Batman and Robin 12

Grant Morrison's original plan for Batman and Robin was a series of four arcs of three issues each. That would have made #12 a climax of the entire run. In the meantime, the plan was expanded to add a fifth arc, and as a consequence, #12 raised more questions than it answered, and the climax is yet to come.

Much of the action was very straightforward. The scenes that played out Talia's move against Batman and Robin are just what they seem to be, and for now, that threat has passed. Probably the most important consequences, in the near term, are that it cemented the bond between Dick and Damian. Moreover, with Dick twice dealing out beatings to Deathstroke, walking away from some sort of battle with a demon, and standing powerful, smart, and resolute before the Joker, his role in Morrison's story is clear: He's a world-beater. He's up to what's coming.

And what is coming? The Joker seems to be the lesser of two threats. Exactly what his state of mind is is unclear. Is he about to lay into a violent attack on Dick? Will he propose an alliance that Dick won't possibly accept? Is he even aware that his Sexton identity and his activities as a Domino Killer are both part of his actions?

Because of his propensity for almost arbitrary degrees of psychological disorder, the Joker is ultimately uninterpretable, but we do see that his actions led him to resemble his missing nemesis, and at the same time to seek him out in the form of "Bruce Wayne". If he knows everything he's seen and heard (which is not a given), then he knows that Batman is Bruce Wayne. Fans had speculated, with good reason, that the Joker might see Bruce's face and hear his name but never do the detective work to identity that he is Bruce Wayne. But clearly, as Sexton, he did excellent detective work, finding three of the Black Glove members who were masked when he met them, and from other parts of the world. Only a serious dissociation of what he has witnessed and his memory would keep the Joker from knowing that Bruce Wayne is Batman. Given that, consider his frequent and pointed mentions of Bruce to the new Batman (who, the Joker should know, is not the original; and he might well know that he is specifically "Dick Grayson"). In the final scene of #12, was the Joker fishing for information, trying to get Dick to reveal something about Bruce's fate? It's even possible that he was driven to perform the killings in order to get that information, for his own peace (as it is) of mind. But the Joker actually has multiple reasons to have acted as he has: To emulate his fallen enemy, to make good on the threat he made at the end of Batman, R.I.P., and to get this close to the new Batman. And now that he's this close... what next? Whatever the Joker hopes to have happen, a battle is going to result, most likely one that will range far beyond the hotel room. The line of police cars outside is probably about to witness the Joker escaping over their heads or under their feet if not on a bloody rampage right through their ranks.

The larger threat, however, is the one for which the issue's story was titled, although the significance of the title remains unclear (or underwhelming). A Mexican train did indeed arrive in Gotham, maybe just a train, although there is at least some metaphorical sense in which a greater menace looms. As an utterly unknown figure (perhaps one of the 99 Fiends; certainly someone on Doctor Hurt's side) says, "This train started rolling a long, long time ago." That meaning probably extends to the musty secrets of Wayne Manor and the caves below it. Both the past and present manifestations of Doctor Hurt's coming attack have been revealed only partially, in some of the best shadowy narration the comic book genre has ever seen.

One of the most significant reveals of this issue is that the relationship between the Waynes and demonic forces has been ongoing. Not just the Devil worship of Old Thomas and then the recent battle between Bruce (and perhaps his father before him) against that devil. At least Joshua and Alan Wayne have played a role, too -- either knowingly or unknowingly with Bruce's past lives coming to bear. And we know, moreover, that Bruce's presence in the cave in the remote past has left a tangible mark -- perhaps the origin moment of the bat-demons in Gotham somewhere under Wayne Manor. The timeline, such as we know it:

