Superman & Batman: Generations II #4

Issue Details

Synopsis

2008: THIS ANCIENT EVIL Black fades to a vision of putty-faced alien scientists looking down upon somebody who now finds that his hands that he sees are not human, but rather mechanical, as he awakens. He arises and finds himself in a strange laboratory, and that his body is now that of a robot controlled by his brain. Confused and totally disoriented, the robotic entity breaks his way out, easily tearing through brick and steel, and finds himself in the heart of a metropolis that seems rather futuristic by his reckoning, a city that in the night is lit with thousands of lights and animated billboards.   In Central City, Jay West thrills at wearing the costume of his uncle Barry Allen, to become that generation's new Flash despite having only a fraction of his predecessors' speed abilities. In Gotham City, Knight-Wing waits outside the penitentiary for the release of Amanda Mason, whom he has fallen in love with during her incarceration. She embraces Clark Wayne and kisses him as they meet for the first time in years outside of prison, with Amanda feeling grateful for Clark testifying on her behalf. As Knight-Wing flies off carrying Amanda in his arms to "an appointment at Metropolis City Hall," the two Bruce Waynes meet Mrs. Wayne in the hospital, who is now old and near the point of death. She is glad that both her former husband and her son are here because there was something secret she wanted to share with both of them.   Back in Metropolis, the robotic entity who now calls himself Metallo was greeted by the blinding lights of police cars surrounding him, to which he responded by blasting them with energy rays powerful enough to destroy half the city. Knight-Wing shows up to confront Metallo, who at first mistakes him for Superman, only to find he's several decades late for any such "reunion" with the Man of Steel. Of course, Metallo isn't without one trick up his sleeve -- he opens up a hatch to reveal Kryptonite that's being used as his power source. But much to Metallo's surprise, it doesn't affect Knight-Wing as quickly as it does Superman, enabling him to knock down the robot. Jay West soon appears to give Knight-Wing a hand by creating a cyclone around the robot, but is quickly knocked down and blasted away. Black-Hawk and Cyborg also show up to deal with the robot, but Metallo responds with an electro-magnetic pulse powerful enough to create a big hole in downtown Metropolis, not to mention black out power through the entire city. While Jay manages to carry the dismembered torso of Cyborg away, Green Lantern shows up to slice away the robot's limbs and to encase its head and torso section in a green energy bubble, stopping his threat. The heroes find the alien scientist laboratory that Metallo came from and discovered that the brain inside the robot was actually Lex Luthor's, which was thought to be destroyed years ago -- allowing the Ultra-Humanite's brain to be transplanted into Luthor's body -- but was kept in stasis and worked on in the hopes of removing his antisocial tendencies.   At Metropolis City Hall, with his friends as his witnesses (including Cyborg), Clark Wayne happily marries Amanda Mason before an appointed judge and kisses his bride. 2019: FATHER TO THE MAN Bruce Wayne as Batman meets Clark Wayne as Knight-Wing at Superman's Fortress of Solitude, where they are greeted by an unexpected visit by Kal-El himself, who shows up to reveal to Bruce a Kryptonian device called the Chronoscope, which is used to view events in any point in time and send messages through time. Just recently, Clark picked up a signal from the Chronoscope that came from 99 years ago -- a message that was being sent forward in time by Kal-El's adoptive father Jonathan Kent, which was meant for Bruce Wayne to hear.   First, the message showed young Clark Kent finding out not only that he was going to be Superman in the future, but that he was going to fight crime with another hero called the Batman -- who secretly would be Bruce Wayne, a millionaire who would be orphaned when his parents were killed by a criminal. The Chronoscope revealed that the murder would take place within only a few months from that time, and since the Waynes were visiting the county seat the following day to open one of his free family planning clinics, Clark and Pa Kent realized they had to warn them of what's going to happen. Driving to the county seat and renting a hotel room, Pa Kent gave Clark opportunity to try out his powers under the identity of Superboy, in order to find the Waynes within three hours before they reach town in order to warn them.   As Superboy was flying around town, eventually attracting the attention of onlookers seeing a boy flying in the sky, his vision and hearing powers picked up the vehicle in which the Waynes were riding in. Suddenly, though, he also saw a big monster truck that opened up its back section like a clam and latched onto the Waynes' vehicle with cables, drawing it onto the back of the truck. As the back section closed up, the chauffeur was gassed by a henchman who called the Waynes to get out of the vehicle before they got gassed. Superboy broke into the back of the truck and knocked out the henchman, but was soon zapped by an electrical weapon that the villain called the Ultra-Humanite had used on him. He told his men to dump the chauffeur, the Waynes, and Superboy on the side of the road while they take young Bruce Wayne with them to hold for ransom. Superboy woke up and tried to follow the truck as it sprouted wings and flew like an airplane, but lost them when thick black smoke poured out from its rear.   As Bruce was taken to the Ultra-Humanite's hideout and placed in a dark room, bound and gagged, Superboy somehow picked up the scent of the truck's gasoline trail and followed it to the hideout, where he was given a more powerful jolt of electricity from the Ultra-Humanite. As the villain's henchmen encouraged him to use the weapon's full power to kill Superboy, another costumed hero entered to take down the criminals, who calls himself the Flying Fox. As Superboy recovered, he scanned the hero with his X-ray vision and found out it was Bruce Wayne in disguise. He gave Flying Fox a hand in knocking out the Ultra-Humanite's henchmen, but just as the villain was about to use his electrical weapon to kill both heroes, Jonathan Kent burst in and destroyed its power pack with his shot gun, causing the villain to lose mobility in his legs. As Superboy took the criminals away and Bruce Wayne was reunited with his parents, Jonathan Kent brought Thomas Wayne to his cellar to watch what the Chronoscope revealed about not only his future, but also his son's.   A few months later, as Jonathan's message comes to a close, he found out in the local newspaper that both Thomas and Martha Wayne were killed, just as the Chronoscope revealed would happen. Wondering what went wrong, Jonathan used the Chronoscope to look into the last hours of the Wayne parents' lives and found out that, instead of averting the fate they were warned of, they chose to allow their fates to unfold.   This revelation -- that Bruce's parents actively chose to accept their fate so that their son could become Batman -- was almost too much for Bruce Wayne to bear. Later on, as Bruce, Clark, and Kal-El meet at the grave site of Thomas and Martha Wayne, Bruce realized that, as painful as it was to both experience the trauma of losing his parents and now knowing his parents chose for him this particular fate, this decision ended up working for the better, as his becoming Batman would touch the lives of Dick, Bruce Jr., Barbara, Clark, and countless others.