Retro-Review: Batman/Daredevil: King of New York #1(2000)

Review: This issue kicks off in Gotham City with Daredevil watching as Catwoman tries to hand over a suitcase full of Kingpin related documents to a bunch of goons standing on a rooftop. Before Catwoman can make the switch though, Batman swings over, much to the rage of DD. DD tries to stop Bats from interfering, but it is too late, as Catwoman has spotted the two heroes, and has grabbed her case and run off with it. Batman questions the goons on the roof, but they seem too afraid to tell Batman who hired them... Too afraid? Hmm... After getting nowhere with the goons, DD reveals that he had put a tracer in the suitcase and that he was going to find out who hired Catwoman to get those documents and why. Batman decides to tag along because Gotham is HIS city... Man, what an ego... Anyway, Catwoman brings the suitcase to Scarecrow, who hugs it(huh...)after giving Catwoman a key to a locker at a train station containing her payment. Meanwhile, the two heroes discover that Catwoman knew about the tracer and had put it on a cat(HA!), meaning they had no leads. Batman takes DD back to the Batcave and reveals that his glove took some tissue samples from the goons on the rooftop(eww)and after a quick analysis, he discovers that the goons had some of the Scarecrow's patented fear toxin on them. Knowing that Scarecrow had papers documenting Kingpin's illegal activities, the two heroes figure that Scarecrow's next stop would be New York City, and as such decide to go there. Scarecrow arrives in NYC first, and begins spraying his fear gas on Kingpin's men, basically making a total mess of Kingpin's illegal operations, while plunging the gangs of NY into a fear induced crime wave. Our two intrepid heroes arrive in the City and try(unsuccessfully)to locate Scarecrow before deciding to just ask Kingpin if he had any information as to why Scarecrow was targeting him and his operations. After surviving a bomb sent by one of his former goons, Kingpin is in no mood to help DD and Bats, and tells them as much. DD and Bats leave and Kingpin decides to take care of all of his problems starting with DD and Bats, who he tries to gun down in a helicopter. The heroes avoid the hail of bullets, and Kingpin heads off to the Statue of Liberty, which is where his informers had placed Scarecrow. It seems that Scarecrow wanted to start a minor gang war to draw the attention of all of NYC's heroes, while he enacted his real plan, spraying gallons of canisters of fear gas into the stormy NYC night sky, where it would be carried back to the City, raining terror down upon the hapless citizens. From his perch, Scarecrow spots Kingpin's helicopter and shoots it out of the air with a high powered rifle, nearly killing Kingpin had he not been able to fall towards the Statue, landing on it's head. By this point, Bats and DD have figured out what Scarecrow was planning and have arrived at the Statue via a boat(they were following Kingpin's helicopter). Upon stepping foot on the island, the two heroes figure Scarecrow was either in the torch or the head, so they split up to cover both spots. Bats winds up running into a VERY angry Kingpin in the stairwell who attacks the Caped Crusader since he wanted to kill Scarecrow and wasn't going to let anybody stop him. While Bats and Kingpin are occupied, DD manages to find Scarecrow perched by the Statue's torch and moves in to apprehend him. Scarecrow sprays DD in the face with some fear gas, but that has no effect because DD is the man WITHOUT fear! DD literally laughs off the effects of the fear gas, which leaves Scarecrow completely dumbfounded and wide open to a swift kick. The kick knocks Scarecrow off of the torch where he is snagged by DD's billy club. DD calls to Batman that he had taken care of Scarecrow, and upon hearing that, Kingpin decides to stop fighting, since it was obvious that he wouldn't be able to kill Scarecrow now. Batman tells Kingpin that he'll be going to jail for his role in the evening's events, but Kingpin(rightfully)tells Bats that wouldn't be happening, since they both knew Batman would never go to court to testify against Kingpin. With that, Batman and DD wrap Scarecrow up and head back to the Big Apple in their boat, being forced to take solace in the fact that while Kingpin was still a free man, he suffered some financial setbacks at Scarecrow's hands.

Thoughts: First off, a confession... I am a HUGE Scarecrow fan, and firmly believe that he could/should be Batman's number two villain behind the Joker. When written properly, Scarecrow is creepy, menacing and quite difficult to defeat. So the fact that Scarecrow was one of the two main villains in this one automatically gave it a leg up for me. With all that said, I think Alan Grant(writer)did a very good job portraying Scarecrow as totally crazy and unpredictable, as well as a menace. I also enjoyed Kingpin here, as he was basically just collateral damage in Scarecrow's bizarre plot to have his fear gas rain down from the heavens onto the streets of New York. Batman and Daredevil really didn't seem to like each other here, as they teamed up once before in what I'm going to assume was team-up that didn't really go all that well. There were a few little things that bugged me, such as Batman and Kingpin fighting to a stalemate in the stairwell of the Statue of Liberty, and Scarecrow shooting down a helicopter(?!)from the Statue. The story was also a bit out there(Scarecrow decides to throw Kingpin's organization into chaos in order to distract everybody so he could sneak into the Statue of Liberty to unleash his fear gas into a storm?), but I guess it can just be explained away as “Scarecrow is crazy, so his plan was crazy”. All in all though, I'd have NO problem recommending this comic to Marvel and DC fans alike.

Score: 8 out of 10.My, what a big gun you have, Scarecrow...