Detective Comics #490

Issue Details

Synopsis

REQUIEM FOR A MARTYR Batman tracks the League of Assassins, but fails to capture them thanks to Ra's al Ghul's servant, Lurk. Doing further investigation on the League's plans, Batman learns that they plan to use explosives along a fault line to cause an earthquake at a house where a famous archbishop is having an international dinner party.  The Gotham City Police Department have taken every measure to protect the international guests, but they are not aware of the League's plans and Batman tries to reach the place to warn them. On his way there, Batman is attacked by the Police as they are unable to recognize him and they believe he is a threat to the guests. Batman manages to reach the place, bruised, beaten and scarred.   When Batman takes everyone out of the building, he is shocked to learn that the archbishop refuses to be saved. Batman allows this, but he soon discovers that the Japanese guest is secretly the Sensei, leader of the League of Assassins. Sensei assassinates the archbishop and escapes back into the house to avoid Batman's wrath. Batman is about to give chase, when Ra's Al Ghul shows up and tells Batman that he wants to deal with Sensei personally. Batman attempts to stop Ra's, but he is shot with a poison dart from behind. Talia takes Batman's body moments before the earthquake destroys the house with the Sensei and Ra's apparently still inside.   Later, Batman awakens in a small village and is convinced to take a day to heal and relax with Talia before continuing his crusade against crime. DANCE OF DEATH Batgirl finds a sniper at her father's home, but the sniper escapes by using a smoke grenade. She suspects that this is related to threats against her fathers guest Charles Rey. She gets an undercover job at Charles Rey's ballet company. As Batgirl, she stops a bomb delivered to Charles, seconds before it explodes. Later, she observes Cecile Rey trying to talk her dad into cancelling the show, but ultimately failing. Charles does however say he has an announcement he will make after the performance, that should make her happy.   At the performance, Batgirl notices a slight hissing sound coming from some flowers that Cecile's holding right by her father. She jumps into action and gets the flowers away from everyone. She had realized that earlier when Cecile was complaining about the strong chemical taste of the water her brother gave her, that it must be a chemical antidote to the poison gas in the flowers. She confronts Philipe on stage, who admits that he was the would-be assassin. He felt that he was a better dancer than his father, but his father would never let him be the lead dancer in any of their family performances, so he had to get his dad ought've the way. The irony of all this is that Charles' announcement would've been his retirement, thereby allowing his son to take over the family business. ENCOUNTER A lady gets stuck in the snow, while listening to the car radio. She sees a shadowy figure and gets scared (the radio is talking about what women can do to prepare themselves in case they're attacked outside). She starts looking for a weapon, but it turns out the shadowy figure is a Gotham City police officer, who was just helping her car get out of the snow. THE DEADLY ANSWERS When Dicks Grayson's girlfriend Jennifer has to re-take a physiology test because it turns out some students had a cheat sheet for the exam, Robin decides to investigate and ultimately figures out that Professor Milton himself was selling the answers to his tests because he needed money. After class, Robin is signing autographs, when he notices a "man in black" following Jennifer. LIGHTNING STRIKES OUT Lincoln Trask is kidnapped from his Garfield High shower room after a workout with his gym teacher Jefferson Pierce. As Black Lightning, he tracks them to a Haitian apothecary. He gets knocked out in battle and has a flashback to a week earlier, when Lincoln's sister visited him saying that she thought Lincoln was gonna do something to the people at the Apothecary. It seems that Lincoln's mother died after refusing to take medicine from a doctor and instead took a Haitian remedy instead. Black Lightning comes to, escapes from the trap he was put into while unconscious, and activates the automatic sprinkler system to put out a fire. Unfortunately, the water causes Black Lightning to be electrocuted and fall (presumably to his death).