Detective Comics #870

Overall: We kick this issue off with the Joker impostors and the Batman impostors rioting at a state fair. The real Batman arrives on the scene and tries to calm things down, but the riot is in full swing, and there is little the Caped Crusader can do to end the madness. While the insanity rages on, Batman gets a transmission from the leader of the impostor Jokers(as well as the secret leader of the impostor Batmen)Mr. Heath. Heath wants to meet Batman in the Hall of Mirrors, which Bats is all too happy to do. Batman and Heath battle, and Batman gets the upper hand, pinning Heath to the ground, demanding to know why Heath played both the impostor Batmen and Jokers against each other and then tried to kill all of them. Heath basically explains that he blames Batman for his own disfigurement and the death of his girlfriend at the hands of the Joker, and as such, he wanted to make all of Gotham pay. While Batman does feel somewhat bad for the terrible way things turned out for Heath, he still knows he has to take him into custody due to his inciting the riot, as well as all of the people he killed. Batman leads Heath from the Hall of Mirrors, but ends up losing him in the sea of madness that the riot had become. This issue ends with Batman pondering his effect on the people of Gotham, while Heath lays low and tells the skeletal remains of his dead girlfriend about what happened.

This was one of those perfectly acceptable comics I talk about so often. It wasn't anything special, and I doubt I'll remember it past next week, but it was a good, solid read, and a fine way to kill a few minutes between classes. Heath's origin was very well done, with it being tough not to feel some degree of sympathy for him, and especially for his girlfriend, who seems to have been eaten alive by birds thanks to the Joker. As I said, this was a good story, not a necessary read or anything, but a good story nonetheless.

Score: 7 1/2 out of 10.Isn't Gotham already one great lunatic asylum?