Appearing in "I Am Suicide, Part Two"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
Other Characters:
- Ventriloquist
- Alfred Pennyworth (Mentioned)
- Bronze Tiger (Mentioned)
- Dogs of War (Mentioned)
- Gotham Girl (Mentioned)
- Jewlee (Mentioned)
- Justice League (Mentioned)
- Martha Wayne (Mentioned)
- Psycho-Pirate (Mentioned)
- Punch (Mentioned)
- Rex Calabrese (Mentioned)
- Thomas Wayne (Mentioned)
Locations:
- Santa Prisca
- Gotham City (Mentioned)
- Thomas and Martha Wayne Home for the Boys and Girls of Gotham (Mentioned)
- Wayne Manor (Mentioned)
- Kahndaq (Mentioned)
Items:
- Venom (Mentioned)
Vehicles:
- Batwing (Destroyed in this issue)
Synopsis for "I Am Suicide, Part Two"
Onboard his Batwing, Batman enters the airspace of Santa Prisca and is warned that if he doesn't land immediately and surrender to the forces on ground, he'll be shot out of the sky. Batman simply repeats a mantra: "Bane. I've come for Psycho-Pirate. I need him to save someone who needs to be saved. Turn him over, I go away. Refuse to turn him over... and I will break your damn back".
As announced, the aerial security shoots the Batwing out of the sky: as Batman crashes at the entrance of the stronghold, he's greeted by Bane's men, who assault him and take him to their boss. Batman is a bath of blood and Bane explains that without his Venom he's not going to be capable of snapping his spine like he did before, but he still performs a wrestling move that cracks it. Then, he drags an unconscious Batman to the underground cell he spent his youth in, and closes him in.
Batman comes to while rats eat at his face and water is starting to rise. He screams in pain and punches the wall with a specific intent: to create cavities to climb. As he once again repeats his mantra, he starts climbing the wall and, with a scream, he straightens his back. He falls back into the water, which is rising dangerously. Letting it get him close to the bars of his cell, Batman opens the door with the blades on his forearms. He then emerges from the cell, opening the prison's entrance door for Catwoman and the Ventriloquist, who were waiting for him. This was Batman's plan all along, with a simple goal at the end of it: to break Bane's damn back.
Trivia
- When the characters talk about backs broken, they are referring to the events of Batman: Knightfall, where Bane famously broke Batman's back, defeating him.
- Throughout the issue we can read a letter by Catwoman to Batman. Here's the whole text:
I know you're coming for me. I know you'll catch me. Before you do though, I wanted to write. Or rather, I had to write. To you. I mean you, you of all people, the great and powerful Batman. The rich and lovely Bruce Wayne. You should know. Why I did it. Why I killed them. Why I killed so many of them.
When I was little, I was alone. We share that, Bruce. Which is nice. But, of course, your parents didn't really leave you like mine did. Or they didn't mean to leave you. Mine. I didn't know them, really. I was so little. I don't know what they meant to do. All I know is they were there, and then they went away. And they left me behind. After my parents, I went to an orphanage. From there, I was placed in a few different foster homes. Placed with cruel people. With cruel eyes. My parents, I don't remember them, or all about them. But I think they had kind eyes. I can sometimes see them. Just the eyes. In the dark. Like the eyes of a cat at the end of a long alley.
I fled from the fosters. I was good at sneaking out. Or I got good. With lots of practice. Anyway, I ran. I liked the orphanage better. The Thomas and Martha Wayne Home for the Boys and Girls of Gotham. They'd donated the money for the building after the birth of their son. They had a picture of you, all three of you, in the entrance hall. The happy Wayne family. The perfect Wayne family. With perfect eyes. Like mom and dad.
The best days of my life were spent in that orphanage, staring up at that picture. I would think of the three of you, playing, laughing. I would imagine that I was with you, that I was playing and laughing, too. Later, after the bombing, I would think about that picture. Of it burning as those children burned. The edges curling into the fire. The mother, the father, the son, melting into black. I'd think of myself, if I was still there, if I was one of those children. Reaching out through the flames. Burning as I reached for you. Falling as I touched your face.
As you well know, they killed 163 orphans in the bombing. And seven teachers. And a janitor, D.T., who used to give me a thumbs-up whenever I walked into a room. A pathetic terror group working out of Kahndaq took responsibility. They called themselves the "Dogs of War." Woof. Woof. There were no demands. No ransom. No reason. Just fear. They had 237 registered members. All of whom worked in some way to facilitate the bombing. They had 237 members. Now they have none. I started with those in Gotham. Then I went on to the rest of our country. Then I went on to their country. Everyone I found had plans, great plans, powerful plans. Plans that never came to be. Woof. Woof. Meow. Most of the time, I just slit their throats. They never knew I was there. I slipped behind them and I dragged a claw. Fast. Easy. Painless. Painless... Most of the time. I worked quickly, efficiently. Because I knew you would come. That you would work quickly. Efficiently.
We're alike in so many ways, you and I. The Cat and the Bat. Broken orphans dressed as animals, jumping from the rooftops. It's why, in some ways, we work. Why we work together, I mean. Why when we kiss... When we kiss, the pain goes away. You feel that, too, right? How just for a second, just that second... the pain is gone.
But in some ways, maybe the important, good ways, we're not alike at all. That's why the kiss never lasts. Not really. When your moment came, when they destroyed your childhood... you used all that will, all that loss, to make a better world. When my moment came, when they burned my childhood. I didn't want to make a better world. I just wanted to kill them all. The problem, I think, is I never had that first paradise. Your parents. The house. The butler. I had eyes. Just cat eyes, in the dark. And what can you do with cat eyes in the dark?
See, you'll always be the little boy in the picture. You'll always want to be the little boy in the picture. And I'll always be the little girl looking up at you. Smiling up at the handsome little lie. But I could be wrong. I mean, I might be wrong. There still might be some small hope for us. Someday, maybe you, too, will forget the better world. Maybe you, too, will stop feeling the love left behind and just feel left behind.
And then, maybe then... the kiss will finally last.