Batman (1990) # 447

 By Mark Rodriguez

Batman had been called to Moscow to deal with the KGBeast's protege, the NVKDemon. The Demon plans to kill ten people on his list, people he believes are making the Soviet Union weak. After several attempts to find and stop him, Batman and the Demon fought atop a high platform where an international dinner was taking place. Batman is sent falling off the platform. What will happen next?

"Earth Day! Demon Night!" opens as Batman, dazed and wounded, is falling off the platform. Batman grabs the tips of his cape with both hands and uses it to catch onto one of the many flagpoles decorating the building. Batman tells detective Nikita that he's alright and he pulls himself up onto the flagpole. 

 

Security try to get the special guests, Andronikov and Pyotr out of there. The Demon shows up and guns everyone down while monologuing about making the country strong again. He aims his gun at the fallen Pyotr who is head of internal security. He blames him for 'failing to protect the country from the traitors within'. He pulls the trigger and kills Pyotr. 

Batman and the others head towards the room where Andronikov and Pyotr were taken to be kept safe from the Demon. They find everybody dead. Batman says the Demon swore to kill ten people, and one of the policemen says there are three more deaths to come. Batman says the Demon's killing spree is over and he storms off.

 

Later on, Nikita wants to meet Batman in a private place, away from potentially bugged walls. Nikita tells Batman that 'those in charge' aren't too happy with his presence there. Batman says he's used to that. Nikita says they are freer than they've ever been, but this is not America. His superiors don't like what they can't control. Batman asks if he's expected to leave. Nikita says Batman just needs to be more discreet and maybe more cooperative.

They discuss the Demon's plans. Batman says the Demon talks as if he's moving a grand gesture, something that will plunge the world back into another cold war. Nikita says he can guess. Since the KGBeast tried to kill the US President, so The Demon might try to kill the Premiere, Gorbachev. He wonders what he could do to cause such enmity between the people. 

Batman climbs through the hotel window just in time as Vicki Vale shows up, ready for their date. Bruce answers the door, looking like a mess, saying he's usually out of it if he misses his afternoon nap. Bruce takes a quick shower and takes Vicki out on their promised date.

Meanwhile, the Demon is at his hideout. He says Batman failed to trick him by disguising himself as Pyotr, and he managed killing the real one. He says the last three will die on schedule, with the final one being the Premiere himself. The Demon follows Lenin's ideas and blames Gorbachev for the current state of the country. 

Later on at the Bolshoi Theatre, which was founded on the same year as the American Revolution, will now house a different revolution. The Demon is disguised as one of the jesters in the play, and suddenly pulls a gun and kills his target who was sitting in those fancy box seats. The Demon says he only has two left to go.

Meanwhile, Nikita and his men set the Minister of Agriculture, Kropotkin up in a hotel to be safe. His support for the Premiere had made him a target for the Demon. Once Kropotkin is secure, Nikita and his men head off, when the hotel suddenly explodes.

Bruce and Vicki stroll through the park, discussing their stay in Russia and Vicki's photo essay. Vicki is excited about the next say, which will be a Sunday. Bruce asks what that is and Vicki is surprised at how he doesn't keep up with the news. Vicki says Sunday is Lenin's birthday which is ironic considering how much the Soviet Union is changing. Lenin started the process to separate the countries, but they can't be separated. Vicki says whatever America does affects Russia and vice versa and now everyone is slowly destroying the world. We're all destroying the environment and the ozone layer and we have to be one planet again to stop it. Bruce continues to enjoy his snack. Meanwhile, the Demon is swimming underwater where he plants a bomb.

Vicki tells Bruce that on Lenin's birthday, everyone will get together as they celebrate Earth Day. This is why Vicki worked on the photo essay, to capture Russia as it rejoins the world. Bruce suddenly realizes how Lenin's birthday hits on Earth Day and says he should have noticed earlier. He runs off. Vicki is angry at how he just ran off and says he's dead meat the next time she sees him in Gotham.

 

Nikita is having dinner with his wife who tells him that Aleksey and Sofya are coming over and Sofya might be pregnant. Nikita says it's about time and they should have had two kids by now. Nikita's wife, Tanya, tells him that the youth don't rush to have kids these days and want to enjoy each other first. Nikita says he'll go for a walk and enjoy a cigar. 

Once outside, the detective runs into Batman. He tells him that two died and only the Premier is left. Batman says he now knows where and when but not the how. Nikita says they'll do with that they know and prepare for what they don't.

The speech begins as they announce that it is almost midnight in Russia while it is about to be four in the afternoon in Washington DC. Despite the danger, Gorbachev insists on making an appearance. Maybe he should have brought comrade Zangief along. 

Nikita radios Batman and informs him that Gorbachev will be there. Batman can't sit there and wait and surveys the area. Meanwhile the underwater bomb is ticking. As the speech continues, the Premiere's limo arrives. Batman says the Demon has got to be out there somewhere.

Batman says he can't stop an assassin that's willing to die as long as he makes his kill. The Demon is a professional killer who will want to be close enough to ensure his success. Batman figures he must be in the crowd and planning to make his move on midnight when Gorbachev will make his speech. Meanwhile the bomb has 7 seconds left to blow.

