s plan here was great and the twist is just as good. I’ll get to that in a bit.
Lastly, Geoff Johns apparently has advised on Origins and Knight’s stories. Knight of course has the weakest, but IMO the character arcs in Origins makes it the best. The way there were “multiple Jokers” in Knight and City might have inspired him to make this. Also, both City and Knight has at least one line from thugs talking about there being or possibly being Three Jokers.
This could be a whole post on its own so better go back to the book.
The Criminal Joker reveals he wants to turn Joe Chill into the new Joker.
As I’ve said before, Jason Fabok points to Jack Nicholson’s Joker as an inspiration for him, who killed the Waynes and not Chill. Because of that, Michael Keaton’s Batman then aimed to kill him for revenge.
This confirms he did not hire Chill (who is not a hired killer).
Now, why would the Criminal want to do that….

III. Batman’s Greatest Scar

This book made clear from the very first pages and in interviews with GJ and JF that the main theme is about scars. Physical and emotional.
This in fact the whole purpose of the scars montage with Bruce.
He’s had many, many scars from his rogues gallery, but we see that the Joker has caused them the most.
But no matter what, the scar caused by Joe Chill will always be deeper than the others.
More than Penguin, Bane, Scarecrow, Riddler, Catwoman…
More than the Joker
Well, from the Joker(s)’ point of view, that’s just not right.
To the Criminal, this meant he had to fix the Joker. To make a new one that’ll far surpass him, his other two “apprentices”, and mean more to Batman than ever. Someone “far younger and more powerful” maybe (more on the Sith Lords later)?
He’s old and tired. He can’t even laugh without crying over the pain. He wants the Joker reborn better than ever, mattering more to Batman than ever, so he could finally rest.
In my last post, I pointed this out as the motivation for the Joker and recalled how Jeremiah Valeska (Proto-Joker 2) from Gotham had a similar gripe with it.

“I want to be the star of the show!”
So what did HE do to try and fix that?
Reenact the Wayne murders with Jim Gordon and Leslie Thompkins, complete with Crime Alley, pearls and Bruce being there to see it of course!
Now, both plans have flaws.
All Jeremiah is doing with this rehash would be to remind Bruce of that original trauma anyway. Even if Selina wasn’t there to stop him, this probably won’t make him mean more to Bruce than Joe Chi- err- Matches Malone (see: Gotham).
Unlike the Jokers in this book, Jeremiah failed to realize that Bruce will never be more broken from what he can do over than what Chill/Malone did.
The Criminal would be pulling a Batman ’89, as Bruce would know the Joker’s identity. Something the Comedian doesn’t want.
Which leads me to the twist on what the Comedian’s plan was, and to me it was genius and out of the box. Far surpassing Jeremiah and the Criminal.
He didn’t rehash or steal that trauma.
He took it out of the equation entirely.
He. Healed. It.

“It wasn’t the Joker that was broken. It was the Batman”
-more on that quote later

After the Criminal failed to turn his new potential successor, he planned to kill him and Batman instead, only for the Comedian to shoot him dead.
The Comedian was playing him all along in a plan to become the last remaining, definitive Joker and become the worst source of suffering Batman has ever had. Something foreshadowed last issue when the Criminal confirmed that it was his suggestion to reveal their secret.
And in the end?
It worked.
And it would only not work if Bruce didn’t have forgiveness in his heart.
It was checkmate.

BRIEF DETOUR
An evil master (cough Darth Sidious/Emperor Palpatine) failing to turn a prospective apprentice/successor (cough Mark Hamill cough), then deciding to kill said person only to be betrayed and killed by his current apprentice who tended to plan behind his back (cough Vader)? His other apprentice (The Clown and Dooku) being killed by another younger, edgier prospective apprentice (Jason/Anakin) before this?
Sorry I just had to bring that up lol. I haven’t watched Mandalorian S2’s premiere yet to not get distracted from this or my IRL responsibilities which also delayed this.
But seriously, the Criminal emphasizing the rule of threes (which is actually a real thing) last issue did remind me of the rule of two. His search for a successor and his traitorous relationship with his protégés here really, really made me see them like Sith Lords lol.
DETOUR ENDS HERE

u/Hmz_786 and I discussed before about how the Comedian could have been planning to betray the Criminal and the others all along. Maybe even seeing the Clown’s death coming. It seems that may be the case after all. Which I will delve into more later.
Besides Jack Napier from Batman ’89 and Jeremiah Valeska from Gotham, one Joker that I got reminded of in this was John Doe from Telltale’s Batman and Batman: Enemy Within. His last lines to Bruce in the Villain ending (there are 2 versions depending on your choice of dialogue to him) evoke the themes of this story or parallel what the Comedian says here.

(“Sure we’ve had some good times”) “I hope you’ll look at that scar and remember those good times”

(“I wish we never met”) “I’ll be the knife on your side until the end of time”
Back to Bruce and Joe Chill.
Definitely the best part of the issue and this story, is Bruce forgiving Joe Chill and healing his greatest scar. I’ve seen people say this has been done before. That’s true, but never exactly like this, not quite to this extent.
He didn’t forgive him in his mind as an old man after witnessing a new gang of criminals act far worse than him. He didn’t just spare him and leave him to die by either suicide or murder by his fellow criminals or to just rot in poverty.
This Joe Chill was truly remorseful, dying of cancer and wasn’t active as a criminal anymore.
Bruce stayed by his side and held his hand as he passed.
This is the most positive closure Bruce has ever had with Joe Chill, ever IMO.

“Forgiveness is Freedom”
So, the Comedian Joker won.
He healed Bruce’s greatest scar.
He killed the Criminal and became the last Joker.
But most of all, the ambiguity behind who the Joker is remains.
Or does it?

IV. The Joker’s Name

One thing I brought up in my last post is that the Comedian hates memory and remembering the past.
Since he is the Endgame Joker after all, that means he likes to tell his false origins as supernatural, demonic or nightmare fuel stories that prey on his victims (the back up stories).
Which in retrospect, fits with the idea that he doesn’t want people to know about his tragic past. He wants people to think he’s chaos incarnate, but he’s not.
Which is why in Death of the Family, he panicked and fell when Bruce claimed he knew his real name, which would prove he was human.
Then in Darkseid War, Bruce got the Mobius Chair.
He asked it two questions. One rhetorical for a test, and the other we assumed wasn’t. He asked who killed his parents and then asked what was the Joker’s real name, only to learn the premise of this very story. There were Three Jokers.
Here we learn that Bruce DID know the Joker’s name all this time. This means that it was also a test (which Jason Fabok has confirmed on Twitter to multiple people).
Let’s go back to The Killing Joke
The Joker attempted to drive Jim Gordon insane to prove his absurd, nihilistic thesis that life is a joke and anyone can see that just like he did by going through “One Bad Day”. Which in turn is to prove to Batman that they are alike and that he should be insane just like him.
Thing is…
…
He failed.
Jim wasn’t driven mad. Bruce wasn’t convinced and instead tried giving a counteroffer of rehabilitation. But the Joker refuses because he thinks A) He’s too far gone and B) He doesn’t trust that Bruce will keep the light on and commit to doing it.
The Joker did not prove his point and yet couldn’t accept an alternative hypothesis. If this was an official social experiment for research, he’d get an F (and then get kicked out and thrown in jail for unethical human testing without consent).
And really the flashbacks themselves prove it.
The flashbacks take more than one day. He was a struggling comedian in poverty and at times vented this on his wife.
No, that is not an invention of this book. That panel is directly adapted from TKJ.
We don’t see more from this scene in 3 Jokers, so it’s left ambiguous whether they reconciled or not the way we see in TKJ, but I think the latter works still. Even after apologizing the comedian still vented and ranted about his life. He made it clear he wants to get out of there, but he didn’t try more comedy gigs or getting his old job back at ACE.
No, instead he gave in to crime. Not too different from Joe Chill.
Note, there is an unspecified time gap between that scene and his meetings with the criminals.
He’s had 2 in fact.
He had to find them first, possibly introduced to them by the Criminal (more on that later) and then have that first meeting planning the heist and setting him up as a decoy Red Hood. From dialogue, their next meeting will be “next Friday” right before the heist. At least a week has passed then.
“One bad week” doesn’t quite have the same ring to it.
But that’s not the point.
He gave into crime even before the accident and he relied on that to save his family.
What would Jeannie think if she heard about him being willing to associate with criminals?
How would he act toward her in that 1 week where he still hasn’t fixed his life?
Whatever the case, we don’t learn his name
but we do learn that Jeannie lived.
Whatever happened in that lost week, she eventually couldn’t take it anymore and got help from cops to escape. She and her son (who IMO btw has to be 15-20 years old, or at least older than Damian) are alive in Alaska. Which is why Bruce wasn’t looking at missing Comedian files earlier, and instead looked at his globe.
This does feel like a very similar situation to the psychiatrist who tried curing the Joker in Killer Smile, only to end up driving his wife and son away and nearly killing them in the Joker’s plot to make him like him.
We then learn why Bruce can’t reveal his name, and possibly why he can’t kill the Joker.
If he reveals the Joker’s name, people will find his family and they wouldn’t be safe. The Joker would find them too.
As for the latter, if Bruce kills the Joker, he would be taking a father away from his son (more on the son of the Joker in the bonus segment!)
So in the end, Bruce had the last laugh.
He knows the Joker isn’t the devil. He was a man once. He had a wife who he loved before turning to insanity. The Joker failed in keeping the ambiguity behind himself, a week after Bruce fought the Joker (the Criminal?). He failed a long time ago.
And now,
Both refuse to reveal the identity of the other.

