Batman: Curse of the White Knight Review

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You little fool. Hello and welcome to The Pull

Bag. This is episode 410. That's right, 410.

I'm of course TF2 and Mike. Joining me, as always

at this point, are the Hales, Edward and Kendra.

Hello! Hello! Yes, and we are here to... Wrap

up our Sean Gordon Murphy universe coverage with,

for now anyway, with Batman Curse of the White

Knight. Oh Lord, this comic... I know there are

rumors of him doing a third chapter. I think

he has said he's going to do a third chapter

But some of the rumors are like oh what if he

goes Batman Beyond and I'm like as much as I

would love that and love seeing Terry in this

universe I just don't think it would work because

the Murphy verse is too Real -life gritty is

the best way I'm gonna say it I guess I don't

know. It just doesn't seem like Batman Beyond

fits into this. I don't know, man. I paid good

money to see Sean Murphy's take on Batman Beyond.

Yeah, that would be cool. I mean, I'm not saying

he doesn't have a really good take on it or anything

like that. I'm just saying after reading this,

I'm like, I don't know how that's going to fit.

Well, he made us go all the way back to the 1600s.

I don't see why he couldn't go forward in time,

too. True, I mean, yikes, because holy crap.

Yeah, 1600s. Oh boy, I had shades of Gates of

Gotham there for a second. No, that's what this

first reminded me of was Gates of Gotham because

they went back in time to the gates and everything

else. I went more towards Neil Gaiman in 1602.

Oh, there is that. That's one else gates of Gotham.

He was talking about Snyder did what it's night

Snyder and Higgins and yeah If you if you haven't

read if you haven't read gates of Gotham, it's

the best Dick Grayson story ever Ever challenge

that with black mirror. I haven't read that yet.

So I'll have to give that a try Seriously missing

a really good run Scott Snyder and Dick Grayson,

bro Alright Batman curse of the white knight

to get the the Creative out of the way obviously

Sean Murphy writer and artist Klaus Jansen artist

for one freeze Matt Hollingsworth colorist and

world design is the letter Sean Murphy and Matt

Hollingsworth Did the cover art and original

series covers and then obviously Batman created

by Bob Kane and Bill Finger don't like and I

don't know if well curse is fairly new so it

isn't like it's 2014 or 2015 so it's fairly new

I don't like that they say Bob Kane with Bill

Finger it should be Bob Kane and Bill Finger

agreed yeah just like Siegel and Schuster for

Superman exactly you know give the give the credit

where the credits do man that's silly I mean,

I'm glad that finger is finally getting credit,

but that just to me is is just silly that they

use with instead of And Anyway, all right curse

of the white knight. When did you is this the

first time you guys read this or is this the

second time you guys read this? For Ed, I think

it's the second time. For me, it's the first

go -through. So Curse of the White Knight. Let

me get your all's thoughts really quickly on

the original series. I know we talked about Von

Fries last week, but because honestly, I don't

remember the original. Like I did it episode

331 and 332 in the podcast, but honestly, I've

done so many comics since then and it's been

a couple of years. I don't even remember the

first part of this series. First part of the

series was brilliant. Yeah. Yeah, I read it on

recommendation from Kendra and she got it on

recommendation from buddy or hers and It immediately

became one of my top five Batman stories of all

times Yeah, I'm gonna have to go back and reread

the first the first arc of white knight because

I have I remember my buddies DJ and Dan and I

covered it, but I don't remember anything past

that. Well, I mean, it was it was really I don't

want to say it was an original concept because

there have been other stories in the Batverse

that have that have touched on parts of it. But

it was the first time that we get to see Batman

being made basically the bad guy and Joker being

made the good guy who just had mental issues

that needed to be addressed, not pounded into

his face. Right. And it really shone a light

on what was going on in Gotham in a way that

hasn't been. Yeah, Sean Murphy did it beautifully.

I mean, it was very compelling. I mean, it takes

a lot to get me me personally into the bat universe,

not the outskirts of it, because I'm a huge Harley

Quinn fan. But for me to sit down and read an

actual Batman story out of all of the Batman

stories that are going on currently. It takes

a lot to get me to want to read one. And this

one I not only read, but was mad when there wasn't

any more and tell the curse of the white knight.

Right. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I can see that. And

I like that they obviously obviously he's going,

you know, Sean's going to reference what happened,

which is good because, you know, for those that

don't remember like me, it's like, oh, yeah,

that's right. Batman was the villain. necessarily

think he's saying villain is a bad way to put

it it's not necessarily he's the villain it's

just he could have done so much more rather than

putting every and that's that's really where

this one brings that to life is he could have

done more than just putting everything into Batman

himself he could have done more for Gotham and

that's a light that we don't often see shined

on Bruce yeah we Sean shines it with million

candle what power. You know what I'm saying?

He's just like, look at what I have created.

So as they said, we start off in 1685 with Lord

Wayne and Arkham, Laffy Arkham. Oh Lord. This

is cool. I love this. I think this is a really

good, interesting way to start this next chapter.

And of course Wayne doesn't believe in curses

You figure as long as he's been Batman he'd have

been like, okay Mm -hmm. Yeah, but we're before

Batman at this point. Yeah, this is way before

Batman I know I'm just saying well, yeah. Yeah,

Batman doesn't believe in curses. I'm like This

brought up like shades of Princess Bride for

me The Dread Pirate Roberts, I was like dang.

All right. I'm here. What's up? Yep Love the

juxtaposition of Arkham Manor in 1685 and then

Arkham Asylum today, right? I think that is so

cool. And the funny thing is before I even saw

that it was Arkham Manor thought that was Wayne

Manor at first in the in the in the 1685 image

I was like wait a minute isn't that no it's not

hmm interesting we get to Arkham Asylum today

and the Joker wants to go to his old cell and

apparently the entire prison has been cleared

out have to bring it up to code Think it's gonna

take a lot more than 15 minutes or however long

he's in there to bring that place up to code

Yeah, that's hundreds of years of Yeah, like

where's Peter Thomas and forensic files when

you really need them great So Joker and this

is part of what I didn't remember from the first

art from white knight That Joker and Jack are

the same person and I like that. I think that's

great. Don't get me wrong I also enjoy and love

the fact of the version of the Joker that doesn't

have a name that only uses alias was whatever

but with Murphy using Jack Napier as a Second

personality. I think that's genius yeah, well

it all shows his love of the Batman verse look

at it a bigger picture because He's pulling for

the animated series, but he's pulling from the

Tim Burton films. So I'm just like, okay, you're

Sean, you and I can just like hang out and like

talk Batman for like the next six weeks. Cause

you know, obviously you're a fan. We get to Bruce

and there's a letter from Alfred and now I have

to say this is more of me and my vision problems

than anything else. I do not know what this letter

says when we get to the panel where his back

is turned because I can barely read it because

it's white text on colored background and it's

in cursive and I understand it but like literally

I don't know what that letter says to Bruce at

all. Let me be translator. So basically what

the note says is that it's Alfred's way of saying

that if Bruce is reading the note that He has

come to the fact that he cannot fight or grieve

alone. That he is not a man who is an island

unto himself and that he has learned that he

can take advantage of the support system that

is around him with Barbara and Dick Grayson.

And if he's reading that, then he's come to terms

with that. And Alfred also lets him know that

it's time, since he's come to terms with that,

that he can actually be ready for what is underneath

the floorboard at Alfred's bedside. Translation

over. Yes, which is a giant box, a giant gold

-looking box. Mystery beneath the floorboards.

Yep. Hey, at least it's not buried in some weird

subsection of the cave. At least it's not a part.

Right? Well, I mean if it was it would tell a

lot of tales Right. Yep We get to What I assume

is the hospital or is that still the prison because

they have like gurneys and stuff. So, I don't

know so we get to the hospital or wherever and

Jim is there and Batman's there along with the

warden and They're talking about how The Joker

broke in or the joke, you know the warden let

the Joker in to find his cell and everything

else and they talk about the Batman devastation

fund and and I Love the line between Batman and

Gordon. He looks nervous think you can get something

out of him before he lawyers up. Of course. It's

Batman Come on, Jim. This is Batman. We're talking

about And I so hear Conroy in my head. Just a

bit. Just a bit, because as much as I love Keaton,

the only time in this entire book that I heard

Keaton is when, eventually later, he does the

Let's Get Nuts line. We figure out that the warden

does know and doesn't know where the Joker is,

and he tells him that he went to his old cell

and then left. Wait, I'm not saying anything

until I see my attorney Too late. What do you

think of the art? First of all scenes Ed I adore

all of Sean Murphy's art. I mean It took me a

second to get used to it in white night eight

But it's just so refined and so perfect for the

character in curse of the white night I mean

the overall design of Batman I door. I mean,

the collar with the cape and, you know, the cool

utility belt with stuff actually hanging off

of it. I mean, it's just cool as all get out.

I mean, the artwork couldn't be better. Yeah,

the cape and collar just, I'm looking at where

he says too late and it, I now see the collar

and I'm like, That's cool, but it's also really

weird. I like it. I don't dislike it, but it's

really strange. Well, I mean, it makes it so

the cowl and the cape are actually two separate

pieces. True. You know, he can pop the cape off

and not have to worry about it. You know, he

can take his mask off and still have his cape

on, you know? And instead of having, you know,

the Batman hood, you know, hanging off of his

back, you know? True, yeah. Next I need a couple

of things. What do you think of the art so far

up to the point of the the Warden talking Kendra?

I dig it. I mean Like I said, I've already had

and the same art style was used in The White

Knight so Really like the world that they're

creating and I like the consistency because it

feels like you're just stepping right back into

the same Same place just at a different part

in the story, which is exactly what we're doing.

Yep Absolutely So Gordon and Batman go to Joker's

cell and Batman pulls out a knife out of his

utility belt there, which that's a little genius

he then basically cuts a hole in the wall and

a whole new whole new section of this cell secret

passage I Again, I I love Gordon and Batman in

this Gordon's like after you. Thanks. I Love

that I think that is so cool and we get to this

cell and there was a message in blood but somebody

erased it so that's a mystery we have to solve

apparently there's a body buried there probably

more than one most likely foreshadowing of course

and we get to some lady going into Bruce Wayne's

office Ruth This lady I Don't mean to be vulgar

but this lady has balls yes, she does Because

you don't just walk into that man's office not

with a thread on your tongue my gosh not really

and sadly she doesn't even get the person she's

going for it's the it's the damn joker and i

love that he's wearing a batman shirt it just

adds so much to the character really yeah it

really really does i need that in plastic seven

inches for mccorland toys thank you i need to

correct myself she's walking into her own office

and the joker is in her office so she isn't Walking,

okay. Yeah, sorry. I'm I'm screwy today folks

apparently I Mean if you're gonna do a review

on something screwy might as well act the same

There you go, I guess Or it imitates life Mm

-hmm Now I have Batman 89 stuck in my head poor

Alicia boy So we have that tense scene with the

Joker and Ruth and then we cut to Grayson Wearing

his nightwing mask with a GCBD hat on and he

is part of the GTO and He and Batman are arguing

over the fact of there are too many consequences

of Batman unintended consequences of Batman and

about revealing himself to everybody and of that

and I love the emotion between these two and

again for me I hear Kevin Conroy and I hear Lauren

Lester arguing these points in my head because

I'm like that's my Batman and Robin or Nightwing

whatever you want to say unfortunately Kevin

Conroy actually is not unfortunate but Kevin

Conroy has been the voice of Batman in my head

since Batman the Animated Series debut back in

the day Strangely enough though Joker was not

Mark Hamill in my head Really? Who is he? I don't

know. I can't I don't really have an actor that

that becomes his voice when I read this Mean

both Jack and and Joker in this one have their

own like Personality in this one that doesn't

match up or honestly to any of the jokers that

we've met No, well Batman maybe Kevin Conroy

Mark Hamill didn't make an appearance for me.

I Think for me it's more of a combination of

all not all of them, but it's a combination of

Hamill Ledger And Nicholson, it just depends

on what he's saying and how he's saying it and

how I hear it in my head. Fair enough. Yeah.

Joaquin Phoenix turned in for good measure. Never

saw it, have no intention of seeing it. You're

actually missing out on a great film. I don't

know. I might see it in about 20 years if I'm

still around, man. It's free. Yeah, but HBO Max

isn't free. I already had a free trial. Oh Of

course I could set up a set that's a whole other

topic we get a Batcave scene that I am NOT a

fan of It makes the cave look small It might

just be one level of the cave maybe Maybe it

is and I'm glad the giant penny is there and

I'm glad that the dinosaur is there but that's

the wrong Batmobile. Hey now, he's had all the

Batmobiles in here. He has and he does and he

will. I'm just saying for this shot with Nightwing

and him arguing and all of that, you see the

dinosaur, you see the giant penny, I expect the

BTIS Batmobile and not the damn Tumbler. But

that's just my own personal preference, you know,

it's okay. I think the Taz one shows it back

up later. Oh, it does. Oh, yeah, it has one or

the Tim Burton one. One of the two showed up.

It's it's Tim. It's the Burton one because he

says at one point or another that that's his

favorite. Yeah. It's a good bad movie. I'm not

saying it isn't it. It is very a very good batmobile.

Just the tumblr. Yeah I'd rather have the one

from Batman and Robin You It's like some sparkly

vampire shit going on there, bro You should see

well by now you guys have seen the description

because we're recording this in the future folks

in the past or in the future or whatever That's

right, I Literally had to find a specific freeze

pun to put in the description for the one freeze

episode It's one of them I'm sitting here looking

and it looks like something from another series,

but I can't remember the name of it. Okay, well

It's not 89 or task. So yeah, that's that's kind

of the point This is an awesome scene though

him and him and dick's argument is exactly what

I was saying at the beginning where You know

this this moment right here is where we see exactly

what? Happened in white night come to fruition

in this one. It takes a lot a lot to unnerve

Bruce Wayne, and we get that in one fell argument

between him and Dick. Yeah. Leave it to Grayson

to be the only one that can actually unnerve

Bruce. Right. Well, I mean, I'm not even saying

that Grayson's the one that he may be the active

force that's doing it, but it's not the underlying

cause. No, the underlying causes of his own actions.

Yeah, he's seeing the consequences of his own

actions and he specifically says it was my only

job and I failed. Right. Yeah. And now the only

reason I saw I finally saw my mistakes was because

my greatest enemy rubbed them in my face. Yeah.

Who would have thought that that would ever be

uttered from Bruce Wayne's mouth when it comes

to the Joker? Right. Yeah. Yeah. That's very

poignant. Good job, Sean Murphy. absolutely and

now that I'm looking at the scene again where

it's zoomed in on Comixology thanks to guided

view the Batmobile that's below like right a

it's on the bottom part yeah it's the most clear

viewed one but you see it from the back with

the sport I'm like hey that's the upcoming the

Batman and then I see the TAS one just to the

left of the dinosaur so that is cool that it's

there I just don't like the tumbler looking thing

being maybe we've got an homage to adam west

batman with the bat boat in the background yep

it's gonna run through with a giant bomb i'm

pretty sure there's some some bat shark repellent

in there probably there usually is i mean after

all not all sharks are fake so we get to the

hospital and we get to this guy and You know,

he's uh, he's not going he's not doing so well

He's uh He's ignoring everybody. He's got some

sort of headache The orderly comes up you're

gonna have to put some clothes on don't touch

me And this is John Paul Yeah, and he is hallucinating

again apparently And He I don't want to say jumps

in the fire, but it looks like he's jumping into

the candles there a Little bit of a PTSD moment

where yeah You know, the sensory is just too

much for him. He's trying to get away from all

of these lights and sounds and he doesn't want

anybody to touch him because it heightens it.

