We get around to The Joker’s blockbuster plot.
Detective Comics #671
Written by Chuck Dixon
Pencils by Graham Nolan
Inks by Scott Hanna
Colors by Adrianne Roy
Lettering by John Costanza
Edited by Darren Vincenzo and Scott Peterson
We open on The Joker pitching studio executives on his magnum opus – The Death of Batman. Berkowitz is fully aware of The Joker’s reputation and is legitimately concerned about working with him. The other exec, Zeddmore, thinks this is a good business opportunity, and vetos Berkowitz’s objections and approves pre-production to the tune of $10 million dollars.
Joker is overjoyed, and starts to put his plan in motion, starting with having some goons menace a woman and filming the encounter. Joker and his goons comment on AzBats costume as he comes to the rescue.
AzBat takes the woman back to her dorm room (he finds the location, and her name – Cindy Brooks – from her student ID for Gotham City College), and after confirming the goons are just muggers, he leaves – reflecting on his time in college, and how long ago it seemed.
At Joker’s movie studio base of operation, his crew reviews the costume “test footage”, with thinly veiled parodies of Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert commenting on the Dark Angel costume. Meanwhile, the studio execs are staying in a cell at the studio. Zeddmore is game for all of this, while Berkowitz is legimately freaked out.
At increasingly dilapidated Wayne Manor, Jean-Paul’s hallucinations continue, while Joker workshops the “plot” of his film, before figuring something out.
That evening, AzBat patrols near City College, as something didn’t sit right with him – and he’s right! A lab explodes at the college, and as he investigates, he’s attacked by goons. He takes them down, just in time to see Robin hurtled out of a window as the issue ends.
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