Chapter Four: Year Three (1941-1942)

"When you've stared into the eyes of darkness, you realise that no one is influenced to actions of pure evil. What they choose to do comes from their own inner insanity. Despite what some may believe, choosing such evil is something that takes place deep inside a person and is little effected by outside factors."

Helen Maxwell, during a 1998 lecture on her experiences during the infamous 'Barrows' Murders'

Although no one knew it at first, a certain kind of madness had arrived in Gotham. The open hit on Gordon, Dent and Batman attracted people from outside of the city. Most were in it solely for the money, others to get in with the good graces of the Falcone family. One man though, joined in for the sheer fun of it all and to make his mark on the city he would soon call home. He was the Joker and his four year reign of terror would create a bogeyman of the 20th century, one that would linger in the nightmares of many, even years after his death.

His origins in Gotham are, like the man himself, completely shrouded in mystery. His past, his life outside Gotham and even his name have never been discovered. a Jack the Ripper of the twentieth century. Much like the Ripper, Joker has passed into legend in his nation, becoming a feared figure haunting the national consciousness years after his demise. The mystery of him remains the strongest attractor to many of those studying the period and has become one of his defining traits.

We shall look further into the Joker later on, as well as have an overview of those who made themselves famous by opposing the Batman in various ways throughout his career, but for now the focus should be on the chain events of Gotham in this year. The appearance of the Joker was merely the start of what was to come although he would be the most infamous of the years to follow.

The joker playing card found on O'Hara's corpse signalled the first of the madman's victims as he sent a message to Gordon, Dent and the Batman. He was coming for them and was willing to kill everyone that got in his way. For a month, this seemed to steady the Falcone family as the Joker had hijacked the printing press of the Gotham Gazette, the most widely read newspaper in the city, on the 7th May, killing two of the workers there as he inserted an announcement to the public in the paper, claiming that Dent and Gordon were next, the article being followed by a picture of his calling card, the joker from a deck of playing cards.

This forced the police to divert resources away from the Falcone case in order to deal with this new threat, one that wasn't entirely understood. Although Joker was seen as a threat to the lives of Dent and Gordon, the majority of resources were to focus on the Falcone family, the Joker seen largely as a mercenary who'd be dealt with during the Falcone case, or once Carmine Falcone was brought to justice. Although later historians have criticised Dent and Gordon for thinking like this, it must be remembered that Joker was still seen as a henchman to Falcone himself, his later infamy not being obvious.

Throughout May and into June, the Falcone family continued to suffer as the Gotham Police focused their efforts on bringing down as much as the crime syndicate as they could, believing that the man who had been dubbed 'the Joker' by the press would soon follow. It seemed as if the Joker himself had vanished though, although he may have been put off in the following weeks as security around both Dent and Gordon had ramped up considerably. As news continued to leak in that Carmine Falcone was only a few steps away from being arrested for one of his many crimes, attention had turned away from the Joker.

This proved to be a catastrophic error as the Joker finally struck at the Gotham Municipal Courthouse, setting off a bomb just as Dent had set up a press conference to announce that Sal Maroni was agreeing to testify against Carmine Falcone with an arrest warrant having been put out for the gang leader. At the end of the conference, the bomb exploded, killing eight people and injuring a further twelve, including Dent's fiancée, Grace Lemont. Dent himself escaped without harm, but a taunting message that the Joker had left for him seemed to lead to irrationality on Dent's behalf, blaming Falcone for the attempt, declaring Joker's message to be a fraud.

Despite everything having been taken away from him in the last year, Falcone remained in Gotham, appearing in court for his arraignment on the 7th July with a trial being set for two months afterwards. All throughout this time, Dent would publicly, and privately, state that the Joker was nothing more than a hired goon, even as Gordon went against Dent by assigning more and more officers to hunt down the killer. Throughout August, the GCPD would constantly fail in tracking down the Joker, the police having to learn how to deal with a new type of criminal with the Joker always one step ahead of them.

This chase came to an abrupt end on the 27th August when Harvey Dent appeared at a fund raiser for the Wayne Foundation that was meant to raise money for the British war effort. During the dinner at Wayne Tower, the doors were flung open to reveal the Joker himself, flanked by a group of armed thugs, most of whom began a firefight with police stationed to protect the area. The appearance of the man himself caused shock among the crowd, his sheer white skin, shock of green hair and unnaturally red lips were thought originally to be make up, but were eventually to be revealed as a result of a chemical reaction his skin had to an unknown concoction. To those first seeing him in the flesh, the Joker was an unnatural and unnerving sight.

