By Mark Rodriguez
This comic, similar to Detective # 8 was supposed to be a 2-part story but it was rushed into being a one-shot so all Issues 9s would be part of the Night of the Owls. Interestingly enough, this was supposed to also feature the White Rabbit, and possibly continue her story. However, despite being on the cover she didn't make the final cut. Let's check it out.
‘The Madness’ opens with Batman and Commissioner Gordon investigating a train full of dead people. The people actually went mad and killed themselves for some reason. At the BatCave, Batman studies the tunnels around that train station and decides to check it out.
Meanwhile, Gordon is chewed out by Forbes AGAIN, but now has the authority from the mayor to make the Commish see a shrink. It seems all this jerk does is yell and whatnot and never does any actual field work… which is what Gordon always brings up.
This comic, similar to Detective # 8 was supposed to be a 2-part story but it was rushed into being a one-shot so all Issues 9s would be part of the Night of the Owls. Interestingly enough, this was supposed to also feature the White Rabbit, and possibly continue her story. However, despite being on the cover she didn't make the final cut. Let's check it out.
‘The Madness’ opens with Batman and Commissioner Gordon investigating a train full of dead people. The people actually went mad and killed themselves for some reason. At the BatCave, Batman studies the tunnels around that train station and decides to check it out.
Batman investigates the tunnels and runs into Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum, two villains based on the Alice in Wonderland characters. They’re some of the less common Batman villains, so it’s interesting to see them again. However, this time they seem full of violent rage.
They take Batman down and run away. Batman wonders what they’re even doing there, and Alfred says some of the Arkham inmates must still be loose after Bane’s big plan from the previous story arc.
They take Batman down and run away. Batman wonders what they’re even doing there, and Alfred says some of the Arkham inmates must still be loose after Bane’s big plan from the previous story arc.
Batman says the people in the train killed themselves, and were not killed by these two. They’re under some kind of mind control and follows them. On the TV a senator announces his run for candidacy… and suddenly pulls a gun and blows his brains out.
Gordon is seeing a shrink as ordered, and lays out a bit of the baggage he’s been dealing with in the last few years. He also brings up his wife that suddenly returned into his life, as seen in the current Batgirl comics.
Meanwhile, Alfred tells Batman that all over town there are reports of people killing themselves and other sick things. Batman got a signal to follow the Tweedle cousins to see where they lead him to. He tells Alfred to send the signals to Gordon. The trail leads Batman to the Mad Hatter. It seems he was using the cousins to build a huge antenna to broadcast the mind control signal throughout the city. The device is activated and it affects Batman as the Tweedles start to attack him.
Mad Hatter prepares to shoot Batman with a speargun but Gordon and his men arrive in a nearby chopper. Batman is able to fight off the effects of the signal due to sound dampeners in his cowl, and tosses the Tweedles into each other. The antenna is destroyed and Gordon yells for the Mad Hatter to give up or they will END him. The Mad Hatter tries to shoot the spear at the helicopter but Batman tackles him down. It’s over for now and Batman and Gordon acknowledge each other as being ok… or as ok as one can be when living in Gotham.
My Opinions
Again, I added this story because it was supposed to have the White Rabbit in it. She wasn’t even removed from the cover. It leaves me curious. Would they have explained more about her? Is the Mad Hatter somehow responsible for her origins? And how perfect could it have been to have all the Alice in Wonderland villains in one story? I assume her being in the story would have complicated things to make it all fit into a one-shot, especially if we saw more scenes between Jaina and Bruce. I do wonder what happens next. The next issue will deal with the Night of Owls and will actually have Red Robin taking center stage. But will we see more of the White Rabbit afterwards? Will Batman ever catch her?
As for the story in itself, it was pretty interesting for what it was. I think it was the first comic I ever read with the Mad Hatter in it, who I know more from The Animated Series. But man, he was truly insane and murderous in this story, and the cops were willing to just mow him down. I would have drop the comic in disbelief had that happened, and I don't mean cancel it from my pull box at good ol' Velvet Underground at the time, I mean literally dropping the book to the floor in shock. I like how the story has leftover madness from the last story. I still wonder how Jaina would have fit in all this.
Meanwhile, Alfred tells Batman that all over town there are reports of people killing themselves and other sick things. Batman got a signal to follow the Tweedle cousins to see where they lead him to. He tells Alfred to send the signals to Gordon. The trail leads Batman to the Mad Hatter. It seems he was using the cousins to build a huge antenna to broadcast the mind control signal throughout the city. The device is activated and it affects Batman as the Tweedles start to attack him.
Mad Hatter prepares to shoot Batman with a speargun but Gordon and his men arrive in a nearby chopper. Batman is able to fight off the effects of the signal due to sound dampeners in his cowl, and tosses the Tweedles into each other. The antenna is destroyed and Gordon yells for the Mad Hatter to give up or they will END him. The Mad Hatter tries to shoot the spear at the helicopter but Batman tackles him down. It’s over for now and Batman and Gordon acknowledge each other as being ok… or as ok as one can be when living in Gotham.
My Opinions
Again, I added this story because it was supposed to have the White Rabbit in it. She wasn’t even removed from the cover. It leaves me curious. Would they have explained more about her? Is the Mad Hatter somehow responsible for her origins? And how perfect could it have been to have all the Alice in Wonderland villains in one story? I assume her being in the story would have complicated things to make it all fit into a one-shot, especially if we saw more scenes between Jaina and Bruce. I do wonder what happens next. The next issue will deal with the Night of Owls and will actually have Red Robin taking center stage. But will we see more of the White Rabbit afterwards? Will Batman ever catch her?
As for the story in itself, it was pretty interesting for what it was. I think it was the first comic I ever read with the Mad Hatter in it, who I know more from The Animated Series. But man, he was truly insane and murderous in this story, and the cops were willing to just mow him down. I would have drop the comic in disbelief had that happened, and I don't mean cancel it from my pull box at good ol' Velvet Underground at the time, I mean literally dropping the book to the floor in shock. I like how the story has leftover madness from the last story. I still wonder how Jaina would have fit in all this.
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