The sound of violence is stalking the Gordons.
Last time on Batman: Caped
Crusader, Batman faced off against a real ghost. Gentleman Jim Craddick,
the Gentleman Ghost, rose from the dead to rob Gotham’s struggling working
class of their funds. He held up armored cars and the Gotham train, during the
latter of which he also ruined a press event for Harvey Dent’s campaign by not
robbing him as he saw Dent as a man of a similar station. Batman refused to
believe he was dealing with a ghost until he fought the man in his estate and
during the fight his fist passed through the ghost’s head. Not knowing what to
do, Alfred suggested he look up Linton Midnite at his bookstore. Midnite, a
vodou priest, gave Batman a book and instructions on how to exorcise Craddick,
by burning the original deed to his estate and using the blood of a noble man.
Alfred volunteered the blood as it turns out the Pennyworth’s could trace their
family back to English nobility. They performed the ritual in the Craddick
family cemetery, Craddick raising again to stop them. After a struggle, Alfred
and Batman burned most of the deed, destroying Craddick’s body. But his remains
flew at Batman to try to possess him. Alfred took the hit and then begged
Batman to kill him to protect himself. Batman destroyed the last deed scrap,
freeing Alfred and trapping Craddick in a beaker that Midnite had given him. He
checks on an exhausted Alfred and tells him that he can’t do his job without
Alfred. He handed the beaker over to Midnite, and judging from Craddick’s
screams, he’s in for a bad time. Meanwhile, out of money and options, Harvey
Dent turned to Rupert Thorne for money to keep his campaign afloat.
Ep 7: Moving Target
The episode opens with a client of
Barbara’s thanking her for getting him exonerated. She tells him that he’s a
free man because he deserves to be, that we’re more than the bad choices we
make, and sends him off. Her father watches, scowling, and feeling like this
was a miscarriage of justice as the man got off due to a technicality. The
Gordon’s start arguing about this, as this seems to be a sore spot between
them. Barbara insists that actions aren’t everything, there are mitigating
circumstances, while Jim is very adamant that actions are everything.
She calls him a cynic, he calls her naïve. This has the vibe of one of those
arguments they’ve been having some variation of for years, perhaps decades. Jim
insists that deep down people know right from wrong and need to be held
accountable for when they choose wrong. Their fight is interrupted by Montoya
and Corrigan running up to them, saying they got a tip about something.
Suddenly, a man with a mustache calls out to Gordon and pulls a gun. Before he
can shoot, he’s hit by Corrigan and drops. Jim asks what’s going on and Montoya
says they have a problem.
At GCPD, we learn that the assassin
was Floyd Lawton, a local contract killer. Jim asks if they know who hired him
but Montoya says no as he’s still in surgery to remove the bullet Corrigan put
in him. Flass says that one of their snitches informed them this morning that a
hit was put out on Gordon last night. Jim points out that taking a hit out on
the police commissioner would require a lot of nerve, and Corrigan adds a lot
of money too. Montoya wants to investigate and figure out who of Jim’s enemies
could have the funds to pull it off, while Flass and Bullock pitch sending all
the cops they’ve got to the East End to put the fear of cops into Gotham’s
crooks. Jim shoots that idea down,
refusing to turn the East End into a warzone. He says work the case but work it
smart.
They head up to Jim’s office where
Barbara is waiting. She insists they get Jim protection detail and take him to
a safe house. Jim thinks she’s overreacting, as they got Lawton, but Barbara
says there’s no way he’s the only one being sent. Montoya is on Barbara’s side
and thinks they should get Jim to a safehouse too, at least until they can
figure out the full scope of what they’re dealing with. He refuses to go,
believing that if he leaves that Flass and Bullock will cause trouble without
supervision and that running will tell the criminal element he’s scared. He
plants himself at his desk and gets back to work. Barbara storms off and
Montoya follows her. After letting Barbara vent her frustrations for a minute,
Montoya promises to keep an eye on Jim and to call Barbara the second anything
happens.
At her office, Barbara tries to
keep busy but is frustrated by the situation. She looks at a phone on her desk
of her and Jim when she graduated from Gotham State U. She then looks over to
see that Batman got into her office through her window. Obviously, she’ll need
to get used to his entrances as she leaps up and shouts at him. Batman tells
her that he’s been looking into the hit on her dad. We get a flashback scene to
show ‘looking into it’ involved beating the tar out of crooks at a bar until
one of them talks. He tells her that according to his informant, the hit came
from Black Gate Prison and that it’s an open hit, meaning that whoever does the
deed gets paid. Barbara deduces that this is a personal hit, as her dad put a
lot of people into that prison. Batman is sure it’ll be a long list of suspects,
given her dad’s 30-year history on the force. He advises her to get Jim
somewhere safe and heads out when she’s not looking to investigate further.
Batman heads to Black Gate Prison,
knocking out two guards that were just joking about how one had killed an
inmate the other day. He finds the man that put the hit out on Gordon and
demands to know why. The inmate swears he didn’t do it for himself, he was just
the middleman that set up the deal. He tells Batman the man that did it was a
guy named Muller, he’s in and out of solitary a lot so needed a go between to
make the deal. He admits there’s a complication as well. Muller doubled the
price after Lawton failed and a whole crew are coming in from out of town to
finish them off. We cut to a squad of men in black trench coats and hats
carrying violin case get off the train. Their boss dons a black mask with two
white concentric circles on it. He walks to the railing of the train station
and says “Dun dun dun.” This is Onomatopoeia (Reid Scott).
Batman moves onto Muller’s cell.
Batman asks why he’d try to kill Commissioner Gordon. Muller acts scared for a
second before takin a swipe at Batman with a shiv. Batman beats the crap out of
him and then demands Muller start talking.
