Batman Issue 674

" Batman Dies at Dawn"
Batman continues to endure various forms of torture at the hands of the third Batman while passing in and out of consciousness. It is during one of these black outs where he realizes the connection between his isolation chamber experiments with Dr. Simon Hurt and the appearance of the three Batmen.

The GCPD (under the command of Commissioner Vane) partners with the government to form an elite squad of back-up Batmen to step up should anything happen to the original. Through the psychological data derived from the experiments, Dr. Hurt determines that the driving force behind Batman is a major loss or tragedy in his life. In order to replicate those conditions, Dr. Hurt sets into action a series of heinous events in order to cause the amount of psychological scarring the police recruits would need to truly become the Bat. Batman deduces that his captor must be a man by the name of "Lane" whose family was believed to have been slaughtered by Satanists. They are all trained (and in the case of Branca, the second Bane-like Batman, given Venom) but the project is disbanded and the officers are all sworn to secrecy. Recently the Batman imposters have been brought into action by trigger phrases hidden within their subconscious - trigger phrases that Batman watches the Third Batman incinerate before his eyes.

All of this exposition gives Batman ample time to dislocate his shoulder and escape from his arm shackle. He takes out Lane but is then attacked by Branca who has been lying in wait the entire time as a back-up. Just before Branca can smash Batman's head in, the police burst in and Officer Farelli (the one who broke the code of silence and informed Gordon) shoots Branca in the head. Lane escapes leaving Batman wondering if perhaps his years and years of training and planning could yet leave him unprepared for some ultimate evil, should it exist.

Individuals

 * Batman
 * Azrael
 * Bat-Mite
 * James Gordon
 * Doctor Hurt
 * Dick Grayson
 * Bat-Bane

Locations

 * Gotham City

Items

 * Batarang