Batman: Night Cries

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Two-Face. Harvey Dent's bout with his "evil" side of himself holds many classic struggles of one's internal thoughts. Not only is he unpredictable, well organized, and wily, but he's also shown to be adept and highly dangerous. From his obsession with the number two (.22 caliber guns, second place trophies, the 2nd National Banks, etc.) judging people's fate by a flip of his scarred sided coin, to being a creepy Stalker with a Crush with Renee Montoya. Everybody knows of his horrific mangled left-sided face. But when you delve deep into his character and history, one can understand and summarize on what drove him to become on who or what he is. All because of one instance during court by a certain thug Salvatore Maroni testifying during the infamous "Holiday" murders. All of the possible origin stories for the Joker told by the insane patients were a bit unsettling. There have been a number of very violent murders in Gotham--whole families killed. At first, Batman suspects that it is related to a new drug, but as he continues to investigate, the facts don't line up. It appears that, in each case, the adults had committed some crime against children. Batman revises his theory: there is a new serial killer in Gotham, a serial killer motivated by the need for revenge against child abusers. As Commissioner Gordon and Batman seek out the killer, each must deal with his own demons. Batman remembers the night his parents were killed, and must reconcile his own actions, in many ways so like those of the serial killer. Jim is troubled by memories of his own abusive father, and is horrified to see that he may be starting down that road, himself. The Flamingo. He's a sadistic assassin with a penchant for eating the faces of his victims. While wearing hot pink clothing and driving a flamboyant pink motorcycle would make most villains much less intimidating, the way Flamingo does it creates a disturbing contrast with his depravity, making it even worse.

The main problem with The Dark Knight Strikes Again is that it doesn't live up to the expectations set by its predecessor. It tries to replicate its emotionally charged formula, but it comes across almost as a parody of Miller's hard-boiled writing style. It was executed so carelessly that the fandom prefers to ignore it. There are also dark mirrors of Bruce Wayne as well to add more to the fuel. Thomas Elliot a.k.a Hush is the perfect closest to a doppelganger to Bruce. The irony that these two share when they were once childhood friends to one another's families and to each other. At the same time, both suffered the losses of their mothers and fathers. The only slight difference? Bruce lost his family through heart-wrenching tragedy. Thomas on the other hand lost him through his means. He sought personal independence due to the many years of abuse from his father and frail mother and wanted to obtain his inheritance sooner. He cut his parent's tire breaks on their car and manages to kill his father, yet his mother was saved by the exceptional operational skill of Dr. Thomas Wayne fueling his hate for the Waynes. Years later he finished what he started by suffocating his mother in cold blood with a pillow, all as the world thought that it was just a simple household accident. He murdered them just to obtain the family fortune. And he resents Bruce because he obtained his true loss BEFORE his own family's demise. Hush's sole purpose in life is to destroy both the Batman and Bruce Wayne and will stop at nothing to accomplish his goals.

Going Sane". This little four-part story arc humanizes The Joker far better than The Killing Joke ever did. The finale is especially sad: it features the Joker's inevitable return to madness and Rebecca hoping in vain for the return of her "missing" fiance, "Joseph Kerr". The Dollotrons themselves are deeply disturbing, being regular people who have unwillingly undergone a process of creation that is not entirely revealed but is implied to involve brain surgery, genital mutilation, and mind-altering drugs. They are also given a fleshy doll-like mask that is permanently attached to the victim's face. As the sample spread shows, Hampton has a great eye for a spectacular image, here toying with Batman’s gothic sensibilities, but his art isn’t entirely successful. He works in dark tones to accentuate the topic, but in the early scenes that works against clarity when illustrating conversation scenes, which can disappear into the murk. In these scenes the painting often also works as a finely composed individual image, but doesn’t always hang together as part of a story sequence. This isn’t helped by a stylistic device of large gaps between some panels, which may be intended to emphasise a point, but slow the story down. And now Snyder's added the Joker to his run. And thus we're greeted with a terrifying, horrifying image of Joker ◊ holding his cut-off face, as it was cut off at the beginning of the New 52 reboot of Detective Comics, teasing his return. And the storyline title? it's called "Death of the Family". That's right, somebody close to Batman will die again.

What do you get when Batman is overwhelmed by the Joker's personality? The Batman Who Laughs, a nightmarish ghoul who is essentially the DC Universe's version of Judge Death. Batman himself is this to criminals. Even those who don't fear Superman are generally terrified of Batman. Batman is one of DC Comics' most popular superheroes and some of DC's best comics revolve around him. However, nothing is perfect. 84 years after his debut, even the Cape Crusader has starred in storylines that his fans don't want to re-read ever again.A brief Supergirl-Robin team-up reveals that on the one hand, Gotham's supervillains are completely out of Supergirl's league... on the other hand, Gotham's supervillains tend towards way more depraved than she's used to. Damian's death and the resulting fallout in the Bat-Family. Batman & Robin in particular has an arc with Bruce going through the five stages of grief, where he further alienates and hurts his allies, still bearing wounds from Death of the Family. Night Cries": While investigating drug pushers, Batman and Commissioner James Gordon notice a common trend in a series of murders involving child abuse, and the death of the children's parents. Kathy...? I'm sorry. I don't want to frighten you. I did once when you saw me through the window at your home. I know I look scary and there have been too many scary things in your life. So I want you to see – I'm just a man, a man who's trying to help. — Batman (removing his mask while speaking to an abused girl)