This is a beautiful way to show the PTSD that

this man has. Yeah, it is. It is a very, very

cool moment. It is a very intense moment of how

his hallucinations basically just make him lose

all senses around him and as someone who has

suffered from certain things with my Brain damage

that I have and wherever else I can tell you

right now two years ago. I had And I still have

every now and then the strongest sensitivity

to light at times and it's like I just need to

go into a dark space Turn on some light. I don't

mean light like soft rock but just light volume

music or something and just close my eyes and

just be left alone because The light sensitivity

will kill me Kind of thing and this is a really

great way to show that and how they're doing

that So we go back to the Batcave and we do actually

see the tumbler the 89 and the 66 so maybe the

one that was Up above in the other part of the

cave wasn't the tumbler, but it just looks tumbler

like to me Who knows? Maybe Sean will hear this

and he'll Shoot me a message on Instagram or

Twitter saying hey, it was this I'm like, okay

is Sean Gordon Murphy's Take on the Batmobile

that he created himself. Oh, okay Well, thank

you for that And I'm sorry, Sean, that I'm not

particularly a fan of your take on the Batmobile.

I don't know, it just doesn't... It's too Tumblr

-ish for me. What are we thinking to this point?

Because like I said, we get back to the cave

and we have Bruce and Barbara. Yeah, we're not

necessarily at the Batcave at this point. We're

actually at GTO headquarters. Right. I I was

more sad about how quickly we transitioned away

from John John Paul because I wanted to see more

of what they were going to do at that point not

just oh here's this quick introduction we're

just gonna go with a quick glimpse which in any

kind of animated or or TV series maybe whatever

would be like 30 seconds to 45 seconds of screen

time I wanted more like maybe a minute and a

half yeah just to see what was going on. But

I like that they introduced it so that if you

know who that is, you're already prepared. Like

even, you know, spoilers outside, even if you

you've never heard anything about this, you go

in and you see that name and it's like, boom,

OK, I know where we are. Mm hmm. And then here

comes to the GTO to Barbara with this, you know.

This lovely story of the 1600s and how that's

gonna pertain to Gotham now. Yep and She's like,

oh like that old poem. I'm like, oh lord Convenience

of course Solomon Grundy born on a Monday. I

Do love that he brings up the There was also

a whip made from bat leather I thought that was

really cool and I love the way Sean draws him

when he says I don't know what Joker has but

it goes all the way back to the founding of Gotham

City. I love the way The entirety of Batman's

look looks here with him holding his arm up with

the cape around him as he's walking away from

Barbara Yeah, that is so cool Just like a iconic,

you know, just Batman walking away. Mm -hmm Very

much walking away music, but we like it. Yeah

No, no, no sad walking away music. The only way

you could have sad walking away music is if you

know somebody dies That doesn't happen yet thankfully

we go to the church and We see the priest along

with John Paul and He's you know doing janitorial

work Then the avenging angel shows up Oh Lord

So what you were saying earlier Kendra that you

wish you had more I kind of liked a little teaser

of who he is and like that whole PSTD PTSD moment

and then we cut to the GTO because how the issue

ends here with us going back further into what

Valley is doing or what happens to him. I get

it. I mean coming back to it again and knowing

who he's talking to at this current moment really

gives me like this inner glee. Yeah. Because

I'm really excited about the two people that

are in this panel right now. Yep, but That's

that's further in But I mean I get it I know

that they're trying to set it up to where you

know We have two of these stories going and he

didn't want to rush Yeah, he had all of this

time to set to set the stage basically and this

is exactly what's happening Yeah, you know and

as we end this first issue here, you know By

slaying the demon the man whose family has cursed

Gotham Bruce Wayne Okay. Once again, I am so

glad. Yeah, the artwork is amazing. I am so glad

I was not reading this in single issues because

I would be poor. Even though this is only eight

comics, I would be poor at the end of this because

it's like, holy crap. I actually wrote all of

these down. I'll put them out now because I don't

want to... Forget them during the during each

of the the whole reviews here I wrote down all

the quotes at the beginning of each of the books

Yeah, if he was the good guy, what does that

make me? It's not enough to kill Batman. We need

you to become Batman Just what Gotham needs another

colorful wacko That is so a Bullock line You

and I chose this and so did your father We are

ending our arrangement. You've become a liability

Here I was just worried this wouldn't be too

easy or this would be too easy. I should say

in Gotham No one is above the law and God puts

us on different paths, but we ended up in the

same place. Didn't we? Holy crap reading those

and reading them as I read through the trade

here. I'm like Way to set it up Like way to tease

it and then where those quotes come into line

as as we go through. Wow. So I like I like it's

like just getting to see these lovely little

snippets and captions and then seeing them in

all their grand grand, you know, the way they're

meant to be read. It's just wonderful. I mean,

and he's he's done that so beautifully in both

of these trades. Yeah, I wonder if he actually,

like, sat down and wrote the quotes out before,

like, scripting the issue or anything like that.

Because if he did, it was, like, a beautiful

way to encapsulate each issue. What was the takeaway?

Yeah. Yeah. I wonder. Time will only tell, I

guess. If we ever get an interview with him.

But it's one of those things where you know as

you're talking about that it's like like I recently

wrote up something last month about a friend

of mine who had passed away and The original

podcast I had heard this friend on was called

better in the dark and because of when I found

out about his death It literally shocked me where

I was not breathing for half a minute. Like I

lost all breath Because of reading the news of

his death and the name of his podcast was better

in the dark It was a movie podcast and I ended

the tribute the written tribute that I did to

him By saying we were all better in the light

for knowing this person so Going back to did

he write did Sean write the quotes first and

then do the story or did he pull them out of?

The story to put them who knows but I've done

that before where it's like I'll write something

and then I'll pull it out or I'll start a title

I'll have the title and then I'll somehow work

it into the story. Either way, it's all genius.

Absolutely. So we go back to 1685. That house

is a fortress. How'd you get in without calling

attention from the guard? Oh boy. I grew up in

that house. That house was built by one of the

greatest families in all of London. But everyone

knows they died in the plague, so that either

makes you a liar or a bastard. Or both. Or a

ghost. You bastard. Or all three. You bastard

lying ghost. Where's Scooby -Doo? Rutt -Roe.

Ruby do we do mm -hmm and the exchange between

this guy coming this guy who is back are and

and Edmund Wayne I this is really interesting

to me because it's like holy crap Yeah One of

those holy crap moments cuz they kill the driver

Oh good Lord, it's just so fun. What do you guys

think? It's a great way to introduce somebody.

I love those the throwing stars at the oncoming

horsemen. I'm like, oh crap, you did not just

do that. I'll ask that you never take the name

or take the Lord's name in vain. Mm -hmm. What

kind of horseman are you? What an introduction,

like what a way to say hey, this is who I am.

How are you? Yep. Yeah. absolutely and then we

get more of your favorite stuff if I can't read

at least I can read it now at least it's you

know printed on things that I can actually read

so there's that no it was just a bad color choice

for me I think it was you know put you know putting

it in a white text on a multiple colored background

this is much like all he needs is an heir of

a family who has legal claim to the valley you

know so they're going through Edmonds training

to take over Gotham Valley or claim it as his

own that's called a montage that's right this

is really cool though because you get to see

you not only get to meet Are we are we calling

him the car? Yeah. You don't only get to meet

him, but you get to see that there's this plan

that sounds like everything is on the up and

up and he's taking Edmund under his wing to show

him, you know, how to truly take care of himself,

how to fight, how to handle himself in any inevitability.

And then, you know. All he needs is a Wayne.

Yep, and he finds one obviously Right Needs a

Wayne not the Wayne Right if you want because

if really if you want the Wayne you got to make

sure you bring Garth along too So the the montage

ends here with Edmund looking at the map of Gotham

Valley Gotham Valley is all my family has left.

So this is where we make our stand we get back

to the present and Batman meets Ruth or Bruce

meets Ruth, but again We're in this whole thing

where everyone is gonna know that Bruce is Batman

because he wants to reveal himself and I love

their exchange because they are too very evenly

matched people, I would say. They really are.

Yeah. Like she stands her ground. Oh yeah. You

know, oh, you're trying to scare me? I'm not

so easily shaken, Mr. Wayne. You have just as

much to lose in this exchange as I do. Yep. And

I love that. I love that she plays on Bruce's

fear. She doesn't play on the fact that it's

just Bruce that would be affected should he come

out and say that Bruce Wayne is Batman. She plays

on the fact that there's also, you know, all

of the employees who have worked for Wayne Enterprises

and how they will be affected and their families

will be affected. And then not only that, but

she hits him right where it hurts. She hits him

right with Barbara and with Dick Grayson and

it's beautiful. Like she plays her cards wonderfully.

But he also basically comes out and says, he's

Batman immediately with the one line, how about

this instead? Give me a list of your clients

and I won't throw you into Arkham. I mean, Bruce

is not a, he's not an officer of the law. He's

Batman and only Batman can throw people into

Arkham. So, I mean, he pretty much comes right

out to her and says that he's Batman with that

line in my mind. Right back at him. She's like,

right. He does that you can prove. And on top

of that, you know, he's like, oh, you're trying

to blackmail me. No, I'm telling you the facts.

And she she does not like hesitate or tremor

or back down. She's like, this is what will happen.

Yeah, and it's really nice to see somebody come

against Bruce that way that's strongly. Yeah,

absolutely And I love how the next page the next

panel continues her her threat or anyone else

you've roped into your cause and then we cut

to the Gordon and You know, I'm you all know.

I'm not a politician I'm just a blue -collar

kid who wanted to be an underpaid cop and He

admits that he hated Napier Yeah, you know, but

he is going to run for mayor I I just okay I

can see you think of the two Outside of Alfred

because Alfred's different You think of the two

father figures in Batman and spider -man's lives?

Outside of Alfred and Uncle Ben I think of as

much as Peter Parker spider -man would hate to

say that hate for me saying this J Jonah Jameson

and Jim Gordon I can I can see JJJ as mayor.

I can't see Gordon as mayor because like he just

said he ain't no politician Who one of the guys

that works With Peter. You said J. Jonah Jameson,

but there's another one that pops to my head,

and I can't think of the character's name, and

now it's making me, like, kind of angry. Because

there's someone who actually works for the newspaper

that's underneath J. Jonah Jameson that you really

want. Oh, Robbie. Yeah, Robbie. Yeah. I would

think of him more as the father figure than I

would J. Jonah Jameson, just because of that's

the person I would choose in that universe if

I was going to choose a father. Because he genuinely

cares about Peter. Oh, no. Yeah, I was just saying

as far as the mayor part comparing because you

know JJJ was mayor for a while and I can't see

Gordon being being mayor and And Jack shows up

and he basically wreaks havoc here at his announcement

and he has a little Yes, he is he has a nose

and mustache my name is Jim Gordon and I'm running

from Meyer Not only am I not only am I incompetent

policeman who allowed Batman to run this city

I'm also a cheating husband and a terrible father.

I'm too stupid to even notice that my daughter

Is actually bad girl blah I'm like, oh you ass

Random spear Yep, pretty much. How was that?

You get to see something really cool here because

with Gordon saying, you know, he's being completely

honest, which is a breath of fresh air for Gotham.

He's saying, you know, I hated Jack and I hated

seeing the people support him and rally behind

him. But at the end of it, he was right. He was

exactly right on what was going on in Gotham

and what we need to change in order for Gotham

to get rid of this cancerous virus that's been

plaguing us for all of these years. And then

here comes Joker, who also hates Jack, and is

like, no, I will not let you build anything on

his name that is good. I'm here to destroy that.

And not only am I going to destroy that, I'm

going to destroy you. Yup. It just put so much

into this Yes, I gotta I gotta go off of this

panel here cuz With the twin shot of you know

him holding Barbara where she's got her your

cap and gown on from graduation and then her

right her mask off The only difference between

the two of them is she parts her hair differently.

Yep I'm like Alright, so they they legit just

pulled a superman on this to fool us. She can

wear some glasses or something now You know be

like, I'm Barbara Gordon. I'm super bad, you

know All right, that's really kind of a nod to

the older stuff too, so yeah, it's very cool

But it also lets you know that he's not pulling

like he's not he's not pulling any punches in

this anymore It's all cards on the table and

he doesn't care where the chips are gonna fall.

It is all about chaos Yes. Yes. And speaking

of chaos, here comes Azrael. You mind pulling

your sword out of my mahogany desk? She really

loves that desk, doesn't she? She really does.

Mahogany is expensive. So they put together this

team of Azrael and these other people, Michael

and Gabriel and all of that. All of them named

after angels. Yep. Yep. And I love that Ruth

says to him, this isn't the Middle Ages. You

want Gotham back, then you'll have to do it in

the 21st century. I'm your best bet. Just tell

me what you need. Even more than that, like you

were saying about the captions, with this scene

where we finally get that saying of it's not

enough to kill Batman, we need you to become

Batman. Yep. We get this Foreground shot of a

chessboard of all these pieces that are being

placed and it's just genius. Yeah it is Absolutely

it is it just goes to show Murphy's story structure

what he knows he wants in each panel and I Don't

know. I just it makes it even more genius when

you read through it again. So absolutely Oh,

and not only that, it's a perfect plan. I mean,

you're not trying to just take down Batman. You're

trying to create your own. So that way, the public

still have this figure that they can count on.

But it's under their supervision and under their

ruling versus somebody who's just this rogue

agent that Bruce Wayne has been all these years.

Yeah. And then just as good as the argument was

with Dick Grayson earlier, we get to Commissioner

and Barbara and I like that they're arguing,

but it's an even better argument when Batman

comes in because You know, you see this argument

where Jim says, Joker was right. I spent years

working alongside my own daughter, but I'd never

noticed because of a silly leather mask. You're

a hell of a detective, Jim. Batman comes in,

turns on his heel. And you, all your talk of

trust and turning over a new leaf. You said you'd

reveal yourself to Gotham. When exactly were

you planning to do that? You told me not to.

Said that it would only complicate things. Well,

I was raw. I love this scene with the three of

them because It is just so emotionally raw right

it reminds me of Over the edge from Batman the

animated series when they did this whole same

thing about whether he should reveal himself

or not The fact that that Gordon eventually finds

out and whatever so cool Here's a kind of random

question I mean this can't be really be answered,

but did she disguise her voice when she's Batgirl?

I don't think so. I mean cuz how many instances

have has Batgirl had a conversation with Commissioner

Gordon and he's just kind of oblivious to the

fact that it's his daughter even though The hair

color is the same, the facial structure is the

same, her height and weight is the same. Her

hair is parted on a different side. But if he

saw her as Batgirl though, he wouldn't see her

hair, so he wouldn't notice. Because Batgirl's

cowl would cover up her hair, whether it was

in a different style or not. So that would not

have... I don't think that would have... Look

at the costume she has now. She's got the GTO...

