Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #134

Issue Details

Synopsis

SIEGE PART 3 - BREACH Batman watches from above as Silver St. Cloud is carried to an ambulance.   He decides to stay out later, past dawn, to catch a gang of gun smugglers. He catches their leader Toffee and interrogates him about a stabbing across town, which he believes was committed by Toffee's brother Treacle.  Commissioner Gordon interrupts his interrogation to tell him that Treacle Makepiece is dead. Treacle chose the wrong side of the gang war, and he was killed before Silver St. Cloud was attacked.   Gordon warns Batman about his anger, saying he might burn out when they need him most, and he asks him to go back to wherever he calls home and rest.   Alfred Pennyworth is cleaning Wayne Manor when he hears a noise. It turns out to be Bruce, who regrets moving back to the manor when he served Gotham City better from the penthouse. Alfred urges him to go to bed. He'll see everything more clearly in the morning.   Colonel Brass is at the convention center, talking to reporters. One asks him about the attack on Silver last night, but Brass only says that Silver would want them to carry on.   Brass and his followers leave the reporters behind and go out onto the roof to wait for their helicopter. Brass admires the sounds of the police sirens responding to the gang war they started. But this isn't the true battle, the one he's waited a lifetime to fight...   Years ago, Brass is in a boat with a Mr. Scabetta and his friend, smuggling alcohol during Prohibition, while the United States Coast Guard bears down on them. When his friend is shot, Brass shoves him out of the boat, and Brass and Scabetta continue to Brass's new suggestion for a hideout--the future Batcave. He suggests building an amusement park overhead to keep the police from investigating their actions too closely, but Jack Wayne owns the property, not him.   Brass goes to meet Jack, but their conversation is cut short when Jack is hit by a car. Thomas Wayne emerges just in time to see his father get hit, and while Brass chases after Smitty, the driver, Thomas applies first aid, saving Jack's life.   In the hospital, Jack seems to appreciate his bookish son for the first time. He tells Brass to handle the business while he's recovering. He hasn't let Jack down yet.   Brass quickly proves himself a violent, heavy-handed manager as he handles a labor strike with violence and threatens the employee who questions his actions.   When Jack returns, he comments that Brass didn't handle things the way he would have, but now that he's back, he will do things his way and he'll stop putting off his passion project--Wayne Manor, which he begins building on the site Brass intended for his amusement park. When Brass reveals what he intended the land for and the illegal means with which he got the money, Jack calls him out for his ties to mobsters and blames himself for steering Brass astray.   Jack rejects the gold bullion Brass got as a down payment from the mobsters, and Brass angrily throws the bars down into the foundation of the house. Brass storms off.   Back in the present, Bruce finds a book titled "Wayne Construction Designs," which he remembers from his childhood and believes could help him now. He drives off, determined to move back to the penthouse after this is over.   Batman returns to his work as Brass (in his helicopter with his followers) starts the real war, blowing up a building downtown.