Guest Review - "The Judas Contract", part two

Doug: We hope you enjoyed Mike Wilson's introduction to his reviews of the books that made up "The Judas Contract" storyline. He's back today with the body of that tale, one of the best of the latter Bronze Age.








"The Judas Contract" by M.S. Wilson

Tales of the Teen Titans #42 (May 1984)
"The Eyes of Tara Markov"
Marv Wolfman-George Perez/Dick Giordano

This is part 1 of the Judas Contract, where things really start getting wild. I love the title of this issue, which I'm assuming was inspired by "The Eyes of Laura Mars", though I haven't seen that movie. This one starts with Tara still taking photos with her contact lens camera. Only this time, she's taking photos of the Titans in their civilian identities, starting at Donna Troy's photo studio, where Donna is taking some bikini shots of Starfire. They all go to Donna's apartment where we see Terry Long, Donna's fiance and the world's most hated supporting character. They're planning the wedding, and feeling a bit overwhelmed, so Gar says they can hold the wedding at his (well, Steve Dayton's) mansion. Donna asks Dick to give her away, and asks Starfire and Tara to be bridesmaids (apparently Raven has already declined). Tara seems touched by Donna including her; will this change her mind about spying on the Titans? Don't count on it.

They drop by Dick's apartment next, and Tara is still taking pictures. As they leave, Tara speaks for readers everywhere and asks Gar why he acts like such an idiot all the time. Gar says he feels inadequate around the other Titans, since all of them would be successful without their powers, but he's got nothing else going for him. Tara tries to give him some advice, but he doesn't want to listen. They drop by a park and watch Vic (Cyborg) Stone attempting to ice skate ... and failing miserably. Of course, Gar makes fun of him, with a nod to Bambi. They go by Vic's place, which is in a run-down neighbourhood. Vic finds a letter saying his grandparents are coming home and freaks out, though he won't explain why. Later, Gar and Tara get all smocchy-smoochy down at the docks, even as we're reminded that Tara's still spying. At Titan Tower, Tara tries to get Raven to open up, but Raven's empathic abilities mean she can detect some bad vibes coming from Tara. She's not sure if it's Tara herself, or just some residue of Trigon's evil, but she's pretty snotty to Tara. That makes Tara mad and she vows that she'll take care of Raven herself when the time comes.

The next day, the Titans are testing themselves at their HQ. Cyborg lifts a magnetized five ton weight (Pfffft, Spider-Man can lift twice that!) to prove that he can still push himself beyond his limits, like he did when he was fully human. Wonder Girl and Starfire do their best Robin Hood vs. Little John impersonation, fighting each other with quarterstaves. But instead of fighting on a log over a river, they seem to be on an air matress in the swimming pool; either way, the loser gets wet. Starfire wins, extending her unbeaten streak, but they hug it out afterwards. Next up are Changeling and Terra, who mix it up outside. Of course, Changeling is an obnoxious ass and Terra lets her psycho side show when she freaks out and tries to kill him. She apologizes profusely and says it's a delayed reaction from when she was held by the terrorists. Strangely, they all seem to believe her (with the possible exception of Raven, but she isn't really the type to share her feelings anyway). Anyway, this one doesn't end with a hug.

Back at Casa Terminator, Slade Wilson tells Tara she almost blew it by letting her true emotions show. She isn't worried, but Slade says the Titans shouldn't be underestimated. They prepare to attack the Titans, using the knowledge of their civilian identities gleaned by Tara. It seems Slade is completing the contract his son Grant (aka Ravager from issue #2) had with HIVE to kill the Titans. Since Grant died, Slade figured it was his obligation to finish what his son started. They leave to carry out the assignment and we see that Slade is a spyee as well as a spyer; a woman (plus someone with blond hair and a really funky perm) is watching Slade and Terra ... and she seems to know Slade from way back. Who is she? We'll have to wait until next issue to see.