In the distant past (Seven Soldiers #1 mentions 40,000 B.C. as the first contact between New Gods and early Man, but North America was not inhabited until more like 10,000 or 8,000 B.C. It hardly matters.) Bruce Wayne makes his arrival in the vicinity of Gotham via the Omega Sanction. Coincidentally or not, the rocket / time capsule from Final Crisis is also then and there. And we know, in a spiraling narration bringing in Return of Bruce Wayne #1 (whose preview was posted to the web less than a day ago), that the people he encounters call themselves "Deer People". This adds a bit of significance to the antlers upon which the bat-cowl is hung. The details are pending for a few more days, but it is possible that the entire "bat" association with the location of Wayne Manor began with Bruce's arrival. This would be a paradox, a time loop, something that Morrison has used before with the bullet in Final Crisis and the Sheeda in Seven Soldiers as well as the Superman rocket in Red Son -- a rocket that looks just like the one by Bruce's cave, and that similarity is thematically meaningful. Bruce is now living Superman's story -- the surviving son of doomed parents, escaping via distant translocation to a place where he can grow strong. This thematic similarity to Superman is probably a direct intention of the Batman origin as written in 1939, and to make the tie could be the reason why Morrison chose to place the rocket here even if it didn't literally bear him to this time and place. The time loop may not, however, be the origin of the "bat" presence here, and we'll find out soon enough if an existing, savage bat demon was already lurking before Bruce showed up.

We've been told that the Miagani tribe will practice bat-worship as part of ROBW. Morrison said that they were revealed in Legends of the Dark Knight in the Nineties. I have searched the 122 issues that meet that description without finding any such mention, and either the reference lurks in some tiny corner of no great significance or Morrison is mistaken. The Miagani are mentioned in 1988's The Cult, but they are not themselves evil -- they run into Deacon Blackfire, who is evil. The LOTDK story that best matches the theme is "Shaman" in LOTDK #1-5, the story immediately prior to Morrison's "Gothic". There, there are Native people who practice bat-demon worship. In fact, two entirely unrelated tribes do so -- one native to Alaska and the other native to the fictional Santa Prisca.

The way the timeline of the Manor moves on is fascinating. It was constructed as a 'W' in the time of Darius Wayne (1795) and given garden paths in the shape of a bat-signal in the time of Alan Wayne (according to Batman Secret Files and Origins, he is Solomon's son and Joshua's nephew, and thus lived around 1870). Given that Joshua is holding the casket that makes one of the 99 Fiends shout out "Barbatos!" it is clear that at least eight Waynes (including Bruce's life as the witch-hunter Mordecai) have had a role in the story. It remains to be seen if they all knew about demons or if Darius, Joshua, or Alan were unwitting in their role and directed by Omega Sanction lives of Bruce. Of all of the Waynes seen in the portrait gallery, only Kenneth, Patrick, and Silas have not yet been drawn into the plot... yet.

Which brings us to the train that started rolling long, long ago. Inside the train, we see Senator Vine, the Black Glove member whose absence from the story I noted earlier. Sexton never mentioned him before, despite knowing that he was a more logical target for the next killing (by himself!) than Bruce Wayne. Here he speaks his first lines in a short conversation with Doctor Hurt that mentions Batman not at all but is, on the surface, about a coming battle between the Black Glove and the Joker. It's impossible to know how earnest Hurt's half of the dialogue is. His ego seems likely to pit him against the Joker (who has "a knack for engaging foes he cannot defeat"... like Hurt should talk). But it's impossible that he actually cares whether Vine lives or dies. Having seen Hurt blithely watch the defeats and deaths of Charlie Caligula, the Sombrero, and General Malenkov, we are likely to see him poker-faced as Senator Vine takes his last breath sometime to come.

But what is to come? What began in the tunnel under Wayne Manor? It seems that precisely when Dick found the casket, Barbatos awoke, although that may have been a hallucination. Still, the significance remains -- at least something made Dick see a giant bat demon (notably larger than the one whose head is on Bruce's on the cover of ROBW #1) and left him beaten. Maybe a spirit animated the symbol partially removed from his own chest. It may have the ability to animate things in the shape of a bat. Like the paths around the Manor itself would have been. This again suggests the bat demon seen back in World's Finest #255.

