For Bob Kane and, yes, Bill Finger, for teaching us that we need not fear the night.

Chapter Five: The Dark Knight

Place: Offices of DC Comics, New York City

Year: 1986

"Hey everyone, my name is Denny O'Neil and I worked as Batman's chief writer before leaving for Marvel!" The liberal nearly jumped when he saw the dirty looks he was receiving from the longtime DC writers. "…But, uh…" These guys must have voted for Reagan! "…But," he cleared his throat, "of course that's all behind me now since I've come back." The DC partisans smiled. He shook his head. There was loyalty but this was ridiculous…

O'Neil cleared the small plate from the table—it had been a good meal, he was going to have learn the name of whoever had made those bagels—and pulled out a small folder. "I have ideas and a chief writer to make them work—Frank Miller." An unshaven black clad man merely nodded. "What I don't have is a huge reboot like Maggin and Bates have planned because Batman isn't broke and doesn't need fixing. It could have been very different, though."

The editor pulled out a comic book to show a silhouetted Batman crouching on a wire with a lightning bolt flashing behind him. "Miller's Dark Knight Returns… He and Steve Gerber are reason we're here doing this conference in the first place." O'Neil gave thumbs up in "Stainless" Steve Gerber's direction. When, however, he saw that the man did not respond he sighed. Not surprising with what happened to Steve's idea.

"The two of them pitched three interlocking reboots for the Trinity. Gerber would have written the Wonder Woman title, Amazon, Miller would have written the Batman title, Dark Knight, and the both of them would have collaborated on Superman's reboot, Man of Steel." A crestfallen look came across the Batman editor's face. "However, publisher and president Jenette Kahn made it clear that she was going to accept a lot of proposals for revamps for the big three and then pick her favorite."

He cast a pitying look at the man. "Sorry Steve."

He looked away and crossed his arms. "Save your sympathy for someone it'll do some good."

O'Neil hated seeing Gerber like this… Working for somebody else meant you didn't always get what you wanted but acting like a pouty child? "Well at least your idea of a joint reboot got picked. I… I mean if we have a joint reboot and we can coordinate things right?"

Gerber rolled his eyes. "Yeah I guess I can be glad about that," he grumbled. O'Neil just didn't get it. It wasn't just that half his ideas were being tossed aside but that Genghis, oops, he meant Jenette Kahn was stealing the other half… That's when a Cheshire cat grin spread across his face. "Glad as I'll be when Kahn there says that if, say for example, I create a new Supergirl I can own part of it."

Miller saw a grimly silent Kahn narrowing her gaze at Gerber and knew what would happen next if he didn't step in. "C'mon Steve! Maybe we didn't get it all but at least we got this much." He saw no response… other than nervous glances cast at the now angry boss lady. Great, now Gerber realizes he bit off more than he could chew! "Man up already… If you don't like this little meeting you can just come back tomorrow."

The tension was thick enough to cut with the proverbial knife for a while. It was Kahn who finally broke the silence. "I thank we've wasted enough time on this distraction." Turning away from the writer, she turned to the new Batman editor. "O'Neil, what is that you were saying before we were sidelined?"

Thank God! Miller saw that a very grateful off the hook Gerber let out a sigh of relief and flashed him a very grateful smile. "Thanks Frank!" he whispered. Miller wasn't impressed. He saved Steve's neck this time. That didn't mean he'd be able to do it next time.

O'Neil, on the other hand, ignored all this and answered his publisher's question. "Of course, Miss Kahn," he said. For a time I considered bigger changes based on Frank Miller's Dark Knight Returns but in the end I thought no." A stoic Miller simply nodded his assent on hearing his editor's pronouncement. O'Neil was impressed; his chief writer was apparently serious about manning up when you didn't get your way.

"There's a reason I'm going to be careful about what I do and do not incorporate from that story. DKR imagines Batman as a cross between Mussolini and cage match wrestler. He's little better than the freaks he brings in and spends most of his time fighting honest cops. He even gets into a shootout with Joker in the middle of a civilian crowd and tries to murder the clown in cold blood. When he can't, a self loathing Batman thinks to himself that he isn't killer and wishes he was." O'Neil closed his eyes and shook his head. "That scene sums up every reason we should be wary about that version of Batman."

The editor paused to let that sink in. "DKR doesn't imagine our guy as a hero but as a burned out psycho who has nothing left but his self righteous crusade. The only defense of his actions is that he is Nietzsche's ubermensch, that good and evil don't apply to him. Think about it!" The people there in room with O'Neil jumped at the man's shout. "When you stop and ask yourself what it would be like if it were real, you know that most everyone in this room would be rooting for him to be taken down! Right!?"

