Detective Comics #31

Issue Details

Synopsis

ICARUS PART TWO Six years ago, Harvey Bullock and his partner were investigating a drug called Icarus. They managed to pull it off the streets, but at the cost of his partner's life. Now, the drug is back, and it is on Bruce Wayne's doorstep. What's worse is that Elena Aguila has died as a resuDet.   Bullock suspects that Bruce may have decided to celebrate his opening of a rehab center with Ms. Aguila by using the drug. He presents the vial of Icarus that killed Elena, noting that he found it on the grounds of Wayne Manor - so where did Bruce get it? He refuses to believe that Elena simply appeared at Bruce's door without a purse, car, or jacket. Meanwhile, Bruce himself looks as though he burns the candle at both ends. Bullock insists that, warrant or not, Bruce will need to come for a drug test. Bruce comments that he'll save Harvey the trouble, and fill up a cup immediately. Grimly, Bullock accepts, warning Bruce not to leave town until he's cleared.   As Batman, Bruce searches the area outside outside his property at Gotham City limits, knowing that Elena must have been murdered. Due diligence had already failed to turn up any history of addiction. Bruce discovers that the ground nearby has been trampled already by Bullock's men, but he can work around it. He determines that Elena was chased down from behind after trying to escape her captors. She struggled, and so he injected her there, accidentally spattering chemical residue on a nearby tree. Whatever that compound contains, it ignited Elena from the inside within seconds. She was dead before she'd even arrived at his door. Knowing that the case is personal to Bullock, Bruce resolves to solve it before the Detective's emotions get the better of him.   Bullock, meanwhile, is hoping to get one of the gangsters they busted in Chinatown to confess to selling Icarus to Bruce Wayne, having seized a great deal of the substance in that bust. By the time he gets to the holding tank, though, his two greatest leads that he hoped to interrogate are dead. Frustrated, Bullock curses what's happened to the city since Jim Gordon was arrested.   Meanwhile, in the Narrows, a drug trade insider named Ash returns to Gotham after a long period of being thought dead, and he wants to know everything there is to know about Icarus. His friend Lamar informs him that the drug isn't on the street yet, but he's put the word out that Ash is looking to buy some, as promised. Their conversation is interrupted when a black sedan pulls up next to them. The vehicle's occupant asks after Ash, who confirms that he is looking for Icarus. Instead of the drugs, the man pulls a shot-gun, and shoots Ash in the chest before driving off.   Within moments, Alfred pulls up in a van to collect the body from the curb. Grumpily, Bruce recovers from the gunshot to the chest, tugging off his bulletproof vest, and wondering if the tracking device he planted on the sedan is functional. Alfred confirms it, adding that his background checks turned up very little on Elena's daughter Annette. She has no official records - no birth certificate or social security number. It appears her existence has been wiped to keep her past from catching up with her.   At Elena's funeral, Congressman Young warns a board member from Elena's organization to help shut down Bruce Wayne's waterfront development plans - or his family will suffer. After attending the burial, Bruce Wayne himself is stopped by Bullock, who notes that Annette didn't even show up to her own mother's funeral. He admits that Bruce's lab results came back clean, but he doesn't want to shift the focus of his investigation yet. His gut tells him Bruce is hiding something, and he will dig for it if he has to. Bruce comments that whatever the case, Harvey would be best served to follow the evidence.   That night, Annette goes looking to score some Icarus in the Narrows, but learns that it's not on t he street yet. In its stead, she buys something called White Candy to tide her over.   Despite Alfred's concerns about Bruce's physical condition, Batman is out again, following the tracker he planted to the waterfront. When he opens one of the storage containers he finds at the location, he is disturbed to see that it is full of children. He goes radio-silent, and opens the other containers, but upon opening one of them, he is yanked inside violently by its inhabitant - Sumo. The large man grabs Batman up in his arms and starts squeezing, complaining of his disappointment with this masked avenger. Batman points out that child slavery is a betrayal of his own people, and this enrages Sumo, who claims that he is their salvation. He charges, sending them both careening off the pier and down hard onto a second container below. The impact renders Sumo immobile, and Batman takes the opportunity to demand who paid him to kill Elena. Sumo wheezes that the death had nothing to do with him, but he was employed by someone called The Squid.   Naturally, this has made Sumo a loose end that needs dealing with.