Detective Comics #790

Issue Details

Synopsis

SCARIFICATION Debbie Farrow and her friend Bettie, hang out in a night club the 16th of August at midnight and Debbie decides to try G.H.D., a drug known for having killed several people. Bettie is concerned about her friend and before too long, Debbie falls death on the floor. Debbie's body is taken to the Morgue, where she joins a big list of victims of the drug.  A few hours later, Bettie returns to her apartment and meditates about what happened, when someone knocks at her door, looking to talk to her. She tells them to come in and Batman appears in her apartment, looking for answers about the person who sold them the drugs.   Batman goes to the place of the dealer who sold Debbie the drug and beats the criminal without mercy before throwing him outside the window, several feet above the ground. The dealer is saved by Batgirl. After the scare, the dealer gives Batman the address of a laboratory where the drug is manufactured. Batman gets on his way to the place and Batgirl follows him, even after he told her to go elsewhere. Batgirl explains that she noticed something wrong in the way Batman treated the dealer and she wonders if it has anything to do with Stephanie Brown and her hard attempts to fit in the Bat-family. Batman replies that Stephanie is a reckless young girl that can't be part of the team and he leaves Batgirl behind.   Batman returns to the Batcave at dawn and thinks about the events that would happen that night. Bruce starts his normal day and at twilight, he comes back to the Batcave to change into his working attire. Oracle contacts him and asks about the situation with Cassandra, but Bruce doesn't reply and again he thinks of what he must do that night.   Batman arrives at the laboratory and destroys everything before going for the leader of the gang. Batman beats the drug dealer and then he gives him a choice to pick between going to jail, or taking his own drug and in the end the man decides to turn himself to the authorities.   Batman returns to the Batcave and thinks who would be the best person to take with him to do what he has planned for that night. He thinks of Dick, Tim and Barbara, but in the end he decides to call Cassandra.   Together, they go to the Gotham Cemetery to visit Jason Todd's gravesite. Bruce explains that August 16 is Jason's birthday and that, if he would be alive, Jason would turn 18 that very same day. Cassandra understands now why Bruce was acting so hard on criminals and he tells her that Jason used to be reckless, young and too much carried away by emotions, just like Stephanie Brown, and he doesn't want to be responsible for the death of another young person following him.   Bruce wants to spare young people, full of hopes and dreams from a dreadful and awful destiny, since there are people without hope and already doomed willing to sacrifice. Bruce and Cassandra leave the cemetery and they start patrolling the night as Batman and Batgirl. THE TAILOR PART 2 An old man by the name of Jake, walks towards the metro station, while thinking of his daughter.   A train has been hijacked by a man in an armored suit and he has a whole wagon full of people as hostages, while there are security cameras recording the situation. Batman appears at the scene, but the armored man attacks him with a small rocket-propelled grenade. From the dust, appears Jake, walking towards the train and the armored man is glad to see him. The old man gets in the train and makes a deal with the hijacker to release the hostages in exchange of him. The hijacker agrees and he let them all out, except for Jake's daughter. The armored man takes the girl and demands to known something about a money that was apparently taken by Jake. Jake tries to stop him, only to be overpowered. Jake then starts tampering with the robotic armored suit and causes the suit to open and reveal the man inside. Using a gun, Jake shoots the man in the chest, killing him and after a moment, he joins his daughter.   Jake walks with his daughter out of the scene and Batman approaches Jake to ask him once again if he built the robotic suit the hijacker was using, but Jake tells him that he wasn't involved.   However, when he gets home, Jake looks at the picture of a past project called "Mayhem", where he and other people used the same robotic armor for good.