On noticing the looks on their faces, O'Neil waited for his breathing to get back to normal before he continued. He spared a glance and saw the stone faced Miller sitting emotionlessly. Considering what he was going to say next, he hoped that was a good thing. "Miller said that in writing his story, that he wanted to go back to the beginning but Batman's creator said 'I fail to see what a woman with swastikas emblazoned on her bare buttocks has anything to do with Batman.' The man is supposed to be someone that you can look up to, not someone you should be running in fear of. No offense Frank."

O'Neil turned to face his partner… and saw an unnerving, predatory smile creep across Miller's face. "None taken," he said. With that, the rattled editor remembered how Miller had a grinning Batman listen to a wolf howl and think, "I know how he feels." Spooky!

Getting away, the new editor returned to the topic at hand. "People have to know that even if Batman is a black angel, he's not a fallen angel, and that whatever else happens, he's a friend. For example, we see Batman talk to a priest about a drug lord whose son is missing. After the obligatory action scenes, Batman drags the crime boss to a rehab clinic. And, when the boss declines to go in there, he punches the wall so hard that plaster falls from the roof. The intimidated man goes in but is horrified to see his son in a hospital bed and asks his ex-wife who did this. She tells him to look in the mirror because it was his drugs that did this. After meeting his priest brother, the remorseful villain decides to do the right thing and turns himself in. Batman sees this…and smiles."

O'Neil passed out drawings of the Dark Knight from various time periods. "It's tempting to change everything when given the chance but temptation is just something you gotta fight. Batman shouldn't change because, when you think about it, his golden age adventures can still be on the books. For example, back in the 1940s it made sense to see Wonder Woman fight Nazis. Now that we're in 1985, however, we have to say that it was the Wonder Woman of another dimen—!"

"Not even that, ya'dope" interrupted Schwartz. "Remember, we're just got rid of the infinite Earths."

The old man is a bear, thought O'Neil. "Right Mr. Schwartz… What I'm saying is that if you compress all Batman stories into, say, ten years, you get the life story of a man. Just think of what Batman comics in the 30s showed. He's just finished his training and returned to Gotham, all full of hate and spending half his time fighting cops. In the 40s, however, Gordon sees him in action and makes him a deputy and, after getting Robin, he cleans up his act. In confronting Joe Chill, his parents' killer, and then Lew Moxon, the man who ordered the hit, he finds JFK's magic bullet and with it, peace.

"With the 50s and early 60s, Batman has the best years in his life." A smiling O'Neil then passed out some Silver Age comics. "Joker stops killing. Catwoman and Two-Face reform. Gotham turns bright and neon colored like Vegas—and develops a fad for giant props! Nobody dies and with his little buddy next to him, our guy fights crime as much for the thrill of it as he does for helping people. With Batwoman as the mom, Robin and Batgirl as the kids, Alfred as the grandpa, and Ace as the dog, the orphan has found a family." He waved one issue and gleefully said, "Look at this cover, the man is grinning ear to ear!

"However, when the 70s come around," the editor sighed, "Robin leaves and Batwoman dies proving that the happy days are over. Gotham gets dirty and dismal again. Graffiti appears on walls and stores marked XXX appear; whatever they are they don't look good. Two-Face turns back to evil and, to a degree so does Catwoman. Joker even starts killing again. His old sidekick renounces his own name, he breaks up with Superman, and even quits the Justice League."

The editor scratched the back of his head and sadly said, "…We haven't been kind to him in recent years."

"But," said a smiling O'Neil as he emphatically touched a finger to the table, "we can use this. After finishing his training, Batman returns to Gotham and vows to clean up his town. His get tough attitude was what Gotham needed but when he sees people smiling and leaving their doors unlocked, he eases up. It's the worst mistake Batman ever makes because when he eases up, the punks he drove into the shadows return and Gotham goes straight back into the gutter. He blames himself for going soft with all the ribbon cuttings and dinners he attended and swears that he won't make that mistake again. We can thus keep both happy Batman and grumpy Batman on the books with no retconing and tell a good story while doing it." O'Neil sat down and turned to Miller. "Frank, it's your turn."

"Right." Frank Miller cleared his throat. "Me and Denny've talked and we've wondered who raised Bruce after his parents died. The official line is that Leslie Thompkins took him in but that he was adopted by his uncle Philip Wayne. Since he was always working, housekeeper Alice Chilton looked after Bruce. She was Joe Chill's mother. Alfred came years later when Bruce and even Dick were already superheroes." Miller waved his hand. "Screw it. Alfred does a better job as Bruce's dad. I'll get rid of Phillip Wayne but who cares. And we thought what if we combined Thompkins and Alice Chilton? That's more O'Neil's idea than mine. Denny?"

