Title: Batman and Robin Must Die
Part 1: The Garden of Death
Writer: Grant Morrison
Artist: Frazer Irving
Cover: Frank Quitely
Variant Cover: Frazer Irving
Page 1:
Thomas Wayne rejoicing after witnessing Martha and Bruce’s death.
Page 2:
First panel shows dominoes that represents the chain reaction of death. After watching Zorro in the theater, Joe Chill arrived and killed Thomas Wayne’s wife and son. Thomas while grinning told “Now you’ll never tell” to the dead Martha. Maybe he’s referring to the secrets of Barbatos and Wayne Manor’s hidden room and now he’s glad because he’s sure that all the secrets dies with her.
Page 3:
Thomas Wayne pays Joe Chill for the hit, after attending his family’s funeral. The third panel features a Sodom orgy. Hurt wearing Thomas Wayne’s Bat-suit pours champagne on a lady’s back. The masks on the attendees depict various demons and animals, including the pig mask worn by Professor Pyg.
From red and black, notice how the colors changed in the remaining panels. Here, Hurt declared that he is Thomas Wayne through a trial or a press con and now the press is asking who is buried in Thomas Wayne’s tomb, for sure there are lots of questions to come but Hurt's P.A insisted that he should go home.
Note: The past that was shown in Pages 2 and 3 cannot be real because we all know that Bruce did not die that night and Thomas did not attend a funeral after the shooting for it was Thomas who died along with Martha. Even Joe Chill told that he was supposed to kill Bruce and he did kill Thomas and Martha Wayne in Crime Alley Batman #673.
We can say that this past is the lie that Hurt told to Bruce in Batman #681.
Because of this, Now we have 2 stories concerning the Waynes' last night:
1. The traditional account of the Waynes as victims and
2.The lie that Hurt told Bruce in Batman #681 which is the opening of this issue.
Pages 4-6:
Hurt enters Wayne Manor with the 99 fiends waiting for him inside having Batman and Robin as captives. The black sun that Hurt refers to is the eclipse that’s occurring every time Bruce Wayne jumps forward in time (It always occurs every time Bruce leaves a timeline not when he arrives. And it’s possible that Bruce is already back by the time this scene takes place).
Hurt’s promise to corrupt Damian seems to imply the event Damian/Batman was referring to in Batman #666 when he mentioned that he made a deal with the devil to save Gotham City.
BLAM! Dick was shot in the head. But that hasn't happened yet. It will happen three days from now.
We don’t see blood though, do we?
Page 7: Three days earlier before Hurt proclaimed he’s Thomas Wayne and the shot.
Damian’s silhouette entering the hospital seems similar to Hurt entering the Wayne Manor on Page 4. And the lineup of cops is similar to the lineup of 99 Fiends waiting for Hurt’s entrance, too. We’ll notice that one of the cops is blowing his nose.
Joker to Damian: Hello Again [little Bruce].
Pages 8-9:
Batman to Robin:Pay attention.
When you’re in the room with the Joker you have to pay attention to stay alive. Dick knows this. Damian doesn't.
We can see that the Clown Prince of Crime(who doesn't feel like he deserves that name anymore)is in captivity and physically harmless. This is his latest incarnation, notice that his word balloons are normal, and his entire speech pattern is at complete odds with all of his previous depictions.
Dick then recaps everything about the dominoes, bones and the boneyard, confirming that Joker was “digging up” the “bones” of his own crimes, and that he faked searching Naberius, and essentially planted the domino on him, back in Batman and Robin #11.
Batman to Joker: I know you like to leave clues but…you make it too obvious. I’ve been doing this for a long time. I had you figured out when I was twelve.
Note: The domino Dick’s holding seems to be different from the four-one model he “got from” Naberius (Batman and Robin #11).
Page 10:
Joker to Batman: If only you could trust me just this once.
