Batman: Night Cries

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Story told of Police Commissioner James Gordon and Batman, and Batman and Bruce Wayne, near the beginning years of the Batman's career. After the Joker dares him to escape in an hour, the vigilante's attempts end up with him deepening into a supernatural mystery linked to the Asylum's origins. Night Cries": While investigating drug pushers, Batman and Commissioner James Gordon notice a common trend in a series of murders involving child abuse, and the death of the children's parents. The two must then go on a quest to clear Batman’s name, during which Gordon must also come to terms with, and break, the cycle of abuse that is present in his own life. Bats and Croc try to hold back a crumbling wall, but when the old lady falls into the flooding room, Bats is forced to rescue her.

This is the first explicit mention or implication of child abuse in the story, and it is key to unraveling the mystery of the serial killer.Created by Archie Goodwin and Scott Hampton, Batman: Night Cries leaves superpowered villains out of the equation and pits Batman against something more realistic and far more dangerous: child sexual abuse.

He tells her that sharing painful memories can help them, and tells her she can draw a picture instead of talking; she takes a pencil, starts drawing on a pad of paper, and hands it to Batman. The implication is that said dead brother's spirit is inhabiting Harvey's body, responsible for the evil side of his personality. The premise of Batman: Fortunate Son is ridiculous, and the comic makes the mistake of taking itself way too seriously. Later in that same book, the death of Alfred, as he watches Wayne Manor and his life with the Waynes go up in a roaring ball of flame - as he thinks, "How utterly proper. As if that weren't enough, he then leaves them both in a warehouse that blows up just as the battered Jason manages to untie his mother, killing them both.Bruce Wayne riding a T-Rex, breaking the fourth wall to complain about Alfred, and turning into a gun-toting macho-man are just some examples of how Adams tried to push DC's boundaries, making most fans flinch when they remember Odyssey. I confess I only read this because the new Batman movie just came out, and this hardcover was 75% off at my LCS, but I’m glad I did. because the latter, while looking normal, still has a very fantastical evil plan, whereas the "innocent guy's" plan is very crude, not requiring the brain of a criminal mastermind to devise, and thus seeming like something an average person would think of. Ivy is one of the few metahumans in Batman's rogues gallery, and thus one of the strongest baddies he regularly faces. Harvey Dent's bout with his "evil" side of himself holds many classic struggles of one's internal thoughts.

It’s very dark and takes itself very seriously (which I’m usually not a fan of), but it totally works for this book. What fascinates me about this story is that it’s as much a Jim Gordon story as it is a Batman story, similar to Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli’s seminal 1987 work Batman: Year One.In his first appearance, he has a bunch of Dollotrons (human zombie dolls) holding a criminal accomplice down so Pyg can make him one as well, and tells said accomplice that he'll then help Pyg do the same to the man's niece.

There are crimes occurring far too often around the world that remain hidden from the public until it’s too late.In a story that touches on the idea of abusers often being the products of abuse themselves, Gordon nearly hurts his adolescent child the same way he was presumably hurt by his own father, a fact that becomes all the more disturbing when you realize that James Gordon Jr. At first, Renee is understandably suspicious of Two-Face who is a prominent member of Batman's own Rogues Gallery. He’s doing this to help solve a crime, but he’s also doing it for the girl’s sake, and he does it in a way that she has the choice to make and be comfortable with. Hush's sole purpose in life is to destroy both the Batman and Bruce Wayne and will stop at nothing to accomplish his goals. I personally think it does a great job highlighting real-world issues, but that will be a mileage-will-vary kind of thing.