Last time we introduced another new villain.

Batman: Shadow of the Bat #20

Written by Alan Grant
Art by Vince Giarrano
Colors by Adrienne Roy
Lettering by Todd Klein

AzBats nearly hurtles to his death after he’s ambushed by Tally Man, before grabbing onto the side of a building and starting to climb back up.

On the roof, Tally Man flashes back to his backstory, with a loan shark terrorizing his mother. AzBats returns to the roof, and the two fight, as the backstory is expanded on with more flashbacks – the debt his mother was terrorized over was his dead father’s, and when the loan shark struck his mother, Tally Man, at the age of 12, beat the loan shark to death with a fireplace poker, after which his mother killed herself, and he went to jail.

As the fight goes on, Tally Man says that Batman helped the Mahoons set up the murder of Joey Buto, which AzBats knows likely isn’t the case, and he also laughs at the irony of someone trying to kill him over the presumed actions of the previous Batman.

The fight pushes AzBats to the limits of The System, at least under his own control, and then for a moment, AzBats slips into the full Azrael persona, and he nearly kills the Tally Man before Jean-Paul regains control and stops short of murder and withdraws.

Bullock and Kisch find the Tally Man and are horrified at his condition as the issue ends.

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