The forces on Hurt's side take many forms. We've seen members of the "99 Fiends" who appear to be hired muscle wielding conventional weapons; much more like typical henchmen than actual demons like Etrigan. Moreover, they dress more like punk and rock musicians or even hipsters than supervillains, much less demons. The scene at the train station shows some of the Fiends, including one holding the bat casket. But there are also several others who look like businessmen wearing domino masks. (Naberius is the only known Fiend to wear such a mask, although nameless others wear goggle or glasses.) These may have been "Fiends"; their different attire may mean they are members of some other group. These masked "businessmen" may be part of the same group that Santo was in; he was apparently a mortal man who needed hospital care. Note also that of the gang leaders in #4, once again Tony Li is left unmentioned when someone lists the ranks of the deceased. Tony Li wore a mask very like the "businessmen". That may explain how the domino got into Santo's hand, although he may have been carrying it all along. It seems as though the dominoes are ID cards indicating the rank of each of Hurt's followers (some of whom wear domino masks) and the Joker called himself the Domino Killer to mock them. Cumulatively, figures like Toad, the Fiends, these masked men, etc., are working for Hurt, but it seems as though he is going to bring a much greater threat than 99 henchmen to town.

Aside from Toad, and the creepy eyes of Naberius, the one obviously nonhuman force we've seen was the (possibly hallucinatory) giant bat, which had none of the human characteristics seen in the statue. The giant bat, which may simply be Barbatos seems more like "muscle" than anything that might be possessing the calm and calculating Doctor Hurt.

So what is coming? His people think that his victory over Batman is preordained and will wrap up in less than 48 hours. Hurt, having called Bruce an usurper back in #679, is possibly the Old Thomas Wayne and almost certainly the man who will pose as the Young Thomas Wayne in the next issue. The newspaper he is holding has a headline about a "New Wayne Scandal", which more likely pertains to that ruse to come than anything going on in the other Batman titles. (An accompanying photo is a headshot, possibly of the false Thomas Wayne.) If Hurt's next move is to take over Gotham as Thomas Wayne, he will have to discard the portion of the dossier that accused Thomas of murder.

But he's going to make a bigger move than merely claim he is Thomas Wayne, put his heels up on a desk, and start issuing memos. This is the story that Morrison said ties in to #666 "considerably". There's going to be a battle. There's going to be great peril to the entire city. Dick has suggested (perhaps just to investigate Bruce's time-flung whereabouts) the Justice League. The 99 Fiends succeeded in a quest to tap the power of Barbatos. A fistfight (or fire and brimstone -fight) with the Justice League slugging it out with demons hasn't been Hurt's style so far. In the plan of RIP, he worked methodically against Bruce over years, a plan that we could see just before it unfolded. In this case, we see an unlikely mixture of demons, thugs, gangsters, and the corruption of the law. What else does the Devil have planned? Apocalypse? Or a reign of evil so subtle that no one in Gotham even notices what changed? The next move is Doctor Hurt's. He's going to face a crimefighter who has with each passing issue been easier to call not Dick Grayson but Batman.

The Domino Jokes

Batman and Robin #12 revealed that Oberon Sexton has been the Joker all along -- and also the Domino Killer. Most likely, the detective persona was a conscious facade, although it's also possible that amnesia and Multiple Personality Disorder led to a detective personality earnestly investigating the Joker's usual killer personality.

Many fans guessed Sexton's identity from the very beginning. I pitched a number of guesses, delving into whispers of clues that were ultimately misleading; the fact that the original Red Hood's attire basically matched Sexton's may have been one correct clue.

Dick Grayson, however, solved the crime with two clues we had and two we didn't: the murders of the four deceased Black Glove members were designed to hint at jokes, and two of those were presented to us in #10, with nobody, apparently, in fandom seeing the pattern.

