By Mark Rodriguez
So even though Batman defeated Dollmaker, or at least stopped his plans for now, the villain has him up for auction. It just so happened that Penguin was one of the potential buyers. Batman takes this as well as you'd expect, and with Dollmaker gone, The Dark Knight now sets his sights on him.
"Wheel of Misfortune" opens with Batman watching over a crowd or Joker supporters lobbying outside of City Hall. They blame Batman for cutting Joker's face off and his sudden disappearance. This has been happening for several nights and the mayor now blames Batman for this and wants him removed.
Batman finds his target, a guy named Axel Bellany who recently hijacked a truck with hazardous chemicals. He's dealing with another criminal named Boris Gorky. Before Batman can make his move, a crazy clown tosses a throwing star into one of Gorky's eyes. He then leaps down and kills two of Gorky's men with knives. Batman jumps in to stop him but the clown sprays acid in his face which fogs up his lenses. The clown runs off with the suitcase Gorky was carrying.
Several miles off the harbor, another criminal, Mr. Mosiac waits for the guy to come back with briefcase. The killer arrives and shows him the briefcase. Mosiac isn't sure it's what he wanted, but a gun to the face convinced him. He hands the killer a golden VIP pass to the Iceberg Casino and asks if he needs a ride. The killer drives off in Mosiac's car, leaving him stranded.
Charlotte Rivers arrives at the Iceberg Casino's opening night, but her date Bruce hasn't arrived yet. She meets up with some friends and decides to hang with them until Bruce shows up, after she freshens up first. Once alone, Charlotte dresses up like one of the cleaning maids.
The Penguin is watching via video camera and has 3 deadly ladies with him. He tells Lark to make sure Charlotte Rivers finds a new story worth dying for.
Russian Roulette
A guy by the name Eli Strange goes in to meet up with 'The Mad Russian', who Gorky told him to ask for. The guy has expensive jewelry he stole, which buys him into the game with Mad Russian and his boys. As they play, they discuss the Joker and how they think Batman killed him. Eli ends up winning the card game and is ready to take his leave with his chips, but they stop him and tell him the host always gets a chance to win it back.
One of the men slam Eli's face into the table wanting to know the truth or they will start cutting off his fingers.. Eli's wrist has some sort of contraption with extra cards, which is how he won, and the diamond choker he offered earlier was a fake. One of the guys checks his safe and sees it's now empty with a cat statue with a tag that says 'gotcha!' being left behind. Russian asks one of his boys where he found the jewels and he says in a car sitting in a glove box.
Catwoman suddenly appears and kicks the cat statue out of the thug's hand, saying the car belonged to him. She tells them men that this is Gotham and not Moscow, and they're low on the pecking order. She claws up everyone. Eli asks how he did, and Catwoman says he did fine except for almost being killed. She tells him to leave so he won't see what else she'll do to these men, which might scar what's left of his childhood.
Hugo Strange is watching all this from surveillance cameras and is surprised to see his son still alive. He says he will raise him to the kind of man he feels he is destined to be.
My Opinions
It's been a while since I read this so I forgot this story was so short on account of the back up story. Despite what was being advertised at the time, this comic wasn't so much about Batman looking for Penguin to get revenge, but more about another case that led him to the Penguin. I honestly don't know what this mysterious clown killer has to do with the Iceberg Casino and the Penguin. Of course at the time, everyone speculated it could have been the Joker since you couldn't see his face, but it could have been too soon for him to make an appearance.
I did like the scene with the people at the protest thinking Batman was some random guy in a Batman costume hoping to troll the Joker fans at their protest.
I also have to point out that apparently Penguin's club is so epic and so exclusive that you have to kill and rob gangsters just so that some big time criminal can give you a golden VIP pass to get in.
Charlotte Rivers is still in the story and it seems she's following the path of Lois Lane and April O'Neil, going too deep to find her story and getting in trouble. I looked up that the other two girls with the Penguin and Lark and Jay and Raven. Even though it seems Lark has been in the comics before, Jay and Raven only appeared in the Batman Animated Series later seasons, specifically in the animated movie Mystery of the Batwoman. This makes their first official appearance in the DC comics proper. Um... congrats you random sometimes nameless Penguin henchmen, you!
As for the other story... well the first story had Gorky mentioned that Alex was recently robbed... I didn't think we needed to see the story of how he was robbed. I get the story was to build up hype for Hugo Strange's son (I guess), but having him work under Catwoman is completely random, especially since she's not doing anything related to him in her own comic. Guess the comic needed more star power.
I'm more curious to see what happens next issue with the Penguin and his dangerous ladies.
So even though Batman defeated Dollmaker, or at least stopped his plans for now, the villain has him up for auction. It just so happened that Penguin was one of the potential buyers. Batman takes this as well as you'd expect, and with Dollmaker gone, The Dark Knight now sets his sights on him.
