What Happened: Batman and Robin track down a few more of Black Mask's False Faces, and wind up beating them into unconsciousness. After defeating the False Faces, Bats and Robin check out the ambulance that was to serve as the False Faces getaway vehicle and discover that the back of the ambulance was loaded with tons of prescription drugs. The next day, Dick goes to a benefit party to keep an eye on Hush, who is still masquerading as Bruce Wayne. Dick is accompanied by Huntress, and the two make sure to stick relatively close to Hush. Meanwhile, Black Hand is talking to himself? OOOOOOK then... Back at the benefit, the Riddler bumps into Hush and makes vague comments about Bruce Wayne having babies... Wha??? Some teenage girl breaks into a lab at the benefit and is pursued by both Huntress and Riddler. The girl runs past Riddler and Huntress and a bomb suddenly blows up. Huntress manages to escape any major damage from the blast, but the Riddler seems to have been driven insane from the explosion... Huntress tries to track the girl who set off the bomb, and Oracle alerts Dick that something is happening at Gotham Harbor. After a change into his Bat-clothes, Dick arrives at the harbor and discovers several hacked up and charred mobsters from the Falcone mob, who were feuding with Black Hand's criminal enterprise. After examining the corpses, Dick concludes that it was the Reaper behind the crimes. Oracle discovers that the girl from the benefit escaped to Devil's Square, which is where Black Hand had set up his base of operations. She delivers this news to Dick, and he heads to the Square to see if he could find this girl and discover what she was up to at the benefit. Dick successfully sneaks into the Square and questions some kids about whether they had ever seen the girl. One kid goes over to tell Dick what he knew, and winds up getting shot in the head for his troubles, ending this issue.
What I Thought: Wow, this was awful... What the hell happened? I liked the last issue, but this one had 100 different things going on, with not enough time being paid to any specific storyline. For example, it seemed Black Mask was talking to himself in two different voices, since when does he do that? What the hell was up with the Riddler after that explosion? Speaking of the Riddler, what was up with his cryptic comments to Hush, and why did Hush wink when Riddler mentioned having rugrats? Did Black Mask show up at the gala in disguise and if he did, who did he go as? Why did that teenage girl set off a bomb at the gala? This comic was just all over the place. Hopefully next issue things will start coming together, because this was just a mess.
Score: 4 out of 10.
"What's Riddler talking about?" What was ANYBODY talking about in this issue???
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