After making his appearance, the Joker announced his intention to kill Harvey Dent, stating that this was the penalty for not focusing on the greatest threat to Gotham. The attempt to kill Dent was then stopped by the first widely seen and confirmed appearance of the Batman. The Dark Knight wasn't even noticed until he stepped from out the shadows as the Joker and his men searched for Dent, taking down three armed men before the crowd realised what was going on. The first sight of the Batman was of the long cape and cowl shaped in the head of a bat, his symbol of a black bat emblazoned across his grey costume, a striking image to all those present. As he stepped forward to confront the Joker, Batman would unknowingly create an image that would live in Gotham's history as two of the opposing forces faced each other. One, a grim warrior of order, the other, an insane agent of chaos. No one knew that day the legends that would be created from the two from their conflicts, but it was a dramatic start.

The conflict that day was to be averted however, as the Joker flung the few remaining men he had at the Batman, and then promptly tried to escape. After dealing with the thugs in short order, the Batman pursued the leader of the gang, the Joker having managed to hijack a car in the meantime though, his actions having caught the attention of the police. A chase through the streets of Gotham ensued, the police managing to continue the pursuit to the Sprang Bridge. What happened next is still subject to speculation, the most common explanation simply being that the Joker's car swerved out of control after hitting a pothole, other witnesses saying a dark car came out of nowhere, forcing the Joker to drive desperately out of the way. The truth may be impossible to determine, the legends having been reinforced over the decades, but the result was the same, the Joker's car went out of control and crashed off the bridge into the river below.

Although he would later become notorious for escaping such situations, Gotham had yet to experience the Joker's almost supernatural ability to cheat death. Due to this, after a brief search of the river which only resulted in the car being found, the Joker was declared dead by Gotham Police Department, his body washed out to sea. Batman too had vanished, vanishing back into the shadows from where he had come from. For Harvey Dent, this had been a sign that Falcone was on the run and his drive to put the man on trial became an outright obsession, working day and night to make his case as airtight as possible, When September rolled around, all of Gotham looked to see how it would turn out.

From the outset, Harvey Dent was a target of Falcone hitmen, as were the members of the jury. Sightings of the Batman greatly increased as the attempts to stop the trial were halted, the Batman constantly clashing with the armed Falcone men out in the open and in the dark nights of Gotham. It soon became apparent that the Falcone empire was dying in the streets with Carmine Falcone having to use his dwindling resources for his defence at the trial and hiring whoever he could to try and kill Dent. All these attempts failed and it was noted by several people at the trial that Carmine was looking worse throughout as the pressure got to him and his men failed to finish the job.

The most anticipated part of the trial came with Sal Maroni being put on the stand. As one of the key lieutenants of the Falcone family, the testimony of such a man promised to be devastating to the defence. Maroni's day in court was set for the 19th December of that year, supposedly to testify against his old boss and help finally bring down the Falcone family once and for all. It was, tragically, not to be.

Having been faking an illness for several weeks, Maroni had managed to get permission to take a bottle of what was supposedly medicine into court with him. At some point, the medicine had been exchanged with acid, giving Maroni a weapon to be used against Dent during his time on the stand. At a dramatic point in the trial, after Dent had questioned him as to who was behind the Joker appearing in Gotham, Maroni staged a coughing fit, pulling the medicine bottle from his jacket pocket before throwing it at Dent's face. Able to turn away, Dent nevertheless suffered from the entire left side of his face being hit by the acid and instantly went into shock from the pain.

In one fell swoop, Carmine Falcone had eliminated his hated enemy as Dent was instantly sent to a hospital where he would stay for months in order to heal. The trial was dismissed as Maroni obviously wasn't going to testify and so the key part of evidence went with him. The act had also reminded people why the Falcone family was to be feared. No matter who you were, no matter how successful you might have been in the past, the Falcone family would find a way to destroy you. With the case dismissed by mid-January, Falcone was once more a free man. Adding the final insult to injury was the bouqet Falcone sent to Dent while the latter was in hospital, half the flowers were missing.

While Maroni was charged with the heinous attack on Dent, the city's attention quickly moved to other parts of the world with the attack on Pearl Harbour finally bringing America into the war against the Axis nations. With the country now looking towards war, the focus shifted from the Falcones to the greater enemy outside the country. Carmine even tried to regain some good will by offering the resources of his business fronts as an aid to the war effort.

As he settled down back in his mansion, there was still two enemies Falcone had yet to deal with, the Batman and James Gordon. Both men were still loose and free to harass his operations and Falcone himself was still under pressure due to the damage had taken over the last two years. Yes, the respect and fear had been brought with the attack on Dent, but the money was almost dry and it would take some time to rebuild the revenue streams lost due to the battles with the law.

As 1942 went on, Falcone was forced to be content with laying low, the GCPD still forced its way into Falcone business, keeping the crime family on the defensive. Carmine may have found the situation humiliating as time went on, but was forced to tolerate it as, even with him still a free man, Gotham had changed. Without the access to the wealth he had relied on all his life, Falcone found that even formerly reliable corrupt politicians and police officers refused to have anything to do with him if he couldn't line their pockets.