Right. body armor or whatever the hell it is

but then she's got two little ears sticking up

through her hair and then she's got the basically

a robin bolo mask going on so i mean it's not

like she had a cape and cowl to this guy's face

and head just like right but what i'm saying

is when joker pointed out that all those years

all those years ago that she was batgirl means

that this was before That time so yes Joker is

revealing her as back girl from the GTO now But

Jim back then before GTO when she was just straight

back girl with a cowl on he wouldn't have noticed

But he would notice the boys. I don't know Well,

I mean there's there's things that you can't

get rid of though I mean like I mean, I know

this kind of stretches, you know further into

the damn story that needs to go but like How

do you get rid of your daughter's scent? Sure.

Like I know my kids when they walk in the room

if I've got my eyes closed because of the way

they smell, you know, it's not like saying they

stink or anything like that, but I mean, yeah,

individual scent. And I'm like, if you stand

shoulder to shoulder to bet girl, you're going

to get a whiff of a shampoo, you know? Yeah,

true. And we cut to a scene that I never thought

I would ever see. Forgetting I'm the only one

in Gotham you can't sneak up on babies shoosh

and it's Batman and Harley And He wants, you

know her to Appeal to Napier Jack's gone. You

don't know that I can't go down this road again.

My heart can't take it. Besides, I have other

things to worry about. I wish I could see the

look on Batman's face when he says this, but

sadly we only see the reveal. Like, I see his

hand in the shadow and I see the shadow of his

face, but you don't actually see. You're pregnant?

World's greatest detective. I love her sass so

much. Yeah, it is so good. I mean, legitimately,

she's one of the very few females in the Gothamite

light up that could actually get away with just

being this big of a smartass. Yeah. To Batman.

This would be his anti -pensive face. Like, holy

shit. Wide -eyed, mouth agape. You're like, oh,

you're pregnant? Holy shit. Yeah. I'm glad the

issue doesn't end there, but I think it could've.

I think it definitely could've. We get to Azrael

and his other team members here as they are gearing

up for whatever they're doing. Lovely full shot.

Yeah, I was going to say that full page shred

of Azrael holding the M16, he looks so epically

badass. Yes, yes he does. The red really stands

out. Yes. Yes, it does. Yeah. We're supposed

to be sneaky, but you're going to wear bright

red. Right. And that's a continuing trope throughout

this series because they say the same thing to

Harley. Yep. We're supposed to be sticking to

the shadows, but you're wearing bright red. Not

very conspicuous. No, you know, maybe they're

colorblind shows up as dark gray Will be black

and white colorblind not blue and green colorblind

if it showed up as dark gray Is this that blue

and gold dress from Facebook that we're seeing

about a year ago Pink and green. Why does this

remind me of? What was that one thing? Yanni.

Oh god, Yanni and something else. I forget what

it is anyway. So Asriel and his team are gearing

up to go on their mission. We get back to the

cave, and I can clearly see that it's the cave

now, not GTO headquarters. And Batman is matching

the maps, but the maps don't match. Uh -oh. What

the hell? Mm -hmm. And then all of a sudden in

the beginning Gotham had two sons. What the hell?

Holy crap, Asriel on the Mac computer. That's

not a good sign. You've been hacked. He's been

hacked, but he's also been hatted. Yep. Because

that's Jervis right there. Oh man, this hurts.

This really hurts me. The fact that Batman got

hacked by Jervis friggin' Tej and everything

in the Batcave. Oh, the Batwing. Oh, it hurts.

Oh, that's even the animated series Batwing,

too. Yep. Damn. Damn, that hurts. Very. Yep.

It's gorgeous though. It is. There's one thing

that can be said for Sean Murphy. He doesn't

leave people in pieces just lying on the ground.

He's gonna use them and the fact that he thought

of using Jervis Tetch for this is brilliant.

It is absolutely brilliant because again you

need somebody with tech savvy on the villain

side and... Who better than Jervis Tetch? Yeah.

And, yeah, Batman pretty much has one vehicle

left. And, yeah. Yep, it's gone. No more dinosaur,

no more penny, no more nothing. No more Batcave.

Nope, no more Batcave. Whatever happened to the

giant penny? They let him keep it. Yeah, no more

backhave hell no more Wayne Manor. Look at that

last pale book as the issue ends. Holy crap.

Oh boy They really need to So that's the second

issue Wow this story ramped up quick We got we

got the setup of where everybody is and what

everybody's doing between what Joker and harley

are doing even though obviously harley's nowhere

near him yet with batman versus asriel with gordon

and barb like this second issue was jam -packed

full of stuff shawna's not uh not above spilling

all the the narrative on you real quick you know

what i'm saying gets a good little setup and

then he's just like bam you're in the middle

of it let's go well yeah that's the thing with

this the the second issue is that you get all

of the setup all the narrative stuff done up

until you show the back and forth between the

hack and the Azrael and his agents getting ready

to go to face off with Batman. Like, I've set

the charges in the mansion, move out! After that,

we get all action scenes of Batman trying to

save himself more than anything else, and then

it just... Ends with that one shot with the batmobile

with The mansion and everything blowing up and

and the Jeep I'm gonna call it a Jeep. It's not

a Jeep, but yeah Holy crap as truck Issue three

just what Gotham needs another colorful wacko,

right? Oh man, that's a lot of blown up bat parts.

I love the sound effects. Yeah, the sound effects

are amazing. It's a wet thud. And we have Grayson

and Gordon saving him. I got him. Get us out

of here, now. I'm coming up with one of my favorite

moments. Oh, really? Yes. Which is that? Harvey?

Yup. I left my ass off. Because this is where

I truly do hear the acting cast from the Taz.

Yup. I hear Harvey Bullock. Yup. In all of his

glory. Yup. Bruce Wayne? You gotta be kidding

me. Yup. Yeah, especially with how he's uh, how

he's drawn he looks just like Harvey from btas.

Yes So, yeah, absolutely. Oh man, it's just so

interesting So We get a boat to a helicopter

rescue and we get Bruce and Barbara As well as

everybody else here And Bruce says, I only caught

a glimpse of him. Strange mask, red cloak, big

sword. He used the Hatter to hack into the security

system and then he turned the entire Batcave

against me. I was able to regain control of the

Batmobile right before he detonated the entire

mansion. How did he find you? I think he was

sent by a woman named Ruth. again like we were

saying we have all this story stuff at the beginning

of this you know we have the conclusion of the

last issue with the action and then we get right

back into the dialogue and you know all of that

and apparently Ruth Ruth represents the elites

and they wanted him to cooperate by stopping

the Napier Initiative. I love the smug look on

Dick's face. And you let her walk right out of

your office? I had to. She knew about you and

Barbara. I had no way of knowing what someone

like that was capable of. And, you know, they

need Batman. Because that's the only way this

is gonna work. Or they need a Batman, at least.

Yeah, and I love that again, you know, we talked

earlier about the PTSD moments for JP With this,

you know at the end of this scene here before

Batman walks out Barbara says to him Bruce you

just lost your home Shouldn't you take some time

off? So you don't and then Harvey steps in turn

into a goddamn psycho and go off with the deep

end like last year And I love this. Joker thinks

he has all the cards. The only way to throw him

off is to surprise him. And the sad thing is,

what he wants to surprise him with almost has

zero effect. But this page here, this next panel

here, has what is easily my favorite Harley moment.

I want to say ever, because it's just... The

way he writes her and the way that he writes

her interacting with Batman is just so genius.

It starts with her trying to put this crib or

whatever together. If you need a screwdriver

to build this thing, then they should put one

in the goddamn box here. Creepiest handyman ever.

What do you want? I remember when we first decided

we were doing this. We're all settling in. You

sent us this panel because you were like this.

Yeah, she's not wrong. I mean, damn. Well, I

mean, one thing I really genuinely love between

White Knight and Curse of White Knight is you

see this relationship blossoming between Harley

and Batman and the fact that everybody else is

walking on eggshells when they're talking to

Batman. But Harley's just like, fuck you. Come

here, creepy bitch. Let's do this. I like this.

I like the relationship that they make between

her and not only Batman, but later Bruce Wayne.

I mean, it's wonderful writing because she just

she doesn't give him what he's expecting. It's

always the opposite. And it's wonderful to watch

it because it creates this playful banter that

is Really enjoyable to read yeah playful banter

as well as heartfelt banter because it goes on

to say I Thought a lot about you over the last

year how you turned the city against me You know

what the worst part about it was her reply getting

beat by a girl It was losing my family you're

not a family you're a bunch of weirdos and tights

when you're an orphan you make family wherever

you can find it and then and that just softens

her completely it basically melts her oh i didn't

know you were an orphan no offense but that kind

of explains a lot in this moment everything changed

yeah well i mean and that's the thing i mean

they're finally actually getting to see One another

versus just things being said that don't necessarily

mean anything and are entirely playful, right?

Like you said it turns into heartfelt banter

because they're finally lowering those walls

that they've had against each other for so long

with good reason Yeah, and again this entire

like This entire panel is just, like we just

said, it turns into a little bit of banter, a

little bit of fun, then it turns emotional. And

he goes on to say, it's not a trick. Liar. You'd

know if I was lying to you. Even if we got him

back, who's to say he'll stay that way? I'm about

to be a mom. It's not just about me anymore.

I won't let him hurt you, Harley. I promise.

And he takes the cowl off. I need you to trust

me. Again, like... I'm glad the White Knight

and Curse of the White Knight stuff is only eight

issues, but there are so many moments in each

of these three issues so far where I'm like,

okay, you could stop the book right there and

go on to the fourth issue. And this is another

one of those moments where she's left speechless

after he takes the cowl off. Right. To get Harley

speechless, that's a feat right there. Yeah.

And then we get... What is probably the saddest

scene? Not emotional, just sad and cruel and

oh my god. It just... Joker. I hate that guy.

Where he says patience, Batsy, this is just the

setup, there's a lot you don't know. I heard

Mark Hamill right there. What an interrogation

scene, though. Joker looks bored, though, through

half of it. He really does. He's like, I'm just

going to regale you with, you know, shit I found

and ruin your life with it. But anyways. And

Bruce is like, Lafayette Arkham. And we get to

see Joker as Futurist, which is kind of brilliant,

too. Yep. Because he's like, well, shit. He recovers

fairly nicely, though. I mean, it doesn't take

him for too long to recover. Right if Joker won't

cooperate. I know someone who will all this will

be good and She addresses Jack and and Jokers

like Oh Lord, can't you take a hint it again?

I swear to God I hear mark because it's over

it just I hear him in my head This is really

a fucked -up scene though it is supremely because

this This really solidifies for people who have

watched the Harley Joker like even way before

this Yeah, I'm pulling out Everything there are

no there's nothing that is out out of bounds

in this the scene and for him to be like, okay,

well You know, I suppose I could spare a few

bucks. I mean, one of the brats is basically

mine, but I'll have to abort Napier's Batman.

I don't suppose you have a utility belt that

has your your utility belt has a coat hanger.

I'm just like, yeah, I mean, I'm in Harley's

corner. You son of a bitch. Yeah. Like, you know,

and Harley says that a lot in this one that she's

not willing and she doesn't want to suffer anymore

at the hands of this man like she's She needs

that closure that Jack is fully and utterly gone

in order to move on. And now that she has these

two little ones, you know, her role is shifting

because it's no longer just about her. And I

love that. I love the fact that not only is he

creating his own canon while still pulling on

previous canon, but he's doing so in a way that

is still world building. Yeah. And the fact that

only a pregnant lady could hold back Batman,

I mean, come on You see there's more and that's

like, oh shit He's like dad yeah, but I mean

and that's the funny thing like it is like zero

to fucking 180 really really quickly because

she's like, oh no, I've heard worse and then

he's like, oh, okay challenge accepted Then suddenly

it's like, okay It's so hilarious, but it's not

yeah it really is not hilarious at all, but it's

a moment where again, it's Batman the Joker and

Harley and it's The three of them and all of

their personalities and it's her Stepping up

for horrors. There are a lot of times where Harley

can't or won't Defend herself against the Joker

in certain stories and certain depictions of

the character because she just Can't she's like

like Joker says, you know victimhood is your

superpower there have been times in Harley's

illustrious career in the comics and things where

she hasn't been able to Resist his charm and

not stay with like here. She's completely away

from him She wants to have her kids and be done

with it. I'm sure she deep down She wants Jack

back because Jack is not the Joker It's a set

again. That's why I love what Sean is doing here

with the separate personality the fact that it's

almost like I kinda wish there isn't a microchip,

but I kinda wish there was a microchip on Joker's

neck because it would remind me of Batman Beyond

Return of the Joker when he implanted a microchip

on Tim Drake. And he became Tim when he needed

to and he became the Joker when he wanted to.

And that's the way I see the Joker Jack thing

here. But it's one of those things with this

scene again, like I said. Only a pregnant Harley

Quinn could hold back Batman and not have him

basically pummel the Joker to hell and back Uh

-huh. That's right. Well, and I also like what

you brought up where you were saying there were

times where Harley Quinn wouldn't or couldn't

step up to fight back against Joker Yeah, what

Sean Murphy's version does is it gives us a different

point of view to look back on those stories and

be like Well, maybe this is why maybe you know

that whole time she's been sitting here hoping

and knowing not only who is inside of the Joker

but is afraid to leave because she feels like

she would be letting Jack Napier down. Yeah.

So we get to the outside of Arkham what I assume

is Arkham here because they're carting prisoners

away. Sorry, I wasn't able to help not even the

shock of being a father was enough to reach him

I guess maybe Jack's gone for good and Batman's

like, I'm not so sure and then poor croc He doesn't

have a rock to throw at him, right? This is another

way to set stuff up because you're getting to

see all of these, you know familiar faces and

Being let into these these carriers to get them

to a new location and I like that because we're

getting to see Characters that will be making

you know, yeah, reappearances Yeah, absolutely.

I actually like their version of croc. I think

he's cool And Again Batman and Harley's Relationship

here I get I'm gonna call it a relationship because

it just is She doubles over in pain. You okay?

Yeah, just a false alarm more common with twins,

I guess So is that all you're gonna call it a

relationship because she says lead the way bae

Yeah, exactly. That's what I was getting to you

up for a walk lead the way bae and i'm like,

oh he used that term Creeps me out It just that

is not it's just it's just not a term I Recognize

for relationships, but I find it funny the way

she says it here And then of course Batman has

to deliver Her children And I thought I don't

know I'm sure obviously Sean planned this but

they go to the cell and they go down into the

secret you know compartment here and they find

the other body and If I'm remembering right,

she gives birth in that cell, I want to say.

Yeah, but that's a little bit further along.