The overall theme in the title posses a sinister but, also, realistic approach to the crimes committed by the newest “vigilante”, and once the mystery is solved- this involves one of the most heartfelt moments in a Batman comic, relating a little girl that cannot speak because of her past trauma-, one can’t really come to the conclusion of whether or not it was right for the killers to do as they did, considering the victims were all directly attached to a potential drug-war that was about to burst, all criminals that also happened to be child-abusers. That ends up conflicting both, Gordon and Batman, but it is with Gordon where we feel the weight of the case. In fact, I’ll even dare to say Goodwin’s protagonist is actually Gordon, and not Batman, necessarily. There isn’t that much of a “Bruce Wayne” perspective, as much as there was Gordon’s, and frankly, I’m okay with that. Let’s not forget one of the most important Batman comic books ever made had Jim Gordon and Batman as co-stars in ‘Year One’.What is Batman: Night Cries about? As Batman and Commissioner James Gordon investigate cases regarding drug pushers, gathered clues lead them to establish a common denominator that revolves around a series of murders implicating instances of child abuse with the death of the children’s parents. When they both set their minds to unraveling this mystery, Batman finds himself accused of being the disturbed and unhinged vigilante behind these murders with only a little girl out there to clear his name, while Commissioner Gordon relives his own troubled past as he desperately tries to come to terms with his own abuse as a child. Despite everything, it is up to these two to elucidate this mystery and break a vicious cycle of unforgivable crimes. Hush is full of these, but there's a rather subtle and unexpected one at the very end. The Riddler has successfully pulled off one of the most amazing crime waves in Gotham's history, involving nearly every one of Batman's Rogues Gallery and even managing to manipulate the heroes as well; it helps that Riddler is viewed as something of a washed-up, joke villain at this point in the series. He even manages to deduce Batman's secret identity, and thinks that he's finally at the top of the heap... only for Batman, with a single question, to completely destroy those plans: "Who is Batman?" is one of the greatest riddles out there, and if the Riddler gives away the answer, that riddle will become worthless— and the Riddler is so obsessed with puzzles that he physically can't allow that to happen. This could be viewed as a Moment of Awesome for Batman, but on the other hand, it shows that Riddler, like the Caped Crusader's other villains, is legitimately insane, unable to even enjoy victory because of his psychosis. It's a moment that makes Batman comics more realistic, and a lot more heartbreaking.

The Dark Knight has been up against some truly terrifying moments, no doubt in part due to his extensive Rogues Gallery and the latter being made of a good chunk of dangerous and scary psychopaths. Below is but a smattering of the scariest moments. Batman is able to bring down even the gods of fiction. He can easily take down mafias and regular crimes on the streets of Gotham. But in Night Cries, Batman painfully recognizes the sad fact that eradicating child abuse, a silent and real villain, is an insurmountable task. It is the monster that even him and Commissioner Gordon cannot escape from. Oh, about Joker's plan to kidnap babies? It's because he wants to kill them all off on New Year's, just to destroy the fragile spirit of the people of Gotham City. And let's not get started on what he does to Commissioner Gordon's wife.Riddler: "You look around here these days, it's all different. It's all changed. The Joker's killing people, for God's sake! Did I miss something? Was I away when they changed the rules?" Doctor Death (Karl Hellfern), a recurring villain for Cassandra Cain, is an arms dealer that specializes in weapons of mass destruction. At one point, he creates a gas that turns people into oil which would then be sold to help fund a tyrannical regime. Another time, he harvests hundreds of corpses to create a drug called Soul that turns people Axe-Crazy. His motivations seem to solely be a combination of money and science. While investigating drug pushers, Batman and Commissioner James Gordon notice a common trend in a series of murders involving child abuse, and the death of the children's parents. Jane Doe casually takes the identity and life of Dr. Carver before the events of the story. Anyone who knows Jane Doe in the DC Universe takes the very essence and identity of her victims through various information on her victims and takes their guise Body Horror style. Ra's al Ghul. A man who has lived a millennium throughout time and many centuries come and gone. A man who in his mind was cursed than truly blessed. His cynicism towards his fellow man is horrid yet, somewhat understandingly truthful. Seeing humanity grow greedy and vile throughout the years he decided to take upon himself his supposed best course of action to take. Which is pure global genocide. There was a time that Batman agreed (in an understanding and intellectual conversation) about his view. Yet is disgusted that it has to involve the many lives that it would cost. Batman stands his ground and protects all life which in Ra's eyes is most unfortunate.