Tales of the Teen Titans #43 (June 1984)
"Betrayal"
Marv Wolfman-George Perez/Dick Giordano/Mike DeCarlo

This one gets crazy right away. We see Dick Grayson working at his desk (on a typewriter... man, I feel old) and Terminator comes busting in the window. I'm assuming this is Dick's apartment, where Gar and Tara saw him last issue, but why does his desk have a name plate on it? Do people use name plates in their own homes? Maybe he's at some kind of office? I have no idea. Anyway, Dick and Terminator fight, and it's obvious Terminator knows his secret identity. He mentions the HIVE contract and says he doesn't want to kill him, since the terms are "dead or alive". Dick starts analyzing the situation (that's what a decade hanging out with Batman will get you) and he gets Terminator to knock him out the window so he can go look for the others. Termy goes after him, but Dick gets away. We see the woman from the end of last issue and the blond dude, whose name is Joseph; he not only has that wild perm, but some pretty crazy mutton-chops too. They're still following Terminator, who's kinda shook up about losing Dick Grayson, and is worried about Terra double-crossing him. He actually sounds pretty paranoid.

When his emergency signal goes unanswered, Dick starts checking on the other Titans. He finds Kory and Donna's place blown up and we get a flashback of Kory opening a "present" supposedly sent by Dick himself. It explodes and knocks her out. Dick checks Donna's studio and realizes she was taken too. We get another flashback of her mixing photo chemicals and the mixture giving off a gas that knocks her out. Dick deduces that Terminator must've switched chemicals so Donna would accidentally create ether. It's obvious Terminator had knowledge of their civilian identities, so Dick takes Donna's car and goes to look for the others. He doesn't seem to notice the woman and Joseph (who we learn is her son) following. He checks Cyborg's place and sees he was taken too, this time with the old "electrically-charged metal bands in the kitchen chair" trick. I'm not sure how Terminator got the bands, the mechanism, and the power source inside that chair... it looks pretty spindly to me. Anyway, Dick heads for Titan Tower next, hoping to find Terra or Raven.

But neither of them are there, though there are signs of a fight, including some of Terra's "earthworks". Dick is worried that Terminator has taken Terra and Raven, but the woman who was following him made it to the Tower ahead of him and tells him Terra was working with Terminator all along and she's the one who pounded Raven. Dick doesn't want to believe Terra betrayed them, so he calls Gar Logan's place. The maid (who's dressed like someone from a 1920s burlesque show) goes to find him. Gar hasn't been jumped... yet. In fact, he's autographing photos of himself and sticking them in envelopes; it seems someone sent him a bunch of photos (and return envelopes) out of the blue begging him to sign and return them... nothing suspicious about that, nosirree. Naturally, the envelope glue is poisoned (maybe that's where Seinfeld got the idea?) and Gar keels over, as Terminator calls him a "vainglorious dolt"; hey, when he's right, he's right.

When Gar can't be found, Dick realizes everyone but him has been taken and it must've been an inside job. He starts to believe the woman (whose name is Adeline), but wonders how she knows so much about Terminator. She then reveals the shocking truth: "He was... my boyfriend!" No wait, that was "Young Frankenstein"; what Adeline actually says is that Slade Wilson used to be her husband. We then see Terminator delivering the Titans to a HIVE base in the Rocky Mountains. And on that dramatic note, the issue ends. I like how Dick was acting kinda like Batman in this issue, putting clues together and going about everything methodically instead of rushing off half-cocked. I guess there's a reason he's the leader.

Tales of the Teen Titans #44 (July 1984)
"There Shall Come a Titan"
Marv Wolfman-George Perez/Dick Giordano/Mike DeCarlo

We begin this issue where we left off, with Dick trying to come to grips with the fact his entire team has been captured, and trying to figure out whether to trust Adeline or not. He gets belligerent with Joseph, who hasn't said a word, then learns he's mute. The caption says Dick feels "awe" when he looks at Joseph; I'm not sure why. I get the feeling Jericho (as Joseph will soon be called) is one of Wolfman's favourite characters... or maybe Perez's favourite, since the intro to the trade paperback says Perez came up with the idea to make him mute. Personally, I never saw Jericho's appeal... I always found him annoying rather than awe-inspiring, but he'll be around for a looooong time, so better get used to him.

Adeline starts telling Dick (and us) Terminator's life story. Slade Wilson lied about his age and fought in the Korean War (I think Marv was trying to do things in somewhat "real time" at this point) and he and Adeline met in the early 60s. She was some kind of highly-trained combat expert, and Slade volunteered for an elite military force. This was just before the Vietnam War really got going. I'm not sure if these are meant to be early Green Berets, or something even more "elite". Adeline trained them and Slade impressed her with his skill. Apparently, she impressed him by showing him up on the combat range. Instead of getting pissy about it, he asked her to teach him everything she could. So, they fought together, fell in love, got married, and he was sent to Vietnam. She was pregnant (with Grant, aka Ravager), so she stayed behind.