"Thanks Frank. Now, I created Leslie but since she and Alice are both surrogate mothers to Bruce, why not merge them? That, however, raises the question of Joe Chill. In telling Batman's origin, Bob Kane and Bill Finger said the Waynes' killer was some nameless punk but in 1948's Batman #47, our man finds him, Joe Chill. He tells him, 'I know you killed Bruce Wayne's family because I am Bruce Wayne!' Chill panics and seeks protection from his henchmen but they gun him down when they learn he created Batman. Frank Miller ignored all this in Dark Knight to say it was random mugging but for the most part we shouldn't get rid of Chill." As for Miller himself, he just grumbled. "We might even imagine a story early in Batman's career…

"In Leslie's clinic, Chill tells her he has a job and she's glad for it. But when he tells her that he has enough money for her to leave the slums, she gets worried and asks how he got so much so fast. When he doesn't answer she knows it's from something bad and throws the money to the ground. When Chill picks it up, Leslie burns it, saying that half the people in her clinic are there from the drugs he sold them. She shoves him out the door and she, Alice 'Leslie' Thompkins—married name Alice 'Leslie' Chilton—, cries for her son."

"This is crazy…"

"What?"

"Is he serious!?"

"Dead serious," muttered Miller at the people's outburst.

O'Neil looked at the shocked faces looking back at him. "Yes Leslie Thompkins, the woman who embraced little Bruce the night his parents were killed, and Joe Chill, the killer, are mother and son. She was married to Mr. Chill but it was an unhappy marriage that produced only one child, Joe. After Leslie's husband left, she took odd jobs and wound up as Bruce's nanny, becoming a good friend to Dr. Wayne, wife Martha, and Alfred. He helped her get her medical degree. About this time Joe ran away from home and tragically drifts into crime becoming no better and somewhat worse than his deadbeat father.

"Leslie has two sons and they're Cain and Abel. After a young Joe Chill kills Bruce's parents, Leslie effectively adopts the boy and does her best to give him some morals. She doesn't want him to grow up like Joe. Thus she's opposed to him being a super hero with all the fighting and such… but she's so proud of her boy for all the good he's done. As for her other boy, she doesn't know that he killed Bruce's parents. She keeps in touch with him, asking him to leave crime behind him and to reform but while he still loves her deep down inside, she's lost him.

"Back in the present we see Chill accidentally shoot her in front of Batman thus leaving him with his spirit broken and wallowing in self pity. As she lies dying in her own hospital, he asks himself, 'How much good can one man do anyways? How much longer will it be before I die… and who will it be that kills me? Joker, Two-Face or just some punk that get's lucky?' After figuring out that Chill is also his parents' killer, however, Batman tells Robin to stay behind for this one. He says, 'This is MY fight.'

"He gets a lead on Chill and when he finally does find him, he says 'I know you killed Bruce Wayne's family because I am Bruce Wayne!' With that, Chill, who's already traumatized by what he did, albeit accidentally to his mother, panics. He runs and asks his minions for protection, saying that Batman's after him for having killed his family; that, in fact, is the reason the man became a vigilante. And of course when the henchmen find out that their boss created their worst enemy, they go crazy and shoot him on the spot.

"When it's all over, Bruce goes to see Leslie who does recover from the gunshot wound but who might never recover from learning that one son left the other an orphan. With a broken heart, she buries her son. Bruce is next to his foster mother and, with a tear for his brother, lays a rose on Chill's grave."

O'Neil smiled. "So what do you think?" He was pleased to see nods and thumbs up and more pleased by what he heard.

"Alright!"

"It could work…"

"Good idea!"

"Chill out!"

O'Neil winced at that pun but let himself smile nonetheless. "Thanks guys. Now, I want to say something about Superman." Batman's editor paused for a moment before looking straight at Superman's editor. "Y'know Maggin… this isn't on my agenda and I never would it brought it up if it hadn't been for what you said in your Superman presentation." Elliot S. Maggin focused intently O'Neil's words. "Yeah, Superman is more Batman's friend than the other way around but it could work."

Maggin was surprised at this; he had a bit of bad blood for the lousy Superman stories O'Neil wrote in the 70s. Still if this was in good faith, he knew what Man of Steel would do. "Alright Denny." He smiled. "How could it work?"

