SHADOW OF THE BAT: Bats of a Leather
The Dark Knight is in trouble. His life hangs on the brink and an unsuspecting Tim Drake, who has not yet been chosen to be Robin, defends him until help arrives in the form of Nightwing. After these events, Nightwing believes Tim is the perfect candidate to take up the mantle of Robin after the death of Jason Todd. Batman, however, doesn't share the same sentiment. Can Nightwing convince Batman to reconsider? And, if Batman does, does Tim have what it takes to make it through the training required to take-on the responsibilities as Robin? Can Tim fill the shoes of Dick Grayson and Jason Todd or will Lady Shiva and agents of the League of Shadows kill Tim before he can prove himself worthy? Batman, Nightwing, and Tim have their hands full as they learn to work together as a team and dish-out vigilante justice.
Bats of a Leather is a short story that recounts and re-envisions the meeting, training, and integration of the third Robin onto Batman's team of heroes. Get ready to earn on your capes and your cowls!
By Killa Kenny
Disclaimer:
I do not own Batman. DC Comics and Bob Kane do. I'm just a huge fan that grew up in the shadow of the bat that wants to expand the mythos.
/Journal Entry #416 of Bruce Wayne/
There's a war raging on the streets of Gotham. In seven years, fourteen thousand people have been killed. Analysts claim that Gotham City is merely the crime capitol. Authorities consider it beyond saving—or just not worth the effort.
I disagree on both accounts.
I would argue that in any Third World city where two thousand people are consistently murdered per annum, analysts would categorize the city as being gripped in civil war. But, not in the case of a premier city like Gotham. No, not in Gotham. No one cares for Gotham. It is simply a place where criminals go to vacation; it's a market for them to sell their contraband; it's a graveyard for them to bury their secrets. Criminals pay vast sums of money to keep it that way.
I would also argue that Gotham is not beyond saving; authorities have abandoned it because it's not lucrative—and because they fear reprisal. They instead exchange wealth and favors to allow the criminals to carve out neo-feudal empires and to wage neo-tribal warfare at the expense of the people. Gotham is not a city with elevated crime, it is a city under occupation.
But, history has always proven where there there's occupation, there's resistance. I am that resistance. I am the only thing standing between Gotham and oblivion.
I had not become all of this at once. It happened over many years as I incubated in pain and in misery. Wandering through the minefield of un-life as the war continued to rage around me. I was wrapped in darkness. I wretched and ached as I changed, until my transformation was complete. I emerged from a chrysalis on the grave of my murdered parents as something else. I was reanimated by the darkness and it demanded my service in Gotham's name. So, it was with an oath that I was repurposed:
"From this moment forward, I swear that I will strike at evil from the shadows in defense of the weak. I swear that I will regard the lives of others above my own and make war on all criminals. I swear that I will become the last bastion of defense in Gotham, defending it to the last person and leaving the wicked to fear its borders. I swear to accept judgment when my mission is complete and never become like my enemy."
I am not the cliche light at the end of a dark tunnel—I am the dark tunnel. I am a monster. I am a beast—born in the womb of the hatred, the sadism, and the greed of an enemy occupation. I am a phantasm that echoes the evils that men do. I am retribution, dark and unforgiving. I vowed to make war to end war. I vowed endless war to end the occupation of Gotham, to free its people. I vowed to become the very monster that criminals and miscreants feared. It was a Faustian vow that only I could take, a path that only I could walk. This is a burden that only I could carry. No one other me could take on such a responsibility—so I thought.
There are others.
Their losses have been as tragic my own. Try as I may to resist, they've proven just as resolute to take to the battlefield with me to make endless war to end war. What human compassion I have left urges them from this path but I cannot dictate the destinies of others. In the end, my understanding accepts that they must make their own choices, come what may.
No crusade comes without casualty. The blood of the righteous was, and always will be, spilled in the name of the defenseless. Others have taken up the vow, only to be destroyed by it. A vow to make endless war will only end tragically. Thus is the reward for righteousness. But, we will not be deterred.
Their sacrifices only amplify my own suffering—I hurt when they hurt—but I hope that this crusade brings them peace in the end. I hope that it bids them more undisturbed sleep than I am allowed. I hope it lights their tunnel and provides them a hopeful path that will one day lead them to a peaceful, blissful existence where fear, corruption, and enemy occupation are not the foundation of their world. Individually, we are but crude mortals fighting in the dark for a better tomorrow. Together, however, we are a force of nature, a maelstrom bombarding the decadent shores of corruption and swallowing it in a cleansing fire of change. We are unified under the mantle of the Bat—a unification in perdition and a motivation to bring wrathful justice to the hell that has consumed Gotham City.
Not just anyone can be a Bat, however. Only the most morally fit can shoulder a burden so heavy and so demanding. To be a Bat, one just cannot take any vow. In order to be a Bat, one must earn it. Becoming a Bat, though, starts with a simple, small gesture that challenges that which makes us human. Anyone holding a title of the Bat will forever remain nameless and their deeds will always go unknown.
Nightwing, Oracle, Robin, and Jason before him, you are my family, bound by cause, adopted by tragedy. We see through darkness to a better tomorrow, though far off. We are Bats of a leather.