That's further along, that's right. So they go

down there, they find another body. They get

back to Gordon and Montoya and Duke and Bullock

and all of that. I love that he can focus on

this. He can take part of this issue and focus

on the police part of it. I think that is super

awesome that he does that. I agree. I mean, I

really like that Jim is not only stepping down,

but he's saying to Montoya, he's like, you know,

if anybody's going to take over my home, it's

you. And you have not only my backing, but you

have the rest of the GCPD's backing. Right. And

honestly, out of the GCPD officers and detectives

and things like that, she's the only one I could

see being commissioner because Bullock's too

much of a, go ahead Ed, what are you going to

say? Bullock's an idiot. Yeah, he is. I was going

to say he's, he's too much of a bulldozer. He's

too much of a in your, like he's, he's the least.

politically correct person in this entire. I

was about to say, he's a PR nightmare. Yeah,

he is. And then, oh. I mean, his little pink

taco comment just. Yeah. At least sums up Bullock

in like one small sentence. Pretty much, yeah.

On PC, you know, doesn't give a shit. Gordon

goes out and gets ready to leave and oh I was

hoping to run into you Batman oh this hurts yeah

this one's hard yeah this one's really hard I

had to pause after this because I was like damn

man yeah that's not that's not Batman We get

back to Arkham and Yep Here goes Harley here

goes dr. Batman and again Yep, yep with their

with their relationship. Yeah Yeah, it is so

good I swear to God I'll make you fight a pregnant

woman Oh shit, what are we gonna do now? Yeah,

absolutely And then I go right back right It

is very painful. Jim can't even get his gun pulled

out before and everybody runs out and we see

Asriel holding him. Tell Barbara I love her and

I couldn't be more proud. That made me tear up

because holy crap, you know. Obviously the last

thing he's gonna say is about his daughter because

he I don't think he's with his wife anymore I

don't think he's with I Don't think that's part

of this universe and honestly, I'm kind of glad

because it's one of those things where I Have

never understood why they named his wife Barbara

and his daughter, but I I only found that out

like in the in the Gail Simone Batgirl series

and I'm like really his wife's name Barbara?

That's a little weird. Well it's the same thing

as having the male spawn take over the you know

the name of his dad before him. It's no different.

And you know who are you? I am the devil. Azrael

sent you. And holy crap. Oh boy. Yeah. You know,

even that, that's painful enough on its own,

but then you get this lovely inset panel where

you see not only Rene Duke and Harvey as the

shock registers with each one of them. Yeah,

that is so, yeah. That is so good. Because the

cigarette falls. And you see there, you know,

and then after Jim gets shot, they get shot.

Or at least Harvey gets shot. Wow. Like, I'll

be completely honest. I have never been the biggest

fan of Harvey Bullock's character. But Sean makes

it almost impossible not to at least have some

kind of respect for Harvey in this series. Absolutely.

I think it depends on how he's played. I think

for me, I loved him in BTAS. I thought that was

a really good portrayal of the character. That's

the main portrayal I remember. Because I'm sorry,

Eckhart in 89 was not Harvey. It might have looked

like a Harvey version, but it was not Harvey

Bullock. We get to the fourth issue. You and

I chose this and so did your father. Well, hold

on. We got to pay homage to the fall. To the

fall? Yeah, oh Man, it just it's so bloody I

know and I know it's painful, but we got to pay

homage to it It was a tough scene to read the

first read -through. I'll tell you that right

now. Yeah, I was like holy shit Yeah, that was

pretty much exactly the same response we had

because we were like alright so not only have

we lost Alfred Mm -hmm, but now we've lost Jim

Gordon Yeah, I mean when Sean promised that we

as readers were going to see things that Have

been done or that haven't been done in this universe.

He he definitely delivered on that promise my

god Yep I would never in my life if I thought

that I would have read a story where as real

took out Jim Gordon and this was so So painful

painful, powerful, it just all of it. It's just

one of those things where Sean's universe just

does things that you would not normally see and

that is both a good and a bad thing. When I say

good and bad, it's more of like, like we just

said, oh, holy shit, that's horrible that that

happened. And it just leaves you with a feeling

of again, like I said earlier. If I was reading

this single issue, I would be jumping out of

my skin waiting for issue four the next month

to find out what, I mean, obviously we know he

killed Gordon. Yeah. But, you know, to find out

what is the, you know, where do they go from

here kind of thing. And where we go from here

is a flashback. To when Barbara was little Yeah,

oh man, I Am so glad that they that he put this

in here This is so good Yeah The pain keeps coming

Yeah Sean just knows how to grab a hold them

heartstrings and oh he does absolutely yeah does

it with Perfection in each and every time that

he that he does it. Yeah And for half of a second

as she she isn't but in the flashback where she's

wearing her pink dress and yellow jacket and

Then we get to the to the current scene where

she's in the yellow shirt for half a second I

thought it was a yellow jacket like she was a

little girl. It's meant to foreshadow her whatever

that to look at the same but it's like oh man

Kendra's over here getting teary -eyed I really

am like I'm trying to help myself over here yeah

it's not it's it's just crazy crazy stuff going

on here well because these are panels and again

this is just a kudos to his writing style These

are panels that you want to look away from. You

don't want to read them. Because you know what

happened, what just happened, like having to

face a flashback as the first part of the of

the next issue. Right. It's like, oh, my God.

You know, you're going to give me a heart attack

over here. All right. Like the one I think that

it's the hardest is it's where she's like, bye,

dad, I love you. Yep, and then he's like goodbye

pumpkin. Yep, and you know, yeah. Oh, yeah, you

know Because that's just it's just I thought

you were gonna be the one to cry first and here

I am. Ah I'm almost crying but that's That's

for other comics, not for this one. I'm glad

you cried first for this one. That's the other

series we review on this podcast. I haven't cried

yet for Radiant Black, but if I do, you're going

to get it, Kyle. Yeah, and then we cut back to

the GTO and we see Barbara talking to Bullock

and Montoya and Duke. They managed to escape

with all three of you there. Barbara, we were

just as upset as you were. He was murdered while

you were getting drunk. Okay, 66, TAS, Tumblr,

and then 89. Best Batmobile shot of the entire

book. I don't know, man. The one right before

it is probably one of the warm, hard -hitting

ones where it's Bruce just as Batman. Holding

Gordon. Holding Gordon, yeah. No, but I'm saying,

like, to see all the Batmobiles in the garage

here, to actually see the difference between

each of them, that's what I was saying about

the Batmobiles as far as being one of the, because

once he decides, oh, hey, I'm going to use 89,

because that's what he uses later. So, you know,

we get to the more of the story here. You know,

where Barbara's like, why go after my dad? I

thought they were only trying to kill Batman

because of the Napier initiative. If your father

became mayor, he would have become a bigger threat

to them. No, they killed him because of you,

because of what you started. He believed in you.

Oh man, she goes off and. I pray my gosh, man.

And I mean, we get a really great one coming

up with her name on Toya because Mmm, Grayson

just wants to comfort Babs and Renee's like no

let her go and he's like who the hell put you

in charge and she's like James Gordon James goddamn

Gordon did Yep, you just feel the pain from them.

And I mean, it's just it's this entire beginning

is a beautiful like Yes, it's painful, but you

see just how much he meant to these people. Yeah,

absolutely and they're trying to figure out what

the next move is and I love this scene. So it's

It's Montoya Dick Duke and Bullock along with

Batman here And Duke says the way they flanked

us outside the bar the way they planted explosives

at Wayne Manor I smell ex -military and Montoya's

like agreed check this check that bullet go back

and have another look at the crime scene and

take Grayson with you We're all targets now,

so no one leaves this building alone. And that

goes for you, too. Batman? Seriously, did he

just disappear before I finished speaking? God,

that must have driven Gordon nuts. Some great

live in you for, you know, to end a really heartbreaking

couple of pages, honestly. Yeah. And we get Batman

going to see Harley and the twins and Leslie

Tompkins, yay! Hey, hold on a second. What? This

middle panel here where he comes through the

window and Harley's laying there in the bed unconscious

and everything. Uh -huh. Notice that her hospital

gown has her Harley symbol on the sleeve. Yeah,

it has three diamonds. I'm just like, damn, she's

ready for everything. Of course she is. I don't

miss. Yeah. Yeah, that is very cool. I mean,

it's so simple, but a nice little, you know,

like, yeah, that's Harley in the bed nod. Yeah,

you know, and we have a really, really emotional

scene here with Leslie going back and forth.

You know, she finds out that he's planning on

telling the whole city and. He's like there's

something else Gordon was killed tonight and

just Him breaking down in her arms is just you

know, we mentioned earlier about him as Batman

with the mask off, you know hugging Gordon or

laying over Gordon's body in the bed and all

that and now we have this scene and it's like

Murphy He wants he grabbed a holder by his heartstrings

and didn't let go for this one we have a nice

little Grayson and Gordon moment here with Babs

and dick and and I understand her anger and I

think it's great that she's showing that here

first, but I Just hope that they can kind of

come together at some point or another And I

love their exchange and I love what Dick says

to her as he goes to leave. He says, I'm not

in the habit of defending him, but you're not

being fair. You and I chose this and so did your

father. If you need me, you know where to find

me. He goes back to looking for the truck and

she finds it on the security footage and customized

military vehicle from the 1970s. That's got to

be it. Yeah, and we cut back to Leslie and Bruce

and Huh, so Alfred finally told you about the

journal you knew What do you think helped him

get it? The two of you took it from the Joker

And I love this flashback, this is so good. Yeah

It's just one of those moments That is just so

good and I did not expect The guy to show up

that shows up And I didn't even I didn't recognize

him at first I was like not until he said his

name and I'm like, ooh Right, please tell me

Please tell me we're going to get a few demon

moments here, please! Because I would love to

see Etrigan in Sean Murphy style. I just want

to see Etrigan, period. Yeah. Because I love

the man. Gone! Gone! The form of man! Rise, the

demon Etrigan! The fact that Jason Blood took

the journal from the Joker, and I love Alfred,

you'll find I don't respond well to warnings.

I am here to - I am here to help you, Mr. Pennyworth.

The journal is a gift for Bruce. As his guardian,

I'll count on you to give it to him when you

think he's ready. Unless he's like, Alfred, put

that away. Doesn't have to, because Jason Blood's

like, I'm out. He's out. He's gone. And it's

just, again, it's a mystery of Gotham and it's

a mystery of the Waynes and the Bakars and All

of that So good You have Barbara suiting up Yeah,

pretty much yeah, she's a lot of big -ass guns,

yep This is it though. This is where even if

I had any Misgivings or any hatred in my heart

towards Bullock left Mm -hmm. This completely

erases it. Yeah Yep at a girl you drive. Yep

that line right there and then taking on arresting

him. No, I don't It is it's absolutely gorgeous

yeah And I love you know Batman come in back

girl and bullock are missing what Took the tumbler

and turned off the GPS tracker. I assume you

installed backup locators on all the batmobiles

without telling any of us The one thing that

I think in this line that that that that Sean

should have done or the letter or whomever. Okay,

yes. Have the question mark at where it says

Batmobiles and then without telling any of us

should have been an exclamation point because

really it really is more of an exclamation than

a question because let's face it, Batman doesn't

tell them much most times. Yeah. Batman and his

secrets. That's right. Here take your pills.

I don't need no pills. God will don't start that

shit You have two choices die on your ass from

cancer or die on your feet like a soldier. So

take them Well, if that ain't some inspiring

words right It's like either die or die whatever

Yep, so the Batmobile is going after the military

vehicle. The military vehicle is doing their

own thing because JP's like, to hell with Ruth,

she forgets whose valley this is. And yeah, Barbara

basically crashes the Tumbler into the vehicle

and it goes off into the river. Batman, worse.

No, we got Punisher Babs sitting there yeah for

you know Barbara what are you thinking? He's

alive Of course, he's alive. He's Batman. What

do you expect? I mean, come on And we get Getting

Batman versus Azrael and this is your destiny.

This is your retribution This is God's will I

Know about so man and this is a moment where

I I lose a little bit of respect for Bruce Wayne

Batman as a whole Because he could have put a

stop to what was getting ready to happen and

he did Harvey basically tells him I said shoot

him All right, like he had time he had Time to

do this and he hesitates Well, okay. So you okay.

So you look at the scene where you see as real

and you see Harvey and Batman in the in the in

the background there Batman is holding a gun

Harvey tells him to shoot him you get closer

up on them You see the look in his eyes You see

the look in the in the frown on Batman's face

where you're right. He does hesitate And that

hesitation costs him because Asriel grabs Barbara

and then Batman grabs him. And this is broke.

Yep. Yeah, she does, doesn't she? Oh, shit, I

completely almost missed that this time. That's

right. Oh, well, hello. Bye, bad girl. Hello,

Oracle. Right. Lord, you know we have this is

God's will and we have Batman saying I know about

Edmund and the car and I don't care What you

think we took from you the Waynes have always

been the rightful protectors of Gotham and always

will be I Agree what? right Yeah, it's like wait

a minute, what's he talking about and They're,

um, they're, uh, Azrael's minions here wanting

him to retreat and... Only one. True. Gabriel.

Gabriel. Yep. And, uh, Grayson's like, Barbara,

where's Barbara? Oh, man. That last panel. Oh.

Yes. Oh. I'm kinda glad it's not a full panel.

It's just one little sliver It's not a full splash

page because if we had a full splash page in

the at the end of issue four of Batman holding

Barbara like he held Todd because that's what

this reminds me of is the Jason Todd scene, right?

I mean, it's like holy crap But see where the

Jason Todd I'm gonna here's my unpopular opinion

ladies and gents where the Jason Todd was not

necessarily Bruce's fault. That was fully on

the shoulders of Joker. You're right. No, yeah,

this is absolutely Bruce's fault. The fact that

Barbara got her back broke. Absolutely. It is

her fault. It is his fault, I should say. Yeah,

I know. And you see that look on his face because

you see, you know, as these panels progress to

the end, Barbara, where is Barbara? You see him

coming out of the fire with her and you see the

look on Bruce's face and he knows his eyes Yeah,

his eyes are closed and his teeth are gridded

and he doesn't have the mask on he doesn't have

a cowl on you see that Batman is Bruce Wayne

and you see him holding Barbara Gordon and Yeah,

it is absolutely his fault and holy crap these

first four issues Wow Just wow. I love that they

let Sean Gordon Murphy do this universe. I love

that he has these ideas that he gives us and

he gives us these various homages to things,

but he tells a story that is not only funny at

times with certain things, but basically just

punches you right in the gut at every turn. Yeah.

every turn. As soon as you think you're safe,

some randomness comes along and hits you right

back in the gut again. Exactly. Absolutely. So

many tales being told at once where he's got

all of these different threads. There's all of

this potential that something could go wrong

and in his case, it's not like that. It's exactly

the opposite. Everything not only lines up but

it fits together perfectly. It lines up and fits

together and and and all of that but it's one

of those things where It lines up in such a ass

backwards way that it makes so much sense of

the way to tell the story right and that's where

we leave off with part one of this podcast because

Holy crap, that was a lot. That was just four

issues That was just four issues, which means

basically, oh my god, this is going to be the

Pull Bag's first ever four -hour podcast. Holy

crap. Woo -hoo! We'll be back after this, folks.

