Detective Comics #804

Issue Details

Synopsis

CITY OF CRIME PART 4 - ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE Theresa Cushing is terrorized at the sight of her husband pulling a gun and pointing it at her and just a few seconds away, she was dead. The man then stopps and listens to the baby crying in the next room. He walks into the kid's room and point his gun to the baby, but before he could commit the crime, Robin comes crashing through the window and disarms the man. After this, the man goes berserk and tosses a knive at Robin, who catches the weapon and warns the man that he is not going to harm the baby. Desperate, the man tries to pull his face off and then he jumps off the window of the building, several stories above ground. However, when Robin looks through the window, there was no body lying on the street, nor blood.  Meanwhile, Batman is staring at the Iceberg Lounge at the distance and notices that the penthouse of the building has been blown to pieces and that Penguin, the owner of the building and the man he's been looking for several crimes, might be gone as well. Recalling Penguin's crimes, Batman remembers the name of the missing pregnant girl, Cassie Welles and suddenly he starts remembering Haddie McNeil, the girl he couldn't save from herself. Batman remembers that he attended Haddie's funeral as Bruce Wayne, a few days before. He tried to talk to her parents and offered them to start a foundation on her name, but they were uninterested and also deemed Bruce's efforts as just a way to compensate for her daughter's services to him. Bruce was left in shock and angry at them. Robin interrupts Batman's thoughts and informs him of what has happened at the Cushigns household, but Batman is still going after Mister Freeze and the girl he kidnapped in case she turns out to be Cassie Welles.   At that moment, Freeze has taken a minister to a cold room designed to keep meat fresh. Freeze wants the minister to marry him to his beloved "Nora", but the minister notices that the girl at the corner of the room is a young pregnant girl who must be taken away from the psychopath. The minister tries to get away by telling Freeze that they need witnesses, but Freeze shows him the several frozen bodies of the workers of the meat factory hanging from the meat hooks at the cold room and tells him that the witnesses are already there.   The detectives Frank Ivers and Elliot Lynch interrogate Marlene Welles at her home, about the disappearance of her daughter Cassandra, but after she refuses to tell them more information, Ivers begins to suspect that she is somehow involved on her disappearance. Marlene asks them to leave her home and Lynch tells Ivers that he might have said the wrong things, but Ivers disagrees.  Elsewhere, a pigeon sent by Penguin arrives at a building with a written message on the neck. A thug called Claude picks the bird from the window and takes it to his boss, The Ventriloquist and Scarface, who kills the bird and reads the message from Penguin about Mister Freeze ruining their business. Scarface then decides to get the situation under control.   Batman goes to Arkham Asylum to learn how did Freeze escaped and he discovers that the doctor in charge of Freeze has committed suicide. Jeremiah Arkham is shocked by the discovery and he informs Batman that the deceased doctor was treating Freeze with a regression treatment, which might have caused Freeze to relive his memories about Nora and his past life. Some of the inmates manage to get a message to Batman that reads "Love" across a strip of paper.   At that moment, Freeze has broken into a bride store and is staring at bride gowns that he would use on his "marriage". A bomb is thrown inside the store, destroying almost everything inside. Freeze, however, comes out unharmed and after spotting the attackers, he uses his cold gun to attack his enemies. However, Freeze is outnumbered and he has no option but to fall to the ground and resist the attacks. Soon, the attacks stop and he takes a look at his aggressors, who have all been knocked down by several Batarangs. Freeze notices Batman in the middle of the street and tries to run, but Batman captures him with ease. Batman interrogates Freeze about the location of the kidnapped girl, but before Freeze could answer, a sniper shoots Freeze's helmet and cracks it open, damaging Freeze's Cryo-Suit and risking his life. Batman takes the sniper down, but in the blink of an eye, he finds himself surrounded by a great number of masked assailants. WHEN YOU'RE STRANGE PART 4 Kitt Calahan is taken back to the carnival with a bullet wound on his arm and almost unconscious. Calahan is dreaming with TomJohn and Rowley and they tell him in a dream that TomJonh's assassin is closer than he thinks.   Colonel Brand arrives at Calahan's trailer and tells everyone to get out so he can take care of Calahan. Meanwhile, the others go to tell Lena about what happened with Rowley. After listening that they both were shot in the middle of the forest, from an aproximate distance of a mile, she deduces the identity of the attacker.   Colonel Brand makes sure that he is undisturbed in Calahan's trailer and he tries to put the man to sleep with some chloroform, but Calahan struggles as he recovers his consciousness. Brand confesses that he wanted to blackmail Rowley, but TomJohn wanted to turn the man to the police, which was an inconvenient for him and so he killed TomJohn. Outside, Firestone tears the side of the trailer with his bare hands under Lena's suggestion and they whole carnival crew witness how Brand was trying to kill Calahan as well. Lena tells Brand that she hasn't forget that he was previously called "Brand's Bull's-Eyes". Calahan punches Brand so hard that he breaks the man's neck and as a result he is sent to prison. However, Calahan is satisfied with the outcome of the whole situation.