It seems clear that the Joker's investigations as Oberon Sexton have given him advance knowledge of Hurt's plan. He asks for Batman's trust. But he wears a disguise to try to get that trust. Dick is so certain that anything the Joker says is a trick.
Can he trust the Joker? What he says is all too plausible, it makes too much sense. Of course he wants to help Dick because he wants Bruce, his Batman back, he wants the status quo to resume. But for sure he wants something else.
Dick may lose his battle with Hurt if he doesn't listen to the clues that the Joker is offering. But if he does listen, he gives the Joker an opening to betray him.
Page 11:
Jim Gordon: To think I shook hand with this filth.
Gordon shows rage as he enters the interrogation room; we’re talking about the man who shot his daughter in the spine, killed his wife and forced him to undergo hours of extreme psychological and physical torture while placed in the most degrading conditions (Batman:The Killing Joke). While the cops take the Joker away, the Joker warns Batman that the killing won’t stop unless he was as good as the first one.
Page 12:
Dick takes Gordon in the Batmobile and now on their way to the Bat-bunker.
Note: The Bruce that Gordon is referring to is Hush/Tommy Elliot, whose adventures as Bruce are being chronicled in Batman: Streets of Gotham.
Page 13:
I’m still confused on why Dick wants to put the Mayor onside their investigations regarding the killings. Didn't he know that the mayor is in league with the Black Glove and Hurt back in Batman: R.I.P?
The “I’ll call you Commissioner Gordon, sir, if that’s okay” line and the little boyish smile with which Dick accompanies the dialog really sells it. It’s like a father and son talking inside the car. Let’s assume that at this point, Gordon knows this is the first Robin he’s sharing information with.
He’s a brilliant cop, he probably does.
Pages 14-17:
What Batman and Jim Gordon are discussing about is the antidote from Batman and Robin #3 that carries the threat that Dick thought he was alleviating. The poison has already been delivered to a huge number of people and Jim Gordon's sneezing tells us that he's obviously going to be one of the first victims to succumb.
The discussion is being interrupted by the report that the Joker wants to talk to Robin. Batman quickly gets inside the Batmobile while yelling “he could kill him!”
Pages 18-20:
Have you spotted any ‘The Dark Knight’ connection? Anyone?
The Joker’s “You sound just like him” isn’t an exclamation of shocked surprise, it’s him revealing his true self after all that fake weeping and pleading. We must take note that before Joker revealed his identity he’d already spent time with Damian as Sexton - enough to recognize little-Bruce in there.
Note: Also the HIM in the line “You sound like him” could mean Jason Todd as well. As Damian’s playing Todd’s ironic punishment back in A Death in the Family arc. In fact, Jason Todd gave Joker the exact same “You’re NOT as crazy as you pretend to be” speech immediately after crowbarring him in Batman #649.
Pages 21-24:
Dick Grayson and Commissioner Gordon are shot down in the flying Batmobile by bazooka-wielding thugs of the 99 Fiends. This is when the dominoes start falling figuratively. As the Batmobile goes down to the ground, someone wearing a white glove is watching it in a distance (Page 22, last panel). Batman is unconscious while a huge numbers of Dollotrons attack him and Gordon. Meanwhile across town, Pyg was freed from Blackgate Prison by the rest of the 99 fiends. Notice the dark knight chess piece tattoo in the head of the guy who gave Pyg his mask.
Next in Batman and Robin: The Triumph of Death
I don’t know if this may ring any bell. Batman #676 debuts a new Batmobile made by Bruce. Now, in this issue the new Batmobile of the new Batman and Robin was destroyed (Dick and Damian). Like Batman #676, Batman and Robin #13 is the beginning of an arc that will change a Batman’s life (Batman: R.I.P, Batman and Robin Must Die). Batman R.I.P led to Bruce’s "death". Hopefully this time, it’s the opposite. Hopefully this arc will deal on a Batman’s resurrection and not on another Batman’s death.
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