V. Is the Joker Broken, or Chaos Incarnate?

Now, a lot of people think this book is painting the Joker as someone who was always bad and that this ruins TKJ. I kind of already talked about that in the previous segment, but here I’d like to bring back an old post I made discussing the conflicting views of the Joker:
From IGN
Alan Moore of course argued for the Joker being a dark reflection of Batman. Both born from tragedy.
but
Frank Miller argued the Joker was pure evil. Satanic even. Evil incarnate. Not insane. Evil.
“I am chaos. I am the devil. I am everything to you and nothing. It wasn’t the Joker who was broken. It was the Batman.”
Putting that quote in that context, it looks like Miller’s version is what’s coming here.
But I don’t think so.
As I’ve pointed out, the Comedian is a liar that takes credit from the other Jokers and pretended he was an immortal supernatural boogieman in Endgame.
This is how he wants to be seen, because he’s afraid of the truth.
In reality, he’s the only one of the Jokers who has a desire outside of Batman and apparently the only one with One Bad Day. The Clown said he loved to take credit, he teased him about being a failed comedian and the Criminal called him out for wasting time with fantasies. They were the ones pushing him down. It was the Criminal trying to get him to focus on what matters.
He almost comes off as the bullied co-worker that gets reminded every time about where he came from and he HATES that. This was his revenge. By killing them and taking credit for all their work. He became the Joker who mattered. Not Chill, the Clown or the Criminal.
“Says the failed Comedian” “There is no her. There is no one else but the Batman”
Clearly, he still loved his wife. Despite him venting to her, she and their unborn son were still the reason for him going insane. Even now he secretly fantasizes them being with them.
Another thing to take note of is that, in both the Killing Joke and Three Jokers,
He NEVER reveals this specific origin to others
It’s always flashbacks and fantasies. When he does tell false origins, it’s always to paint him as this bigger force of chaos. A façade to hide his real past that the other Jokers see right through and belittle him for. With them dead, no one else knows now…except Bruce.
Speaking of which, this makes him more like Batman.
Because the way he wants to be seen by others,
is just like how Batman wants to be seen by criminals
Pretending to be a supernatural force of nature to strike fear is now common among the two victims of trauma. He failed to prove anyone can be like him in TKJ, so he decided to embrace the idea that no one can be like him.
In many ways this also relates to the Joker movie, where Arthur pretended, he killed those people for no reason other than them being awful. Hiding his pain by embracing evil. Of course there’s also the fact that, it hurts when he laughs and likely cannot control it.
I discussed that in the last post, but it’s based on a real condition: Pseudobulbar Affect.
The Criminal’s age makes it, so he cries almost every time. But from what he asked Jason, and the Comedian in Doomsday Clock, I’m betting all the Jokers have this trait to varying effect.
Finally, before moving on, one of the most important things to take note, is that the book spent a lot of time blurring the line between Jokers and victims.
Jokers and Victims
The jokerized Red Hood/Comedian lookalaike at the beginning of the story, the horde of Jokers at the pool, and of course, Jason himself. Being the Joker in this story seems to be about taking your pain and trauma, then inflicting that onto others. Which is again, the exact opposite of Batman, which all about taking that pain, using it to do good and making sure no one else has to face it alone.
In the end, can the Comedian be redeemed?
Maybe. Maybe not. But if even Joe Chill can, maybe one day the Joker can too. Or not
This again reminds me of Telltale Joker (voiced by Anthony Ingruber). One path lets him become a vigilante modeling himself after Batman, but in the end, he just couldn’t change his fate even with Bruce’s help, and he will become a villain anyway unless you offer your friendship to him.
“I really wanted to be a hero you know. But…I-I just can’t!”
I honestly did think we could’ve gotten a redemption for the Joker. I even had a theory (never published) about how Bruce’s new yellow oval having a flashlight as a reference to the titular Killing Joke and him not turning it off. But since this book does want to be canon somehow, it’s stuck from fixing that status quo even if they wanted to.
In the meantime, we have White Knight by Sean Gordon Murphy for those who want it.

VI. Who is the “Real”/Original Joker?

This is definitely something the book, and the Comedian specifically, want to keep ambiguous. But just to theorize, let’s list down the points for and against them.
Case for the Criminal

He states to Jason that he was the first Joker, and that he ran Gotham before Batman.
Bruce confirms he reminds him the most of their earliest confrontations. That briefing scene and the scars montage include flashbacks that clearly feature him as the first.
Why would the Comedian only show up WAY later if he was the original?
IRL he literally is the original Joker.
He is the oldest and his laughing condition has been the worst. He wishes to retire after this.
The captions place as him as number 1.
He’s the only one to not claim to be the “real” Joker, as to him the Joker is an idea. Meaning he’s the only one willing to create new Jokers in the first place. The others don’t want to share the spotlight as both the Clown and Comedian claim to be the definitive Jokers.
The Criminal acts like a boss and strict mentor to the Jokers, specifically the Comedian.
The Comedian, from the first pages he’s introduced to the ending, is a liar.

Case for the Comedian

He is the Joker who Bruce identified the past of a week after their first encounter.
He “has a good eye for talent” meaning he probably did find the others.
His normal-ish life before this and desire to hide it means he has the most to gain by making new Jokers. They hide his identity and teach him various skills. The Criminal can teach him marksmanship and planning. The Clown can teach him to be more creative and actually be funny. Meanwhile he was an ex-chemical engineer who worked at Ace so he has the means.

As you can see, I favor the Criminal, with three times the points as the Comedian’s 3.
However, if ever this becomes fully canon and referenced, there is a 90% chance the others will be retconned into being fake Jokers made for this story and there is an explanation for it.
BUT
What’s the THIRD option?
What if they were all born on the same night? This was hinted at in the first issue with the 3 Red Hoods jokerized. If Zero Year is recanonized, well then that explains how there can be multiple Red Hoods.
The most skilled and experienced at being the Criminal, the Criminal took the lead and taught the other two until they were ready.
The Comedian having the most normal life, made him the easiest and first choice for Bruce to deduce.

VII. Who are the Three Jokers?

How did they become to be?
Now that is a question that’s been in my mind for a long time.
Earlier this year I made several posts about the Three Jokers. Last year made several Doomsday Clock posts which was what got me known.
But before all that?
Almost two years ago now, this book was announced. I was curious.
Whenever I was waiting for a car, bus, commuting or whatever after class, after training or whatever on my way home, I didn’t have anything to do but use my phone. Except I didn’t have data and I grew out of mobile gaming. Usually I bring comics to read, but one day I decided to use that time to type down notes on who I thought the Three Jokers would be. For fun. Who knows maybe I’ll be close?
I used that to also read a lot of old classic Batman-Joker comics and even episodes of BTAS, Batman ’66, Brave and the Bold etc. A few months later, I realized how long it ended up and decided, what the heck, what if I make this an write up and post it on Reddit or something.
And so I posted this:
https://www.reddit.com/DCcomics/comments/a7odrk/my_theory_on_the_three_jokers/
It was really long and REALLY messy. Very outdated too.
I didn’t make anything like it again until the Doomsday Clock stuff, but this was the first. Then a few months ago I did more when the covers were released.
So, without prolonging this any longer, the Three Jokers, who they are and how they came to be:
The Criminal
The Criminal Joker was the original Joker. A calculating and cold criminal mastermind with a method to his madness. He challenges Batman and the police. He likes to mess with gangsters because he hates organize crime. Batman is his ultimate rival. As the oldest of the three, the pain of his laughs has grown to the extent that he cries uncontrollably when doing it. Because of this he rarely laughs and smiles now.
In the past he was a criminal who grew up on the streets of Gotham. He was a rebellious young man who injected chaos onto organized crime. He was skilled in hiding his identity and was smart enough to stay a step ahead. Bank robber, jewel thief, hitman, enforcer, con artist, gambler he’s been them all. Skilled with guns, knives, explosives, poisons and more. The world’s greatest criminal like Batman is the world’s greatest detective. Eventually he rose to the top as a mob boss. He ran Gotham before Batman came in. Due to boredom he created the Red Hood gang. He named himself the Joker after the wildcard, as he planned to rob the Monarch Playing Card company next to Ace Chemicals.
Today due to his old age, he’s the one that looks the most different from the other two and so in the decades since he’s avoided fighting Batman again out in the open. Preferring instead to mentor and boss his successors. His last known appearance was in-universe was War of Jokes and Riddles.
The Clown
The Clown Joker is the classic Joker. A theatrical but murderous prankster-thief with a creativity and charisma that surpasses the others. He only kills when it’s funny. His plans are smart but also outrageous and non-sensical. He loves using gags and trick novelties, at times weaponizing them to be lethal. He recruited Gaggy from a circus as his sideckick but later ditched them and killed his henchmen. He made the Laughing Fish. He killed Jason Todd because it was funny, and it would get to Batman. No real other reason. He doesn’t need a big point. He’d love to have this fun forever if he could.
In the past, he was likely a clown. He might’ve ran away to the join a circus once and met Gaggy there. After that he left to stay in Gotham and tried to be a clown at children’s parties and such. It didn’t work out and he joined the Red Hood Gang as the Criminal’s right hand man. But really he’s the one whose origin we have no clear knowledge on other than his title.
Today he’s the substitute Joker who does the smaller acts for fun and to throw Batman off their trail.

