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Batman #599
Bridget Haines |
| Title: |
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From the Inside-Out |
| Cover Date: |
March 2002 |
| Story: |
Ed Brubaker |
| Pencils: |
Scott McDaniel |
| Inks: |
Andy Owens |
| Colors and Separations: |
Roberta Tewes / Wildstorm FX |
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Synopsis: (WARNING! SPOILERS!)
Part Seven of the "Bruce Wayne: Murderer?"
catches us up with what has become of both
Bruce Wayne and Sasha Bordeaux since their
arraignment in Gotham Knights #25. It opens
with Willis, the prosecutor in both cases,
making an offer from the DA to Sasha. She
insinuates that if Sasha has something valuable
to say, they might even let her walk. Sasha
mumbles that it is a waste of time, she has
nothing to say to them. The DA snaps at her,
questioning whether or not the woman is having
a "thing" with Wayne, but Sasha's
lawyer informs her she doesn't have to answer
that. She does anyway, in a definitive negative,
leaving the lawyer boggling over why she
wont save herself. She warns Sasha that she
is going to get dragged down with him into
the murder charges, but she stands fast.
Willis makes one last offer that Sasha testify
against Bruce, and she'll have a "get
out of jail free" card. Sasha again
refuses, telling them she's heard this quite
a few times already but she isn't changing
her answer. As a final jab, Willis guarantees
Sasha that while she is throwing away her
life, Bruce Wayne is not wasting any time
worrying about her.
This appears to be exactly the
case as focus
shifts to Bruce in Blackgate,
staring pensively
through the cell window at the
bat-signal
in the sky. He reflects on how
easily he
could escape the cell, but that
it would
tell the world he is more than
he appears.
He looks at the criminals around
him, like
they are animals, and he is helpless
to answer
the signal's call.
The inmates taunt him with jibes,
threats,
and flaming toilet paper rolls,
but he remains
silent and dark. During a meal,
they try
to egg him on, and he claims
he did not kill
Vesper, and that he will be out
soon thanks
to his lawyer. That results in
a backhand
from an inmate with a cafeteria
tray. He
asks them to leave him alone,
reflecting
on the fact it would take him
about 2 seconds
to permanently disable all three
of the men,
before the guards intervene.
More taunts from the inmates
that night,
about his mother's death, followed
by his
listening to the news cast about
himself,
the GCPD revealing they are not
even searching
for other suspects. The news
cast picks apart
his life until unable to take
any more, he
stalks out of the room. A last
taunt by an
inmate results in him turning
on the man,
and giving him a look that completely
shuts
him down, admitting to himself
that his mask
is slipping.
Back in his cell Bruce reflects
on his parents'
death, and how he's trapped in
that cell
while people walk on his parent's
grave,
and Vesper's murder goes unsolved.
He flashes
back to earlier that day, and
a visit by
Alfred, where Morse code exchanges
some sort
of secretive command with the
butler amid
small talk. Whatever it is, Alfred
dislikes
it, but agrees to carry it out.
Back to the present, 15 minutes
before lights
out a bribe to a guard frees
3 inmates from
their cells, and unlocks Bruce's.
Bruce has
prepared ahead of time, destroying
the bulb
in his cell to keep it in darkness.
He beats
the snot out of the three inmates,
brutally,
reflecting that for these moments
in the
cell, there is no Bruce Wayne.
The guards
rush in, stunned, to take the
three men to
the infirmary, Bruce's attention
fading out
as he continues to stare up at
the bat-signal
in the sky outside while being
cuffed.
Sasha's lawyer brings her good
and bad news,
that the DA has extended the
offer another
day. She refuses to reconsider.
The bad news
is that Bruce went berserk in
Blackgate.
A stunned Sasha looks at the
Gotham Gazette
article with a shocked exclamation
of "Oh,
no…"
Analysis:
Cover:  (5 of 5 cowls)
Scott McDaniel is hit and miss with covers
usually. One can often tell when he did the
cover first, and focused on it, or when it
was done at the last minute for a deadline.
This is one of his better cover. The sheer
menace and blackness of the image is a perfect
reflection of the story within, without giving
too much away. The stark whiteness of Bruce's
eyes, teeth, and name on his shirt is striking
in the black, with the visible lower body
through the bars giving a great "looming"
effect. The red title bar was also a good
choice, adding the connotations of blood
and anger appropriately.
Story: (4 of 5 cowls)
This was a perfect painting of the alteration
in Bruce Wayne since the events of BW:M?
began. As Bruce Wayne is slowly fading into
the background, the Bat is coming forward,
which isn't looking good for Wayne trial-wise.
There is a caged animal desperation in him
which Ed Brubaker displays for us in this
story, but a cold and calculating force beneath
it all. He has plans…we are not privy to
them, but we ache to know what they are.
Sasha remains a strong-willed, loyal woman,
whose unspoken love for Bruce has been fuel
for part of this devotion, but I think her
firm denials of being involved with him are
also a testament to her professional loyalty
to Bruce and the Bat. All in all a great
read, though the interior monologue from
Bruce has more or less tipped us off to the
fact that unless he has a split personality,
he didn't kill Vesper. I was really enjoying
the fact that until now, even I was beginning
to doubt his innocence. I have to dock it
a cowl for such early revelation.
Artwork: (4 of 5 cowls)
As always, outstanding work from McDaniel.
I've come to expect it. I felt that his first
and last pages with Sasha were a little,
hrm...rushed maybe. They didn't have his
usual definition and were a little cluttered,
but the rest involving Bruce in Blackgate
was stunning work. He places such a menacing
aura in Bruce, that you begin to not see
Bruce Wayne at all, just Batman without a
mask. He is the master of the glare, and
his strengths are as always, expressions
and action. The fight scene with the three
inmates in his cell was a touch on the overly
graphic side (I could have done without the
bloody flying teeth) but I think part of
that is the fault of Tewes and Wildstorm
for making the blood the brightest thing
on that page. THumbs up to Owens for an appropriate
use of heavy black here, where it is very
effective and doesn't confuse the scenes.
This technique was attempted without success
in Nightwing #65 and Gotham Knights #25.
They should take a lesson from Owens. The
full page image on 20 was just as strikingly
intimidating as one can imagine, a disheveled,
darkly feral Bruce Wayne poised over the
crumpled forms of the three fallen inmates
in his trashed cell, lit from behind, but
highlighted from the front by the light through
the window, stunning work.
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