Dick doesn't believe her story, because Terminator is almost superhuman. Adeline explains that he volunteered for some experiment (to resist truth serum) and it heightened all his abilities, but it screwed him up a bit too, making him manic at times, then almost comatose at other times. He was discharged from the Army and became depressed, although not too depressed to knock up his wife again. She gave birth to Joseph and they moved to Africa where Slade became a Great White Hunter. Later he became something of a bon vivant, hosting lavish parties and rubbing elbows with the fancy people. He taught his kids to fight; Grant took to weapons readily, but Joseph was more sensitive, learning to play piano and sing beautifully. (See where this is going?)

But their cozy world was shattered one night when some guys showed up to kidnap Joseph. Adeline wasted a couple, but they gassed her and took the kid. That's when she found out her husband was actually Deathstroke the Terminator. They go to get Joseph back from a terrorist called the Jackal; I'm not sure if he's supposed to represent a real person or not. He doesn't look much like the real-world Carlos the Jackal and he looks nothing like Edward Fox, so maybe he's not meant to parallel anyone from real life. Jackal wants the name of whoever hired Terminator to kill a friend of his, but Terminator refuses to tell him, saying he gave his word and his word is his bond. Terminator takes out Jackal and all his men, but one of them started to cut Joseph's throat. He survives, but his vocal cords were severed, rendering him mute. Apparently, Slade never came to the hospital to see Joseph, which pissed Adeline off so much she tried to kill him. His superhuman reflexes saved him, but he lost his right eye. Adeline then filed for divorce. (If you can't kill 'em, divorce 'em)

She tells Dick she's been tracking Terminator, but couldn't get too close while Terra was around, otherwise she might've gotten buried under a ton of rock. She says she knows where the Titans are being held, and Dick gives her hell for wasting time with the A&E Biography of Slade Wilson. But she reminds him he's only one man, and he isn't even Robin anymore, so what can he do? Dick goes upstairs and puts on a new costume while reflecting on his life. He comes back down and says his new name is Nightwing. Adeline announces that her son is a mutant (man, they're everywhere!), has powers (and got a costume from somewhere, apparently), and is now called Jericho. She says Joseph's powers were kept secret from Slade. Dick is hesitant to work with him, but Adeline tells Joseph to demonstrate his powers. He does some kind of "eye contact" thing and disappears into Nightwing, taking over his body, although Dick is still aware of what's going on and can still talk. Jericho then demonstrates the control he has over Dick by doing the classic "stop hitting yourself" move. He pops back out of Nightwing and Adeline points out that Jericho could've just taken Dick over and forced him to do what they wanted. 

So Dick decides to trust them and he and Jericho jet off to find the Titans. I'm not sure why Adeline stays behind, if she's such a hotshot combat expert. As they're flying away, Nightwing says the team already has aliens, witches, shape-changers, and cyborgs, so why not a mutant? He adds, " 'sides, I hear you guys aren't half bad." which I'm sure is meant as an X-Men reference, since NTT was being endlessly compared to the X-Men. Some people thought they were a rip-off of the Marvel mutants, but to me, the styles are quite different. I'd say X-Men has much more in common with the Legion than with the NTT. Anyway, next issue is a biggie (figuratively and literally).

Tales of the Teen Titans Annual #3 (1984)
"Finale"
Marv Wolfman-George Perez/Dick Giordano/Mike DeCarlo

This one opens in the HIVE complex where we see the Titans held powerless in the enervator, a gigantic Kirbyesque machine that drains (or dampens) their powers. Terminator gloats (and kinda makes a skeevy pass at Starfire) while the HIVE minions gather. Terminator tells them about finishing Ravager's contract and introduces his helper, Terra. They can't believe she betrayed them, especially Changeling, who assumes she's been brainwashed and urges her to fight it. Outside, Nightwing and Jericho find the base and start sneaking in.