The Comedian
The Comedian Joker is the modern Joker. The one with the most meaning. He believes life is a joke. He’s the most sadistic and crazy Joker. His ability to evolve and change himself is due to his Super-Sanity. He thinks outside the box all the time, even as Batman tries to make a new one around him. He is the most unpredictable and dangerous. His obsession with Batman is the strongest, yet unlike the others it’s ironically not the only thing he wants. Unfortunately, he can never have the other thing, and that’s why he’s the most hateful. Love and Hate are almost the same to him.
In the past, he was a former chemical engineer at Ace chemicals who gave up his job to achieve his dream to be a comedian. It didn’t work out. He was a poor desperate man with a pregnant wife he loved and wanted to provide for but vented his anger on due to stress. He turned to the Criminal and Clown who made him a decoy Red Hood in their gang. Before their heist, his wife left him and faked her death, which broke the man. He didn’t want to do it anymore, but he had no choice.
Today, he’s the main and only Joker left. He’s learned enough from the other two. He surpassed them in intelligence and insanity.
How they look similar?
I believe they are brothers who were separated, not at birth but early in life, taking different paths but ending up in the same place. The Criminal being the eldest at 10 years older than the youngest but looking much older due to his lifestyle pre-Joker. The Clown and the Comedian are possibly twins. That’s how the Comedian found a job with criminals so fast. That’s how they were so familiar with each other. That’s how they (somewhat) trusted each other as Jokers. That’s how Jeannie became horrified and left him. She also likely informed the police of their heist which is how security increased and Batman got there. Which is also likely how Bruce discovered the Comedian so easily. His wife was the one who tipped him and the police off.
But if ever the other two are retconned as fake later, they could always either use:

Cadmus Tech cloning (the Joker apparently used this in ROTJ according to Terry in Epilogue)
Multiverse/Metaverse side effect after the constant reboots and anti-reboots making them all matter (cough Doomsday Clock cough Death Metal cough Generations Shattered and Forged cough Prime Time Punch)
Facial surgery done on the other two

Why should there even be 3 Jokers in the first place? Super-Sanity is better.
Super-Sanity isn’t mutually exclusive IMO. At least 1 of them has one with the Comedian being Morrison and Snyder’s Joker, but considering how the Clown also changed to be more lethal I’d say he too has it.
What this adds is the ability to give ambiguity to the other two Jokers while giving one a defined origin. You see Alan Moore believed the Joker wasn’t a very good character. I believe it’s partly because he couldn’t have a real origin. TKJ didn’t invent the trope of a mysterious origin for him. That appeared in Dennis O’Neil’s Joker run and Brian Bolland himself says he didn’t originally plan on making an origin for him when he pitched the book. That was Moore’s decision and the main point of TKJ hinges on it being at least generally true. So no gangster Joker who was always evil.
With one Joker having a defined origin, we have a deeper understanding of his character and motivations while still having mystery on the others. With Super-Sanity, the Joker can have an infinite amount of personalities, motivations and fake origins but since we can never know which is real, they might as well all false. Which is what the psychiatrist concluded in Serious House on Serious Earth. “He has no real personality”.

VIII. Who is the Best Joker? Who is my favorite?

Now if we’re going by who’s the most in depth character and best villain, then the Comedian is it. His origin gives meaning and depth to his character and motivations while making him a parallel to Bruce. His rant on the other two sums it up pretty well. He doesn’t want to give the Joker the identity like the Criminal or Tim Burton did. He was more than the Clown.
BUT
He’s not my favorite or best Joker.
u/mojothemobile said it best on a thread I saw earlier. The best Joker is the one you can laugh at as much as be scared off. A hilarious Joker that can make such vile acts seem funny. The kind of the Joker who would try and copyright fish infected by Joker venom, kill people with deadly pranks, make a Christmas special, stalk some guy who cursed at him on the road, attack Gotham with an army of bane-like Titan monsters, pull a fake Joker ga-
“Wait a minute, are you just describing Mark Hamill’s Joker?”
Yup. He had Criminal elements in Mask of the Phantasm, was the Comedian in the Killing Joke movie and maybe Return of the Joker, but in pretty much everything else (BTAS, TNBA, JL, JLU, JL action, Arkham Asylum, City and Knight (Troy Baker was more Comedian in Origins)), the definitive Joker voice played the Clown archetype.
Brave and the Bold and Batman ’66 adapted this Joker well.
Nothing beats the classics. But I understand it’s up to preference.

IX. BONUS ROUND

Did I have any disappointments with the book

Sure. Like I said I almost expected Bruce to try and rehabilitate the Joker again. I did wish we had more closure with Jason and Barabra.
On how little they reveal on the 3 themselves, IMO they gave enough for me to make this so I’m grateful lol but it’s probably necessary to keep ambiguity for it to be canon.
Otherwise a great book for me overall. Is it on the same level as Long Halloween or even Killing Joke?! Maybe not. But I’d personally put this equal to or greater to Hush which has similar strengths and weaknesses. Though not sure where I’d put it compared to DOTF and Endgame, but IMO this is above Joker War for me.
Before moving on, I’d like to add a random bit. The panel in the police car with the light shining on the Joker declaring he’ll be Batman’s pain until they die, absolutely great art. I think this was what Jason Fabok talked about when he said Brad Anderson homage the original colors of TKJ by John Higgins.

What about Jason and Barbara?

Jason, I think had the second most important part just below Batman. His arc is about realizing how close he is to becoming the Joker, and maybe realizing that he might need to find a new identity, which Bruce offers to him. But of course that can’t happen here or they can’t really be in continuity fully.
Barbara doesn’t get to do much but she does act as the heart of the trio who understands both and wants them to reconcile (but. She initially wanted to bring Jason in, but seeing him vulnerable as he was made her understand him more. In turn Jason seeing how she became this way inspires him to be better.

“Don’t tell me you’re a Jaybabs shipper Earthmine!”

Relax I’m not calling for that at all. I’m not really into shipping period and I do think the book could improve without it. But their relationship and parallels are important in this story and I think it was well done.
By the way, I like the idea of Jim knowing Barbara and Barbara knowing he knows.

What about Harley?

Harley in continuity appeared during No Man’s Land. That plus the Comedian wishing he still had Jeannie, means he likely filled that void with Harley, only to be abusive to her. She reminds him too much of Jeannie. Punchline doesn’t though.
I would like to share a theory I’ve had a long time now. In Case Study, it’s reveled that it was Harleen who made the report, concluding the Joker is sane, should be retried and executed. She changed her mind about it after meeting the Joker herself. She discovered the past of the Criminal, but by then he was semi-retired. If the Criminal found out he probably had the Comedian change her mind. The Clown of course likely avoids her since he hasn’t had a sidekick since Gaggy.
So she only worked with, and maybe met, 1 Joker.

Will it Canon?

^{please don’t sue me Watchtower Database, big fan}
So, after all’s said and done, is this canon?
Well it can be. I’d say, in the past of the next new timeline which restores more Pre-New 52 (including Pre-Crisis) history.
I understand reception of this is more mixed than Doomsday Clock (which wasn’t universally loved either) and not everyone, maybe most people, aren’t sold with their being 3 Jokers.
But they can easily retcon that premise out for the other things or once again give multiversal, excuses. There really is a lot of potential to deal with all of this.

Detective Comics #1000: The Last Crime in Gotham

The son of the Joker.
Gee that sounds familiar. Maybe Geoff Johns already used this concept before?
He did! In his short story in ‘Tec 1000. There are plenty of themes of family in this. The Joker died due to the chemicals that created him and somehow his son became just like the father and died too. His last act was a gift to Batman and Gotham. He left a note, emphasizing the importance of family.
Besides that, this possible future includes Barabra and (a) Jason being married and Bruce and Selina having a daughter. Though at the end it’s implied to just be a wish by Bruce.
I recommend reading this after Three Jokers. It serves as a good extra epilogue IMO.

Post-Script

Well that’s it.
This was a great series for me and I’m glad to be able to do this.
Thank you so much for giving your time reading these and special thanks to the following users I’ve had discussions about this. Whether in Reddit threads, DMs, Disqus, Twitter and more. Whether short or long they’ve helped me a lot in making this, either by giving me more ideas or motivating me to keep doing this crazy thing. Thanks also to those who appreciated these so much they used their had earned coins for rewards. I’m really glad these aren’t just for nothing, thank you.
All of these include (but definitely aren’t limited to):
u/Hmz_786, u/WarWolf343, u/HelloGoodbyeOhGawd, u/xXRambo-ApocalypsexX, u/ScottishRyzo-98, Joe57039631 from Twitter, u/Tough-Part, u/Badbatmanman, u/mrwiyagi, u/NewsYouDontNeed, u/Ricky_Ticky_Tangy, u/Ozymandias2019 and many more I probably missed looking through my history, my sincerest apologies in that case.
Thanks to you all.

