Nightwing #149

Issue Details

Synopsis

THE GREAT LEAP PART 3 Nightwing enters the safehouse and finds himself surrounded by some of Batman's most dangerous villains and all of them seem to have taken part in the death of Carol Bermingham. Nightwing is aware that he is affected by Scarecrow's Fear Toxin and he can't trust what he is seeing as reality. Nightwing leaps towards the enemies and attacks them. The first to fight back is Killer Croc, who has apparently eaten Carol and Nightwing knocks him out with a quick maneuver. Next is Penguin, who tries to attack Nightwing from behind but is knocked out by a well aimed punch by Nightwing, who is trying his best to hold back against his enemies, as he knows they are not real. However, when he sees Scarecrow holding Carol's dead body, he loses it and unleashes a brutal attack against the maniac. Nightwing realizes that the fear of letting Carol die is too strong and it is manifesting as a delusion of a rising blood pool, in which Nightwing tries to drown Scarecrow. However, he is grabbed from behind by Poison Ivy, who is ready to give him a kiss and end his life, but he manages to break free and using a taser gun, he knocks Ivy unconscious. Mister Freeze attacks next and traps Nightwing in a block of ice as he starts telling how easy it was to kill Carol. Nightwing refuses to believe him, breaks free from the ice and attacks Freeze by knocking him to the ground, breaking the glass that protects his face and killing him with his own cold gun. Nightwing feels satisfied, but he is immediately attacked from behind with a crowbar by Joker, who replicates his attack on Jason Todd, several years in the past. Nightwing recovers his strength and knocks Joker out with a furious punch in the face.  Finally, there's only Two-Face left and he applauds Nightwing for eliminating his hired help so quickly. The effect of the fear toxin starts to wear off and Nightwing realizes that the people he just defeated weren't supervillains, but instead common henchmen. Two-Face explains that he is the only real threat in the room and Nightwin asks for an explanation, as it was Dent who contacted him and asked him to save Carol in the first place. Two-Face tells Nightwing that Dent is gone and that he is the one looking to kill Carol since the beginning. He reveals that he used the poisoned bullets to dose Nightwing with fear toxin and he also reveals that he learned to shoot with extreme accuracy after being taught by Deathstroke. Two-Face then drags Carol into the room and prepares to kill her. Nightwing is not completely recovered from the effects of the fear toxin and he tries to talk Two-Face out of commiting a crime he will regret. Two-Face then picks his coin and flips it at the same time as he activates a bomb that causes a wall to fall over Nightwing, whose mind is projecting an image of himself being crushed by a giant coin.  As he is falling, Nightwing sees his parets falling with him, but suddenly their fall stop. John and Mary Grayson reach out to their son and he grabs their hands, reuniting the Flying Graysons for a brief moment. Meanwhile, Carol pleads to Harvey Dent to stop and let her live, but Two-Face shoots her in the stomach, with no remorse. Carol uses his last energy to beg for Harvey's help, but Two-Face decides to leave the place and let her die. Nightwing is able to climb back to the top of the building thanks to the memory of his parents and the effects of the fear toxin have finally disappeared. However, when he reaches the top of the building, he finds a woman that has been shot in the stomach and at first he thought it was Barbara Gordon, but after clearing his mind, he realizes it is Carol. She has lost a great amount of blood and is barely breathing. Nightwing hurries to perform CPR on her, but the more he tries, the less she reacts. Nightwing rips the shirt off her chest and tries to resuscitate her by any means necessary, but after a great effort, there is nothing left to do and Carol Bermingham dies next to a desperate and beaten man.   Some hours later, Nightwing stands in the rain near to a chapel where Carol's funeral is taking place. At that same moment, Two-Face is meeting with a man, who tells Dent that his payment for killing Carol awaits him. Two-Face is shocked to learn that Carol is dead and in a burst of rage, he shoots and kills the man, claiming that Nightwing was supposed to save her.