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The New 52- Arkham War # 5

By Mark Rodriguez

The Crime Syndicate has arrived and killed the Justice League and now the world belongs to the villains of the DC Universe. While Lex Luthor tries to gather some of the villains that don't want to see their world destroyed, like Black Manta and Captain Cold, to stop the Syndicate... there is a war brewing in Gotham over control as the Scarecrow and his men have captured several Talons and plan to use them to take over. Bane has come and has not taken the persona of Batman, and has one of the Talons, William Cobb, as his personal sidekick. As Bat-Bane and Cobb try to get the other Talons, Scarecrow and his gang have revived the Talons and want to send them after Bane.


The story opens with Gordon and Agatha rescuing people from the Bane Tower. They worked out a deal with the Penguin to get these captives away from Bane.

Meanwhile, the Talons are out on the loose and are killing all of Bane's men. Bane starts fighting the Talons, even when Cobb warns him that they will never stop coming. Bane declares that this was a battle worth waiting for as he starts taking down the Talons. One of the Talons attacks Bane and but the mercenary grabs him and bashes his head into a fire hydrant. He then drowns him in the water splashing out. Cobb alerts him by radio that their vehicle is ready.


Cobb arrives on horseback, with a horse to spare. As Bat-Bane and Cobb get away, Bane's horse is hit by arrows and he is soon knocked off it. As the Talons approach him, Bane says he was anxious to meet them. They fight it out but Bane is soon overpowered. Cobb then appears on the rooftops hanging on to a helicopter blade. He swoops down using the blade as a hang glider and takes all the Talons down. Bane commends him for a plan well executed.

Cobb says that after taking all this damage, the Talons should regenerate, only this time with enough strength to fight off the mind control they were under. Bane pulls the arrows out himself and Cobb says he need medical attention. Bane says he stands alone. They will return to Blackgate to plan for their victory.

Meanwhile, Scarecrow is worried since none of the Talons he sent out have returned, and none of the Man-Bats have come back with information on Bane's death. Eventually the Arkham crazies will just turn against each other and tear themselves apart. Scarecrow ponders his incoming failure, but says he has a back up plan as he spills chemicals on a metallic glove he has stored away.


Scarecrow mentions he was wearing that same glove during his fight with Bane at the Blackgate loading docks and managed to cut him and get a sample of his venom. He has all of Arkham's crazies assembled and wishes a toast to the defeat of Bane. However, not even these psychos are crazy enough to drink Bane's Venom and refuse to drink the wine. Mr. Freeze says he doesn't want to lose his brilliance in exchange for muscle, and Poison Ivy says someone else should be in charge. Clayface says they want to beat Bane, not become him. Scarecrow says he didn't taint the wine he served them.. instead he treated the air they were breathing in the room before he let his guests in. Now all of them, Scarecrow included, are insane with the effects of the Venom and are ready to kill Bane.

My Opinions-

This was a pretty action-packed issue, mostly Bat-Bane taking on the Talons. But wow, it didn't take long for Bane to take control over the Talons away from the Scarecrow. He really is an unstoppable force, and much like the Dark Knight Rises movie, Bane is the man with the plan, but also has the muscle to carry it out. And he has a bunch of mercenaries loyal enough to die for his cause.

We only got to see the other Arkham crazier in the last pages and I love how they still have Professor Pyg chained up in that Hannibal Lecture style psycho-dolly thing. Even they don't trust him, LOL. The Scarecrow is getting ever so desperate here, turning these insane killers into even more insane and powerful killers thanks to the Venom. I assume Scarecrow took some sort of precaution to prevent himself from going completely insane so he could be able to lead his troops into battle. I

 Now that I think about it, this is similar to the Dark Knight's first story in the New 52, where Bane and the White Rabbit were venom-juicing all the Arkham crazies and they were loose all over the city. Only difference is this time Scarecrow is leading the charge against Bane, trying to kill him with his own venom.

... really don't see how any of these guys could do any better against Bane than the Talons could. But I guess we'll see.

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