"Wheel of Misfortune" opens with Batman watching over a crowd or Joker supporters lobbying outside of City Hall. They blame Batman for cutting Joker's face off and his sudden disappearance. This has been happening for several nights and the mayor now blames Batman for this and wants him removed.
Batman finds his target, a guy named Axel Bellany who recently hijacked a truck with hazardous chemicals. He's dealing with another criminal named Boris Gorky. Before Batman can make his move, a crazy clown tosses a throwing star into one of Gorky's eyes. He then leaps down and kills two of Gorky's men with knives. Batman jumps in to stop him but the clown sprays acid in his face which fogs up his lenses. The clown runs off with the suitcase Gorky was carrying.
Batman follows the clown into the mob of Joker supporters, who all think he's some guy in a Batman costume. They attack him chanting 'Down with the Bat!' The Dark Knight pushes himself through the crowd and see the guy got away on a boat. He finds the discarded clown mask on the ground nearby and poker chip that might be a valuable clue to find this killer. The chip is from the Iceberg Casino.
Several miles off the harbor, another criminal, Mr. Mosiac waits for the guy to come back with briefcase. The killer arrives and shows him the briefcase. Mosiac isn't sure it's what he wanted, but a gun to the face convinced him. He hands the killer a golden VIP pass to the Iceberg Casino and asks if he needs a ride. The killer drives off in Mosiac's car, leaving him stranded.
Charlotte Rivers arrives at the Iceberg Casino's opening night, but her date Bruce hasn't arrived yet. She meets up with some friends and decides to hang with them until Bruce shows up, after she freshens up first. Once alone, Charlotte dresses up like one of the cleaning maids.
The Penguin is watching via video camera and has 3 deadly ladies with him. He tells Lark to make sure Charlotte Rivers finds a new story worth dying for.
Russian Roulette
A guy by the name Eli Strange goes in to meet up with 'The Mad Russian', who Gorky told him to ask for. The guy has expensive jewelry he stole, which buys him into the game with Mad Russian and his boys. As they play, they discuss the Joker and how they think Batman killed him. Eli ends up winning the card game and is ready to take his leave with his chips, but they stop him and tell him the host always gets a chance to win it back.
One of the men slam Eli's face into the table wanting to know the truth or they will start cutting off his fingers.. Eli's wrist has some sort of contraption with extra cards, which is how he won, and the diamond choker he offered earlier was a fake. One of the guys checks his safe and sees it's now empty with a cat statue with a tag that says 'gotcha!' being left behind. Russian asks one of his boys where he found the jewels and he says in a car sitting in a glove box.
Catwoman suddenly appears and kicks the cat statue out of the thug's hand, saying the car belonged to him. She tells them men that this is Gotham and not Moscow, and they're low on the pecking order. She claws up everyone. Eli asks how he did, and Catwoman says he did fine except for almost being killed. She tells him to leave so he won't see what else she'll do to these men, which might scar what's left of his childhood.
Hugo Strange is watching all this from surveillance cameras and is surprised to see his son still alive. He says he will raise him to the kind of man he feels he is destined to be.
My Opinions
It's been a while since I read this so I forgot this story was so short on account of the back up story. Despite what was being advertised at the time, this comic wasn't so much about Batman looking for Penguin to get revenge, but more about another case that led him to the Penguin. I honestly don't know what this mysterious clown killer has to do with the Iceberg Casino and the Penguin. Of course at the time, everyone speculated it could have been the Joker since you couldn't see his face, but it could have been too soon for him to make an appearance.
I did like the scene with the people at the protest thinking Batman was some random guy in a Batman costume hoping to troll the Joker fans at their protest.
I also have to point out that apparently Penguin's club is so epic and so exclusive that you have to kill and rob gangsters just so that some big time criminal can give you a golden VIP pass to get in.
Charlotte Rivers is still in the story and it seems she's following the path of Lois Lane and April O'Neil, going too deep to find her story and getting in trouble. I looked up that the other two girls with the Penguin and Lark and Jay and Raven. Even though it seems Lark has been in the comics before, Jay and Raven only appeared in the Batman Animated Series later seasons, specifically in the animated movie Mystery of the Batwoman. This makes their first official appearance in the DC comics proper. Um... congrats you random sometimes nameless Penguin henchmen, you!
As for the other story... well the first story had Gorky mentioned that Alex was recently robbed... I didn't think we needed to see the story of how he was robbed. I get the story was to build up hype for Hugo Strange's son (I guess), but having him work under Catwoman is completely random, especially since she's not doing anything related to him in her own comic. Guess the comic needed more star power.
I'm more curious to see what happens next issue with the Penguin and his dangerous ladies.
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