By Mark Rodriguez
'The Nightmare' opens with the Mayor understandably upset that his daughter was kidnapped by who he thinks is Batman. He tells Gordon that he has 5 days for his Vigilantee Task Force to catch him or he's off the force for good. Gordon knows in his heart that Batman is innocent, but he has no choice but to order Cort to bring in Batman by any means necessary. Cort says he figured that was the point of the task force to begin with. Cort tells his men that the latest word on Batman is to find him and this time... to shoot to kill.
Meanwhile Bruce is having nightmares about that infamous night when his family was gunned down when he was only a child.
Dr. Strange has become obsessed with Batman and has hypnotized Max Cort into being a vigilante named Night Scourge. As Scourge he runs into both Catwoman and Batman and manages to get away. This time Hugo hypnotizes him into dressing up as Batman himself, sending him to kidnap the Mayor's daughter and telling the Mayor that 'Gotham is his'. While this is happening, the real Batman is still out cold, having been knocked out by Catwoman.
It's been a while so here are the links to the first 3 parts
Catherine is tied to a bedpost in her underwear as Hugo Strange reveals himself to be the fake Batman that kidnapped her. He asks her what she thinks about him now. Catherine says he is no psychiatrist and is completely insane. Strange slaps her and tells her she's just like all the other women, no man is good enough for them unless it's Batman. Still in the costume, Strange sits next to his mannequin and downs a bottle of booze, telling her that Batman is about to fall.
Batman wakes up to see the cops shooting at him and he is quick to get away as he realizes they intend to kill him. As he leaps off the rooftop, he wonders if Gordon knows about this. He gets the feeling that something major must have happened while he was knocked out but he has no idea what. Batman lands close enough to a cop to quickly distract him and take him down. He judo throws the cop into a nearby trashcan.
More cops show up and open fire as Batman runs up the fire escape of a nearby building. He wonders how he's supposed to catch the Night Scourge like this. One of the cops calls Batman a kidnapper which he takes note of. Batman lands on the other side of the building and runs behind a car. A cop sees him and runs towards the car, thinking he's gonna be the lucky one to take down the Bat.
Batman quickly takes him out instead and then goes to hide in the sewers.
The police arrive at the scene and are confused as to how Batman just vanished. They were surprised he seemed out cold when they first found him but he still managed to get away. One of the cops thinks Batman must have escaped through the sewers, but they weren't about to follow him down there. Batman re-emerges three blocks away and overhears from some teen's radio that 'Batman has kidnapped the Mayor's daughter'. Batman decides it's time to pay Hugo Strange a visit.
Strange continues to monologue until he detects the smell of a Batman who's been running three blocks in the sewers. Batman figures out that Strange is behind Night Scourge and wants to know where he's holding Catherine. Hugo asks about the smell and Batman tells him he had to get through the sewers to get to him. Hugo angrily swings a bat at his mannequin, knocking her head off, telling it to stop laughing at him. Batman catches her head but it lets loose some sort of gas in his face.
Hugo explains he's been expecting Batman and he filled the mannequin's head with a powerful hallucinogen that can be used to break emotional barriers. As Batman is suffering the effects, Hugo bashes his head with his bat. He then goes for another swing, this time sending Batman flying out the window. As Batman falls he yells out for his parents, which Hugo overhears. As Batman falls he tries to throw a Batarang with rope to break his fall, but he still lands flat on his back.
Strange calls Cort and asks him to get police files on all double murders, husband and wife going back twenty years.
Batman re-lives his nightmare of the night his parents were gunned down in Crime Alley. Batman hallucinates that the man with the gun is now after him. In reality an armed police officer is aiming his gun at him. Batman sees himself surrounded by guns and he finds himself falling into water.
Elsewhere some robbers are killed by Night Scourge's sword. Cort is convinced he's better than Batman.
Gordon sees Cort asleep at his office and he's wondering why he's been so tired lately. He sees some papers in his hands and sees they're the files he's been withholding from Strange. There's a phone number written on top of the paperwork, and when Gordon calls it, he finds out it's Dr. Strange. Gordon is concerned since Cort is working with Strange and they both know he's been holding information back to protect Batman.
Batman is meanwhile floating in the river and comes across some rocks.
Hugo Strange calls Cort and says the last list he got was what he needed. He and Catherine spent half the night making tape recordings, and he considers Batman as good as broken. Cort says he isn't making sense and Hugo angrily tells him to go back to sleep and throws the phone near Catherine, who is still tied to the bedpost. Hugo tells Catherine she was very convincing in the recordings, though he's sure his bat helped a lot.
Batman wakes up at the docks and some men come after him with weapons.
As the news blares over the radio about the alleged kidnapping, Catwoman is working out and overhears it. She knows Batman didn't do it and comments that he's dark but not that dark.
Batman somehow got away from the men and is downright exhausted and hung over from the drug wearing off. He notes his outfit doesn't work as well in the daylight. Those men were not afraid of him and just saw him as a weakened man. There was no fear or power in the daylight. Batman returns home where he can finally rest, but he can't find Alfred.
He suddenly finds Alfred knocked out on the floor. Someone was in the manor.
Suddenly Bruce hears voices and downstairs he can see his parents. His father blames him, saying if he didn't want to go to the movies that night, they'd still be alive. His parents talk about the pain of being dead and how he can never hide from the guilt. Batman grabs his 'father' and asks who is he.
Bruce angrily punches his parents and they turn out to be mannequins with tape recordings, continuing to blame him for their deaths. Alfred holds him back telling him they're fake but Bruce punches him and yells at him to leave him alone. Bruce desperately runs to the Bat Cave, the only place where he can feel safe and sane as his parents' voices continue to torment him. Bruce falls down the stairs and passes out on the Bat Cave floor, losing himself to the darkness.
My Opinions-
My god, is Batman really put through the ringer this time, both in body and mind. I mean he already had a few fights the issue before, ending with Catwoman clobbering him with a steel pipe. Then he wakes up with cops shooting at him and finds out people think he kidnapped the Mayor's daughter. Strange gasses him with drugs and bashes him with a bat with a few times. If this was real life, Bruce's brain would have been mush after all these concussions he received in the last 24 hours.
The comic was kinda cheap by distracting us with an alluring pic of Catwoman to distract us by just how Batman got away from the punks that found him near the docks. The very thought that Batman had to resort to walking back to his own house is pretty insane, especially in broad daylight. He must have been lucky no one decided (or dared) to follow him if they happened to see Batman walking off somewhere.
Speaking of Catwoman, it's kinda funny how she's just 'there' in the story, not really the focus, but just so happens to have started her criminal career around the time Bats was running around.
Hugo Strange is going off the rails and holy crap, not only did he discover Batman's secret identity, but he forced Catherine to impersonate Bruce's mother for the recordings. I don't know how they would even know what Bruce's parents' voices would sound like but I guess they were close enough to do the job.
Strange's bizzare obsession with Batman is just something else, as is his obsession for validation from not only Catherine but his mannequin as well. I'm assuming the 'stop laughing at me' thing is based on him getting laughed at while he was still earning his doctorate based on his crazy methods.
This is Batman at his darkest, lost to his own despair. Since this takes place when he was just starting out, the memory is fresher in his mind now than it would have been 20 or so years later (assuming Batman is in his 30's in current day). We'll see where all this leads as we're up on the final chapter.
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