By Mark Rodriguez
Batman is on the trail of a faceless killer, which leads him to Penguin's casino. Meanwhile, Charlotte River, Bruce's current girlfriend, sneaks into the Casino and disguises herself as the staff. This did not escape the Penguin's notice and he sends his girls after her. What will happen next?
"Kill Game" opens on a private beachfront property known as Gotham Dunes, where a couple watches over the Iceberg Casino which they comment looks like a diamond floating in a black pool. The guy says he wants to get in there since the Penguin's been hold up in there for too long. The woman hands him the Golden VIP pass to the Casino. He asks her how she had that pass and she says never mind how she got it, which reveals that she was faceless killer from the previous issue. The woman looks exactly like Charlotte Rivers, but with an eye patch.
The woman tells him to change his face since they can't risk the real him to be spotted. He'd rather go with his real face and she socks in the jaw, telling him to change it. She explains to the reader that the guy is named Jack Houston, known as Snakeskin. He volunteered himself to test rogue medical research and had a bad reaction to it. He lawyered up and got sued them and got a big payday for his pain suffering... but he gambled it all away. He ended up running from every gambling owner and loan shark in Gotham and turned to crime. He discovered he can change his face to help disguise himself.
However, this doesn't change his fingertips and Batman found them on the poker chip he found the last issue. This leads him to a broken down building with a bathtub full of blood. He says a dead person who he recognized as Raju, one of Penguin's runners. Alfred traces his last phone calls to a weapons dealer named Nicolas Pog and a woman named Jill Hamilton. Alfred recognizes the name and Batman cuts the call.
Batman goes to the desk clerk that runs the places that houses lowlifes. He pulls a shotgun on Bats and the Dark Knight pushes the gun downwards, making the man shoot off the toes from his left foot. Batman asks for Jill Hamilton and the clerk tells him he last saw the woman with the eye patch the day before.
At the Penguin's Casino, Charlotte, still disguised as a maid, searches through someone's bags in a room hoping to find something to give her evidence, like a laptop or a smartphone. She gets chopped on the back of the head by Jill. Jill and Charlotte recognize each other.
Charlotte and Jill are sisters, and Charlotte is trying to expose the underground weapons operation, and Jill's name came up. Jill says her sister will never turn her in or she'll ruin her privileged lifestyle.
Jill grabs a liquor bottle and smashes it, giving herself a weapon.
Elsewhere the Penguin has invited several up and coming villains to to take under his wing until they're ready to operate on their own. These bad guys include Mr.Toxic, Hypnotic and Mr. Combustible. Penguin is served a drink as he explains that they haven't been messed with on the streets yet because he's been protecting their money in the Iceberg vault. The woman that served his drink is Jill.
Elsewhere in Crime Alley, Batman is chasing down Smitty, a lowlife associate of Nicolas Pog. Batman grabs him and make him take him to Pog's storage room. There they see bomb making supplies and Bats asks where the actual bombs are. Smitty says he doesn't know but he last saw Pog talking to a woman missing an eye. He overheard Pog say he was going to meet her at the Iceberg Casino's opening. Smitty says she saw the woman bring in a trunk and it's full of Pog's body parts on ice. Pog also has a shuriken in his eye just like Boris Gorky did. Batman thinks he'll be meeting up with his date with Charlotte after all.
The Penguin opens up his Iceberg Casino and Hotel. Snakeskin loads the C4 in a room for Jill to use. At the main lounge, Bruce Wayne calls Charlotte and says he'll be on his way. Charlotte spots Jill as she's wheeling off a meal on a silver platter and she decides to keep an eye on her.
Bruce and Alfred arrive on a boat but they spot the boat left behind by Jill and Jack (oh damn, now I get it...) and it's the same stolen boat the killer used to get away previously. Alfred jokes that if common criminals are allowed to park there, he must write a letter to management. Bruce suits up as Batman and says that will keep Alfred busy for a while, and Alfred says he's already plenty busy investigating missing train passengers from another case happening in Vampire # 5. Batman also mentioned that he placed a homing chip on Charlotte's coat.
Meanwhile in the casino, Charlotte is wandering around looking for Jill, since she feels if she doesn't stop her plans, she'd be an accessory. She swiped Jill's employee card to gain access to private areas. As she enters a dark room, she gets stabbed multiple times in the shoulder.
