Arkham Manor #6

Issue Details

Synopsis

THE SACRIFICE  Three Arkham Manor inmates have escaped the facility, and now, Harvey Bullock is frustrated to be back there, investigating. He is further disturbed when Dr. Arkham draws his attention to the thing confined in the freezer. Grumpily, Harvey agrees to contact S.T.A.R. Labs for the creature's removal.   Meanwhile, from his base downtown, Alfred Pennyworth contacts Batman to suggest that he might have a lead on getting Bruce back possession of his family home. Bruce is busy currently, chasing Seth Wickham, one of the escaped inmates who has already returned home and killed his parents. Bruce swears that nobody else is going to die tonight. He tracks Seth back to his old high school, where he was when he received his diagnosis of schizophrenia. He manages to stop Seth from hurting an employee of the old school, and see him re-hospitalized. Unfortunately, receiving treatment for one illness only serves to awaken the other illness in him. His illness had made him think he was dead. Treatment made him realize he was alive - and now he is enraged at Batman for saving him.   Batman assures that Wickham is at least safe in Arkham, while the killer who had nearly claimed Seth's life remains in solitary confinement. Still, Batman worries that Arkham is not in the best hands. He catches Dr. Arkham lying to Bullock, claiming that Jack Shaw - the identity Bruce had taken while undercover at the asylum - had called him to gloat. The lie makes Bruce worry about Arkham's state of mind. He had never called.   After having borrowed the dead Jack Shaw's identity, Bruce sees that he is honored by being moved to the veterans' cemetery from his unmarked grave in Potter's Field. Fortunately, Arkham's strange lie will allow him to continue to use Shaw's identity, should the need arise. After the funeral, Bruce is accosted by a paparazzo who had once challenged him to answer how his parents might feel about the change of Wayne Manor to becoming an asylum. He asks what Bruce is doing in the cemetery, and Bruce ignores that question, choosing instead to answer the one he'd chosen not to answer earlier. He admits that he doesn't know how his parents would feel. He had been attacked by the paparazzi for years, just for living alone in his family home - but now that the building is serving the city, he's being criticized for being an embarrassed millionaire. He urges the man to make up whatever story he wants - so long as it's not about him. On the way home, Alfred commends Bruce on his statement, noting that he left the legal papers to challenge the city's seizure of the manor. Bruce apologizes for letting things remain as they are for a while, but explains that the city isn't prepared to erect a new, permanent asylum. The city will be safer with the Manor remaining the temporary location, for now. Smiling, Alfred assures Bruce that his parents would be proud of him for the sacrifice.   As the bizarre Jokerized Clayface segment is taken away by S.T.A.R. Labs, Dr. Arkham peers in on an inmate called Meeks, whose mental illness has been aggravated by the fact that he was placed in the Joker's old cell. Considering himself somewhat of a failure, Arkham attends a group therapy session, but hurriedly excuses himself. After he's gone, Jonathan Crane suggests to his fellow inmates that they might be able to escape the asylum. He'd heard that Seth Wickham had fallen into a sinkhole the previous night, and if that's the case, they may be able to tunnel out of the building. Grinning from his place in the Batcave, Batman challenges Crane to try it.