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was a long commercial break, folks. Wow. girl

is dead it's Batman's fault no she's not dead

I know I know I know I know she's not dead we

get into issue five and holy crap that cover

that Joker cover oh man with the gun and the

purple in the shirt and like oh my god right

it's Purdy uh -huh yep And we start with the

funeral of Jim Gordon, of course. Right back

into the pain. Pretty much, yeah. I mean, and

that's cool. That's good. I mean, leaving off

on the imagery of Batgirl or Barbara's back being

broken going right into the funeral of her father.

That's, yeah, but we're right back into the middle

of things here. We took a commercial break because

we're so emotional, but we've got thrust right

back into it. That's what she said. So we have

the the overarching news coverage here during

the funeral Beautiful by the way. Yes Yes And

yeah, so the news lady person basically says

we've become so politically divided over Jack

Napier and the events of last year Shouting with

ever -increasing volume, calling each other names,

and refusing to see ourselves as a family, we're

living in a constant storm. And like the eye

of a hurricane passing overhead, Jim Gordon's

death has given us a moment of calm. Today Gotham

unites over the pain we're all feeling. But we're

not just united in our sadness, we're united

in our fear. Because we all know the storm isn't

over, and it's hard to imagine surviving without

Jim Gordon. So yeah newscasting I've ever heard

Most honest reporting I've ever heard outside

of the local guy here in in Oregon and Washington

We know seriously we have a news broadcast out

here called the story. It's on KGW 8 It's with

Dan Haggerty and they basically do local news

only on it because around it they have like Lester

Holt and all that and everything else. So they're

like, yeah, we'll leave the national stuff to

the net unless it's absolutely like obviously

COVID big national news, but most of the time

the half hour news program that he does is just

Specific local things, which is really cool.

All right and I can so hear this in in Lauren

Lester and I'm gonna say Tara strong because

I don't think Who is the original background

voice in BTAS Oh God Because it wasn't Tara originally

she she took over the role. But anyway Yeah,

I so hear Lauren Lester and and Tara strong.

Hmm. No sign of Bruce because he's a coward Barbara

already getting spiteful Well, you know, she

kind of has a right to, I would think. I mean,

her father is dead. You get your back broken

by the same dude, so... Yeah. That had to be

found because he was wrestling a pregnant chick.

As her water broke. Right? Oh, sorry, it's, you

know, I'm seeing the Bat Boat here and he's underwater

now, so I'm like, oh, hey, look. It's metaphors

and he's going down to st. Dumas this this cross

that's underwater and Interesting We cut back

to The GTO headquarters where the hell of you

being banned James Gordon died because of you

and you're too busy to attend the goddamn funeral

Bullock Like it's what I love about Bullock and

Montoya is Obviously, she's always the one most

of the time with the exception of when she basically

told dick that she's his boss now because Jim

made her the boss but like between her and Bullock

it's like She's the scalpel and Bullock is the

sledgehammer Please more bulldozer than anything

true, but I mean He's a wrecking ball. Yeah.

So what are you guys thinking so far in this

one, Kendra? I mean, for where we're at... Edward's

showing me the picture. For where we're at...

I mean, it's emotional. It's emotion in... Every

sense of the word and it's something that's palpable

that you can feel Barbara has every right to

be upset as do those the members of the GCPD

But you know above and beyond Batman being there

for Harley Bruce is human and a lot of people

kind of forget that He didn't think that he would

be welcomed and not only that he thought that

it would actually anger people and that's something

that's a true fear for some people and He didn't

feel like he thought he thought it would cause

more problems than it would solving things. So

I mean, I gave him a pass. Should he have been

there? Absolutely. Yeah. Should he be, you know,

attached to the cross for it? No. No, not at

all. And I love how how Bullock's like, so how

the hell do we move forward? And Batman's like

by focusing on the work. Well done. Holds up

an ancient ass floppy disk, too Yep And we get

into the backstory of Edmund Wayne It's a great

mustache Yeah, there aren't many people that

can pull off a good mustache I'm sorry. I know

that that's not what they were pulling from but

I cannot look at this man without seeing it.

Yeah You know if you paint his face white and

give him some green hair Caesar Romero, hello,

right? That's also true Maybe that was the homage

they were like kind of like hinting at but I

got princess bride vibe So I don't know because

honestly until recently I as a kid watching 66

in the 80s I never noticed the the fact that

he still had the handlebar massage of a mustache

underneath the makeup Never noticed it as an

eight -year -old. I'm a girl, but I always noticed

Because I could see the makeup yeah like clumping

around his hairs And I was like why I always

wondered why they didn't just shave him because

he refused to shave and I didn't know that yeah,

it was part of a Look he was just like no I'll

never shave not that it ever took away from his

characterization of the Joker, but It was just

something that I noticed Joker was too lazy to

shave Joker's like, fuck it, I'm gonna have a

green mustache. He's an agent of chaos, why not?

Right. And I love how they're all talking and

figuring out what's going on with the, you know,

after we see the Edmunds scene, like, we cut

back to the present and, you know, pretty wild

theory. How can you be sure? Which is what Duke

says and... Batman goes on to say the narrow

piece of land that separates the reservoir from

Gotham City isn't a natural formation. And Bullock's

like, I don't have the freaking patience for

this. And I laughed so hard when, when Bullock

says this land deals, religious cults, a vampire

named Laffey. I'm like, yeah, I mean, it's very

78 Superman of them, isn't it? Land deals. Oh

Lex you moron. Not to mention wigs, tories, and

some underwater scoby -doo mystery from 60 -2

gives a shit. I love that we all turned into

bullock the first four issues without even knowing

we were gonna be. So hilarious. Yeah, and um...

Dick goes on to say Joker said something during

the interrogation Gotham is drowning in secrets

Is this what he meant and Batman's like, yes

Wonder what why he gave you that clue. The clue

didn't come from the Joker Batman goes off to

Do Batman stuff Well, I mean he technically already

did the Batman stuff the babies are born at this

point so I mean You already did the deed And

I again I love how Murphy does the exchanges

between Batman and Harley Yes, it is so good

So interesting and hey look she finally got those

cribs built too Well, she had those done when

Batman did it. Creepiest candy man ever. True,

true. And he basically wants her to go not necessarily

alone, but he can't go to the Joker because if

he's there, that's what the Joker wants, is what

he's saying to her. I love when she goes in here,

where's Jack? Where is he, Jack? Where is Asriel?

And the message written in blood, what did it

say? Jesus, you again? I thought I made myself

clear. Where is he? Batman's not coming. I just

love. Love how Harley is portrayed in this. It

is so good. Yes. Yes, Sean's portrayal. Harley

throughout the entirety of White Knight and Curse

of the White Knight has been probably my favorite

iteration of her that I've actually ever read.

What the hell was that? Don't get me wrong. I

really do love what he's building with Harley,

but I think that once his wife jumps on and they

do the White Knight Presents Harley, that's where

she really and truly shines. Well, yeah. But

it's all yeah, it's still his And I I love the

transformation and I love basically her just

saying Okay. Goodbye. I Love you. I say this

this iteration of Harley for these two only really

blossoms into my favorite when Katana Collins

comes into play and we get to see Harley in a

different light where it's expanded upon with

her being the mom. I will say that this is probably

the best representation of the Joker -Harley

relationship that I have seen. It has been explored

in depth. It has been given a completely different

point of view where it is a logical and understandable

conclusion for their relationship. Yeah. And

again, it's because he's playing, Sean is playing

the Joker and Jack as two separate characters.

It's not, it's not Jack Nicholson Napier where

he just puts on the makeup and he is still Napier

and he is still the Joker. It's not that at all.

It's, these are two, like I said earlier in the

episode, two distinct different characters. And

I think that's interesting that basically Jack

is trapped in the Joker's, you know, their two

personalities are trapped in the same body. I

love too about the two different color eyes kind

of representing the two of them. You know, you

see it predominantly with the Joker, obviously,

because he's the one who's got the reins most

of the time, but... When you see that, you're

just like, oh, that's cool. Nice little nuance

there. Yeah. Yeah, it is very nuanced. And that's

the interesting and good thing about this whole

universe that Murphy is creating here is that

the nuances is where it gets you. We go back

to the GCPD or GTO or whatever you want to call

it. Before he died Gordon put a round into Azrael

DNA from the blood just came back attaboy Kamish

Gotta love Harvey. You gotta love the lug And

we and the GCPD get info on who the Azrael and

his his compatriots are so that's good. Sorry,

we're being hacked by a German Shepherd. Oh Lord

Good now see you're not supposed to have your

dogs on a podcast So Jack comes out so Duke says,

you know reveals that John Paul Valley has cancer

in its terminal We cut back to the prison. They're

so beautiful. I'm so sorry. I couldn't be there.

It's okay. I had Batman Batman delivered my children.

Born exactly where the Joker was born at Laffey's

grave. Jesus, if that isn't dripping with irony,

maybe there really is a curse. That line right

there, Batman delivered, like I see, like that's

one of those lines where it's like, which episode

is it? Is it Mad Love? I think it's Mad Love.

Boring. Lame. Like, I saw here Hamill in Batman

to live with my children? Oh god, it's so Hamill.

And she's trying to have him concentrate on where

Asriel is and... And she's trying to learn where

Ezreal is and where, you know, what the blood

message says. And yeah, it's very, very emotional.

Great artwork, too. I mean, the panel with her

and him standing at the bottom of the page with

the sword bursting in flame is really beautiful.

Yeah, it is. Oh, the tone changes. Right. Yeah,

the tone totally changes. The tone changes throughout

the almost the whole scene like you have the

start of the scene like I said with you know

them in the prison and Whatever and then as soon

as he says flaming sword Whoosh there we go it

the entire thing changes the colors change everything

changes and You know, we also travel to where

where the you know into the Joker's cell where

Laffey was buried. What does it say? And he's

like, I'll tell you, but you cannot tell Batman.

What? Why? Because it will destroy him. Oh Lord.

Yeah, it's another one of those moments where,

again, this issue could have ended and we could

have picked up with Ruth and Asriel here. We're

ending our arrangement, you've become a liability.

Just the emotional tone of that last scene with

Jack and Harley. Oh, it's so good. And I love

how they will eventually, they haven't yet, but

they will eventually say that it's Jack and Harleen.

I think that is so good. Yeah. When they're not,

you know, they're other personalities. When they're

Jack and Harley not yeah Harley yeah And oh look

we get a new Batman suit It's so pretty I guess

the red was too much I mean, it's a badass suit

though nice playoff of his as rail armor from

the original Batman Nightfall series. Yep, absolutely

and Yeah, quite literally randomly Bane. I did

not even realize that that was going to happen.

If you want to break the bat, who are you really

going to call in? Are you going to call in somebody

who has no experience breaking the bat? Or are

you going to call in the one man who has? Well,

the thing is though is in this universe Bane

never broke Batman. I don't care. I mean, he's

literally just a thug in this. He's kind of literally

invisible until he shoulder tackles somebody.

Yeah, exactly. Bane. Plant. Bomb. Okay, but we

all know what happened outside of this universe.

So for me, it was a logical conclusion. True.

I mean, I guess? I don't know. I just feel like

Bane is too much of a - I don't want to say -

Or maybe they wanted to redshirt him. I mean,

it's not like they made him that strong. Yeah,

no. He really doesn't. Mean I'm gonna go out

and be like a little bit of a Bain fan here for

a second And say that he should have lasted a

little bit longer than whoo. I Forgot what like

I okay so folks. I know this is a long podcast

We're almost into our three at this point most

likely But it's one of those hour two, hour three.

It all blends together for me at this point.

But it's one of those things where, quite literally,

I have read all eight of these issues. I've read

this trade twice in the last month to prepare

for this recording. And I completely forgot that

Bain gets to get decapitated. Completely forgot

about it. And I'm like, holy shit. Right? Holy

shit. Yeah. bane what lasted a whopping three

pages yeah at least he got his one line in right

after i break you yeah break yeah yeah break

this break your head off with a sword is what

it's gonna break bane yeah again it just it just

goes to show you that this universe that the

shawn's universe you Don't want to I really don't

want to compare Sean's universe to what I'm gonna

compare it to but I have to because of the quote

Expect the unexpected. This is the big brother

of Batman essentially because you never know

what the hell is gonna happen Batman Survivor

series What'd you say I said challenge accepted

yes Bane makes the quote he's like the exposed

tube is a challenge to my enemies to come in

close if they dare to cut it as rails like Challenge

accepted, and then lobs his head off. Yup. Alrighty

then. Alrighty then is right. And that's not...

And, you know, Asriel turns to her, or turns

to... Who's he talking to? Ruth. Yeah, he is

talking to Ruth. I want a list of your clients,

the names of every elite. What for? You really

have to ask. Really? You have to ask why he wants

that list? Now listen, you rich people weep and

wail because of the misery that is coming on

you. Your wealth has rotted and moths have eaten

your clothes. Your gold and silver are corroded.

And that corrosion will eat your flesh like fire!

Wait till I tell you. Ah, or wait, I'll tell

you. I would hurry. What a... Interesting way

to end that entire exchange, because yikes. See

Jean -Paul going off a deep end here. Actually,

off a deep end last issue, but... Yeah, I mean,

he's continuing his descent. Yeah, he's going

spelunking. Yes. And... Cave of, I'm a bad guy.

Okay, I want to say it's a Ferrari, but it looks

like a Lamborghini to me. Of course. Is it a

Porsche? God, I can't tell. I was trying to look

at the emblem. But yes, Harley has a red Porsche.

Did it work? You were right. Jack's alive and

he told me where Joker found Asriel and she lies

to him. You know, what about the message on the

wall? He doesn't know. But Jack said he'll try

to help us in other ways. How? I don't know.

We'll just have to wait and see. Actually, I

think that's Bruce's car Is it? Yeah, it's out

of the driver's seat in the first panel. Oh,

that's yeah Okay, you're right. I didn't well

I Hey, I wouldn't surprise me if Harley had a

red Porsche. I mean, come on Fair enough. Yeah,

but she would have traded that up the minute.

She knew she was gonna be a mom true Minivan

Minivan Harley That's almost like seeing a Oh,

what is it? It's Optimus and Megatron one division

style or something no Megatron and Starscream

that's what it is Megatron and Starscream one

division style. Oh Lord Weird to me that he's

not in costume and as they drive away You don't

have to trust him bats trust just trust me And

I'm like, damn, it's just so weird to have her

call him that and he's not in costume. Notice

also, there's a guy in the guard booth that's

dead. Right. Oh, shit. I didn't notice that.

Damn. Okay. Of his face. Yeah. Of course, that's

a perfect lead into the next page. So. Yep, pretty

much. everybody's dying now well as real comes

in there and as joker says clears out the competition

pretty much yeah I mean we get oh croc we get

you know freaking Ivy two -face mr. freeze because

it says Sutton yeah Like three times I was like,

there's no way dude. Yeah, that's not a little

kid is yeah I want to know who the little girl

is. I don't recognize her I think that I think

and I could be wrong. I think that might be baby

doll. I Didn't even think about that It's the

only one I could think of that would be that

small that would be in prison for anything in

Batman's world. I Mean Crocs here baby dolls

good not far behind you know like we said the

ventriloquist and I think Harvey's death hits

me the most because basically just oh That's

creepy, that's just creepy it basically slicing

him down the middle of his face Yeah Nice. I

didn't notice that before my first read. What?

