Batman: Shadow of the Bat #81

Issue Details

Synopsis

ROAD TO NO MAN'S LAND: WAXMAN AND THE CLOWN PART 2 Joker talks to Jeremiah Arkham and convinces him about having a gladiatorial combat between Killer Croc and Pinhead in Arkham Asylum as a way to keep the inmates busy and entertained. Jeremiah agrees and Joker leaves the office, taking Arkham's diary with him.  The next day, just eight staff members show up to work and Jeramiah has no option but to place two guards in charge of the medication delivery while he and David go to check the asylum's gym to prepare it for the fight. The guards don't know what to do and they just give the inmates the medication that the computer indicates and so they give Killer Croc stimulants and other wrong medications as a result of Joker's hacking into the main computer.   Jeremiah and David open the gym and find a dead guard inside. They know that the situation could turn bad easily but they continue with the plan. Jeremiah lets the inmates into the gym but he notices an unusual behavior in Killer Croc. He tries to prevent the fight but Croc pushes him aside and starts to fight Pinhead. For a while the fight is tied but later, Pinhead gains the upper hand and smashes Croc against a table, breaking it. The other inmates are distracted and entertained, just as Joker predicted. When Pinhead tries to deliver the final blow, Croc recovers and uses a dumbbell to strike Pinhead's face with it and when his enemy is down, Croc punches him repeatedly with the same dumbbell until he finally kills Pinhead. Croc then tosses the body to the guards and the inmates pick their weapons and seize the chance to attack the guards and orderlies. However, when they are about to torture Jeremiah Arkham, Joker uses a firehose to stun them and let the guards recover their weapons along with the control of the situation. Joker then turns his attention to Wax Man and places the hose into the man's mouth as a payback for what he did to him with the bowl of food; that way Joker kills Wax Man and when Jeremiah tells him to stop, Joker obeys.   When Jeremiah and the Arkham staff realize that they are outnumbered, they decide to step out of the gym and lock the inmates inside it, but before the doors closed, Joker throws Jeremiah's diary to him. Jeremiah reads the diary and learns that everything that happened was planned by the Joker. All the security guards remaining decide to leave the asylum leaving Jeremiah and David alone. The two of them walk through the empty corridors and find Solly Bean in his cell eating one of the orderly's body. They lock the madman inside and then decide to lock themselves in Jeremiah's office until they can devise a plan to deal with the inmates. They watch the TV news and learn about Bruce Wayne's hearing at Washington, D.C.. Jeremiah knows that the government will shut down Gotham and after thinking it, he is exhausted and leans over his desk to catch some sleep as David advised him.   Later, a shadowy figure walks into Arkham Asylum's gym and finds it empty. It is "Batman", looking for the asylum inmates. He walks to Solly Bean's cell and tells him to give a message to the rest of the inmates but when he tells Solly the message, someone speaks to him from behind. All the inmates are behind him and ready to receive the message personally.