Cardinal Maggi was killed with a dog collar. Since cardinals normally wear collars, it could be a subtle joke on the cardinal being a dog. There is also a joke about "white collar crime" turning out to be the misdeeds of a cardinal. There is yet another a joke about someone stopping a vicious dog attack by choking the dog with its own collar, and the person's actions being portrayed positively at first, but then negatively when something else is learned about them (e.g., a Yankees fan in Boston is said to "viciously kill beloved pet"). Maybe there is another joke that describes the situation more pointedly.

The tycoon having a heart attack during sex with his young mistress is probably funny enough to someone like the Joker. Additionally, there is a joke about a man being found by his dumb (blonde) wife after such a heart attack and when the wife, misperceiving the situation, finds the naked mistress in the closet, she is furious because the woman is playing hide and seek. If there is another joke that plays also on the unusual word "tycoon", I don't see the connection.

Neither of those were clues available to us, because the nature of their deaths was not mentioned until the end of #12. However, the other two appeared early in #10. They more clearly pertain to well-known jokes, which happen to be unprintable in comics.

General Malenkov's murder pertains to its respective joke via a pun: There is a joke about a man winning bar bets with a trained alligator that allows the man to place his genitals in its mouth. The link here is the similar sound of the words "general" and "genitals". The Joker put his "general" in the alligator's mouth.

Equally unprintable, and the one that we probably had the best chance of perceiving: The sheikh died in the bathroom as a result of poisoned peanuts. I don't know if this is cast as easily into a "joke" per se so much as there is a pun: the Joker gave a sheikh peanuts in the bathroom (gave the penis a shake in the bathroom).

And, alas, for all of the false leads and the top-down guessing ("Who would make a surprising reveal? The Joker."), there were a couple of bona fide clues, and nobody saw them.

Batman and Robin: Demonology

Natural and Supernatural


Batman, R.I.P. ended with the gradual accumulation of evidence that Doctor Hurt is the Devil, a plot point amply reinforced by Grant Morrison in interviews that came out after -- and even during -- the story. It remains the fact that there was never a single panel that conclusively showed him to be supernatural. There were suggestions -- he seemed to know, instantly, too much about the victim of Le Bossu's murder outside Hurt's mansion. Later, we saw him calmly interact with the Joker though the Clown Prince of Crime was in the middle of a bloody killing spree. Via Batman #666, we know that Lane and Damian eventually gain limited invulnerablity as part of a deal with the Devil. But we only saw figurative horns and gasoline-fueled fire, not real horns and sulfur from the netherworld.

Batman and Robin, in contrast, began, on page #1 of issue #1, with a green-skinned, red-eyed villain plainly outside the realm of real possibility. Someone who, Dick finds, is in no known databases. Being silly, rather than awesome and menacing, Toad struck nobody as a demon, but his presence immediately struck down the air of natural / not-supernatural action from the Batman run. In the DCU, green skin doesn't have to mean supernatural -- it may be hard to count the green-skinned characters, but Coluans and Martians green for their own dermatological reasons. And yet, what is Toad? A project from some kind of island of Doctor Moreau?

Roll Call

We have seen with our own eyes just three characters found with single dominoes on their person: Toad (double 12), Santo (12-10, apparently), and Naberius (4-1). We don't yet have a definitive answer as to what role the dominoes serve, but one possibility borne up by those three that we've seen is that they are not "calling cards" planted by an attacker but some sort of talisman or identification held willingly by the associates of Doctor Hurt. And if that is so, could the numbers indicate (inverse) rank? If they come from a set with 12 as the highest number, Toad could be the lowest ranking imp in the order. Santo (who seemed to be a normal gangster) would be just a bit higher, and Naberius (whose birdlike eyes are our other instance of nonhuman anatomy on-panel) somewhat close to the upper ranks.

In terms of numerology, it's not clear how dominoes would round out the "99 Fiends" no more, no less. That number is 9 times 11. In a set going up to twelves, there should be just 91 dominoes. Increasing the maximum number of pips any more would add more than eight. This discrepancy may sink the relationship between dominoes and "99", or it may be explained away or even ignored.