Batman' Astrology

· Capricorn Sun:- If Batman was real, there is a lot of speculation about his Zodiac Sun Sign. Many have made a technical guess on various information provided about his fictional birthday and even real events and have come to zodiac signs like Aquarius, Taurus, Scorpio, Gemini and in some cases Leo, among which former 3 are most popular with Taurus and Scorpio even making sense. But both fail to explain some key and opposite traits of batman. The only sign to be able to completely make justice to the character graph is of Capricorn and that too in its uniqueness of being born in late December. I mean let’s be honest the people who can change the world have ever only born in December (Jesus Christ himself).
Traits:- Workaholic, detached, lonely, introvert, sarcastic, ambitious and perseverance ,determination, will& Grit, strategist, intellectual.
· Capricorn Moon:-This is a rather popular opinion in contrast with that of this sun placement of batman. There are really only two that come close which are Scorpio moon and Capricorn moon. But there are enough reasons to choose a Capricorn Moon. While Scorpio moon does justify his detective skills, they could be attributed to other placements as well . Moon placements must justify the emotions of the subject. Bad past, Conflicted moral compass, Vengeance, insecure, untrusting , secretiveness, cunningness, kinkiness (Let’s admit it the bad boy is into BDSM),sadness ,loneliness and courage are some of the things that batman has and both signs may explain well, but Capricorn moon gives better reasons. Daddy-mommy issues of batman, his inability to express himself but most importantly his complicated no kill rule, I mean this is where the difference is right, it requires a Capricorn’s discipline to look into the abyss and not blink, to survive space war lords like darkseid, ruthless assassins like deathstroke and not get corrupted by the joker and that too without killing and only on the emotional support of his butler. I mean if batman were a scorpion moon, he would have killed. And then he is more into technical then magic. Scorpio moon may go better with Dr Doom.
· Scorpio Rising:- I think this is the only sign placement that is going to go unchallenged. Batman is Scorpio rising period. He is damn courageous and a risk taker and not afraid of odds, He owns darkness and stealth, he is motivated by vengeance , he is intimidating, magnetic and though I have not ever saw him having sex, I am sure Talia and selina will comply this guy is an animal in bed whenever and how rarely he has sex. He is detached, cruel but really he is mysterious, and damn intimidating, he radiates fear wherever he goes. He lives with powerful aliens, magical beings, gods and they all fear him and respect him. Scorpio rising is what differentiates a batman from a green arrow (a wannabe robin hood). In simple terms with all his insecurities and flaws he is perceived as invincible. Only an evolved Scorpio rising can manage to do that( This guy strong armed darkseid into a negotiation once). The only character who ever comes close is deathstroke, and he too maybe a Scorpio rising.
· MC Leo:- To understand this we need to understand his goals, what he wants to achieve, what he really wants is to put fear into the mind of criminals so that they never even attempt to commit a crime. This symbol of fear that he wants to become is in a very dark way he’s way of saying I want to get so famous in criminals that when they should always be scared of committing a crime because of my fear. Strategically speaking maybe that’s why he lets his victims live, to advertise his feats and promote his scary image to scare others. And he has definitely rose to that reputation rather quickly. Look at how amazingly and with ease he portrays the playboy persona of Bruce Wayne, telling us that he is a great actor who can manage to convey what he wants from audience. In simple terms you can love him or hate him but you cannot ignore him.
· **Saturn Aries:-**This could be conflicted for Capricorn, Aquarius and Libra but… even though he is not a people’s person he is a leader a influencer and an inspirer. Firstly he is the patriarch of Bat –family. To lead such talented individuals you need to have Saturn in Aries. He is also a founding member and one of the DC trinity. If justice league was an organization , he would not have been the chairman ,that is more of superman actually (Face of the league, embodies values, he is more people friendly simply better placed to do that with his god like powers) but Batman is definitely the CEO of the JL. He is the strategist ,he understands the members better and he is the only one who can keep this god like creatures in check. I think it is pretty natural for him because he is simply operating with more information than anybody else.
· Mercury Sagittarius:- Mercury in Sagittarius tells us about a guy being an adventurer in terms of his intellect. Basically a polymath. He is not the best scientist/inventor or best magician, best business man but he is second best or third best in most of the things and yes he is the best detective undisputedly . He may not know the magic to fight a guy with, but knows enough to make strategic decisions to send which magician in a particular situation would flair best. He has acquired skills in a range of areas form criminal psychology, detective skills and torture, fighting, mind and body training, stealth, magic, chemistry, alien biology, science and inventions , medicine , you name it. People with mercury in Sagittarius are often expected to study more than normal and for often longer periods and different subjects.
· Venus Aquarius:- Batman’s Love life is as complicated as the man himself. It is conflicted, but has its movements of highs and lows with extreme passions. From sacrificing themselves to kill him, his lovers have done everything for him. Venus in Aquarius also explains how he has so many love interests in spite of his workaholic and detached IDGAF attitude. And his lovers are extreme, the choices within themselves, I mean from Talia –the daughter of demon to Wonder woman the daughter of gods. He has a complicated relationship with all as he cannot settle down, he knows that but he still manages to fall for girls, coming close to marrying selina Kyle and Talia on different occasions. He even has children with many of them in many alternate universes but he does not want to settle. Variety is the first word that comes in mind when we talk about a Venus in Aquarius, and he has it. Also, nature of going against social traditions of conceiving children without marriage and be okay about it( he publicly accepted Damien Wayne as his biological son). He’s basic outlook of family is untraditional and is not conserved to blood relations. Why he accepts them (Bat woman, Damien Wayne), he has place for others who are not his relatives (Night wing, Alfred, Gordon, Barbara, Jason , luscious fox and all of them). He has had his fare shares of heartbreak only deepening his pain. Venus in Aquarius is not considered a good placement. It is said ,that only after a lot of sacrifice can a Venus in Aquarius have his soul mate. Sometimes the possibility of relationship with the person’s soul mate itself is the sacrifice. Batman has many lovers, but we all know that his soul mate is cat woman. He too knows it, and so does she, but they both know they cannot be together.
· **Mars Aquarius:-**Mars in Aquarius is a placement that keeps the person at extremes of both ends. On one hand he can go celibate for years ,almost asexual and in others he can be into Dark, kinky BDSM marathon sex satisfying the lover to a point that the partner will never find another person as satisfactory. They could be animals in bed ,enjoying the act like no other and still go celibate because they simply prioritize other things in life over sex. This can be frustrating to partners. This placement also tells us how unorthodox the person satisfies their own high sexual needs. Having sex, without marriage. Strictly speaking only a Venus in Scorpio and mars has the power to match the intensity of those sensual marathon runs on one day and then not have sex for weeks (they are open to other ways-alternate partners, porn etc).
· Pluto Sagittarius:- Pluto in Sagittarius explains the persons’ acceptance towards more darker and sensitive topics. Pluto in Sagittarius are astrologically best placements to accepting truths as they are in every situations. They have problems when they do discover their own limitations and insecurities and they will, and they will be hurt when they do but will survive with it, and in a way that it makes them more accepting of others as well. Batman has been more accepting and capable of absorbing pain more than anyone else. His complicated philosophy and conflicted ideas , in general he’s very complex. He is untrusting of people’s character but mostly accepting of them with their flaws in general. Maybe that’s the reason why he has not gone insane even after dealing with the idealists like superman and wonder woman and anarchist like joker. There could not have been any other guy having an equation with both without getting mad. It needs a Pluto in Sagittarius for this.
· Jupiter Aquarius:- Jupiter in Aquarius native can be best described with one word-unique. Batman was always going to have Aquarius influence in him. And Jupiter in Aquarius does the job. While it does support his mercury in Sagittarius in becoming a polymath and absorbing knowledge from everywhere, Jupiter at times allows him to accept ideas and solutions that other times may seem too big. He’s out of the box thinking is what has enabled him to come up with a plan to take down all of JL members if the need arose. While he is a perfect strategist, he is quick thinker who has many times displayed he can be spontaneous. Jupiter in Aquarius’s greatest contribution to his character is best seen in his decision to take path of vigilantism to fight crime and doing so with the no kill rule. Other decisions where it is visible is in him choosing children as his sidekicks, or his plans to take down JLA, and etc.
· **Uranus Aquarius:-**Another planet in Aquarius ,and we are wondering why this man is a genius or a rebel, I think we should have been more surprised if any native with that much of Aquarius is not either of the above. This placement majorly supports batman’s inclination towards technology and being more open about people. All in all since Uranus is in home sign it is being positive here
· Neptune Capricorn:- Neptune tells us about one’s desire and batman’s desire though seems to be vengeance (Neptune Scorpio, it is strictly speaking his motivation.) He goes every night out to extract his revenge ,he many times even encounters situations where he can , but he chooses not too. Because if he will, then he will lose the motivation to come back next night and his goals ,his true desire will not be accomplished. Capricorn is a sign which provides batman with the focus he needs to achieve his rather unrealistic goals. With whatever pain and abilities his fate due to other planet holds, it is Neptune in Capricorn that allows him to go out and work irrespective of the complications in hand.
· Lilith Libra:- Lilith deals with demons within oneself, one’s relationship with one self. Batman does not have a very healthy relationship with himself. In simpler terms we may like what he is, but he himself is disappointed in himself. Many will argue that this is not true, but it actually is. He has once said “Deep down inside Clark is a good person , and deep down inside I am not”. Batman does not consider himself a good person, worthy of his parents. He takes very little care of himself, is highly self-critical and angry with himself. Batman’s many issues are with his disappointment within himself. Maybe that’s why he has so hard time making relations, he simply does not feel he deserves a true love like cat woman or wonder woman. Lilith in Libra also indicate problems in relations and he does have them with all his lovers. Considering his self-criticizing nature ,problems in self-acceptance and dark love angles he seems perfect for Lilith in Libra. He is tested on ethics, personal relationships and Lilith in Libra also gives a hint of kinkiness.
· North Node Virgo:- north node in Virgo means south node in Pisces. This takes care of one more important shade of batman which has not been discussed above. His struggle to balance order and chaos. His ideological enemy joker is the agent of chaos, and he himself is the knight of order. Batman’s this war of order vs. chaos definitely explains his complicated relationship with the clown.

Batman other characters:- astrology

· Bane- sun in cancemoon in Taurus/ascendant in Aries:- Bane has influence of water sign along with his tough earth appearance, personally he is caring. He cared for his mother, he cared for his father so much that he was looking for him after he got out of jail. Bane personally is an anti-hero, and that is because he cares. He is capable of making friends, Sinister six storylines have covered this part about bane in detail. I even suspect his mars in cancer. Ascendant in Aries is undisputed, that body , baldness he is an Aries ascendant . What makes the character what he is will be his moon in Taurus. This man has jealeaousy issues and he is ambitious to the point of obsession with the batman . He does not want to rule Gotham, he wants to beat Batman. That is his greatest feat, breaking the bat. He is like “everything you can do batman, I can do better”. That is the only goal in his life. From the time he heard of batman in the prison in Pena Dura (Santa Prisca).
· Talia Al Ghul:- **Virgo Sun/Moon in Taurus/ascendant in Aries:-**Talia was tricky. I had to choose by elimination. She is not too much in justice so no Libra, not too caring so no cancer, not too strong minded to be Aries (she could be influenced), cap, Pisces, Gemini ,Leo ,Sagittarius are not even close. That leaves Scorpio,Taurus,virgo and Aquarius. She is not a Scorpio, because Scorpios are anything but confused. They are decisive and usually one’s to manipulate. Scorpio could be at other places, in fact it may be both her Venus and mars are in Scorpio. I mean ,this explains why she is sexually compatible with batman (her interests in kink).And as I realized this I knew she is not an Aquarius. Taurus and Virgo were tough. Taurus enjoys pleasure, but Virgo can become one’s pleasure. Talia never choose batman for the pleasure ,she choose him because he was the best. Her decision was analytical, practical and not motivated by pleasure. And this explains it. Also, it needs a Virgo influence for Talia to become batman ‘s sub(Capricorn) They are into BDSM, and she is his most obedient sub, (at least in the bed). Her moon is in taurus.I truly believe that Taurus is why While she never choose him for pleasure, after choosing it she has derived it from him, and many times. She is jealous of cat woman, and many other lovers of batman. She is ambitious (being leader of league of assassins is her destiny, but that leader being batman is her ambition.) And in doing so she go to such lengths that she had a baby with him. Taurus moon made her so ambitious and ruthless, that she kills, but also that she made her own 8 year old son into a killing machine. Ascendant in Aries, goes with her. She does have a perfectly sensual figure . But under her clothes on her bare skin she has her share of cuts and bullet marks , which is to extreme for a girl. She is confident in who she is, but delusional and of course confused. But Sensual, while on the surface, batman and she look compatible, even sexually, she simply lacks self control against lust and killing due to strong Scorpio in Venus and mars, which is the root cause of her problems with batman.
· Night wing - Pisces sun, Taurus moon, Gemini ascendant :- against batman,nightwing is rather a less complicated person. He is more friendly and sorted. He has retained a certain innocence and cool persona against batman’s. He is neither extreme nor obsessed with anything. He sees his life as an act of his contribution against the bad, unlike batman who feels he had too. Pisces sun and Gemini ascendant explain his much better social abilities. Taurus moon makes him ambitious, may be to simply be the next batman. But Pisces sun gives him the wisdom and humility to understand that he can’t. Taurus moon makes him lusty ,and fortunate to have two beautiful and sexy women in his life (Kori and Barbara)
·**Cat woman-Scorpio sun, Capricorn moon and Capricorn ascendant:-** Cat woman is a tough placement. You know there is a Scorpio there, but so is a cancer, Pisces and Capricorn. But then you feel why not a Leo ,Libra or a Gemini. But in the end I came to a conclusion and the repo she shares with batman. If he truly is a Capricorn, then only a Scorpio can do that. Scorpio sun goes with her. She is dark, mysterious and sensual. But unlike how a Libra would, she uses her sensuality as a weapon. She is deceiving, manipulative she is complex but calm as well. What makes her a Scorpio the most is her ability to absorb batman’s darkness completely. She is the only person in this world, who loves him for exactly what he is:-a broken child whose parents were killed in front of him, and since that day he has endured only pain and suffering. Talia loves batman for his strength, and for what he could be. Zattana feels she could repair this broken man, and then he will become the ultimate love. Ivy thinks of batman in a similar fashion as Talia, wonder woman is impressed by how this man beats the odds , his courage and thinks may be the world today needs a man like him. But only cat woman truly cares and understands the man he is within. Only she has ever told him like Alfred has, that in spite of his methods being wrong, whatever Bruce does, he has too. Otherwise he will die, in his own guilt. She is not critical of it, but rather understanding of it as is Alfred. Only a person equally complex can understand this, how batman’s existence is justified. And this gives her Capricorn moon. Scorpio moons are power hungry, she is not. Though she does cross the line and kills, it is not because of Capricorn moon’s inability to control her, it is rather a collective control of her Capricorn ascendant and Capricorn moon that she can kill and still stay sane. She unlike batman knows that some people have to die. She is decisive, and is not scared of this truth( like captain America). Her Venus is in Libra, making her beautiful and at the same time compatible with batman and mars in either Aquarius or Gemini to not giving sleeping with a lover that much of importance. I am betting on Gemini since she falls in love when she is being taught, After all She was in a relationship with wildcat who taught her how to fight.