Batman busts in and beats the crap out of Snakeskin saying that he better not have killed Charlotte. Charlotte is bleeding out and Batman tries to save her but Snakeskin locks them both in and fill the room with cold air. The floor beneath them slide open and Batman and Charlotte fall among the ice outside. As this happens, Batman blames letting his feelings for Charlotte cloud his judgement as he thinks they're both about to die.
My Opinions
Well, this issue was a full story, I was expecting some extra back up story. I didn't notice the Jack and Jill thing til halfway through the issue, and the fact that Jack kept calling Jill 'Chase' as a nickname also confused me with these characters. I'm pretty sure these guys are new to The New 52 and didn't exist prior.
I can only assume when Jill broke the bottle to threaten Charlotte to leave her be, she stood back and said 'yeah sure, just don't hurt me', but I would have liked to have seen it. It is a bit jarring to see Jill looking like she's about to cut her sister with a broken bottle and then cut away to Jill serving Penguin drinks. Maybe they could have skipped the bottle and just have Jill sock her out or something.
Jill is quite a character though. She is a martial arts expert, she can kill criminals by perfectly throwing a shuriken in their eye, and she has no qualms about chopping them up. Last issue she got the drop on Batman and outsmarted a criminal out of his car. It's hard to say if she really cares about Jack or is just using him. She had no problems socking him in the face when he didn't want to play along earlier. She is a cold and violent woman, and it is interesting to see Batman dealing with slightly more down to Earth criminals.
This is Batman as his core. He's not always fighting super villains, or saving the world alongside the Justice League. He's running around the darkest and filthiest parts of town, beat the crap out of drug dealers and members of organized crime. He tracks these guys by name and knows their habits. That's Batman.
Despite the covers and whatnot, Batman hasn't even seen the Penguin and is running around his casino not even looking for him. I'm sure their paths will cross. It's also kinda cool to see Penguin become a mentor of sorts for upcoming bad guys, that might or not make it in Gotham. Mr. Toxic in particular looks awesome.
I also want to mention the slightly odd mention to Batman's crossover adventure in the I, Vampire comics series, which was released as part of the New 52. I was currently buying all 4 Batman books, the Batgirl book, Catwoman book and the Justice League so I understood when one comic mentioned the events of the other, but the one regarding I, Vampire threw me off.
Also... what the hell were Lark, Jay and Raven doing during all this? I thought Penguin sent them to check up on Charlotte last time? I'm surprised they didn't cut in when Charlotte and Jill were talking to each other. I guess we'll find out next issue.
Batman is on the trail of a faceless killer, which leads him to Penguin's casino. Meanwhile, Charlotte River, Bruce's current girlfriend, sneaks into the Casino and disguises herself as the staff. This did not escape the Penguin's notice and he sends his girls after her. What will happen next?
 |
| Why does penguin look like the Joker here? It doesn't help that he's basically wearing his outfit with the yellow vest and purple pants |
The woman tells him to change his face since they can't risk the real him to be spotted. He'd rather go with his real face and she socks in the jaw, telling him to change it. She explains to the reader that the guy is named Jack Houston, known as Snakeskin. He volunteered himself to test rogue medical research and had a bad reaction to it. He lawyered up and got sued them and got a big payday for his pain suffering... but he gambled it all away. He ended up running from every gambling owner and loan shark in Gotham and turned to crime. He discovered he can change his face to help disguise himself.
However, this doesn't change his fingertips and Batman found them on the poker chip he found the last issue. This leads him to a broken down building with a bathtub full of blood. He says a dead person who he recognized as Raju, one of Penguin's runners. Alfred traces his last phone calls to a weapons dealer named Nicolas Pog and a woman named Jill Hamilton. Alfred recognizes the name and Batman cuts the call.
Batman goes to the desk clerk that runs the places that houses lowlifes. He pulls a shotgun on Bats and the Dark Knight pushes the gun downwards, making the man shoot off the toes from his left foot. Batman asks for Jill Hamilton and the clerk tells him he last saw the woman with the eye patch the day before.
At the Penguin's Casino, Charlotte, still disguised as a maid, searches through someone's bags in a room hoping to find something to give her evidence, like a laptop or a smartphone. She gets chopped on the back of the head by Jill. Jill and Charlotte recognize each other.
Charlotte and Jill are sisters, and Charlotte is trying to expose the underground weapons operation, and Jill's name came up. Jill says her sister will never turn her in or she'll ruin her privileged lifestyle.