Joker's eyes actually got the Batman symbol inside

of it. That is neat. Yep. That's cool. Yeah,

one of them does. That's very cool. Now when

he goes, uh, clearing out the competition I see,

how'd you get past security? They let me walk

right in. And why would they do that? Because

I'm Batman. I'm Batman, but I'm not really Batman.

No, he's have a giant flaming sword. Yes And

I did not notice the cover to the next issue

before I did but I didn't that as real bat is

Obviously looming over the city, but it's Bane

with with bat, you know, you know Basically chokeholding

our Batman and I'm like, wait a minute didn't

Bane die in the last issue Like I get it. It's

a cool ass cover, but come on That's crazy here

I was worried this would be too easy and Yeah,

I mean Archimand their people man, you know say

what you want to say about these criminals about

these super criminals, but They did not deserve

this That's a that's just a straight -up bloodbath

up in there man. Yeah It looks like kill it everybody

in the building just getting up the Joker So,

I'm like, damn! See, Batman would've snuck in,

done what he needed to do, and got the hell out,

not, like, kill everybody in the building. Yeah.

Yeah, it was bad. Yep. I love Joker. Little surprised

to see you helping, Jervis. No hard feelings

about what happened last year with Clayface and

What's -her -face? I just love that. Ah, so that's

why you're here. Don't wait for us. We'll find

our own little rabbit hole Tell her Joker says

hello I think this should have been one of the

lines and I I mean as much as I love and it's

it's Sean's universe and he can do what he wants

But I think the line that Joker says sorry goes

and that when you drink too much from the bottle

marked poison It's certain to disagree with you

sooner or later That's a Really horrible, horrible

line, but... Don't you dare quote Lewis Carroll

at me. That's why it's perfect, I'm sorry. Exactly.

That's why it is so perfect. Tell when you're

lying, Harley. What are you talking about? You're

keeping something from me. Something Jackson.

You don't trust me. I do trust you. So I'm hoping

you have a good reason or maybe there's nothing

and you're just being paranoid Again because

she now knows and because of what you know, he

told her that he's an orphan which he is Like

because they have this relationship now It's

like it's just so good and he basically tosses

her the keys and you know Go to the GTO waiting

to wait there until I write but I want to go

to the chapel with you I love it because they're

sounding like a married couple already. Yeah

Yeah, they this whole thing it like It is jack

and harleen. It really is at the end of the day,

but Throughout this entire story. I'm like I

kind of want to see bruce and harleen get married

at this point I know that's so wrong, but it's

just so So cool. We get to the GCPD or what's

going on with them and whatever and police found

two bodies so let them handle it. The GTO is

more important. The first body is Bane. What?

Someone took his head off. Oh my god. And the

second body, Ruth Redford. So we've finally uncovered

the elusive Ruth. Yep. Doesn't Duke become a

part of the bat family at some point not in this

universe But in general isn't he in there somewhere

as somebody I forget. I think so. I think he's

the signal a new I Don't remember So they figure

out that You know as real has a list of her clients

the names and addresses of all the elites See

anyone we know Oh Jesus And of course it's gotta

be... Wow. It's gotta be blood. Right. Gotta

take some blood again. I love the very... What

I'd like to say is subtle styling of the background

color between the two of them. It's basically

just orange. I think that is cool. It's adds

a certain warmth even though there's not a fire

going in the fireplace I don't understand why

he's got to like randomly be holding this cross

though. I don't know what that It looks like

Bruce is like posed up on the top of a church

steeple or something like that Yeah, it kind

of reminds me of the scene in daredevil one Affleck

is strapped to the cross above the church. Yeah.

In the middle of the night from 2003 Daredevil.

It reminds me of those memes of you know how

you always say everybody has that one friend.

Yup. Yeah. Batman, the only one who poses like

on a gargoyle indoors. Right? Mm -hmm. There's

something on the wing. There's something. There

should not be this much importance being put

on one panel, but it just really strikes me as

odd. This would be the question I have for Sean

Murphy. When you were writing this scene, why

is it so important that he's clutching the cross?

Is it holding him up? Is it holding him steady?

Is that why he has to do that? Because in two

more panels, He's standing there quite normal.

Drop in the room just before the panel started.

Is that how he landed? Landed on the cross. How

heavy is this cross? Is the cross even real?

I don't know. You guys are asking a lot of questions

that I don't have the answers for. And sadly,

Mr. Murphy has not replied to my message yet.

So. Huh, we'll have to wait and see hopefully

he listens to this Hopefully he can make it through

these four hours We have questions Sean yes,

they're important that's right because we need

to know the answers to them and we need to know

now Why is Batman posed on a cross on a table?

All right moving on from the cross why is it

looking Why is it he has his own cross to bear

looking like he's using it like a walking stick?

Maybe that's what it is! Maybe that's what it

is! That would be okay! This is him literally

showing you his cross to bear. Oh god. I'm proud

I broke us in one panel. Yeah, pretty much. How

would you feel if you walked in the room and

found Bruce posing on the table with a cross?

I'd be throwing out some wands. Yeah, I don't

need to see a Batman strip show, thank you. I

already saw it! In your head! No, it was in comics!

Yeah. Oh no. Before they retracted. The Bat -Dong.

Oh god, that's probably a book we'll never cover.

Sadness. That hurts my head. Ew. It actually

hurt my head too to read that story. All I know,

it was a very big deal at the time. Oh yes it

was. Alright. So Batman says to Jason that Edmund

didn't want to share his inheritance so he killed

Baccar, then flooded the valley and destroyed

the village so he could rebuild his fortune.

Is that what you think? I'm not proud of what

my family did, but I can't undo 300 years of

history and I won't turn half of Gotham over

to a maniac. There's more to the story than what's

in the journal. Lord of course there is And I

find this out what really Got me and this is

what I want to talk to Sean about is how can

you write a Batman story and make the wains not

the wains Like that threw me for a loop Yeah

That just kind of took all the history of the

Waynes and just kind of chucked it up. He didn't

chuck it out the window. He didn't chuck it out

the window. He basically juggled it and he didn't

drop the ball, but he dropped the balls on our

heads to the point of, huh, you think you know

the Waynes, you don't know anything yet. You

know nothing. You can't handle the truth. Exactly.

And we get more of the 1600s, and we get more

of the story, and... More montage. More montage,

yep. Pretty much. Badass swashbuckling scene,

though. It's Castlevania shit going on in there,

too. Coming out for Laffy Arkham, so... Yep.

It's too bad that, uh... It's too bad that Simon

Belmont doesn't show up anywhere. Right? Yeah.

Everybody else has been here. Oh, you get your

shot on the next page, though. Yes, this is one

of my favorite. Which is? I know a thing about

curses. Oh, yeah. Let's just say I have experience

with curses. Yeah. And in the mirror. No, it's

a painting. Is it a mirror? Yeah, it's a clear

mirror. I never even thought about that. That's

freaking sick Yeah, it is a mirror because he

holds his hand up to it. Yeah, it's a reflection.

Yep. Yeah Alright, so that scene became epically

more badass. Yeah, it did Like seriously I was

just waiting for the demon to come out but at

the same time I'm glad he didn't because again

this image here is Just enough subtlety to show

you. Like, I don't think we need Etrick in this.

We don't need another monster in this story.

There's enough of those. Yeah, I was going to

say we already got a great one with Jean -Paul

Valley. But what a great way to include him.

Absolutely it is, yeah. I mean, not only do you

make him this, like, you know... Almost immortal

being and you have to give it a reason Yeah,

but he he gets this really cool place within

the order because he's like, I'm the librarian.

I'm the watcher. I'm the guardian. Yep Love it.

Yeah, so good. So Batman finds out what what

happened with Joker and Azrael We find Harley

and You know, they get into a marital spat. She's

pissed. Uh huh. Rightfully so. Yeah. Yeah, I

was going to say she had plenty of rights to

be yelling at his ass words. Yeah. Whereas before,

you know, with the whole Barbara and Gordon situation,

he really didn't have like a full hand in that.

Whereas this he did because he brought her into

this. Exactly. Yep. And the fact that she admits

that she cares about him, that was just awesome.

And then she goes on, maybe because I like leather

masks or maybe I got a thing for screwed up men.

Right? We all got our cakes. It's okay. Uh huh.

Got a thing about black leather. Mm hmm. And

I love what he does in response. Like seriously,

it's almost out of the, out of the old, it's

not old, but it's old at this point. There was

an advertisement out of the CW, Arrowverse, Flashverse,

Berlanti -verse, whatever you want to call the

CW shows. There was a... advertisement for one

of the crossovers where it was a suit up advertisement

and I'm sure I'll put the audio in here somewhere

so people can hear it and know what the hell

I'm talking about. Let's hit it. Hold up hockey

man. I'm just getting ready to get ready. Sorry,

sorry I'm late. Getting back to work is hard

work. They say the suit makes the man, but in

my case, the man also made the suit. I'm sure

to keep it simple, unlike Harry Allen of a girl

who still needs a shave. When you said suit up,

you meant like right now? I'm hungry. Yes, now.

We've been suiting up for 20 minutes. I mean,

am I the only one who suits up one leg at a time?

Well, yeah, it's a skirt, so I don't have to

deal with legs and zippers and stuff like that.

Okay. And they show everybody suiting up. They

show Flash, they show Arrow, they show Supergirl,

and at the very end of it, because at that point,

Black Lightning was still its own thing. It was

not in with the rest of them. Everybody leaves

the locker room, and you hear Chris Williams'

voice, what about me? everybody was like oh what

black lightning is coming so when I see you know

him throwing her the classic Harley suit and

suit up I'm like oh damn you did not just do

that that's awesome yeah the bat signal no dick

what do you think it is the penguin signal oh

lord it's the Joker signal Uh -huh. It's coming

from old Arkham and I love that it isn't oh wow

I kind of noticed but I didn't notice and now

I'm wondering where Batman had her suit because

It is a classic Harley suit, but it's a Harley

GTO suit. Like they basically deputized her,

right? I Mean, it's pretty much her her original

costume. But yeah, you know flack jacket to go

over top of it. Yeah Very cool, and she warns

Batman and hey look smoke yay As real sitting

up there in the rafters watching everything well

You know that suit though is badass. Yes it is

Just that one panel of him jumping down onto

the stairs with the cape flowing back behind.

Oh wow holy crap That is a badass suit. I love

how it registered the flashbang that's getting

thrown at him. It's like danger and he's like,

shit. Yep. Yeah, that is awesome. I love how

she's trying... She's trying to reach Jack and

jokers like this isn't about Jack It's about

you and me the only thing that was missing from

him saying that before she says there is no you

and me joker and I think it's thrown in here

somewhere later, but I really heard This isn't

about Jack. It's about you and me pudding. I

Know that's generally what she calls him, but

it just I don't know just felt kind of right

Crap he's Like I said, I've read this twice I

should know all of this now but going through

it again There are so many things I initially

like I saw it like I don't know I noticed the

art and I noticed the colors and things But there

are certain that I did not realize he has the

baby strapped to the front of him What a monster

amen What a monster, but you know, hey we get

the two -faced thing again with the two personalities

and I love that image That is so cool. Like you

mentioned earlier Ed about how he's got the bat

bat thing in one eye Yeah, that is so cool Well

that he's got fangs for some reason too. So I

don't know if he's turning into a vampire or

what? Yeah, I don't know Mean I'm not worried

about it. Just yeah But Jack comes out long enough

and I think it's let me see It's not really that

he has fat heat. It looks like he has fangs but

it's because of the two This is just the way

I interpret it. It's because of the two personalities.

Jack is human Joker is not human. He is some

sort of otherworldly Personality thing and his

his the way his smile is is different than Jack's

but at least Jack comes out long enough for him

to give her the babies and he tells her to run

right You're a monster I Love this moment though

I really do. Between these two series, between

White Knight and Curse of the White Knight, you

get to see Joker and Jack in just this unseen

way before and out. And you really honestly do.

Even as somebody who personally doesn't like

the character of the Joker, you really feel for

Jack. It's hard not to. Yeah, and again the multiple

personality thing like You know I said earlier

about how it just kind of sucks that we see how

Harvey dies with being sliced in half from his

faces the two halves of his face And don't get

me wrong. I'm sure there are plenty of really

good two -faced stories that aren't just a bunch

of two puns like you know robbing the Second

Street Bank on the second day of the second month

of the 22nd year or something there are but I

love you Harleen. Ha ha ha ha ha like again the

two personalities and Basically, she has to kill

him you know he won't he won't let me pull the

trigger Harley take the gun and You know stop

him and then Joker it's even though there's a

little bit of Jack in here When he's rushing

towards her that is clearly all Joker and she

has to put him down Well, and it reminds me in

a way like one of the things that it harkens

to for me is the movie identity Mm -hmm where

you have all of the personalities that the whole

reason for that therapy is they're trying to

quash everything until you get to the last remaining

true personality and It feels like that's exactly

what would have happened between Jack and Joker

The strong personality was always going to win

out and it's taken this long for Harley to see

that right Yeah, absolutely. I mean not that

we can't root for Jack I'm not saying that but

yeah, it's clear who's won this battle in this

universe. I see nape here as Not the villain,

but not the greatest of men Correct. I mean The

Joker is the villain out of the personalities.

I mean he just is he's oh he always has been

so we get back to the Basrael fight Yeah, it's

uh, it's not uh It's not going so well for Batman

apparently He's got a metal fist with claws on

them punch him face so not exactly the fairest

advice No, not really see that that hurts like

a bitch and I I do love this scene though because

you know Asriel's like, try harder. You're making

this too easy. You're enjoying this? Admit it,

we both are. You think we're the same? I've known

men like you all my life, Bruce. Men whose hearts

beat strongest, almost gunfire and clashing steel.

Some were brothers in arms. The rest were at

the end of my rifle, all killing for something

greater than themselves. I don't kill. If you

don't have the conviction to go all the way,

then you'll never bring peace. And he's just

yelling at him now. Batman's yelling at him.

How does killing bring peace to Gotham? Why did

Gordon have to die? You're not a knight fighting

a holy war, you're a demon just like Picard.

And that's why you lost everything, because you

dared to attack the Waynes. But wait! Wait a

minute, didn't she kill him? Shit. No, she just

shot. Got a double tap. Roll one, man. You should

have gone for the head. Yep. Two to the chest,

one to the head. I love this reveal, but it's...

Again, it's just so ass backwards. You've got

it all wrong, Batman. It wasn't Bakar who died

next to Laffey. It was Edmund. What? With Arkham

dead, Bakar's plan was almost complete. All he

needed to do was eliminate Edmund. And basically

take his place. Oh lord. Ugh, this just sucks.

Yeah. That just, oh man. But does it really matter?

I... I guess it doesn't? But, I mean it really

is kinda funny. Mean it is don't get me wrong.

I mean, yes, it's this shocking reveal that Bruce

Wayne is not actually a descendant of the Waynes

But in the grand scheme of things and there's

a lovely thing that Harley's gonna say here soon.