Others:-

· Poison Ivy:- Aquarius Sun, cancer moon, Taurus ascendant
· Superman:- Scorpio Sun, Capricorn moon and Leo ascendant
· Wonder woman:- Leo sun, Aquarius moon, Capricorn/Sagittarius ascendant

Meat Beneath the Skin

I’m trapped. Maybe I shouldn’t bother you, maybe I kind of deserve my fate, but if someone doesn’t send help soon, roll the credits, ‘cause I’m finished.
Let’s start from the beginning. My name is Kyle, and I’m in the eighth grade. We had just moved into this stuck-up little town and this cruddy old house because my grandmother died and Dad wanted to fix it up before selling it.
Me and Dad were in the attic sorting boxes when the side of one split open and comic books spilled out.
“Look at these!” my father said. “Must’ve been my old man’s!”
We took a break to pour over the faded Batmans and Dick Tracies. Flipping through a Superman, I stopped on a weird ad. “Sea Monkeys”, it said, only the “monkeys” was crossed out and replaced by the word “monsters”.
A bowl full of terror and mischief, the ad announced, scare your friends, scare your parents, scare yourself! Just add water and watch the little devils grow.
A drawing showed a sailing ship surrounded by serpentine figures.
I showed my dad.
A big smile broke out on his face. “Oh, I remember these!” he said.
I know pretty much what I’ll look like when I grow up...if I grow up...for everyone says I’m the spitting image. Dad has a slender frame, a warm face, thick glasses, and a hairline that has retreated to its last stand on the back of his head. Like me, he’s a bit of a spaz.
“Obviously, this is a scam,” I scoffed. “How could they get away with that?”
“If I remember,” he replied. “Sea Monkeys are a kind of shrimp. Like you!”
He tussled my hair. I hated being called that, but something about the fact that he only did it when we were alone made it tolerable.
“So what are these?”
“Probably something similar. Who knows? Come on, let’s finish up.”
When Dad took a break for beer and gummy bears, I googled the company, and amazingly they were still around. The price had only gone up to 12.99.
I waited til Dad was on his 4th beer and his 2nd gummy bear before getting him to buy the monsters.
A week later, I was crossing the street to go check the mailbox. Mabel, our wrinkly basset hound, watched wearily from the porch. At the illustrious age of 4, she had little enthusiasm for more than watching stuff.
My little sister Ali, practicing her kick boxing on the front lawn, eyed me suspiciously, wondering about my sudden interest in the mail. If I have a sworn enemy in life it is Ali. A year younger than me, she inherited Mom’s height and athletic ability, and of all the indignities I have had to put up with in life, the worst is this: she can kick my ass.
Reaching the mailbox, my pulse raced when I saw the package with my name on it. But I didn’t want Ali poking her nose into my business. What to do? I was anxious to open my package. So I darted across the street with the box and a handful of letters, irrationally hoping she would leave me alone.
She was closing in on me by the time I reached the walkway.
“What you got?”
“The mail, what’s it look like?”
She wore gym shorts, a t-shirt, and mixed martial arts gloves. We’d only been to this school for two days and already Ali had risen up the social ladder. Where genetics had conspired against me, leaving me short, skinny and four eyed, it had turned Ali into a princess: long blond hair, tall and athletic, not as smart as me, but smart enough that brains gave me no advantage. Six days out of seven, Ali picked on me, and on the seventh she ignored me.
“Let me see the package,” she insisted.
“It’s for dad.”
I shifted the package to my other arm, aware of the mistake as soon as I did it but unable to stop myself.
Like a coiled spring, she kicked in front of my chin. My legs stopped moving.
“Mind your business, Ali.”
I took another tentative step, but a kick in the air stopped me, the wind from it knocking my eyeglasses askew.
I decided to run. Ali was much faster, but she was barefoot, so all I had to do was make it to the gravel driveway, where she couldn’t run. The generals in my mind determined it was a good strategy, drafted the order, stamped it, and sent it along to my legs to be carried out immediately.
But the chain of command within my body often failed me, and it did so here. While my legs did not yet move, my eyes somehow gave away my intentions, and during this delay, she struck with a leg sweep. I hoped to God no one else saw it. It was almost as demeaning as what happened yesterday, when I was getting bullied at recess and Ali put a stop to it. That did wonders for my social ranking, let me tell you.
Now she had me in a scissors lock, her legs around my neck.
While the mail blew across the lawn, she grabbed at the package, but I had it in a death grip under my arm.
“Give it over,” she commanded.
“No!”
She took the bottom of her foot, dirty with grass and dust, and smacked me in the face, rendering me almost blind as my glasses dropped to my nose.
Surrender was now unavoidable.
“OK,” I said, “we’ll do it together, but I’m in charge.”
She released me and sprang to her feet, helping me up.
“There, was that so hard?” she said. “Now what’s in the box?”
I took her past Mabel...whose only movement was a slight wagging of her tail...through the garage, the laundry room, and finally into a small furnace room where I already had an aquarium set up.
“What is this, fish? Jeez, what a dweeb.”
I could see Ali had already lost interest and was about to return to her martial activities when again a screw up in the chain of command occurred. The order had gone out to keep silent so she would leave, but my mouth took its own initiative and tried to seal the deal.
“Em, yeah, it’s just a goldfish.”
But my eyes betrayed my mouth, and of course Ali didn’t miss it.
“Ok,” she said, her curiosity having been reignited. “Let’s open it.”
I opened the package, my sister’s presence spoiling the moment, and emptied out smaller packages: water purifier, food, and what apparently were eggs.
Ali grabbed the instruction sheet.
“Sea monsters?”
“OK, it’s stupid,” I said, “but I just want to see what they are.”
She put her hands on her hips, which in her way of thinking meant, this is serious, so listen up, buddy.
“Under no circumstances,” she ordered, “can you tell anyone at school. And especially not the boys across the street.”
“Right,” I said. “We don’t want kids nosing around.”
“No,” she corrected me, “what we don’t want is to make the target on your back any bigger.”
“Oh, right, good point.”
I had already filled the tank with aquarium sand. Now I went to the laundry-room sink and began filling a bucket of lukewarm water. Ali followed me.
She seemed worried. “Why don’t you come outside and let me show you some moves?”
She wore that fake concerned look. I knew she just wanted another excuse to rough me up some more, so I ignored her.
“Fine, get your butt kicked at school again.”
With that she finally left.
The Sea Monster instructions were simple:
Empty the purifier into the water. Pour the eggs in. They may take some time to hatch. Feed one teaspoon of food a day. As they grow, you may try to feed them vegetables or fruit, but under no circumstances feed them any meat!
After adding the purifier, I inspected the four eggs in the bag. They just looked like four cheap glass trinkets.
Nothing to lose at this point, however, so I poured the them into the middle of the tank. Watched them settle on the sand.
Little trails of vapor streamed off them. That was encouraging.
I heard my mother throwing in a wash. When she entered the furnace room, I didn’t look up.
“I guess your monsters came,” she said.
I nodded.
Mom stands taller than my dad, and only wears glasses when reading. She had tied up her long hair, which meant she was either going running or about to conduct a zoom class. She taught art history at a community college and was busy trying to finish her book. She indulged my “sea monster thing” to compensate for disrupting my life in making me move here for a year.
She kissed me on the top of the head and left me watching the eggs, willing them to hatch.
The next morning, sleep still in my eyes, I ventured down into the furnace room, and to my surprise the eggs had been replaced by four small holes in the sand.
Holy Schlitz, as Dad liked to say.
I crouched down for a closer look.
Wait...was Ali playing a joke on me?
But then a thought came into my mind with such force that I took a step back: feed them.
So I took a teaspoon and measured out some food and dropped it into the water.
The food sifted slowly to the bottom. I had my nose pressed against the glass. When some of the food reached the holes, I held my breath.
But nothing.
I watched them a long time.
Ali popped into the room. “Hey,” she teased, “it’s the weenie from Shaleeny.”
“Go away.”
As she came closer, her face changed, going from amused to serious.
“You gotta feed them, Kyle.”
I turned in surprise. She never called me by my actual name.
I went back to watching, and some time later, to my surprise, Mabel actually came in. She stood beside me sniffing the air. I crouched and put an arm around her.
“I thought you didn’t like it down here?”
Mabel was usually not a fan of stairs or exercise, and certainly not the furnace room, with its spooky noises.
She sat down facing the tank, her tail slowly wagging on the floor.
“What is it girl?”
When I left to go have breakfast, to my shock, she stayed behind staring at the tank.
After eating, I decided maybe what the tank needed was something to make it look more like the ocean bottom. Like a piece of coral or a conch shell. So I cajoled Dad into taking me to Petco.
Pulling out of the driveway, we saw Ali, basketball in hand at the top of the neighbors driveway, playing with the O’Keefs. Dad waved cheerily.
“You should go join the game when we get back,” Dad suggested.
“They already have an even number, Dad.”
He nodded, unable to wiggle past that logic.
“So I had a dream last night,” he said, “about your sea monsters.”
“Really? What did they look like?”
“I don’t know. The water was murky. Kinda like little Loch-Ness things, I guess.”
“I wish they’d come out so I could see them.”
“I think you just have to feed them more.”
Gee, where had I heard that?
An hour later, a Spanish galleon with three layers of cannon portholes sank to the bottom. I had dropped it rather than place it, not wanting to get my sleeves wet. Yeah, right, that was the reason.
It settled on the bottom rather close to one of the little holes. I watched very closely to see if any creature emerged, and had been watching a long time when my mom entered all sweaty from having just been on her daily run. She stood behind me with her hands on my shoulders.
“How are they doing?”
I shrugged.
“Well, how are you doing? Meet anyone interesting at school?”
“I guess.”
“It takes time. Especially for the really smart kids. I didn’t really have any good friends til grad school.”
“That’s encouraging.”
She laughed. “Key word being ‘good’.”
I felt her hands leave my shoulders. I’d always been closer to Dad because he was, well, fun. Dad shot a basketball worse than me, and his wiry arms and legs seemed not always on the same page together. But Dad could laugh about it, which made people comfortable around him. Mom, on the other hand, always had it together, a hard standard to live up to. Yet Mom also made me feel safe, like she was in control. One time a few years ago, we’d had a burglar in the house in the middle of the night. While Dad stumbled around looking for something that could be used as a weapon, eventually settling on a broom, Mom quietly called the police, then loudly told Dad to use the shotgun shells. At first he didn’t understand, since neither of them knew anything about ammo and they didn’t actually own a firearm. By the time he caught on and shouted something about ‘making his day’ the intruder was a shadow running across the lawn.
Mom’s voice now trailed from beyond the laundry room: “Don’t forget to feed them!”
With still no sign of life within the holes, I decided it was time to do just that. A few minutes later, I returned with a small handful of Rice Crispies. Mabel decided to come with me. But the snap, crackle and pop material turned out to be less than ideal food, since they just floated on the water. So I ran up and took a carrot from the fridge, skinned it, and cut some small pieces.
While I finished, Mabel’s excited barking reached me from the cellar. I ran back full speed, chunks of carrot in hand.
I arrived in the furnace room to find Mabel sitting facing the tank with her tail wagging on the floor. Adjusting my glasses, I studied the tank, expecting to finally see some action. But nothing. Just four holes and a Spanish galleon.
However, then I noticed the rice crispies were gone. Aha! So they’re just shy.
I dropped the carrot pieces into the aquarium. They settled onto the sandy bottom, with one of them landing on the ship and becoming its only cargo. When nothing further happened, I stepped back toward the door to the laundry room and spied on the tank from there. But still nothing happened.