Terminator tells the HIVE leader that he's fulfilled his son's contract, but the HIVE dude reminds him they don't have Kid Flash or Robin. Termy says Kid Flash quit and says his associate, Wintergreen, is tracking down Robin as they speak. But when he contacts Wintergreen, he says he hasn't found Robin yet, but he's getting close. We see Adeline holding a gun on Wintergreen--I guess that's why she stayed behind. We then get some more backstory, about how Wintergreen saved Slade Wilson's life in Korea and Slade returned the favour in Vietnam. Wintergren says he's been worried all along about Slade taking the HIVE contract, and worried about Terra's instability.

At the HIVE base, Nightwing and Jericho conk out a couple of guards and disguise themselves; well, Nightwing disguises himself, but Jericho takes over the guard's unconscious body. We learn that if the person he takes over is unconscious, Jericho can animate their body and even speak, although only in the other person's voice. They infiltrate the main chamber where the Titans are being held, but the guy Jericho took over starts regaining consciousness, which means he'll be able to use his own voice and warn the other HIVE members. So Nightwing and Jericho come out punching. Jericho hops from person to person, adding to the confusion. Nightwing tosses some gas grenades and they beat the hell out of some more HIVE goons. But they run into Terra and she buries them ... literally.

In his quarters, Terminator seems to be having some sort of mid-life crisis. He's called to the main chamber and learns Terra captured Nightwing (or Robin as they all keep calling him). Terra says he can thank her later "if you got the stamina"; yeah, they were definitely getting it on. Jericho is brought in and strapped to the enervator with the Titans. Terminator recognizes him right away and demands he be released, but HIVE says that since he was helping the Titans, he'll die with them. Terra recognizes Jericho from the photos Terminator was looking at and announces that Jericho is his son. HIVE realizes how valuable Jericho is and tries to make a deal with Terminator. As he goes to look at his son, they make eye contact and Jericho takes him over.

Terminator is aware of what's happening, but can't stop himself from decking Terra and freeing the Titans, who quickly take advantage and attack HIVE. Not knowing that Terminator is being controlled, Terra thinks he turned on her and really loses it. She goes nuts and tries to kill him. Even after everything, some of the Titans (notably Starfire and Changeling) still can't accept Terra as an enemy. The Titans cut a swath through the HIVE goons and start destroying the complex. Terra is still trying to kill Terminator and drops him into a chasm. Nightwing realizes how crazy she is and bops her with a stun disc. Before he can reach her, Terminator sucker punches him and tries to reason with Terra. But she's too far gone and is ready to kill him.

Changeling takes that as a sign that she's still on their side, but she quickly gives him the facts: she never cared about the Titans, has always been filled with hate, and all her friendliness (including the smooching with Gar) was fake. She admits the Statue of Liberty terrorists were working for Terminator and the whole attack was just a way of getting them to trust her. She covers Changeling and Nightwing in mud, almost smothering them. Raven tries to use her empathic abilities to reason with her, while Cyborg pins Terminator and tries to get him to call Terra off, but Termy says she's too crazy ... then he cuts Vic's hands off. He threatens to cut Vic's head off next, but Jericho zaps him before he can. Terra freaks out and decks Raven, then goes nuts and pulls lava from underground to destroy the complex. Changeling flies into her eye and she goes completely off the deep end, bringing half the complex down on top of herself, though none of the Titans are hurt.

Gar and Wonder Girl search through the rubble, and Gar is still convinced (or trying to convince himself) that Terminator somehow turned Terra evil. Jericho and Terminator (who's tied up) are both upset at the circumstances of their "reunion" and both end up crying. Speaking of which, Gar finds Terra's body and is devastated. Later we see Terra's funeral, with all the Titans and the Outsiders, including Batman. Terra's brother, Geo-Force, gives a speech about nobility and sacrifice and all that. Watching from nearby, Adeline and Joseph realize the Titans didn't tell Terra's brother (or anyone else) that she was a raving, hate-filled lunatic. Adeline says the Titans are very noble and Joseph will fit in well with them, but his mind is elsewhere.

And that's the Judas Contract. In the intro to the trade paperback, Wolfman and Perez admit that they created Terra with this story in mind; they always knew she was a spy working for Terminator, and they always knew she was going to die. Talk about playing the long game. So I guess all the little moments where it looked like Terra might be having second thoughts were just red herrings. In fact, during the final fight, just before her death, Wolfman's captions say that Terra was too full of hate, too far off the deep end to ever be rehabilitated. Maybe that was his way of silencing all the fans who were going to say "Did she have to die? Wasn't there some way she could've been saved?", questions the Titans will be asking themselves too. Apparently she couldn't be saved. But I think that makes the story better, because it makes the wound deeper, and it affects the way the Titans look at the world. It could make them less open, more suspicious, but overall i don't think it does.

