Batman and Robin #1

Issue Details

Synopsis

BORN TO KILL  PART 1 Somewhere in Moscow, the Batman of Moscow takes out a thug armed with an assault rifle. Suddenly, a silenced pistol, seemingly floating in mid-air, shoots the thug in the head. Unseen fists and feet break the Russian Batman's arms and legs, and smash through his metal cowl. For a moment, the assailant becomes visible, sending the Batman into unconsciousness with a device in his hand.  At Wayne Manor, the clock strikes ten, and Bruce Wayne decides that tonight is the night to make a change. He wakes up his son Damian, and takes him down to the Batcave. On the way, he explains to Damian that the reason that the password to all of his passages and devices is 10:48 is because that is the time at which his parents were murdered.   Damian is unimpressed, thinking that to dwell on the past is weakness. Even so, as Bruce demands respect for his parents, they put on their costumes and head into the sewers under Gotham. Batman leads Robin to a sewer grate under Park Row, the street where his parents were killed. Despite his intentions, he cannot seem to shake the emotional memory of what happened there.   He explains that tonight will be the first time that Damian will observe the annual memorial visit that he makes there - but it will also be the last. Tonight, he intends to put the past behind him. Instead of honoring the night of their death, he will begin honoring their wedding anniversary, as a celebration of their lives.   Alfred Pennyworth alerts them to a situation at Gotham University, and they head out. In the University's research reactor room, three brothers are emptying rods full of irradiated fuel for their employer. As they finish collecting their quota, Batman and Robin leap into action.   The thieves manage to blast a hole in the wall, and they escape down a tunnel, where they discover the Gyro. Robin follows against Batman's orders, as the brothers break into the vehicle and begin their escape. The hole in the wall causes the containment water level in the reactor to drop, and Batman is forced to deal with it himself.   Robin disables the Gyro's stabilizer program, and at that moment one of the brothers fires a gun. The vehicle spins out of control just as the bullet causes the irradiated fuel the men are carrying to ignite, and the whole thing explodes in flames.   In order to seal the containment rupture, Batman blasts a hole in the ceiling, which happens to be underneath an Olympic size swimming pool. The water drains from the pool into the reactor, and a well-placed net spares the lives of those swimmers inside it. The new water restores the containment water level to normal, an the emergency is averted.   Batman investigates the ruins of the Gyro, chastising Robin for failing to think of the repercussions of allowing men burdened with irradiated fuel to crash their vehicle. He warns that they don't have a license to kill, and that Damian needs to control himself.   Back in Moscow, the injured Russian Batman comes to as he is about to be dipped into a vat of phosphorescent green acid. The invisible assailant explains that he is erasing him, like he never existed at all. He vows that the global circus act that is Batman Incorporated must end. He decides it is time to pay Bruce Wayne a visit.