This time when I left I made Mabel come with me. I played a video game with Dad the rest of the afternoon, and when I went back to check on the tank some time after supper, I found Ali standing before it.
“What are you doing?” I demanded.
“Don’t worry, nothing.”
I noticed the carrot pieces were gone.
“Did you see anything?” I asked.
“No. But I think maybe if they eat more...”
She held a broccoli spear over the tank. When she started to reach into the water, I pulled her arm out. For some reason it frightened me to think of my sister’s hand in the water going anywhere near the holes.
“What’s the matter with you?” she barked.
“It says not to touch the water,” I lied. “Something about contamination I think.”
“Fine, baby.”
She dropped the broccoli into the water from safely above. It crashed to the sea bed between the holes. We watched for minutes, but nothing moved.
Finally, she gave up, saying “Your life is so lame!”
No doubt a lethal retort was on the tip of my tongue, but I thought it best to not give her an excuse to hang around any longer.
I stood there watching a long time, and while I did, two terrifying but compelling thoughts came into my mind. The first was that maybe I should feed them some meat. What could go wrong? If it killed them, so what, they never showed themselves anyway.
The second was terrifying simply because of its pure strangeness: that I should stand next to the tank facing away it.
The following morning, a Monday, I resisted the urge to bring some of my breakfast bacon down to the aquarium.
Under no circumstances feed them any meat, it had said.
And I was the kind of kid that obeyed the rules. Sure, like everyone, I had a joker in my head that sometimes blurted out inappropriate thoughts, a little voice that interrupts the regular programming of your mind with something that usually goes against good sense. I learned long ago to ignore that joker.
Dad usually made breakfast, but Mom took care of lunches for school. She was handing paper bags to Ali and me at the door with a kiss. She always showed more affection to me, but I figured she was compensating for her preference for Ali. Still, I relished the warmth of her cheek against mine, and I always wanted to believe her when she told me how handsome I looked. Every school day they sent me out to the wolves to be slaughtered, but I understood my parents believed it would make me strong some day.
I filled with dread as me and Ali climbed on the bus. One of the O’Keef twins, who wanted to impress Ali, almost knocked me over with a high five.
We sat down behind them.
“You could at least make an effort,” she whispered to me.
Right, so I was making her life so miserable by embarrassing her.
At school that day, I daydreamed more than usual. During history, I imagined that terrorists invaded the school, black-clad men armed with multiple weapons each, and while one of them was more or less ignoring me, I swiped a handgun from his belt. I had never held a gun, certainly didn’t know how to use one, but how hard could it be? I saved many lives before history class ended, but on the way to algebra kids were bumping me like I wasn’t even in the hallway. I settled behind my desk, and in my next daydream, I again found a gun, only this time there were no terrorists, only me and my classmates. And they sure noticed me now.
On the bus home, I felt the lowest I’d ever felt, because I knew the daydream had crossed a line. I wasn’t one of THOSE kids, the ones who knew they didn’t have a future so they did something crazy and horrible. I wouldn’t really take pleasure in seeing anyone hurt, and besides...the other kids weren’t the problem. I was the problem.
When I got home, Dad was busy cutting pieces of paneling for one of the bedrooms. He had protective goggles over his glasses and bits of sawdust on his nose.
“Hey, little guy,” he said, “how was your day?”
“Awesome,” I deadpanned.
Not catching the sarcasm, Dad replied, “Great! Keep up the good work.”
I went to check on my monsters, and to my shock, found Mabel sitting there watching the tank. She wagged her tail at my arrival.
“Hey, girl. Are they doing on anything?”
I looked for myself. Four holes in the sand, nothing more.
Why was everything in my life so lame?
That settled it. I left Mabel in the furnace room and Dad frowning over a ruler and pencil.
Time to get some meat.
Mabel was still there when I came back with some leftover ham. Four pieces. She wagged her tail when I dropped them into the aquarium.
I crouched down with Mabel, arm around her, watching with anticipation.
Again I had to ignore that weird urge to turn my back to the tank.
I watched a long time, with nothing happening, and when Mabel finally grew bored and left, I followed her up the stairs. The family had dinner together, and no one mentioned the monsters. Dad told corny jokes, Mom laughed despite her usual effort to not encourage him, and Ali tried to one up her dad, but failed as always. After dinner, we played Scrabble, the one thing in life Dad took seriously. No one ever challenged any words he put down, no matter how absurd they seemed, because his knowledge of obscure words was almost supernatural. Usually he won, though sometimes Mom let him, and though both Kyle and Ali were aware of it, neither told their father. His Scrabble victories meant something to him.
After the game, I noticed Ali heading down to the cellar and decided to follow. Sure enough, she headed straight for the furnace room. Mabel tagged along beside me. When I looked in the tank, to my shock, the bits of ham were gone. But something else had been left in the sand: skins. Four skins, like from shedding snakes.
I worried I had killed the things with the meat.
Ali pressed her face close to the tank.
“What are these things?” she asked.
“I don’t know. Dad says maybe shrimp.”
Ali started to reach into the water, but I ripped her arm back. “What are you doing?” I gasped.
“Relax, Dorkowski, I’m not gonna bother them. I just want to look at that skin.”
I relented as she dipped her hand into the water. Held my breath. Watched the long, pale, slender hand of my sister reaching down, closer to a hole.
I hated her, but then again not really, and the thought of something hurting her...
She grabbed for the skin, but it slipped through her fingers.
Did something move just beneath the surface of the hole?
I looked at the sand below the water line. Something stirred within, like tentacles or a nest of snakes.
The light refracting through the water made it hard for her to locate the skin. Her index finger drew a small path in the sand.
Then that strange urge struck again...turn away from the tank.
And was my sister turning away too as she felt for the skin?
“Come on, forget about it,” I told her.
“I got it!”
Her hand withdrew from the water with the piece of skin.
Mabel barked.
Mom entered from the laundry room.
“Mom, look,” Ali said.
Mom and I examined the skin held in my sister’s palm.
“What is it?” Ali asked.
“Looks reptilian,” Mom replied. “Or maybe cephalopod.”
“Squid?” Kyle asked.
She nodded. “I have a friend in the Biology Department. Let me see what she says.”
Mom left with the skin, while Ali and I returned to examining the tank.
“Is it me,” my sister asked, “or do those holes seem bigger than yesterday?”
I just nodded.
“Kyle?”
I turned to her.
“Don’t put your hand in there,” she said.
As the week went by, I mostly avoided the furnace room, having the growing sense that whatever lurked inside that aquarium might be dangerous. I debated whether I should get my father to help me lug the whole thing into the yard and just dump it all out. But then I worried that might not kill them, so maybe I should just dump bleach into the water?
The joker in my head burst in with his own idea: give them more meat!
However, I knew how to ignore that voice, so not only did I not feed them more meat, I stopped feeding them anything.
But I started to suspect others in the family were. I’d catch Mom or Dad or Ali leaving the furnace room with sly looks on their faces. They always went in alone, and never said anything, but there were times they seemed a little bit sneaky. And none of them ever said anymore, “Don’t forget to feed them.”
Mabel began making the furnace room her main habitat, only coming upstairs for meals. It bothered me that no one else in the family found this strange. Mabel didn’t have much ambition as a rule, but she had always liked to be around the family.
On the following Monday, I was doing homework at the kitchen table when I heard Mabel let out a sharp yelp from down in the furnace room. I rose slowly, afraid of what had happened, hoping someone else had heard it and would come to check on her. No one did.
So I crept over to the cellar door and started down the stairs, but I had only gone a few steps when Mabel burst around the corner and came charging up the stairs, still whimpering a little. She went right past me, and when I tried to follow her, found she had disappeared under a desk where Mom sat conducting a Zoom class session.
I had no choice but to stay out of the room until her session was over, but I could have sworn seeing a wet spot on the dog’s head as she ran by.
I decided to go down and check on the tank. A strange mix of feelings came with this decision. Revulsion, excitement, fear, curiosity. Strangely, the joker actually seemed to shrivel up hiding in a corner of my mind.
Creeping into the furnace room, I observed water on the floor in front of the tank. Not much, maybe just enough to slip on.
Arriving at the tank, my heart pounding, I looked inside. Nothing unusual.
Except now there were only three holes.
I went to bed early, though I did not sleep for hours. Processing all this became very difficult. Facing me on my bureau sat a photo of me with my parents and sister from two years ago. Sixth grade. I’d been a completely different person. When my sister was in the fifth grade, I looked out for her. I played hoops every day with Dad and had no idea we both stunk. And when Mom fawned all over me before leaving for school, I felt no self consciousness at all. At school I was still unnoticed, but unaware of it. The universe felt wide open.
But a shadow had descended over me since then. I felt it a little more every day.
The next morning, I found Mabel sheltering under mom’s desk, Mom out on an early morning run. I could of sworn I heard her whimpering while eating breakfast. When I crouched down to check on her, she raised the corner of her lip and growled a little. Wow, that dog never growled.
Ali came up from the cellar, which seemed surprising, since she usually slept late on Saturday.
“What’s up?” I asked.
“Like it’s any of your business,” she replied. At least that felt normal. But why was she downstairs?
Then the urge to go visit the tank came so sharply into my mind that I found myself standing there blinking. My sister walked away shaking her head. Only when I realized my legs were edging toward the cellar door did I send out the panicky order to them to stop.
I stood there in a daze, unsure where to go or what to do, my world shifting beneath my feet, everything in this old house feeling menacing now. Like the house itself was a monster and my family had unwittingly fed themselves to it, and I was the only one even aware they needed to escape before being digested.
The ringing of the doorbell unfroze me. Mabel let out a small whimper of pain. Dad had gone to pick up coffee, and Mom was still on her run, so I answered the door.
A small woman with a receding jaw and sparkling eyes greeted me with a British accent.
“Hello, is your mum home? You must be Kyle. I work with her at the university.”
“Hi.”
“She brought what turns out to be a most interesting biological specimen.”
“Really? What did you find?”
“Is your mum here?”
“She’s on a run, should be back soon. You can come in and wait.”
I led the women to the kitchen.
“I’m Lynn Barrett,” she explained. “You’re a very bright boy, I’ve been told, very interested in science.”
“Yeah, science is cool.”
We both sat at an island counter in the kitchen. Mrs. Barrett pulled out a printout.
“I should be upset with this little trick you’ve played on me, Kyle, it costs a lot of resources to run a DNA analysis. But just how you managed it has really intrigued me.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean it’s really impressive. That sample we got really looks like skin, but somehow you got the DNA to show something that’s, well, impossible.”
I spread my hands and gave a slight shake of my head to show my bafflement.
“Look,” she said, “right here.”
She pointed to the printout.
“According to this, the DNA is a mixture of something similar to a squid with something, well, very different.”
“Different?”
“Amino acids,” she replied, “or what look like amino acids anyway, only with sulfur molecules replacing the carbon.”
“OK, I’m not sure I like science that much.” She had lost me.
