Detective Comics #39

Issue Details

Synopsis

ANARKY PART 3 Harvey Bullock is surprised to find Batman hiding in his backseat, given that Batman is suspected of killing a young street kid named Lonnie Machin. The truth that they both know, though, is that the shooter was Detective Nancy Yip, Harvey's partner. Harvey admits that while Nancy is suspended pending a review, the anti-cop sentiment of late required that Batman be made a scapegoat so that the people don't riot if Lonnie dies of his wound. Unfortunately, the city is already in chaos, thanks to the Anarky masks that each citizen received, allowing them to commit crimes without fear of punishment. While some of the people are using their masks to fight that chaos - it isn't enough to stop it. If Batman and Harvey hope to stop it, they'll have to work together.   Two days earlier, Bruce visited Lonnie at the Gotham University Medical Center in plain clothes. He regretted that Lonnie took a bullet just for wearing a mask that he'd thought could empower him to change his life for the better. Alfred admitted that this wasn't the first time Gotham's citizens had let their base desires rule them for the worse, commenting that times are dangerous in Gotham, and Bruce would do well to know that he needed help.   The next day, Bruce was worried that there must have been some kind of connection between the bodies of children that he discovered when he last encountered the Mad Hatter and Anarky's masks. Unfortunately, Anarky's erasure of all county records had prevented Bruce from identifying the children based on the facial recreations that he made. Alfred promised that Batgirl is working on something to restore those records. Frustrated, Bruce decided Alfred was right, and it was time to go to Harvey Bullock for help.   Meanwhile, Harvey met with Nancy on the roof of the police precinct, warning that while he couldn't do anything about it, he didn't think it was right for Batman to take the blame for what she'd done - even if it was an accident. Even so, he promised to keep the truth to himself and toe the company line.   Now, Harvey insists that he is not a dirty cop. He had been forced to sit on evidence linking a child trafficking ring to City Councilman Sam Young because he couldn't make the right connections until Jeb Lester wound up dead. When he attempted to make the connection using the suitcase he found at the murder scene, it disappeared from the evidence room. Fortunately, he had withheld all the photos he'd recovered from the briefcase. Batman explains that they have two pieces of the same puzzle. The children in the photos were surely the same bodies he discovered on the east end waterfront. Now that he has access to the photos, Batman can at least link Lester with the Mad Hatter, if not to Sam Young. The evidence points to a place that had been called the "blue house" - a dilapidated building on the city outskirts.   Meanwhile, the Mad Hatter is in his cell, still consumed by his delusions when an explosion frees him. He is surprised to see that his liberator is Anarky, who seems to have a history with him. He is knocked unconscious, only to come to in the trunk of a car.   In the blue house, Harvey and Batman end up in conflict with squatting youths, all wearing Anarky masks, and in the tussle, Harvey ends up stabbed in the chest. Batman is too overrun by attackers to get to him, and takes a knife through his hand in the meantime. Bullock tries to help from his vantage point in the corner, but is distracted by a portrait full of faces he recognizes. He crawls over to it, at great risk to his health. By the time Batman has dealt with his attackers, Harvey has nearly lost consciousness from blood loss, but he still manages to point out the faces. Among the children in the portrait are Jervis Tetch - the Mad Hatter - and a girl he is looking at, who is a match for one of the bodies found at the waterfront. This is his Alice, and the Anarky Masks appear to be based on her face.   Outside the blue house, meanwhile, Anarky pulls the Hatter out of the trunk in front of a gathering of masked individuals - and in his madness, Jervis Tetch can't differentiate any of them from his own Alice. Anarky warns that it is time for him to die.