The notion that our demons may be ranked comes up in the name "3rd Hierarchy" as well as the titles of nobility borne by the squad sent to attack Oberon Sexton. All of the demons' names presented in this run come from The Lesser Key of Solomon, which lists 72 demons (not 99) in a precise rank.

There is a major discrepancy in the names we have seen: one of the 3rd Hierarchy is called "Duke Zepar" in Batman and Robin #10, but "Duke Vepar" in #11. This is probably an error on Morrison's part: both of those names are among the demons listed in The Lesser Key of Solomon. As it happens, Duke Zepar is ranked rather high and Duke Vepar more towards the middle, so Vepar is probably the name that was intended for a mere hitman.

All told, the demons mentioned in Morrison's run, and their ranks, are as follows:

Barbatos: #8
(Duke Zepar: #16) -- probably unintended
Naberius: #24
Asmoday: #32 -- called Asmodeus in a simile that described the Joker in Batman #663
Duke Vepar: #42
Belial: #68

When Naberius asks the 3rd Hierarchy to introduce themselves, he calls upon them to speak in ascending order according to that scheme. Especially given the uncertainty regarding Zepar/Vepar, this is not obviously a significant fact -- 1 in 3 arrangements of 3 items are either in ascending or descending order.

The Master

Of his Batman run, Morrison said, in an interview "Well the whole story is built towards a very big peak, and the big reveal comes in the very last issue. There's a kind of pyramid of influence." Then he described how the Club of Villains worked for the Black Glove organization, and how above that, there was the Black Glove.

This narrative structure, bigger even than Morrison describes above, was a huge success. The first underlings, the three Replacement Batmen, were doled out to us one at a time, with each far more portentous than the previous. John Mayhew was the villain of another arc, and the Club of Villains were introduced as a concept. These characters were menacing in their own right, like the villains of any throwaway Batman story over the decades, but were part of a much larger scheme. This is what made it effective storytelling to belittle many of the Club of Villains as RIP went on, to show how much bigger the finale was than what had come.

Batman and Robin is structured neatly into arcs of three issues per story, building even more so into the climax that is coming. Toad worked for Pyg, and Pyg worked for Hurt. Flamingo, like Pyg and the Replacement Batmen, are psychologically ruined good men turned evil by Doctor Hurt. As Lane said, "Sometimes he visits the world to destroy the good and make slaves of men like me." King Coal, too, worked towards the kind of evil Hurt represented, even if he didn't know of Hurt himself. Major villains like the Red Hood, Talia, and Deathstroke are auxiliary to the still-bigger menace of the Big Bad. The story is building to a climax again, and again, the readers appreciate the effect.

This, combined with the identity of Doctor Hurt as the Devil leaves two things to be explained: Why did Naberius say "99 Fiends have no master?" And why do the clues in Wayne Manor point towards Barbatos, not The Devil, as the object of evil worship?

It is perhaps worth noting that the moment after Naberius says it, he screams, though no one strikes him at that moment. Is it a war-whoop, or a psychic/mystical blow from a master angered by that claim? He could be boasting or telling us that the Devil in this story is a devil-by-committee; like the "pandemonium" of Paradise Lost, which has one primary fallen angel, Satan (also called Lucifer), leading a host of many demons, some of whom are named in other works as the primary devil of the universe (e.g., Beelzebub is a lieutenant of Satan in Paradise Lost but Bael -- the first root of "Beelzebub" -- is the #1-ranked demon in The Lesser Keys of Solomon).

Whatever Naberius's claim, it is undermined by Hurt's angry threat to Oberon Sexton that the 3rd Hierarchy is coming, his "stern judgment to enact". Newsflash to Naberius: If you work to enact someone else's judgment, you have a master.