The art is spectacular, of course, and Wolfman's writing is great too. He shows subtlety, humour, and a real grasp of the characters. I know a lot of people find Changeling annoying (and he is!), but I can't help feeling bad for him here. Terra's betrayal hurt him more than anyone, and he keeps blaming Terminator for it. I think this arc is where Gar grows up a bit, and even though he doesn't lose his sense of humour (such as it is), Wofman writes him as more mature from here on out. If I remember right, when the Titans break up, it's Gar and Victor that rally to get them back together. And there's the follow-up to this story, where Gar gets the chance to exact revenge on Terminator for Terra's death, but chooses not to. It's also great to see Dick finally getting out of Batman's long shadow and becoming his own man. At this point, Jason Todd is already acting as Robin, so there's no need for two of them. But we also see Batman's continuing influence when Dick uses his deductive ability to figure out what's going on. That becomes something of a trademark (like when he investigates Donna's past).

So, I'd say the Judas Contract deserves its "classic storyline" appellation. NTT was definitely on a roll back then!

Guest Reviews - Mike W. Barr's Batman Annuals

Doug: As summer approaches, what better format of comic books to discuss than Annuals! Edo Bosnar is here today with his thoughts on a few of his favorite books from those warm days of our youths -- two Batman Annuals and a Batman Special written by a personal favorite, Mike W. Barr.

Edo Bosnar: When I was a youngster back in the ‘70s and ‘80s, Mike Barr was just one of many comics writers with whose name I was familiar, but who never had that same status in my mind as say, Chris Claremont or Roy Thomas, to say nothing of the then increasingly popular writer-artists like Frank Miller, John Byrne or Walt Simonson. But when I got back into comics sometime in the first decade of this new century and started thinking about all of the comics I liked (and slowly began to re-acquire some of the stuff that I had in my original long-lost comics collection), I realized that many of the Batman stories I recalled quite fondly were in fact written by Mr. Barr. Specifically, three ‘big’ issues immediately came to mind, Batman Annual #8 and the 1984 Batman Special in particular, but also Batman Annual #9.

Batman Annual #8 (1982)

“The Messiah of the Crimson Sun”
Mike W. Barr-Trevor von Eeden

Initially my favorite of these was Batman Annual #8. This is definitely one of those “the cover made me buy it” books. DC annuals were pretty uncommon at the time anyway, so that intrigued me right away, while the absolutely gorgeous art by Trevor von Eeden really sealed the deal for the young me.

The story begins with the horrible deaths of pretty much everyone in a small farming community north of Gotham City – they all have the flesh fried from their bones at the crack of dawn by some oddly reddish sunlight. Not long afterward, television transmissions in Gotham are interrupted by an announcement from a mysterious cowled figure and calling himself the Messiah of the Crimson Sun, who apparently runs some kind of cult that has a big church in the city. He tells the Gotham’s residents that they’re next. This prompts Batman to go to the farming community, which has been cordoned off by the military – not an obstacle for him, obviously.

There, he finds out that two people did survive the massacre by dawn’s early light: a kidney patient at the local hospital, who is hooked up to a dialysis machine, and some flaky guy in a white robe called Seth, who keeps telling everyone to have faith in the Crimson Sun. The latter is also very thirsty and keeps asking for water. The army physician can’t figure out why everyone was killed, and why these two survived. So there’s all the ingredients to a great Batman story: a mystery, a threat to Gotham, and a megalomaniacal villain.

Batman sends Robin (who happens to be in town), disguised as Seth, to infiltrate the Crimson Sun’s organization, and then there’s a shocking reveal - since this came out over 30 years ago, I don’t think I’ll spoil this too much by noting that the Crimson Sun is actually Ra’s al-Ghul.

It’s all another one of his schemes to wipe out most of the planet’s human population – this time by using a gigantic orbiting lens that focuses the sun’s rays (and gives them that crimson hue) on a specific point on the planet. The people get fried because he adds a chemical to the water supply in advance which reacts quite unpleasantly in the human body when hit by direct sunlight.