It really doesn't matter Yeah, but just the whole

Realization of that is like holy crap And she

does finally kill him and beautiful shot yeah

that's some beautiful art right there that is

a gorgeous shot yeah you won't do it you don't

have the wow yep absolutely that oh so good and

just a quick roundtable was there any pity felt

Not for the Joker no, but because Jack was also

in there and we see it's his face not the Joker's

face at the end here I'd say there was a little

bit of pity I'd say that I would have I would

follow that line. I would feel pity That he couldn't

be saved but bless Harley for knowing that it

was time. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah, what an issue

and that's the It's not even the end of this

yet. I'm like, holy crap That's what I love about

Sean Murphy though, cuz with white knight and

with this one both I mean he just grabs you by

the throat as soon as you start reading it doesn't

let you go There are many moments that we have

wanted to look away that is felt like we needed

to look away that we were seeing something we

were not meant to see But you won't let us I

mean he lets you he loosens the grip a little

bit but You know, right back to it every damn

issue, man. I'm just like, hey. Yeah, pretty

much. We open the next one with Alfred and Bruce

and Bruce is looking at the code of art or he's

looking at the swords and things. Man, this has

been a long podcast, folks. Master Bruce, we're

running late. Why aren't you dressed? It's my

fault it happened. Nonsense. You couldn't have

saved them. Don't want to gloss over this but

again, I feel that even though Sean does it a

really great justice I've heard the Wayne's death

thing so many times at this point. I Do love

what he turns it into though When he says and

when we get back, I'll teach you how to use it

I'll teach you how to fight. So the next time

you're in danger, you'll know what to do So I

do love that. I like this. I like this. I mean,

I like that in a couple of the issues that he's

gone forward, he's gone backwards to go forwards.

Mm hmm. And they've always been these heart wrenching

moments. Yeah. And going forwards, we get Batman,

Harley and the babies. Yeah. Look, they're in

the Batcave, but Harley's already got her robe

there. Right. Of course she does. She's moving

in, bro. All she needs now is a drawer. I'm sure

she's got one upstairs. Oh wait, there's no manor.

Whoops. Yeah, that's the thing. Where are they?

Because if the cave and the manor were blown

up, he couldn't have rebuilt this fast. I mean,

he is a billionaire, but... Well, in regular

universe Batman, he's actually got multiple bat

caves littered throughout the city. Yeah, and

Heaven Leslie have already discussed this. He's

got several different strongholds. That's true.

Safe houses, whatever. Whatever. And they figure

out, you know, she tells him that she knew about

the blood message. And that she was keeping something

from him. And Jack and she were worried about

what the truth might do to him. I knew you'd

eventually figure it out. There was nothing I

could do to stop it. Except be there for you.

Yeah. And this has got like, I seriously need

to send this panel to Kevin Conroy because I

need to hear him say this. Joker's right. There

is a curse in Gotham. Me. And of course, Harley

being Harley, that's bullshit. Then again, you

know you you know you get to the point of Where

she says it doesn't matter But it's such a great

conversation between them because it's not just

a back -and -forth. It's not just them yelling

at each other. It's I Mean she does yell at him,

but you know, but it's a true conversation yeah

absolutely I mean that's one of the things I

do love about this version of Harley is she really

doesn't stop to have any kind of self -pity moments

she truly is very upfront very no -nonsense calls

it like she sees it so I do love that about her

yeah absolutely you know and we have this little

little panel here I'll destroy everything out

I'll have nothing left. You'll still have your

friends, and she holds his hand. And I was like,

aww, Harley. Stop it. You'll still have me, Batsy.

I'm like, oh god, stop it. She doesn't say Batsy.

He didn't write that, but I just added that in

there. It just looks... I swear I know I know

I know I know but it's just one of those things

where it's like This whole like between him having

to basically Help her give birth and all this

and it's like they're not an old married couple

But they are that quote unquote old married couple

in this entire story. It's They have a better

relationship than she had with Jack. I'd hope

so. Well, yeah. Because he's a sociopath that

beats the shit out of her. True. Intentionally.

Yeah. He is a sociopath and he has beat her ass

a few times, but yeah. No, but I mean, they've

gone through a lot together and they have a pretty

solid trust relationship that's built there.

Yeah. They've been through the rigor together.

We're not two at the moment where I go aww yet,

so. Oh, okay. We get back to Asriel and, um...

And another wet thud. Yeah. What? Pretty much,

yeah. And then we get to Barbara working on walking

again. That's... Cool awesome Wow, I don't know

I don't know what to say because I figured Sean

was just gonna have her in the wheelchair for

the rest of the story and eventually turn her

into Oracle for whatever the next arc is gonna

be but you know, hey, that's great that she's

She's you know working on that and of course

Bruce apologizes Not for the reason she thinks.

True. I like that these two came back together

though. I like that it wasn't left off in a place

of anger and resentment and rage. I like that

there was this, you know what, respect. Yeah.

And he goes on to say to her, I can't fix Gotham's

corruption because I'm part of that corruption.

My family, my fortune, my cape and cowl. I need

to come clean. Might be the only way to destroy

the elites and give this city a new start. Bruce,

you're scaring me. And, you know, he thought

coming clean was too dangerous, said it was safer

for me to just disappear. Do you think he'd understand?

Do you think he'd forgive me for what I have

to do? Who? Your father. and we have another

hand hold here and she goes on to tell him you

really frustrated him Bruce not because you broke

the law because you were proof that he couldn't

fix Gotham by following the rules so there's

there's that great dialogue between the two of

them absolutely yeah I mean this is some of the

best Batman dialogue I've ever read You want

to make a live -action film out of these series?

I'm all for that. I don't even want that. I don't

think that they could really honestly do it the

justice they could animated film could do yeah,

and I think it needs to be like a 12 part series

or 16 part animated series does not need to be

a Contrived animated film version of it. It needs

to be basically 16 episodes HBO Max whatever

you want to do with it, but you know It really

like each comic book needs each issue needs to

be from white knight and von freese and curse

All of it needs to be its own Individual episode

type thing right? Yeah, I'd be done Yeah, HBO

take my money. Yep, but I mean I get it like

this is this is a supremely powerful scene because

wall We definitely get to see the city of Gotham

grieving through the eyes of the reporter at

the beginning of this set. Yep. This is Bruce

basically saying, you know, in these types of

troubles, I would go to your dad and I can't

go to him. Yeah. But I need to know what he would

say. And the only person who can tell me that

is you. Yeah. And she lays it out. Honestly,

she's like, you know what? You frustrated the

hell out of my dad. But at the same time he respected

you. Yeah, and he would have stood by and supported

you no matter what your decision is. Yep, and

We have the whole scene of Bruce revealing himself

to Gotham and to the world my god my god, I Can't

even read through this whole thing. I'm just

gonna skip to the page where it's like the truth

is that Batman really is Bruce Wayne. Holy crap

gasp from the entire world in that scene. Right.

Yeah. Yeah. It just goes back to Gordon. Yeah.

Gordon said that was one of the conversations

that they had had was that hopefully one day

the masks won't be needed. Yeah. And here we

are. Yeah. But he does say before I do, take

off the mask for ever I need a favor as real

still out there and as soon as the Sun goes down

he'll make his move correct and What a move.

Holy crap All right, I think that's one of my

one of my favorite parts of this is that while

he's doing this speech He's like, let me be your

Batman one more time, but you're trusting me

to keep the city safe one last time. Yep. It's

a damn beautiful moment. There's a lot of beautiful

speeches. Yeah, there is. And I absolutely love

the panel where Batman says, we need to close

down the airport, subways, and any road leading

out of Gotham. But look on it. Keep an eye on

every security camera throughout the city. What

I love about this panel, you got Bullock and

Duke in the GTO stuff. You got Montoya basically

in a female commissioner's uniform. Batman, Nightwing,

and Batgirl are all in uniform. Only gripe, Nightwing

needs to be red. 252 didn't happen here. I don't

care. It could still happen. This is Mike's I

don't care. Exactly should have happened Yeah,

that's a testament man like that's a huge testament

because if there's one thing that you could ask

any fan of Batman and it doesn't even have to

be a Submersive, you know, I've seen the DCA

you I've seen Batman animated. I've seen Batman

Beyond I read the comic it doesn't have to be

that deep you ask anyone what their impression

of Harvey Bullock is it is that the man Cannot

stand Batman. Yeah, and Yet here he is at arms

ready to go. Yep Extended that family like super

huge applause. Yeah Absolutely. Yeah, I wish

I actually Yeah, well, you know we all can't

Yeah, it is what it is and I'm happy. Hey, I'm

happy They're in uniform at all outside of the

jig because I'm sorry The best GTO uniform in

this entire series is Harley's because it's made

like you guys said earlier It's mainly her uniform

with the GTO flak jacket on top of it. Oh I dig

Duke It's like it's his normal get up I kind

of dig yeah. Yeah. No Duke is fine because he's

part of the gte like but the other super people

or non super people whatever you want to call

them you know what i mean and montoya strolls

up to batman and what'll you'll be what'll you

be doing i'll be in the batmobile azriel destroyed

most of them when he attacked the gto so there's

only one left This one's always been my favorite

and of course, it's 89. Yes, sir and Yeah, that

If you're gonna choose to do a spread Yeah Yeah,

absolutely. I love what Natalia says though.

She's like Ezreal's suit is state -of -the -art

and nothing's decades old. Are you nuts? The

Batman looks at her. Let's get nuts. Let's get

nuts Straight homage to the timber. Yeah. Yeah,

absolutely Absolutely And we get Nightwing read

aside Are you gonna bring him in safely and let

him serve his time or do you have something else

in mind? What are you saying? You know what I'm

saying That's what I thought. It's not worth

it, Bruce. You won't be able to live with yourself.

Batman doesn't kill. Batman's dead. And so is

Asriel. Oh, God. I mean, just the silent three

panels on the next page of Dick and Barbara and

then Dick looking at Barbara and then Dick walking

over to his vehicle like... Yep. The whole world

just changed for the two of them, right there.

Oh, absolutely. Yeah, it did. Toneshift! Yep,

absolutely. And the sad thing is, when he said

Batman's dead, all I hear in my head is, and

this is so silly and stupid because this isn't

what it is, but it's Terry from... from um fuck

it's um god damn it yeah it's batman beyond but

it's um it's is it the call it's the return of

the joker no no no there's there's a line somewhere

where it's him and the justice i think it is

the call but he said he literally says in the

Batman Beyond Terry McGinnis, you know, Will

Friedle, Eric Matthews voice. He says Batman's

dead. Uh, and it's something to do about Joe.

I think it is the call. I think it's the call

to partner, but anyway, yeah. So 89 mobile goes,

goes after as real man. What a scene this is.

I love the tunnel shift with all the reds. Yep.

The reds, the oranges, yep. And then the splash

page of Bruce standing in the middle of Gotham

Square just like, yep, let's go. Yeah, yeah,

he's standing there. Waiting for the message,

he, you know, he's waiting. They basically turned

Gotham Square into a police dispatch unit kind

of thing. And how cool is that? that is so cool

so very cool and there's you know there's nobody

around no like it it's him that's it it's batman

with the batmobile in the middle of gotham square

nobody around because ever the citizens trusted

him like that's such a huge heavy moment if only

batman could have stopped covid sorry My name

is Bruce Wayne I'm gonna use y 'all to social

distance because all right We have three really

great shots of a Batman and the Batmobile on

my way. He pulls the mask on he jumps into the

Batmobile and then from we get a full -on front

shot of the Batmobile coming at you This one

ends yeah Holy crap After the issue before this

I wasn't sure how they were gonna continue well

how he Shawn was gonna continue the story, but

He did because you know, we dealt with Joker

and Jack and Harley and all that and we still

had to deal with as real cuz as real was still

out there And I'm like, oh right, so they have

to regroup and redo this and redo that and there

has to be one final battle Right Next issue starts.

Yep, pretty much Next issue by the way, too.

Yes Yeah, that cover is just Killer I I want

to say that's almost as good as Bane breaking

his back. Yeah, cuz it I Mean he doesn't essentially

break his back here, but he's holding he's basically

choking him out by his own cape holding the sword

flaming sword over him and he's basically got

him on on his parents grave oh god well the funny

thing to look at it Batman's actually in the

same pose that he was in when he got his back

broken right yeah that's what I'm saying Asriel

isn't breaking his back but it is the same you

know type of pose and it just oh that's heart

-wrenching So the Batmobile comes up onto the

freeway and we see Azrael and Azrael's on the

rooftops and of course because they're the only

ones out there it's it's them and Batman and

Azrael's ahead of them and Batman's like, I'm

not staying behind the other cars. It's like

turbocharged. Damn it. Not this shit again. Get

a kill switch for the other cars. Yeah, of course

he did Batman being Batman and this boy they

should have known better Right. I mean dick did

know remote disruptor. I knew it, you know, I

mean, you know and it's because he doesn't want

them stopping him and I Really thought he was

gonna go this far. I do love the chain guns though

on the Batmobile. That was a nice nod. Right.

Yeah. I've seen him one time in Batman 89 and

it was a great scene. Yeah, absolutely. Well,

hold on a second, too. Plus another thing is

he fires a grappling line from his car. Yep.

And wraps it around Azrael's foot to slam him

into the damn ground while he's still in the

car. Yeah. Well, I mean... That's so Batman.

Yeah, that's so Batman. How is that not so Batman?

I mean, you know, it's just the way that he rolls

and yeah. Oh, it's so good. So, so good. And

then he just basically slams against the back

of the car and whoosh. It's an afterburner. Yeah.

Nice try, Bruce. That's a great shot, though.

Like seriously, that's a really awesome shot

Yeah, I think the only thing that is better than

this shot of the afterburner of the Batmobile

going up against Azrael Bat's face is in the

Darwin Cook 75th anniversary Batman thing with

Batman and Terry it's Batman Beyond and it's

Friedle and Conroy as as the voices and You know,

they're going up against these bat rope Batman

robots and he says And it's like holy shit, this

is just as good if not better than that I Love

that thing It doesn't work and you know as real

has to has to get away and Then we see Batman

with a gun, which is something I was not expecting.

Nobody's used to it. No. I mean, even in the

DCAU, the only reason why Batman had a gun at

two different points, one was because Dead Man

took over his body, and the other was Old Man

Bruce's Batman Beyond. He couldn't do anything

else except pick up the gun. Except he didn't

obviously use it. Yeah in that But this is just

brutal. I mean, it's just brutal Well, it's funny

too because I mean as rail Calls him out on he's

like I thought Batman didn't kill isn't that

what makes us different? He just opens fire,

you know, that's I think is great. I'm just like

he knows that this is it This is the last one,

you know, yep. This is pull out all the stops.

Yep, pretty much. And, you know, well, if you're

no longer Batman and you're no longer a Wayne,

then who are you? I am your reckoning. It's just

so good. And I love that Batman says that the

city will fight you even after I'm gone. There

won't be a city left, not after the flood. Why

do these people think floods are gonna? Gonna

solve problems. I think that's the one thing

Gotham hasn't been hit by It's been hit by an

earthquake. It's had been hit by a plague I mean

it got hit by you know the final night where

everything was frozen because the Sun went out

Maybe it's time for a flood maybe Call it Batman

washed away. Bruce, is that a gun? God damn it.

