Batman Issue 689

"New Day, New Knight"
Tasked with the uneasy challenge of finding the light within the inherent darkness of being the Caped Crusader, Dick Grayson continues in his new role as Gotham's protector and has a surprising amount of fun while doing it. Returning the Arkham escapees to Blackgate and following up on any leads or tips that come his way regarding the recent surge of illegal activity. And there's been a lot of them lately. Though the number of rats willing to come forward causes him to be a bit apprehensive, the volume itself tells Dick that these busts he's making (like the one at the illegal gambling den the 522 Club earlier) are coming from one main organized crime group. He just has yet to figure out which one it is.

Meanwhile, Two-Face's fixation with the new Batman grows more and more with each new piece of security footage brought in. Newspaper articles and photographs of the new smiling Dark Knight plaster the walls of his hideout. Something about this new Dark Knight makes Harvey very happy. But his plan does not rest on simply feeding the Penguin's plans to Batman. Very soon he'll be requiring the assistance of someone with teleportation abilities. Though he refuses to say where the final destination is for the time being, he sends the word out across the underground. Double the money. Anyone interested should report directly to him.

Naturally the number of busts on his operations isn't doing anything good for Penguin's stress levels. It un-nerves him that despite the unnaturally low profile he's been keeping as of late, the Bat still manages to crash all of his business ventures. He decides that he needs something to throw Batman off of his trail. In desperation he turns to the one man who might be able to be of some assistance - the Black Mask! With his expansive catalog of Arkham escapees at his disposal, Black Mask has the perfect set of candidates to aid Penguin with his Bat-troubles. Among them is a man simply known as Soldier. In another life he was known as Lyle Blanco, a soldier with the armed services. But military testing twisted his mind and upon returning from duty Blanco was charged with the deaths of 23 people. He was only caught because his fits of post-murderous laughter were so great that he was unable to walk, let alone escape from the police.

That evening, Batman is patrolling Gotham when he comes across a tenement fire. Activating the hover-engine, the Batmobile climbs skyward where he uses one of the vehicle's nineteen projectiles to cover the towering inferno with flame retardant foam. But the building's residents aren't out of the woods yet! Suddenly giant chunks of rock come flying out of nowhere, threatening to knock the car out of orbit. It's Clayface and the Soldier! And they're demanding that Batman step out of the car immediately or else the entire building is going down!

Individuals

 * Batman
 * Alfred Pennyworth
 * Matt Hagen
 * Two-Face
 * Lyle Branco
 * The Penguin
 * Basil Karlo
 * Black Mask
 * Bruce Wayne

Locations

 * Gotham City
 * Batcave
 * Batbunker

Vehicles

 * Batmobile