Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #159

Issue Details

Synopsis

LOYALTIES PART 1 Dwight Petersen, a Chicago contractor, is constructing a building that is not up to code, and Alderman Maseryk sends a bagman named Axel Hatchett to Dwight's home to shake him down for a bribe. Instead of paying, Dwight threatens to go to a reporter named Rothko, and Hatchett slams his head against the kitchen counter, threatening Dwight's wife Susan, his daughter Andrea, his cat Boots, and Andrea's goldfish Bubbles if he goes to the papers. Dwight gives in.  Neither of them sees Andrea's friend Barbara hiding on the stairs, listening in to their conversation. Barbara creeps back to Andrea's room and tries to fall back asleep.   Three years later, in Gotham City, Captain Gordon and his officers have surrounded St. Catherine's where a man named Dan Monroe has taken hostages. Father Hughes urges Gordon to give it more time, but Carghill retorts that it's been six hours and that Monroe is calling himself "Atilla" and threatening to burn the church down. The priest doesn't want to risk the lives of Sister Felicia and the ten children inside.   Gordon sees Batman leap overhead, and he tells Carghill that the SWAT team isn't going in, he is.   Gordon walks inside where Monroe greets him with a flamethrower and the declaration that he is the scourge of God. Gordon reasons with Monroe by referencing the story of Abraham and Isaac, telling him God wouldn't want him to harm children, and Monroe hesitates for a second, giving Batman long enough to jump Monroe. Gordon gets Sister Felicia and the children out while Batman fights Monroe.   Carghill tries to lead the SWAT team inside, but Gordon refuses to allow it as the senior officer on site. A second later, Monroe is kicked out of the church's front doors.   Back at GCPD Headquarters, Gordon is greeted with congratulations and two messages, one from his wife and the other from the Chicago district attorney, Federale.   Gordon calls his wife back, and Barbara tells him that Dwight Petersen was found dead. Officially it was an accident at his construction site, but Barbara doesn't believe it. Gordon promised her that this wouldn't follow them to Gotham, but it has and the Chicago DA must have called him to get "the name." Gordon refuses to tell them, and she knows why he won't.   He hangs up when Batman crawls through his window. Batman asks why Gordon went into the church when he had the situation under control. He believes Gordon still doesn't trust him, but Gordon doesn't know Batman. Gordon thanks him for his help tonight.   Gordon is walking home when he is surrounded by four men, led by Axel Hatchett, who drug him and drag him into a waiting car.   In Wayne Manor, Alfred Pennyworth wakes up Bruce Wayne and reports that Captain Gordon appears to have been kidnapped. Bruce believes Gordon was taken by one of his own enemies, hoping to find out what they could about the Batman, and he is determined to save one of the few allies he has.   Batman goes on a rampage through Gotham's underworld, beating up crooks for information, but no one knows anything. Alfred suggests that perhaps an enemy of Gordon abducted him.   Hatchett has taken Gordon back to Chicago where they are holding him inside an abandoned church. Alderman Maseryk interrogates him as his men torture him, but Gordon is unafraid. He knows they can't kill him before he gives them the name. Hatchett tells Maseryk that Gordon might be able to withstand torture, but can he stand watching his wife and son be tortured? Maseryk tells him to take the private jet to Gotham.   Bruce, meanwhile, has figured almost everything out. He knows this has to do with Dwight Petersen and that Gordon was taken to Chicago, but not even he knows the name of the witness who identified Petersen as a victim of Maseryk's corruption. That's what everyone wants to know.