“Naturally,” she explained, “I don’t expect you’ve figured out how to design your own nucleotides, but perhaps you’ve found something very peculiar and marinated some squid inside of it. Brilliantly done, whatever it is! I wouldn’t want you to think you’re in any trouble. My own brother once blew up the garage with his chemistry set...you’re not doing anything like that I hope?”
But I was already jumping to my feet in terror. “Mrs. Barrett, you must help me get rind of them!”
“Don’t panic, dear boy, what is the matter?”
“I sent for these things, and put them in the water as instructed...”
I began pulling the woman to her feet.
“...and I did everything right, except it said not to feed them meat, and now they are a danger to everyone!”
I pulled her through the house, down the stairs and toward the furnace room, fighting to keep my glasses from flying off while she fought to keep hers.
I released her before the tank. She approached cautiously, eying the holes in the sand and the three remaining skins.
I worried she was standing too close.
Wished the tank had a cover.
“Whatever they are,” I said, “we have to kill them.”
Worried maybe she still believed I was playing a trick on her, I stepped a little closer so I could see her better. But something strange had come over her, something that drained much of the life out her face.
“Well, I...I...I,” she stammered in confusion.
“Please,” I said.
“Really, I must...” she said, taking a half step back and searching for the words. “I must be going.”
She turned and left, with me trying to catch up with her as she bolted up the stairs.
“Tell your mum I stopped by. A very clever joke, very clever.”
She never slowed to look back at me, just kept going right out the door, down the walk and to her car.
Mom or Dad would be home soon, maybe one of them would know what to do.
No, this was my fault. I had to do something now. I returned to the basement.
Placed my hand on the bottle of bleach on top of the washer.
Froze there, a wash of miserable feelings coming over me.
What kind of person harms innocent creatures?
But they were not so innocent were they.
I asked myself, Didn’t you bring them into this world? You’re their father, their god.
But I didn’t know what they were, had no idea, and I would never bring anything that could harm my family into the house.
You don’t have the guts to do it anyway, the voice told me.
I had no answer for that, and a wave of self loathing rolled in. Finally, with trembling hands, I lifted the bleach and entered the furnace room.
Only someone was already there: Ali, lying on the floor beside the tank doing her stretches.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“What does it look like?”
“But why in here?”
“I don’t know, the grass was wet. Why do you have bleach?”
“Oh...I was just going to do some laundry.”
“Since when do you do laundry?”
She had her back to the tank, her torso stretching toward her straightened leg.
“You know how it is,” I said, “if you want something done right...”
“I hope whatever you have, big brother, it isn’t contagious.”
“Right. Well, you should do those somewhere else, Ali.”
She scowled at me. “Let me know when you have an army so you can tell me what to do.”
“I’m serious,” I insisted. “The air is not good down here.”
“True,” she said rising to her feet. “Starting to smell like bleach. And nerd,” She stormed out.
I stood alone now, bleach in hand, staring at the tank.
You don’t have the guts.
I took a step closer.
Maybe if you turned around while you did it...
Another step closer.
But wait, that made sense. Turn around, reach behind and just pour the bleach in with your back to the tank.
I turned around.
Stepped backward toward the tank.
Started to unscrew the cap on the bleach.
Another step closer.
A god has the right to destroy his creation, doesn’t he? Even the duty to if things went not as expected. Like Noah’s God sending the flood.
Just get a little closer.
Then I heard the garage door opening. Dad.
Maybe he would have a better idea.
I hurried out of the furnace room.
But glancing back as I turned out the light, I thought I saw black and squirming things slithering back into the holes.
I found my father taking groceries and a case of beer from the car.
“For later,” he said. “When I’m done working.”
I knew the first beer would be cracked by noon. And since it kept Dad out of Mom’s hair, she didn’t mind.
Dad then noticed the troubled look on my face.
“What’s bugging you, little man?”
“Can you help me get rid of those things inside the tank?”
“Oh, no, you can’t do that. God’s creatures, and all that.”
“You aren’t religious.”
“But it’s a fine philosophy, isn’t it?” I helped him load individual beers in the cellar fridge. “Live and let live,” he said. “Imagine the eons of evolution that went into whatever those little guys are in that tank? You just added water and a bit of food to some tiny little eggs, and out of that you got little creatures. Amazing!”
“Can we please just get rid of them?”
I wondered if I should tell my father about what happened to Mabel...but what had happened to her?
“Tell you what,” he said. “You let me take care of them, and when they’re starting to outgrow their home, I’ll find them another one.”
“Dad...”
“Go on, it’ll be ok. Don’t I always take care of things?”
“Actually...”. It was really Mom that took care of most things.
“Go find your sister and keep an eye on her, make sure those kids across the street aren’t giving her a hard time.”
With his corny smile, he nudged me out of the garage. I knew full well Ali could more than take care of herself, so I walked up the street in the opposite direction, all the while having to resist the strange urge to return to the furnace room and stand with my back to the tank.
Along the way, my mother passed me on the other side of the street. Three things startled me about this. First, she was walking instead of running, and walking kind of sluggishly. Second, she wore a knit hat that belonged to my dad, and she never wore hats. Finally, she didn’t seem to recognize me. When I waved, she didn’t see it, or perhaps ignored me, staring straight ahead and moving right past.
My hand slowly, absentmindedly, went to the back my head, feeling around for anything unusual.
I walked in a daze, autumn leaves drifting around me. No destination, I kept walking, unable to think clearly. Hours I apparently walked, for it had become late afternoon when I finally found myself slipping into my house. The tug drawing me toward the furnace room was overwhelming, but I resisted.
Ali, in the kitchen helping Mom cut vegetables, flashed me a smile.
“Hey, big brother, what’s up?”
Was I in the right house?
“I talked Mom into making your favorite, beef stew.”
“Alright...” I replied, waiting for the other shoe to drop. It didn’t.
My mother didn’t even look at me.
“Ma?” he asked. “How come you ignored me today?”
Finally she turned, but her face looked like she’d been shot up with Novocaine, and her eyes stared right over me.
“Nnnnnnnn...” came out of her mouth.
“She had a little incident,” Ali explained. “Sprained ankle. Ice, heat, then pain meds. That’s why I’m helping.”
Mom forced a smile.
I continued on to my room, half expecting to find another me in my bed, since I’d obviously stumbled into an alternate reality of some sort. Maybe this other Kyle could dribble a basketball between his legs, and see more than three feet without glasses. It would be pretty cool to meet a Kyle like that. But no such luck.
An hour and a half later, Ali called me down to dinner with the kind of cheerful voice she reserved for kids who could shoot from the three point line. I showed up with the same caution I approached gym class with, expecting horrors to ensue. But, of course, nothing of the sort happened. Ali told me how lucky she was to have an eighth grader for a brother...huh?...and Mom had recovered enough speech to remark how excellent the beef stew was, some of which dribbled down her chin.
Dad seemed normal, and if he was oblivious at all to the fact his daughter and wife seemed a little off, that too was normal.
After supper, I retreated to the fortress of my bedroom. I hunted aliens on Playstation, watched old episodes of the Twilight Zone on Netflix, and created an avatar for a virtual colony on Mars. While trying everything to take my mind off what might be going on outside the fortress, the underlying anxiety I felt never ceased. I imagined this was what it might feel like to be on death row, knowing your execution was set for tomorrow.
At long last, I turned out the light and rolled over to go to sleep. I’d been lying there some time when something pushed open the door, letting in a little light from the hallway. My heart raced. I was afraid to move.
Whimpering reached me from the floor.
I tried to turn on the bedside lamp, but the bulb blew. So I opened my laptop to get a little bluish light, pushed on my eye glasses, and found the source of the whimpering.
Mabel. Looking up at me and crying. I could just barely see her in the limited light.
“What is it girl?”
The dog, no longer agile enough to hop onto my bed, jumped up with just her front paws and continued crying in pain. I reached down and scooped her into the bed beside me.
I smoothed the fur on her back, and she settled a little. It warmed my heart to know she still sought solace in me. Ever since that incident in the furnace room she had been very out of character, grumbling whenever I went near her. Now she seemed her old self, though in a little pain.
As I continued petting her, my hand found my way to the folds of skin at her neck, and then to the thick bone on the top of her head. She let out a cry, but otherwise didn’t move. But I felt wetness there.
Grabbing my cell phone, I pressed the flashlight app and examined her head: blood!
Gasping, I sat sat up quick, examining the dark splotch on my hand. Looking again at the dog’s head, I was relieved to find only a small amount of blood.
But then Mabel began to shiver violently.
“It’s ok, girl,” I tried to soothe her.
However, the shivers turned into convulsions.
I pulled away and stood crouched on the mattress, wanting to scream for help but finding I could not.
A convulsion knocked Mabel off the bed. I aimed my flash beam at her on the floor. She continued to convulse, and her head split open. Something like a tentacle pushed out.
Again I tried to scream and could not.
I had trouble keeping the light on the dog with my trembling hand.
A second tentacle came out, and some kind of head...I could only get glimpses in the shifting light.
The tentacles pulled on Mabel’s head, and the thing that emerged had raptor legs, an octopus head and tentacle arms.
A second one came out, helped by the first one pulling it.
I aimed the phone’s flash at their faces, and they hissed at me.
They started looking around the room.
Finally, they moved toward the heating vent in the wall, taking little hops.
One of them used its tentacle arms to pull the vent cover off the wall. It waited for the other one to slither into the vent, then went in behind it, closing the vent with the cover from the inside.
At last, I found my voice, screaming at the top of my lungs, a scream that didn’t stop until Mom and Dad and Ali poured into my room, turning the ceiling light on.
Their eyes, of course, went immediately to the dead basset hound on the floor, her head split open.
“Oh, poor baby,” Mom said.
“It was her time,” Ali added.
“She was very old,” Dad agreed. “She had a good life.”
“She was only four years old!” I yelled. “And look at her head!”
Mom came over and smoothed my hair. “Death can be quite unpleasant, sweetie.”
“Monsters came out of her head!” I told them.
“You’ve always had a wonderful imagination,” Dad remarked with a smile.
“It’s what I love about you,” Ali said with her own creepy grin.
“But they’re in the walls!”
I pointed to a trail of wetness leading to the vent.
“She did leave a mess,” Dad shook his head. “Poor thing.” He bent down and picked Mabel’s corpse up. “Ali, can you get the mop?”
But Ali was already cleaning the floor with one of my sweatshirts. She was doing a terrible job, smiling the whole time.
Mom gently pushed me into the bed and straightened my legs, pulling the blankets up around me.
“We need to call an exterminator or something,” I insisted.
All three of my family stopped what they were doing then and gave me a hard stare.
“Or 911,” I proposed sheepishly.
Mom took my cell phone and put it in her pocket.
Ali took my laptop.
Dad, heading through the door with Mabel, flashed one last smile at me. “Try to get some sleep, little guy.”
I then noticed the wound on the back of his bald head as he left.
Mom pulled my glasses from my face. “You’ll sleep better without these.”
She and Ali left the room, turning off the light and closing the door.
I lay there stunned, watching the door, listening to their footsteps trail away. Then I turned to the vent, almost invisible in the darkness. I watched it a long moment.
Remembering my old laptop in my sock drawer, I jumped out of bed, avoided the blood and brains on the floor, and dug it out. While it powered up, I kept a nervous eye on the vent, hoping I would have time to tell my story, wondering who I will send it to, since I don’t have any friends.
I am still watching that vent as I hit “post”.

