By Mark Rodriguez
So after months of hype and build up leading up to the big issue 50... Catwoman walks out on Batman and their fabled marriage never happened. So the perfect story to follow up on this is... Bruce Wayne being called to jury duty as Mr. Freeze complains that Batman was too violent with him. Naturally. Anyways, let's check it out.
Cold Days part opens with Bruce Wayne arriving for jury selection as the media watches on. Bruce gets questions on his opinions of Batman and past dealings with him. All the while there are flashbacks of Batman beating Mr. Freeze within an inch of his life with the villain begging him to stop. All the while Batman demands him to talk.
Bruce Wayne is selected as a juror and will report the next day where he'll be with the rest of the jurors for several days and nights. Bruce is at his hotel and watches the bat signal in the sky. He shuts the blind and goes to sleep.
Commissioner Gordon sees Batman, but knows it's not his Batman but 'the other one'. He asks if he's alright, and the other Batman says no.
The next day at court the attorney talked about three murdered women involved in this case. The man states the women weren't even murdered, but died of blood clots, natural causes. But then Batman got involved in the case.
The other Batman is Dick Grayson and he calls Bruce to know if he's alright as he's busy fighting Killer Croc.
The defense attorney questions Gordon on them only discovering that the women had their temperature drop in their brain stems after Batman performed autopsies in them. He pushes the issue on Gordon until he's forced to admit that Batman isn't licensed to be performing autopsies.
Later on the jury complains about being held for days. Bruce excuses himself and goes to the bathroom. Once alone, he angrily tears a urinal off the wall and throws it on the opposite side of the room. He screams in rage.
Bullock is questioned next as he recalls how they found a bloody Mr. Freeze with a note attached to him saying 'He did it. Ask him'. Freeze had a batarang stuck on the side of his head.
Freeze is questioned next and he says after the doctors revived him he confessed that he murdered three women as part of his experiments. He is asked if he really killed them though.
A flashback shows Mr. Freeze screaming that he killed them. Freeze tells the jury that he's fought Batman many times before but he was a different man that night. He didn't seem to care if those women had anything to do with him or not, he kept hitting Freeze until he said he killed them, or he was scared Batman would kill him.
The jury is ready to discuss the verdict and it seems to be a slam dunk since everyone admits how many times Batman has saved the city and how many times Mr. Freeze has threatened it. Everyone raises their hand to say Mr. Freeze is guilty. Bruce is the only one to raise his hand in favor of Mr. Freeze's innocence.
My Opinions
Man was this comic full of ads for upcoming TV shows, not even DC related ones, every other page. It got annoying after a while and it really cut down on the story, but yeah yeah, I know. The money for these books have to come from somewhere. I would have liked more court room shenanigans though as it deals with just how people in the world actually view Batman and the villains. It's an interesting look at how normal people see these costumed characters and places Batman in as real of a world as Gotham can be.
It was cool to see Dick as Batman again, as he did during the time Batman was thought to be dead, but actually lost in time pre-New 52. It's also cool to see Gordon recognized him. I guess that means Dickbats is still canon. I do wonder what Killer Croc's status is. If he's with the Suicide Squad then why is he doing random crimes that needs Dick to stop him?
Catwoman isn't mentioned in this story but it's obvious that Bruce is hurting and dealing with rage. I guess this story deals with Mr. Freeze being in the wrong place at the wrong time as a heartbroken Bruce beat him within an inch of his life. The question of course is if Mr. Freeze didn't kill the women, who did?
So after months of hype and build up leading up to the big issue 50... Catwoman walks out on Batman and their fabled marriage never happened. So the perfect story to follow up on this is... Bruce Wayne being called to jury duty as Mr. Freeze complains that Batman was too violent with him. Naturally. Anyways, let's check it out.
Cold Days part opens with Bruce Wayne arriving for jury selection as the media watches on. Bruce gets questions on his opinions of Batman and past dealings with him. All the while there are flashbacks of Batman beating Mr. Freeze within an inch of his life with the villain begging him to stop. All the while Batman demands him to talk.
Bruce Wayne is selected as a juror and will report the next day where he'll be with the rest of the jurors for several days and nights. Bruce is at his hotel and watches the bat signal in the sky. He shuts the blind and goes to sleep.
Commissioner Gordon sees Batman, but knows it's not his Batman but 'the other one'. He asks if he's alright, and the other Batman says no.
 |
| The return of DickBats |
The other Batman is Dick Grayson and he calls Bruce to know if he's alright as he's busy fighting Killer Croc.
The defense attorney questions Gordon on them only discovering that the women had their temperature drop in their brain stems after Batman performed autopsies in them. He pushes the issue on Gordon until he's forced to admit that Batman isn't licensed to be performing autopsies.
Later on the jury complains about being held for days. Bruce excuses himself and goes to the bathroom. Once alone, he angrily tears a urinal off the wall and throws it on the opposite side of the room. He screams in rage.
 |
| Bruce got problems. We get Catwoman dumped you, but take a trip around the world or something. Beating up Mr. Freeze and tearing urinals off the walls isn't helping |
Bullock is questioned next as he recalls how they found a bloody Mr. Freeze with a note attached to him saying 'He did it. Ask him'. Freeze had a batarang stuck on the side of his head.
Freeze is questioned next and he says after the doctors revived him he confessed that he murdered three women as part of his experiments. He is asked if he really killed them though.
A flashback shows Mr. Freeze screaming that he killed them. Freeze tells the jury that he's fought Batman many times before but he was a different man that night. He didn't seem to care if those women had anything to do with him or not, he kept hitting Freeze until he said he killed them, or he was scared Batman would kill him.
The jury is ready to discuss the verdict and it seems to be a slam dunk since everyone admits how many times Batman has saved the city and how many times Mr. Freeze has threatened it. Everyone raises their hand to say Mr. Freeze is guilty. Bruce is the only one to raise his hand in favor of Mr. Freeze's innocence.
My Opinions
Man was this comic full of ads for upcoming TV shows, not even DC related ones, every other page. It got annoying after a while and it really cut down on the story, but yeah yeah, I know. The money for these books have to come from somewhere. I would have liked more court room shenanigans though as it deals with just how people in the world actually view Batman and the villains. It's an interesting look at how normal people see these costumed characters and places Batman in as real of a world as Gotham can be.
It was cool to see Dick as Batman again, as he did during the time Batman was thought to be dead, but actually lost in time pre-New 52. It's also cool to see Gordon recognized him. I guess that means Dickbats is still canon. I do wonder what Killer Croc's status is. If he's with the Suicide Squad then why is he doing random crimes that needs Dick to stop him?
Catwoman isn't mentioned in this story but it's obvious that Bruce is hurting and dealing with rage. I guess this story deals with Mr. Freeze being in the wrong place at the wrong time as a heartbroken Bruce beat him within an inch of his life. The question of course is if Mr. Freeze didn't kill the women, who did?
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