Despite the early triumph, 1942 was something of a struggle for Carmine Falcone as he tried to regain his former power and prosperity. But, any attempt to set up a gambling den, brothel or union racket was, if not stopped, then forced to a crawl by the efforts of Batman or the GCPD. A stalemate was soon reached by April of that year. While the War across the world was heating up, the Carmine family found that it was hard to reach its former heights while the GCPD and Batman found that they couldn't nail the top level of the Carmine family.

It promised to be a long and drawn out conflict, the city holding its breath as two wars, one far away and one taking place in its very streets, took place before them. Sightings of Batman greatly increased as he was seen fighting Carmine family members, the number of arrests of people trying to shake down businesses for protection money greatly increasing during this period. One of these battles would bring in one of Batman's more constant foes, the man known as Killer Croc.

His real name actually Waylon Jones, the man who would become Killer Croc was born with an extreme case of Icthyosis Vulgaris, a disorder which caused the scales on his skin that he became infamous for. Having worked as a circus freak for most of his life, an argument with a circus goer in 1939 led to Jones killing the man and then going on the run. His path led to Gotham where his superior size and strength made him an ideal person for a member of the Falcone family. Tough, strong and with an appearance that made him stand out, Jones became notorious for his brutality against the type of people he believed had mocked him his entire life.

It was on the 15th April that Batman and Croc would have their first clash as Croc's actions were brought out into the open. An attempt to shake down a bar for protection money gained far more interest than normal as several of the patrons fled at the sight of Croc, spreading the news quickly. A few rather unwise comments about Croc's condition from some of the rowdier bar patrons soon had him attacking those around him, leading to an outright bar brawl which was momentarily stopped by the appearance of Batman.

An order for the Falcone family members to stand down was met with the predictable hostility and the 'Battle of McSweeney's' (The name of the bar) started. This conflict stands out from Batman's regular battles with criminals as it happened out in broad daylight in public, with numerous witnesses. The statements differ as they're bound to do, witnesses either in fear or awe of both men as they started fighting in the bar, soon spilling out into the streets as that was wrecked. All agree on the fact though that Batman dispatched the Falcone members with ease, using his martial arts skills and designed weaponry, projectile weapons in the shape of bats. One of these weapons was taken by the bar owner and hangs on the wall to this day in a place of pride.

Only after Batman took down the six men he had brought with him did Jones make his first moves towards Batman, the fist fight which followed utterly destroying the remains of the bar. The fight finally burst out onto the street, literally, as Batman threw Jones through the door, sending him to the pavement where the two continued to pummel at each other. Witnesses noted that both men used everything around them as a weapon, whether it be a loose brick on the ground to Batman throwing Jones through the windshield of a neaby car.

The fight came to an end when Batman sent Jones careening into a wall, slamming his head repeatedly into the brick in a way that might have killed an ordinary man. With Jones though, he suffered a minor concussion that was treated after the police arrived onto the scene. The Batman had vanished, leaving only Jones and his men to be picked up amid the wreckage of the bar and the surrounding environment.

The Battle of McSweeny's would go onto become a key part of the Batman's legend, his first appearance to be seen by the general public was one of a knock down brawl between him and a man who would also feature heavily in Gotham's immediate future. Each telling of the story grew, with the entire streets having been torn down in some people's take on it. In truth, the damage was more to the inside of the bar and various cars that were unfortunate enough to be parked near the building at the time of the fight. All these were covered in a donation by the Wayne Foundation, which had recently set up a grant system to help people who had suffered damages due to actions relating to the Batman.

With Jones taken away by police, the Falcone family had once more reached a stalemate as one of its chief lieutenants was waiting for his trial. Damaged, but not broken, Falcone stewed in his mansion, still trying to get things back on track as Gotham was locked in the grip of the war overseas. It was during this low level war between the mob and forces of law, that the event that would send Gotham into the chaos which defined it for the next four years occurred.

On the evening of the 4th May, police received reports of a gun battle in the Falcone mansion. Twelve cars full of people had struck at the heart of Falcone power, shooting everyone as they broke through the defences of the estate and went towards the centre. By the time the police had arrived on the scene, it was too late and they only found the bodies of those who had been killed in the fighting and the man who had orchestrated it all. The man who had managed to destroy the power of the mob and had killed Carmine Falcone, allegedly by his own hand.

On the first anniversary of his first appearance in Gotham, the Joker had returned.

Something a bit longer for people to read this time as more bits of the Bat Mythos crop up. Thanks to those who've faved and commented:

6tailedninja: Thanks for the words and the issue has been corrected.

As ever, I hope everyone enjoys and feel free to review.