By Mark Rodriguez
Both Detective # 8 and The Dark Knight # 8 suffered from the same problem. They were both supposed to be 2-part stories but were suddenly cut down to one-shot stories due to all the #9's to all Batman related titles having to crossover with the events of The Night of Owls. I guess the different teams working on the different Bat-books don't keep enough tabs on each other... but I can't say much since I have no idea how working at a comic company with tons of people and different teams on different books would work. Let's see what happens as it seems the Scarecrow is up to his old tricks.
‘Scare Tactics’ opens as we Catwoman falling through a window. Apparently she was hired by someone to steal some hazardous materials, but she is now under the effects of the Scarecrow’s fear toxin. She sees a monsterous form of Poison Ivy attack her… which is really Batman giving her the antidote.
We backtrack a little and find out that Batman is in a race against time. He has an hour to follow the Scarecrow’s demands or his hostage will suffer. His 3 demands were to find Catwoman, find out who hired her, and find them. Catwoman was sent to bring anti-fear capsules that the police made after Batman’s face-off with the Scarecrow on Harmon Island during the Dark Knight story. The deal is to find them before they run into the wrong hands.
Catwoman wakes up and Batman demands to know who hired her. Catwoman gave the name Digger Jones and Bats went off to find him. Batman finds him at a printing shop running an underground dog-fighting arena. He grabs him and demands to know where he had Catwoman take those anti-fear capsules. He won’t talk, so Bats drags him in front of his dogs and pulls out a porterhouse steak, dripping its juices all over him.
Jones tells him to go to the old private school at the end of Dearborn Street. Scarecrow tells Batman he did a good job, but Bats now knows he’s watching him. He quickly swings out into the night and finds the Scarecrow.
The Scarecrow says there is no hostage but a victim. Batman tells Scarecrow that he is just upset that someone stole his chemicals. The Scarecrow says it would win-win for Batman, since he gets to save someone AND destroy his enemies. Batman says that if Scarecrow is free to terrorize Gotham, it’s still a lose-lose situation, and takes him down. Scarecrow does give him a picture of the kid in danger and Batman heads off to save him, leaving the villain tied up.
At the private school, Batman finds a lot of Scarecrow impostors. He uses stealth to take them down as he heads deeper into this operation. Inside we see Eli Strange running the place. He gets a call from Hugo Strange, telling them to drop everything and run since the cops are on their way.
Batman then busts in and takes everyone down. He grabs the main guy by the neck and threatens to ‘snap his neck the way he snapped his wrist’ if he doesn’t tell him where the kid is. Batman then realizes that the kid in the photo, is the same guy he’s holding now.
As he’s taken away, we find out he’s Elliot Strange, the supposed son of Professor Hugo Strange. He was meant to use the new fear toxin all over Gotham City… but Batman took him down and ended it all.
My Opinions
It's an interesting... though rushed story. You kinda can't just say 'oh that kid is the son of Hugo Strange' and end it there. Eli got a bit of an intro in an earlier issue in a back up story and he was seen working alongside Catwoman. It would assume this how she ended up getting gassed by Scarecrow after he went after Eli.
I am very curious what would have been if this story had more time to be fleshed out. Would Batman and Catwoman have teamed up to take down Scarecrow together? One thing for sure, I'm pretty sure we would have learned more about Eli and what reason he had to be hanging with Catwoman, and possibly more insight on what Hugo is up to behind the scenes. I don't really recall if Eli came back at a later time and did... anything. Oh well. Next issue it's on to the owls!
Where did Batman get that porterhouse steak?
Both Detective # 8 and The Dark Knight # 8 suffered from the same problem. They were both supposed to be 2-part stories but were suddenly cut down to one-shot stories due to all the #9's to all Batman related titles having to crossover with the events of The Night of Owls. I guess the different teams working on the different Bat-books don't keep enough tabs on each other... but I can't say much since I have no idea how working at a comic company with tons of people and different teams on different books would work. Let's see what happens as it seems the Scarecrow is up to his old tricks.
‘Scare Tactics’ opens as we Catwoman falling through a window. Apparently she was hired by someone to steal some hazardous materials, but she is now under the effects of the Scarecrow’s fear toxin. She sees a monsterous form of Poison Ivy attack her… which is really Batman giving her the antidote.
 |
| It's weird how Catwoman's fears would involve Poison Ivy. It reminds me of their little quarrel in the Arkham City game |
Catwoman wakes up and Batman demands to know who hired her. Catwoman gave the name Digger Jones and Bats went off to find him. Batman finds him at a printing shop running an underground dog-fighting arena. He grabs him and demands to know where he had Catwoman take those anti-fear capsules. He won’t talk, so Bats drags him in front of his dogs and pulls out a porterhouse steak, dripping its juices all over him.
 |
| Cause we all know Batman carries a porterhouse steak in his utility belt, right? |
The Scarecrow says there is no hostage but a victim. Batman tells Scarecrow that he is just upset that someone stole his chemicals. The Scarecrow says it would win-win for Batman, since he gets to save someone AND destroy his enemies. Batman says that if Scarecrow is free to terrorize Gotham, it’s still a lose-lose situation, and takes him down. Scarecrow does give him a picture of the kid in danger and Batman heads off to save him, leaving the villain tied up.
At the private school, Batman finds a lot of Scarecrow impostors. He uses stealth to take them down as he heads deeper into this operation. Inside we see Eli Strange running the place. He gets a call from Hugo Strange, telling them to drop everything and run since the cops are on their way.
Batman then busts in and takes everyone down. He grabs the main guy by the neck and threatens to ‘snap his neck the way he snapped his wrist’ if he doesn’t tell him where the kid is. Batman then realizes that the kid in the photo, is the same guy he’s holding now.
As he’s taken away, we find out he’s Elliot Strange, the supposed son of Professor Hugo Strange. He was meant to use the new fear toxin all over Gotham City… but Batman took him down and ended it all.
My Opinions
It's an interesting... though rushed story. You kinda can't just say 'oh that kid is the son of Hugo Strange' and end it there. Eli got a bit of an intro in an earlier issue in a back up story and he was seen working alongside Catwoman. It would assume this how she ended up getting gassed by Scarecrow after he went after Eli.
 |
| We'll be seeing more of Catwoman (hopefully in better shape) when she also gets involved in the Night of the Owls |
I am very curious what would have been if this story had more time to be fleshed out. Would Batman and Catwoman have teamed up to take down Scarecrow together? One thing for sure, I'm pretty sure we would have learned more about Eli and what reason he had to be hanging with Catwoman, and possibly more insight on what Hugo is up to behind the scenes. I don't really recall if Eli came back at a later time and did... anything. Oh well. Next issue it's on to the owls!
Where did Batman get that porterhouse steak?
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