Name, Rank, and Serial Number

If the dominoes indicate the rank of one of these infernal beings, then we have been seeing a countdown, though not in the complete and exhaustive sense that the first three dominoes might have implied. It was a big jump from the 12's, 11's, and 10's to the 4-1 domino on Naberius. Of the 91 possible dominoes in a set going up to 12's, the domino Toad was carrying was last: double 12's itself. Those in Pyg's lab and in Santo's hand were just above that. But the 4-1 of Naberius, the only other domino we know to be associated with an individual, was much higher, twelfth overall; this beats his rank in the Lesser Key of Solomon.

Obviously, the story is going to show us many more demons (they are in the background as #11 ends), and will also show us someone higher in rank than Naberius, who went down after a few smacks of a shovel. Naberius himself tells us that Barbatos is awaking just now. From the statuary, he looks like a more dangerous opponent than Naberius. He may be looming as the ultimate or penultimate threat in the coming battle. It is also possible that Dick Grayson has returned to the surface having already faced him, or even having beaten him, in which case we would certainly see some greater menace instead.

Thou Shalt Have No Other Devils Before Me

In #10, Dick asks a rather self-answering question: "Did something happen way back to associate this place with bat gods and bat tribes and devils?" Not two panels back, Alfred began telling him that the Thomas Wayne of 1765 was a devil worshipper who summoned an ancient bat-demon. In #11, we're told that the demon, worshipped by the Miagani tribe, has the more recent name Barbatos. This name is also written in the occult Batcave, surrounded by many copies of "thomas". The paint is new, almost certainly from the time that the Club of Villains occupied Wayne Manor during RIP. Regardless of what has happened in the last year, Alfred's account indicates that Thomas Wayne (whose face has not been seen, as his portrait is missing) summoned Barbatos. Given that Doctor Hurt is a supernaturally evil man with a Waynelike face and that the elder Thomas Wayne summoned a demon, it may seem like the simplest backstory is that Doctor Hurt is that very Thomas Wayne, possessed by Barbatos. This is additionally bolstered by the fact that Doctor Hurt, who has called Bruce an usurper (though this was part of an implicit claim of Hurt's to be the younger Thomas Wayne), calls Gotham home and is coming to Gotham to reclaim what was always rightfully his. We know that someone will begin a claim of being the younger Thomas Wayne in #13 -- this could likely be Doctor Hurt, pursuing his return to Wayne Manor via lawyers instead of via fire and brimstone.

However, the story thus far, including Alfred's account of older Thomas Wayne's activities, has been more specific in identifying the Devil as the opponent. Batman #666 named "the biblical Antichrist" and "the dragon of Revelations". Batman #681 named "the Devil himself". On the other hand, #666 named the source of Lane's power as having wings of black skin like a bat -- like Barbatos -- but one who named Lane his messiah.

Yet it is clear that Barbatos is asleep as #11 begins, and that probably means in a sense of long dormancy, not just the last several hours. Whoever Hurt has been recently, it is not Barbatos. Has Barbatos been asleep since the helicopter crash? Or much longer? Is Barbatos the effective hand of the Devil in this story? Or the closest thing to the Devil that we'll see? There is some source of light and energy down there. And the portrait of Joshua Wayne is set right at the statue of Barbatos as he looks into a light. What is in the casket in his hands -- the one that Dick has found? Assuming that Joshua is one of the good Waynes, it is probably the weapon that will defeat Barbatos. But the pyramid of evil in this story will not stop when the fistfight ends. When Barbatos has had his chance at Batman and Robin, the plot of the false Thomas Wayne will continue into the next arc.

The end result of the domino countdown may have been before us in the first issue of the series. We see Doctor Hurt holding old (1765?) keys to Wayne Manor. The fob to which they are attached is very much the size and shape of a domino. What's on the other side? If the numbers indicate rank, with low counts being high rank, then the reverse side may just be blank, the double-zero that tops the set of dominoes. The solicit for #12 says that the secret of the dominoes is terrifying. Does that mean a plague or a toxin bringing mass deaths? Or simply a countdown to an individual? If Doctor Hurt, the Devil, is a holder of the top domino, then he is part of the 99 Fiends, and they indeed have no master but those who make up the 99 Fiends.