Jill grabs a liquor bottle and smashes it, giving herself a weapon.
Elsewhere the Penguin has invited several up and coming villains to to take under his wing until they're ready to operate on their own. These bad guys include Mr.Toxic, Hypnotic and Mr. Combustible. Penguin is served a drink as he explains that they haven't been messed with on the streets yet because he's been protecting their money in the Iceberg vault. The woman that served his drink is Jill.
Elsewhere in Crime Alley, Batman is chasing down Smitty, a lowlife associate of Nicolas Pog. Batman grabs him and make him take him to Pog's storage room. There they see bomb making supplies and Bats asks where the actual bombs are. Smitty says he doesn't know but he last saw Pog talking to a woman missing an eye. He overheard Pog say he was going to meet her at the Iceberg Casino's opening. Smitty says she saw the woman bring in a trunk and it's full of Pog's body parts on ice. Pog also has a shuriken in his eye just like Boris Gorky did. Batman thinks he'll be meeting up with his date with Charlotte after all.
The Penguin opens up his Iceberg Casino and Hotel. Snakeskin loads the C4 in a room for Jill to use. At the main lounge, Bruce Wayne calls Charlotte and says he'll be on his way. Charlotte spots Jill as she's wheeling off a meal on a silver platter and she decides to keep an eye on her.
Bruce and Alfred arrive on a boat but they spot the boat left behind by Jill and Jack (oh damn, now I get it...) and it's the same stolen boat the killer used to get away previously. Alfred jokes that if common criminals are allowed to park there, he must write a letter to management. Bruce suits up as Batman and says that will keep Alfred busy for a while, and Alfred says he's already plenty busy investigating missing train passengers from another case happening in Vampire # 5. Batman also mentioned that he placed a homing chip on Charlotte's coat.
Meanwhile in the casino, Charlotte is wandering around looking for Jill, since she feels if she doesn't stop her plans, she'd be an accessory. She swiped Jill's employee card to gain access to private areas. As she enters a dark room, she gets stabbed multiple times in the shoulder.
 |
| Holy crap. Stabbed 4 times in the shoulder. Overkill. |
 |
| It almost looks like he's surfing on Charlotte if you give this a casual glance. |
My Opinions
Well, this issue was a full story, I was expecting some extra back up story. I didn't notice the Jack and Jill thing til halfway through the issue, and the fact that Jack kept calling Jill 'Chase' as a nickname also confused me with these characters. I'm pretty sure these guys are new to The New 52 and didn't exist prior.
I can only assume when Jill broke the bottle to threaten Charlotte to leave her be, she stood back and said 'yeah sure, just don't hurt me', but I would have liked to have seen it. It is a bit jarring to see Jill looking like she's about to cut her sister with a broken bottle and then cut away to Jill serving Penguin drinks. Maybe they could have skipped the bottle and just have Jill sock her out or something.
Jill is quite a character though. She is a martial arts expert, she can kill criminals by perfectly throwing a shuriken in their eye, and she has no qualms about chopping them up. Last issue she got the drop on Batman and outsmarted a criminal out of his car. It's hard to say if she really cares about Jack or is just using him. She had no problems socking him in the face when he didn't want to play along earlier. She is a cold and violent woman, and it is interesting to see Batman dealing with slightly more down to Earth criminals.
This is Batman as his core. He's not always fighting super villains, or saving the world alongside the Justice League. He's running around the darkest and filthiest parts of town, beat the crap out of drug dealers and members of organized crime. He tracks these guys by name and knows their habits. That's Batman.
Despite the covers and whatnot, Batman hasn't even seen the Penguin and is running around his casino not even looking for him. I'm sure their paths will cross. It's also kinda cool to see Penguin become a mentor of sorts for upcoming bad guys, that might or not make it in Gotham. Mr. Toxic in particular looks awesome.
I also want to mention the slightly odd mention to Batman's crossover adventure in the I, Vampire comics series, which was released as part of the New 52. I was currently buying all 4 Batman books, the Batgirl book, Catwoman book and the Justice League so I understood when one comic mentioned the events of the other, but the one regarding I, Vampire threw me off.
Also... what the hell were Lark, Jay and Raven doing during all this? I thought Penguin sent them to check up on Charlotte last time? I'm surprised they didn't cut in when Charlotte and Jill were talking to each other. I guess we'll find out next issue.
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