As Gorbachev starts his speech, the bomb goes off which causes a series of fountains to rain red water. A man pulls out a gun and says the red water represents blood as he will kill the final architect of Glasnost. He aims his gun at the Premiere and Batman quickly tosses his Batarang at his hand so he would miss. Batman flips and lands on the man's back.

Batman punches the man in the face, and he takes off his disguise to reveal himself as the Demon. The demon pulls out a blade and says Batman was wounded in the chest twice and the third time will be fatal. Batman misses the attack this time. Nikita tells his men not to fire until the Batman is clear. Batman grabs the Demon's hand and slams it onto his knee, breaking it. The Demon punches Batman with his other hand. This re-opens that chest wound.

Batman falls back, landing near the knife the Demon dropped during the scuffle. The Demon is ready to shoot, but Batman grabs the blade and knocks the gun out of his hand. Batman grabs the gun and the Demon challenges him to kill him since he still intends to kill the Premiere. The Demon sees Batman hesitate and says he can't kill. He pulls out a grenade and is about to pull the pin off with his teeth when suddenly gun shots are heard.

The grenade in the Demon's hand goes off and he falls over, a charred husk. Nikita tells Batman that he thoroughly researched him. If Batman shot him it would be murder, but the police are authorized. He tells Batman to run off before the others come and try to stop him for questioning. He will create answers for both of them. Nikita waves as the Dark Knight runs off into the night.

The next morning, Bruce says he could barely sleep with all the noise that happened the previous night. Anna says it will take weeks to clean the river, but it will be clear again. Bruce tells Anna he called his people back home and says they'll get a contract for the third building she showed him during the trip. He put a good word for her with their consulate about her patience and goodwill. He told them that she was responsible for making his trip a fruitful one and she might be up for a promotion. He tells her to take care and drives off. As Anna waves goodbye, detective Nikita watches on and smiles. 

My Thoughts-

I haven't read this story since the first time I read it in the 90's, so while I remember some things like the 'knows every street corner, every sewer tunnel' from the first part, and the soccer/hockey game from the second part, I forgot everything about this part. I forgot that Gorbachev was his ultimate target and I forgot exactly how the Demon was defeated, other than the part where Batman broke his hand. I guess he was shot several times and then the grenade blew up in his hand... and somehow the explosion wasn't big enough to affect Batman and the cops since they were standing a few feet away from him.

Among the things I have forgotten, was the deep environmental message, especially since the comic was released around Earth Day 1990. I remember all the warnings about the ozone layer and such, and who could forget Captain Planet. It seems the messages did work since the by now in 2026 the ozone layer did stabilize and is indeed on the path of healing. Wendy tells me this is probably due to people not using all that hairspray for their 80's and early 90's hairstyles anymore. 

The letter column finally gets into one of the comics I recently purchased, which was issue 443, the first part of the Crimesmith story. It was nice to get the full context of what they were talking about since I finally own issue 443, even if it was decades later. Like I mentioned a few times, the first Batman comic I ever bought as a kid was issue 444, and that was at a pharmacy that had a comic and magazine section. This was way before I heard that actual comic shops existed, let alone the concept of asking a comic shop owner to back-order issue 443 to get the full story. As far as I knew as a kid new to comics was, you get 'em then they show up at the magazine rack of your local grocery store, and if you missed 'em, you missed 'em. 

For the most part, readers are happy to see Tim take his time and do his training in the background, rather than already suiting up as Robin and jumping into the field right away. Everyone seems to like Tim and liked the fact that despite Jason was killed off, the concept of Robin was still alive.

One reader had a suspicion on who the Crimesmith might be... and they also asked to not make the Crimesmith a one-time villain. Um... about that...

When it comes to this issue, I remember future letter columns would complain about Bruce being dumb enough to walk around bare-chested in front of Vicki after he's had several chest wounds. There was zero reaction from Vicki where she should have been asking what happened to him. I remember the editors saying that Bruce's back was to the readers so we never saw how his chest looked, but I mean.... chest wound and all that. 

Speaking of Vicki Vale, I had forgotten she was in this story. Not this issue, but the overall story. Back then I thought she was made up for the movie, so as a kid I was surprised to see her in the actual comics. It is funny seeing her go off and lecture Bruce while he just calmly eats his snack like '.... ok...' 

 

As for the NVKDemon, he was almost a one-shot villain until he returned alongside his master the KGBeast and other villains in a 2015 11-issue series called 'Aquaman and the Others'. Apparently those two had other plans that had nothing to do with getting revenge on Batman. The KGBeast had made more appearances over the years, so I guess the writer for that series thought back and said 'hey, didn't he have a protege back in the 90's? Let's bring him in too!'.

Overall it was a fun ride as Batman faced an extremely dangerous, skilled and tricky opponent. Batman was clearly outmatched against the Demon all throughout the story and in the end, Nikita's men did him in. Batman did remind us that the goal was mostly to take the Demon down by any means necessary and not to prove that he could take him down in a one on one fight. 

I was surprised to see Batman take the Demon's gun and actually point it at him, rather than just throw it away. I'm not sure if the Animated Series exaggerated his aversion towards guns, but in the cartoon the only time he was forced to hold up a gun, it was enough to make him retire.

Overall a fun walk through memory lane. The Penguin will be coming up next and his story will cross into both Batman and Detective comics!