What are you doing? This isn't you. We're coming

up to Mike's part. My part? Which? Oh, the...

Yeah. Yep. The father part. Yep. Yep. That's

just so... It is beautiful. It is. It really,

really is. And you know what of all the Robbins

I mean and I mean this with the utmost respect

to the others of all of them I Really truly think

that only Grayson could have done this. Oh, yeah,

only dick could have talked him down off of the

gun ledge Absolutely because he says you know

Don't end it this way, don't make me watch you.

You've always been smart enough to see my flaws,

Dick. Maybe that's why there's been a wedge between

us, because we both know who the better man is.

Now step aside and let me end this. Fine, but

end it your way, not as Asriel, as Batman. And

again, another piece of - Another piece of art

that I want on my wall Like I want to rip I want

to rip this off my screen and put it on my wall

right now Yeah, so good So damn good really got

your Burt Ward moment down here in the last panel,

yeah I'm fully fine with that, Omar. I didn't

find it corny or cheesy at all Didn't either

I mean it was legitimately just Sean Murphy pulling

out all the stops and pulling all of his nerd

card on You know The only way it would have been

better is if it's somehow, you know, holy rusted

metal But that's just me I mean I get it in the

context of this and I absolutely love it because

it's like you said obviously it's homaging Burt

Ward and 66 and whatever else but when Chris

O'Donnell did it I was like, oh, that's so cool.

Like, I always reference holy rusted metal. Holy

rusted metal, Batman. What? What? The middle

ground. It's a hole. Full of hole. Oh, right.

Clooney was easily the worst Batman. Tied with

Val Kilmer. No, no, no. Val was a good Bruce.

He wasn't a great Batman, but Clooney is easily

the worst Batman and Bruce Wayne. Yeah, he had

no business being in that movie. No, he should

have stayed in the hospital where he belonged.

Right. Yep. Oh my God, he's gonna flood Gotham.

Leslie and Harley talking to each other. Yep.

Oh, God, so good. Let's see here. We are with

Leslie and Harley. Don't worry, Bruce always

finds a way. And Harley's like, I'm not worried

about him beating Asriel. I'm worried what might

cost him in order to do it. Ooh. Well, I want

to point out, too, that in the middle of all

of this, you know, after the exchange with Grayson

and then we got Asriel still in the... the Coast

Guard helicopter, and then we jumped back to

Harley, and Bruce has apparently come back to

the house and pulled the swords off the wall.

Yep. And then left again without saying anything

to anybody. The way he is. I'm like, OK. He had

to stop and he had to stop and save and get his

good gear out so we can go do the boss fight.

Oh, shit. Here it is, too. The panels on the

next page. The two panels that are inset of him

holding the watch Yep, and talking to Von Fries.

Yep So those are the two panels where Von Fries

fits in right got it. Yep Yeah, that is very

cool man we get him going to the reservoir and

He turns the Batmobile into the boatmobile Mean

that is just awesome. Yeah, that is a cool design

except it reminds me of a mask car Yeah, no is

I do too but so the Thunderhawk there was a I

think it was called the Raven it was basically

a black version of the Thunderhawk and What it

could do is exactly how the Batmobile looks now

as a boat is the wheels turn up You know and

you see the wheels on the upside kind of thing

It's cool. I'm not saying it isn't cool. I'm

just saying hey that kind of reminds me of that

one mass vehicle I used to have as a kid I had

them too don't feel bad. Yeah Batman and as real

face off and Batman wielding twin rapiers by

the way looking badass Mm -hmm. Yep, absolutely

This this battle though, holy crap Ripping his

armor off at this point, right? He takes his

whole damn gauntlet off with a swipe of a damn

rapier. Yep. It's like dude and I never thought

that I would ever see ever ever since I was nine

years old and I saw because my favorite scene

one of my favorite scenes but as a nine -year

-old nine -year -old me's favorite scene in Batman

was shields never thought I would see them use

this way right crap that's a little much Yeah,

but wow. Rips off his damn helmet. Love it. Holy

crap. Astro's like, your parents, who? Did they

know they were swine draped in pearls, leeches

feeding from the bloody tit of Gotham? Okay,

only Sean Murphy and DC Black Label can get off

of the line. The bloody tit of Gotham. Oh my

god. That's hilarious. I split his throat too.

Pretty much, yeah, just to get him to shut up.

He doesn't take his head clean off, he makes

a pez dispenser out of him. That's a little me

-ho. Now I can never ever look at pez dispensers

again the same way. No, I won't let you die and

he you know Kind of saves him sort of but not

really The effort was there The effort was there.

I mean, you know, hey he tried damn it If ever

instant regret had a face Yeah, exactly. Fitting

ending though to a story that feels like it's

been going on for hundreds of years. Oh wait,

because it has. And again, I hear BTAS Harvey

and obviously Kevin Conroy as Bruce Wayne and

Harvey. Good luck, Cowlhead. Detective. Like...

And this is why I asked earlier about Duke. Duke,

you'd have made a great Robin. Ha! That's why

I asked earlier, is he some sort of Bat family

member in any other continuity? Because, I mean,

seriously, I thought he was at one point or another.

Like I said, I think he's the signal. I mean,

I don't have my phone in front of me to look

it up, but... I'm pretty sure that he he was

the signal the only bat family member with superpowers.

Oh Interesting. I'll have to look it up later

And we get into the van and Harley, what are

you doing? You know what? I'm doing bats. I just

lost Jack. I'm not losing you to a young love

Somebody get me a wedding chapel already Where's

Elvis when you really need him? You don't want

to do this. Think of your kids. Think of your

future together. No, I can't. I can't be alone.

You're not alone. You're just feeling lost. Believe

me, I know the difference. So where is your Harley

moment, Kendra? Is it up here? Oh, it's coming.

Okay. Yeah, Duke. Nice uniform. Everything is

fine. Uh -huh. I love how sternly Bruce says

that. Yeah, exactly. The heart on the hand. Yep.

And the window. That's my all. Because it happens

again. Yeah. This is the first time it happens,

but it actually happens again in the next series.

Oh, okay. So pinhole this one, because... Very

cool. We'll come back to that in the next series.

Yay. This is a very cute, very loving, touching

moment. Yeah, it is. I'm completely fine with

this. I'll ship Harley and Batman. I never did

until this whole series, but I mean, it's there.

I did either. I'm just like, why didn't I think

of this before? This is great. Yeah. Thank you,

Sean Murray. Thank you. Yeah. And we end on kind

of a cliffhanger? A little bit. A little bit.

Montoya needed someone to keep an eye on me.

Someone who knows my tricks and can stop me from

escaping. So I had her track you down. No cell

can hold you, Bruce. We both know that. You really

expect me to believe that you intend on staying

here. There's gotta be another reason. You're

right there is And it's officer Todd yep, yep

Cuz holy crap I'm ready Yeah Yeah, pretty much.

I mean obviously we covering this still have

to cover Harley but I mean Whatever Sean has

planned for the third installment of the white

knight series I am here for right? Yeah, it is

just so damn good Overall I love this I thought

it was a fun story like I said earlier in the

episode of the podcast it reminded me so much

of gates of Gotham with the back and forth with

the going back in time with the olden days story,

meeting up with the story of today. I didn't

say this earlier, I think, but I love how they

figured out the map and they figured out, you

know, what the differences were in the map that

the old map might have been wrong kind of thing.

You know, I loved all of that. I thought that

was great. There are some variant covers in the

back of the trade. It's all character covers.

I think they're all done by Sean and Matt. One

is Asriel. One is Batman. One is Gordon. One

is Alfred. One is Batgirl. And one is Edmund.

The other is Harley. And the final one is...

Jack is Joker and I love those character covers.

They are so cool. Yeah, they are. That Harley

cover is just amazing. Yeah, it is. I even love

at the very end of the trade, the black and white

image of the Von Fries cover. That is so cool.

Yeah. Right. Just all of it. I mean, even the

character sketches and, you know, I mean, it's

this. Well, this man's work. Yeah, this yeah

this story my system. Yeah, absolutely This story

was so good It really was Yes, it was if it's

funny because I legitimately read this entire

trade in two hours just so I could go ahead and

read the first issue of White Knight presents

Harley Quinn We got we got this trade and that

first issue the same day and I was like Can I

read this without having read this yet? And Kendra's

like, well, not really. And I'm like, okay. So

I need to know. Yeah, not really. No. Two hours

later, I closed this book and I'm like, damn,

that was good. Yeah. So I love the art. I love

the writing. I love every little nuance and every

little callback. The emotion, the humor, all

of it is so, so good. Yes, it is. This, honestly,

the White Knight series, you know, White Knight,

Curse of White Knight, and then White Knight

Presents Harley Quinn, needs to be in every Batman

and Harley fans collection. Agree. Yeah, absolutely.

There's just no getting around it. I mean, it's

that good. This needs to be up there on the upper

echelon of like Batman titles where they're like,

oh the greatest Batman titles ever written. The

greatest stories ever told. Yeah, I mean, you

know, you got your year one, you got your Dark

Knight Returns, you know, Killing Joke, Arkham

Asylum. Long Halloween. Yeah, Long Halloween,

Haunted Nights. This needs to be right there

with those. Yep. Absolutely. It is such an engrossing

tale. from the first series, part of the series,

the first arc to this second arc to Von Fries

in between. And the fact that he told a whole

story, a single issue story out of one panel

that came between the seventh and eighth issue

of this series, like, holy crap. Right. Like.

You know, I was not expecting the whole Von Fries

thing. And initially, I didn't even, I was like,

oh, Von Fries, okay, it's a part of Sean's universe.

It fits between the two, or it fits in between

two of these, because I, again, as I said earlier,

I wanted to make sure that we covered it correctly,

that Von Fries is in between White Knight and

Curse, the first and second arc, until you guys

said it, and Sean told me himself, that it actually

happens between the seventh and eighth issue

of Curse. I was like, oh, damn. Everyone and

their mom can claim that they're a fanboy or

fangirl, but there's a difference between saying

that and being able to recite and spit out facts

and figures and all that stuff and dates and

comic numbers. and actually showing that passion,

showing your understanding of characters and

not only of the characters, but I mean Gotham

herself is a character. Oh absolutely. And John

did absolute justice to that. I'm gonna miss

that Batwing though. Yeah I know you did. That

Batwing man, that should not have happened, but

you know, he can always build another. Correct.

That looks just like him. But I mean, that's

the thing. Like, I mean, yes, most of this, some

of these are his interpretations of, of, you

know, other other areas and some of his homages.

But I mean, he builds this world in such a way

that these characters not only feel familiar,

they feel like family and it's like coming home.

Yeah. And literally, I do need a Batman Harley

story now in this universe, a la one division,

because seriously, Joker who like She may have

had Joker in the past and that may have screwed

her up to where she is. But seriously It read

to me in this with the two of them interacting

between Batman and heart like they were healing

each other So it's like yeah, they need to be

together. Yeah Well that and I mean for for fans

that are actually partaking of everything that

is being offered currently We're technically

getting our cake and eating it too because not

only do we get a Batman, you know with Harley

But we also with the animated series are now

getting Harley and Ivy. Yeah, we're kind of getting

the best of both worlds, right? Yep, absolutely

So folks that's gonna do it I think We've been

here for so long. This is single -handedly the

longest episode of The Pull Bag ever in eight

years. Congratulations. Or, before we leave,

Kendra, what would you rate this zero to five?

That's a frickin' ten, but I know I'm not allowed

to do that. Five. Yeah. And what about you? Yeah,

same. Perfect score. Five all day. Yeah, it's

fives all around, folks, because Nothing in this

took me out of wanting to read the whole thing

and as I already said Between the time of us

going through the book during the podcast and

before I've technically read this thing three

times now So, you know it is what it is But so

good Sean's art the colors the color shifts between

scenes So good the writing the story amazing

as always Coming up next inside the pull bag

here. We've got episode four one one. I'm down

I've got the comics four one one. So we've got

that a little special discussion there We've

got Beast Wars number four, which that and radiant

black five and six might change I don't know.

It depends on when Beast Wars number four comes

out in May. I'm not sure and then in June we

have got a bunch of stuff we've got My buddy

Joe and I are gonna do Batman TMNT 3 to finish

off that series that we did Donovan Morgan Grant

who you heard in his origins episode in episode

409 will be joining me for static shock volume

1 supercharged the first time we've reviewed

static on this show At some point I think movie

revolt Dan and I will be doing the comic concierge

We'll be doing exit stage left the snagglepost

Chronicles, which I'm kind of leery about that

one, but whatever My buddy Jesse Raz will be

joining me for some Power Rangers stuff, and

yeah, we've got a lot of stuff coming up here

inside the pullback that I think everybody is

going to enjoy. Where can the people find you

online, Ed? Usual places, Facebook, Edward Hale,

Instagram at SithRules, YouTube for gaming videos

on SithRulesEd, Twitter at DevourAllDC, my idea

yes it was yes it was I had to confiscate that

yeah I wonder if anyone has a make mine Marvel

Twitter they probably do anyway hilarious if

they don't I know right that would be so cool

Uh, what about you, Kendra? Where can people

find you online? Uh, usually the easiest place

to find me is going to be Twitter. Um, I have

two of them. I have at devour all words. And,

um, of course my newest one, courtesy of Mike,

uh, devour all comics. Um, I'm too lazy folks.

I can really keep up with other Twitter accounts

that I hold for the podcasts. I can't keep up

with an all comics one, so I just let her have

it. But, I mean, I can be found here on GCRN.

I do reviews as well. I need to get on to my

next one. I can be found on Dark Knight News,

as well as DC Comic News, Gothic Bite Magazine,

and on Ladies of Horror, with myself being added

on to the Cafe Macabre, volume two, currently

on Kickstarter. And I will be one of their showcase

authors for their horror genre. Very cool, very

cool. How long does that Kickstarter have left?

I believe we've got about 20 days left So there's

still plenty of time and it's already almost

fully funded now We're just getting into the

stretch goals so everybody can get in on the

fun stuff Okay I'm just trying to think if this

episode will be out by the before it ends. If

not, we're already fully funded. Yeah, you go

buy the book anyway I Am at TF2 and Mike You

can hear all the other information in the outro.

Hopefully by this time I will have Steve have

made me a new outro for this show. Make your

greatest game to comics and we will catch you

next time when we give you the Comics 411. And

I don't know why my arrow keys are not working.

I do not like this. Of course now I have to edit

all of this. Come on. Podcast. God. You shouldn't

be podcasting if you can't do it right morons

He's into podcast There we go, there's my good

lord technical difficulties on the arrow keys

trying to go through the book Yeah, this is gonna

be a four -hour show I wonder if people have

listened this long. I highly doubt it. Hopefully

they have, because I think we're doing a good

job anyway. Master Bruce, I... Miss Gordon, I

hear you've discovered our little secret. Yes,

I admit it. I am Batman. All it takes is one

bad day. You've just heard the latest episode

of The Pullback. the GCRN's first comic review

and discussion podcast. There are several ways

to get in touch with us and leave feedback for

the show. You can visit the website geekcastradio

.com where you can comment on the episode and

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So until next time, make your great escape into

comics and unleash the geek in you.