has joker ever killed batman's parents video

The argument that Winick and Battle put in Batman's mouth is that murder is sort of a "once you pop, you just can't stop" situation, and that if he ever killed the Joker, he'd be unable to stop ... The Joker killed Batman's parents the story goes that while the wanes were seeing a movie once the movie ended they walked down a narrow alley way there a mugger the young Joker tried to rob them when Mr.Wayne refused the mugger shot him then Mrs.Wayne screamed the mugger shot her but just as he was about to shot Little Bruce Wayne He said hey kid did you ever dance with the devil by the pale ... Did Joker kill Batman’s parents? Not much is known about Chill except that he is, in most versions of Batman, a petty mugger who kills Bruce’s parents Thomas and Martha while trying to take their money and jewelry. Who is the father of Thanos? Mentor (A’lars) Has Joker ever killed Batman? No, it was a simple, two-bit mobster wannabe. He called himself “Joe Chill”. And no, he didn’t have ice powers, he just thought it sounded cool. Thomas Wayne managed to anger a mob boss, so he had a hit put out on him. Chill thought he could wease... WARNING - The Following Article Contains SPOILERS Up Through Batman #47-The death of Batman's parents was no accident. At least, not as random an accident as most comic fans have been led to believe, now that DC Comics has confirmed the truth. He beats the Joker down, tells him, “You killed my parents,” and then tosses him to his doom. We see Joker’s lifeless corpse and roll credits. Ad – content continues below One of these comes in the form of the inclusion of Jared Leto's Suicide Squad version of Joker, who was previously absent from the film but will now be included in a brief appearance. Leto previously made his debut as Batman's nemesis in the 2016 Suicide Squad movie when he took up a brief role alongside Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn. While Ben ... Being Batman’s archenemy, the Joker has developed a very deep bond with the Dark Knight, often going to unbelievable lengths with his plans, just so he could push his opponent to his limits. Joker’s ideal vision would be to break Batman mentally, either by making him murder or by causing a psychotic break similar to his own. The aforementioned Excalibur film references both Batman v Superman and a central part of Batman's origin. In Batman v Superman, Bruce Wayne's parents are killed after taking him to see the film, following the tradition of the Waynes' murder taking place after they bring Bruce to a swashbuckling adventure film, typically The Mask of Zorro . Joe Chill is a fictional character in the DC Comics Batman series. He is most infamous for murdering young Bruce Wayne's parents (in different versions of Batman's origin story), thus making him indirectly responsible for Batman's existence. Not much is known about Chill, except that he appears to be a petty mugger who kills Thomas and Martha Wayne in front of their child, Bruce, while trying ...

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Batman Kills Joker The Dark Knight Returns - YouTube

Joker's awful, but these deeds are just dastardly.For more awesome content, check out: http://whatculture.com/Follow us on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.... NeedleMouse Merchandise - https://teespring.com/stores/needlemouse-merchBatman has lived for over 75 years, but in that time he has managed to die a few time... You ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight? About Press Copyright Contact us Creators Advertise Developers Terms Privacy Policy & Safety How YouTube works Test new features Press Copyright Contact us Creators ... The most in depth review you'll ever see! ... Batman's Three JOKER Theory pt. 1 ... 12:07. The Film Theorists Recommended for you. 12:07. Batman Finally Meets The Man Who Killed His Parents ... Batman must Choose Between Justice or Vengeance when he Confronts Joe Chill the Man Who Murdered his Parents. http://www.wbshop.com/product/batman+... Ba... Batman Finally Meets The Man Who Killed His Parents ... The Most EPIC LEGO Batman MOC Ever! Wayne Manor + Batcave by Brent ... TGN86 70,403 views. 2:11. LEGO Batman vs Joker in Gotham Theater ... 1989 \\ Warner Bros. Pictures \\ DC Comics The Dark Knight (2008)Scene: The Joker meets the MobPlaylist: https://is.gd/Pxi1yKStoryline: When the menace known as the Joker wreaks havoc and chaos on the... NeedleMouse Merchandise - https://teespring.com/stores/needlemouse-merchThe Joker is an immortal character that will live in movies, tv shows, comics and vid...

THEORY: The Joker Film Depicts the Deaths of Batman's Parents

has joker ever killed batman's parents

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