The editor nodded and smiled back. "Unlike what Miller says, Superman doesn't say yes to everyone with a badge or—"

"Wait right there!" interrupted Miller. "I never said that. Read Dark Knight, Batman said that and, no, I am not being unfair; I let Superman explain things from his own point of view!"

"Alright I'm sorry…" O'Neil rubbed his temples and knew he was going to need aspirin. Why couldn't it have gone as smoothly as Maggin's talks? "Fine Frank, your Batman said that. And yes, Superman once asked, if you can't trust the president who can you trust, but in 1971 I wrote a story where Superman breaks the law to save some people from an exploding volcano. He said something like, 'I did it because I'm a lawman; moral law trumps any and all manmade law.' I can't remember the exact issue but the point is if Superman has to choose between what's legal and what's right, then God damn America, he's going to do what's right. The law versus justice debate is a canard; the two men might use different paths but they get the same conclusion." O'Neil looked at Maggin and was pleased to see a smug smirk on the man's face.

"They're the odd couple?" O'Neil dismissively waved his hand. "So what? Let them be the odd couple. We could show that Superman is the only superhero left that Batman trusts and calls friend. If his relationship with the superhero community has soured since he quit the Justice League, it's because he looks at Joe superhero as a well meaning but undisciplined amateur. But when he looks at Superman, he sees someone who trained for thirteen years before moving to the big leagues. And with how Maggin's keeping Jon Kent's death on the books, they both share the same pain of having lost their fathers."

"Really?" asked a pleased Elliot S! Maggin. "You're going to do that?"

"Yeah, if the boss here gives the ok."

As for the boss, she just smiled. "I give the ok. You two got some good ideas there. Very good…" Kahn had never made it a secret that her favorite DC character was the Dark Knight. It made her glad to see her employees working together and if they could both make it sync up… "Tell you what, guys," she told O'Neil and Maggin, "with that long Superman presentation a lot of us are bushed. O'Neil words on you-know-who didn't lighten the load either. Why don't the rest of us take a short break while the two of you finish comparing notes?"

The two men smiled and said, "Right!"

To be concluded…

Author Notes and Replies:

Sir Thames: Glad to have you back. As for seeing Batman, you got your wish. ;-)

"Anonymous": I'll gladly answer your questions! As to why more villains don't acquire wealth legally, I already explained why in the Superman section. 1961's Action Comics #277 had Lex Luthor return the gold he stole from Fort Knox because the Superman he had defeated in the process was a robot. Since the gold was supposed to symbolize a victory over Superman, it's become worthless. Most all writers say that if a villain doesn't use his power for legal get rich quick schemes, he's not motivated by money but for some other reason.

When I wrote about Superman's strength, I thought of Elliot S! [I hear you Mark Mark ;-) ] Maggin's ideas in writing Superman is that the El family was the greatest in Krypton's history. In fact, in his Superman Vol. 1 #257 the Guardians realize that if Jor-El and Lara Lor-Van married, "the merging of their genetic backgrounds would produce an offspring of an incomparable nature." With the right training, their child "would stride like a Titan among the stars." They hoped to be the ones to train baby Kal-El but after Krypton blew up and he became Superman on Earth, the Guardians realized that he need not be a Green Lantern for "genetically perfect and totally without fear—the last son of Krypton's greatest line… he truly strides like a Titan among the stars!"

MarkMark: Welcome! As for being "nitpicky" it's alright. There's no meanness in your voice and I appreciate that you're trying to help. As for a few errors and anachronisms… *insert anime sweat drop* I guess I spent more time working on reboots than on the framing story!

It's for reason, not need, that I choose tragedy. I first learned of our hero from 1978's Superman: The Movie and a scene that always touched me was the death of Pa Kent. Clark had been unsure of what to do with his life but failing to save his father, despite his power, so shook him that he began a journey that ended with his becoming Superman. Bottom line, it provides for a good story and shows that he isn't a "Mary Sue" by showing that he too has had his own cross to bear.

As for Frank Miller's proposed reboot of DC's big three… just wait! Alan Moore, Paul Levitz, and Dick Giordano will all make appearances and I imagine Krypto's still out there. Supergirl does get a lot of text for someone who'll just stay dead but, as comic book historian Alan Kistler said, "while Barry is still remembered as the martyr of the Crisis, since Kara was taken out of continuity, none of the heroes remember her heroic sacrifice. Hell, DOVE's death is remembered, but not Supergirl's. And that's tragic." 2005/10/alan-kistlers-guide-to-the-crisis-conclusion/

I say all this MarkMark because even if a hero is gone, she should not be forgotten. And who knows, maybe she could come back someday! [And in "real" life she of course has!] That's all for now and all I have to say is on with the show! Hope you like.