Batman, meanwhile, figures much of this out himself, and also where the goons sent by Ra’s/Crimson Sun will attempt to contaminate Gotham’s water supply. However, before takes them all out, one of them manages to flip the valve to release the chemical into Gotham’s main water plant.

Eventually, Batman confronts R’as in his orbiting space station – he gets there by borrowing a space shuttle from NASA, with Robin and Talia (always conveniently there when Ra’s shows up) in tow. When I recently re-read this to prepare for this review, I found that this last part of the story didn’t hold up for me: it just seemed to take the otherwise generous leeway I give to superhero stories a little too far. I think it would have worked better if the action had been a little more, well, grounded. That’s why I said above that it used to be my favorite – now it’s slipped a bit in my estimation, even though I still think it’s well worth reading. And this is because of my favorite aspects of the story: the really nice build-up, the somewhat shocking reveal of the villain, and the little character moments, mainly Batman’s interactions with Robin and Alfred in particular. These are in fact Barr’s strong suits.

I also have to laud the art in this one. Von Eeden was really on fire here, and every panel and every page look spectacular. The colorist, Lynn Varley, also deserves special praise, because the color palette is so perfectly suited to the story: it consists mainly of darks like various shades of black, gray and blue, and then tones of red, orange, magenta, scarlet, and yellow.

Batman Special (1984)
"...the Player On the Other Side"
Mike W. Barr-Michael Golden/Mike DeCarlo  

Sandwiched between these two annuals is the Batman Special from 1984, again with lovely art, this time by two more Mikes: Michael Golden and Mike DeCarlo. The story, called “…The Player on the Other Side” contains something of a retcon (long before that term became part of the everyday vocabulary of superhero comics at the big two) of Batman’s origin and Commissioner Gordon’s past. It really doesn’t impact Batman’s origin as such, but it tells the story of another killing on that same night, in a different part of Gotham City, in which a man and woman, with their young son in tow, are caught sneaking out of a ground floor window – apparently after breaking and entering – by a beat cop. The hot-headed dad takes a shot at the police officer, wounding him, but the officer gets off a few shots that take down both of the apparent burglars. The boy witnesses all of this and it shapes his future, just as Bruce Wayne was shaped by seeing the slaying of his parents. However, this little boy, understandably I suppose, swears revenge against the cop who killed his parents, and develops an abiding hatred for law enforcement and all of its representatives. That young beat cop, by the way, was James Gordon.

Although he spends the rest of his troubled childhood in foster care and juvenile detention, the boy (we never learn his name), much like Wayne, is consumed with his purpose, and hones and his body and mind to what will become his life’s mission of retaliation. He grows to manhood, spending time in and out of foster care and juvenile detention, and eventually becomes a secretive, world-class professional hitman called the Wrath, who dons a costume quite similar to Batman’s and basically wages a crusade against the law that is the opposite of Batman’s crusade for justice.

The Wrath is already in Gotham to finally exact his revenge on Gordon, and has made several attempts on his life (Batman was usually there to save him). Frustrated by Batman’s interference, the Wrath goes about finding out anything he can about him by threatening some of his known underworld informants, and he learns from one of them that Batman comes to that same spot in “Crime Alley” on the same date every year. It’s a date that obviously has meaning for the Wrath as well, and he breaks into the public library and checks on newspaper reports for any other significant events there on that date, and puts 2 and 2 together when he sees the report about the killing of Martha and Thomas Wayne. Makes a lot of sense, actually: any number of criminals with their ear to the ground should have been able to figure out the same thing.

So while Gordon is in hiding, the Wrath uses his new-found knowledge to hit Batman where it hurts, first by vandalizing the tombstone of his parents, and then by brutally assaulting Alfred. He makes it clear to Batman that he wants the Commissioner.

But Batman also gets busy, and eventually learns that the Wrath has his own weak spot: his lover, who is the daughter of some local crime boss and who just wants to get away from it all. Batman tracks her down and confronts her.

And this is where another character is re-introduced: Leslie Thompkins, who was first seen in another retcon of Batman’s origin, “There is No Hope in Crime Alley” (by Denny O’Neill and Dick Giordano, first published in Detective Comics #457 in 1976). In that story, she extends some solace to the young Bruce Wayne just after his parents are killed. Here, she is taken hostage by the Wrath, and this leads to a stand-off, as he bargains with her life for the Commissioner’s.

How it plays out is largely predictable, but that’s really not important. What I liked about this story is the whole idea of Batman having a counterpart whose life was scarred and then dictated by a similar event, but who went in another direction. Additionally, I like how this one focuses on Batman’s friendship with Gordon, his deep affection for Alfred, and his relationship with Leslie Thompkins, who, by consoling the young Bruce Wayne and showing him some humanity immediately after the death of his parents perhaps made her own little contribution to keeping him grounded, so that he even though his personal tragedy indelibly marked him, it didn’t turn him into a stone-cold vengeful killer like the Wrath.

Batman Annual #9 (1985)
"The Four Faces of Batman"
Mike W. Barr-Jerry Ordway/Alex Nino/Dan Jurgens/Paul Smith

Batman Annual #9 has always been my least favorite of these, but I thought it completed the little trifecta of “big books” I have going here. The story, called “The Four Faces of Batman,” actually consists of four short pieces, each one almost kind of a vignette, that is supposed to explore different aspects of Batman’s persona. To wit: the child, the avenger, the detective and the man. However, I never got the impression any time I read this that a clear delineation is made between these various “faces” of Batman. As with the previous two books, Barr is served by some outstanding artists, in this case Jerry Ordway, Alex Nino, Dan Jurgens (inked by Dick Giordano) and Paul Smith.

I think the first and fourth “faces” (i.e., ‘The Child’ and ‘The Man’) work the best. The first involves Batman rushing to track down some armed robbers who inadvertently run down and kill the parents of a young boy right in front of him. Bruce Wayne knows the family and happened to be at the scene when the tragedy occurs, and he sees the boy swear revenge. Obviously, he sees the similarity with his own situation, but Barr puts in another aspect – he flashes back to Bruce’s childhood, and we learn that before his parents were killed, he was a budding artist – a sculptor to be specific.

 After his parents died, however, he ignored his artistic talent as he became driven to fight injustice and crime. In the present, he fears that the young boy, who is a prodigy with the violin, will go down a similar path.  I really liked how Barr added in this harmless little retcon to Batman’s origin which adds another intriguing facet to the character.

The second face, ‘The Avenger,’ was my least favorite, not just the story but also the art by Alex Nino. I’m normally a huge fan of Nino’s work, but his style was really ill-suited to this story and it’s simply unattractive. The story is also rather bleak. It starts with a bank heist apparently perpetrated by a terrorist group that has already robbed a few banks before. However, this one ends with a fatality (not a trademark of the aforementioned terrorist group), as one of the tellers dies of a heart attack. It turns out that the robbers just pretended to be the terrorist group, and said terrorists then go after them for besmirching their reputation. Batman also goes after them, but instead of stopping them, he basically incites an armed confrontation between the two groups – and then just sits it out and lets them kill each other. It’s really pretty cynical and kind of out of character for both Batman and Barr.

The third face, ‘The Detective,’ is not as bad, but also not really notable in any way. It’s just a whodunit, meant to highlight Batman’s sleuthing capabilities (although these were better demonstrated in the first story). It seems more like one of those largely forgettable back-up stories you’d find in an issue of Batman Family or Detective Comics.

The last ‘face’, as I said above, is pretty good and it’s very nicely drawn by Paul Smith. Batman rescues a bunch of children from a fire in a hospital, and the event is shown from the standpoints of various witnesses to the event, and concluding with Batman’s own recounting of the night’s incident to Alfred. This one is really nice, and it has a lot of those great character moments that Barr does so well, especially the final brief scene that highlights Alfred’s role as something of a surrogate parent to Batman.

All three of these books that highlight why Mike Barr is one of my favorite Bat scribes: he tells engaging, well-paced stories first and foremost, interspersed with these wonderfully done interactions between Batman and the various members of his supporting cast.

Barr did quite a bit of work with the character throughout the 1980s and 1990s, which included ushering in and writing Batman and the Outsiders, and a rather well-regarded run in Detective Comics, initially teamed up with artist fan-favorite Alan Davis. Unfortunately, Frank Miller’s take on Batman at almost the same time got – and still gets – much more attention from comic fans, while Barr’s work is generally (and unfairly I think) overlooked. I definitely think that, like Archie Goodwin and Len Wein, Barr deserves his own “Tales of the Batman” volume. Not that I’d be likely to afford such a book should DC decide to publish it… :-(