Jim Gordon heads home and finds
Barbara, Corrigan, Montoya and a third officer, Marcus Driver (James Arnold
Taylor). Jim is adamant that he won’t run but Barbara rightly points out that
if he stays at his home and more hitmen come after him, their neighbors will be
in the crossfire. Jim relents. As the cops load Jim’s things into their car,
Jim sarcastically asks Barbara if hired killers count as victims of
circumstance too. He insists that there are times when things are black and
white, Barbara tells him to get in the car. As they drive off, the housephone
starts ringing. It’s revealed to be Batman, wanting to fill them in on what he
learned from Muller. He tells Alfred to keep trying the number as he tries to
find where they’ve gone.
As the cops escort the Gordons, Jim
sees a police car tailing them and is annoyed that they got a security detail
as well. It’s only as the police car pulls along side that Jim realizes that’s
not one of theirs and screams for Marcus to get down. The fake cop, a member of
Onomatopoeia’s gang, pulls a tommy gun on then. Marcus is hit and Barbara grabs
the wheel. The cops all fire on the gang
until Barbara makes a sharp turn, tricking the gang to drive off the road and
clearly die in a fiery explosion. Montoya and Corrigan agree that their safe
house has been compromised. Barbara bandages Marcus’s arm and tells Jim they
need to get him to a hospital. They head out, their damaged car fuming and
sputtering until it breaks down.
Corrigan checks the engine and says they’re leaking oil and the radiator
has been literally shot. Jim wants to find a phone and call GCPD for back up
and an ambulance, but Montoya and Barbara agree they can’t really trust anyone
right now after being chased by one of their squad cars. Barbara suggests
finding some place to hunker down. Corrigan asks where they can do that, since
they’re in the boonies, but Barbara walks a few feet and they realize their
withing walking distance of the Wayne Garden’s suburb development. They hid the
car as best they can behind the Wayne Garden’s billboard and head into the
development. They’re looking for the model home, as developers always build
that first.
Meanwhile, Onomatopoeia and his
gang found the wreck their boys left. His second calls the men morons, as they
were only supposed to follow. Onomatopoeia sees the oil trail the car left and
mimics the noise of dripping fluid to draw their attention to it and then a
winning bell from like a gameshow to indicate they found the trail. No, the
episode never reveals if he can only speak in onomatopoeias or if that’s just a
bit he does while on the job, They follow the trail.
Meanwhile, Batman listens on the
police scanner for tips. He hears that there’s a downed police car on Dozier
Road and reports of shots fired, but the dispatch officer says they don’t have
any cops in that area tonight. Batman makes a wild turn and heads out of town.
The cops found the prefab house and
got Marcus inside. He keeps trying to tell them that he’s fine, but he’s lost
so much blood he can’t stay conscious. Barbara and Jim argue about the system,
as Barbara is disgusted that they can’t trust any of Gordon’s officers right
now. Jim heads to the back to check the windows again rather than fight.
Montoya looks at some of the stock photos in the house and says this place
doesn’t feel like Gotham. Barbara admits it’s a lot like the house she grew up
in. Montoya, on edge and feeling snide asks if it was in one of the rich
districts of Gotham and Barbara confirms it was Ellsworth Hills. Montoya
complains about elites in Gotham fleeing to the suburbs rather than trying to
fix up the city proper, but Barbara counters saying they’re still part of
Gotham, just across the river. And points out that the house in question
belonged to her grandpa, they weren’t rich. Montoya insists it’s not the real
Gotham. Barbara says that she didn’t miss the city while living there, as something
are just… she trails off but her dad adds ‘beyond help’ when he comes back in,
but Barbara refuses to admit that’s what she meant. Corrigan heads to the
kitchen saying he’s going to try to make coffee to soothe people’s nerves. Montoya
points out that they’re in a model, not a real house, and the moment Corrigan
flips on a light, Onomatopoeia’s men open fire on the model house. He says Bang
to tell his men to keep firing. Jim and Montoya cover the front while Barbara
and Corrigan cover the back.
The firefight really ruins the
house. Thankfully, the noise draws Batman’s attention, and he really helps even
the odds. He rolls through Onomatopoeia’s men as the Gordons and cops pick men
off. Some break into the house, Barbara beating one down with a golf club and
her heels. Batman and Onomatopoeia face off. Onomatopoeia proves to be a tough
opponent, easily dodging around a lot of Batman’s punches and kicks. And as a bit of an easter egg his schtick of
talking only in onomatopoeias feels like a nod to the 60s Batman series and how
it had those exaggerated sound effects. Batman finally gets him in a hold and
beats him up. Corrigan and Barbara take out their second goon after a struggle.
Batman punches Onomatopoeia in the throat before saying “Pow” and knocking him
out. Jim and Montoya join Batman. Batman tells him the hit has been rescinded
so this should be the last of them. Jim breathes a sigh of relief… until Batman
reveals that the hit wasn’t on Jim Gordon, but Barbara Gordon.
Inside, Barbara beaths a sigh of
relief only for Corrigan to pull his gun on her and reveal she was the target
all along. Corrigan says that he doesn’t want to hurt her, but the amount of
money on offer is just too much for him to ignore. Everyone has their price, I
suppose. Barbara tells him he won’t get away with this, but Corrigan tells her
that he’s going to stage it to look like one of the gang got her before he
could put too in his chest. At the last moment, Jim shoots the gun out of
Corrigan’s hand and Barbara knocks him out with a punch to the jaw. The
Gordon’s hug. The cops arrive at the house, Marcus gets seen to and all of
Onomatopoeia and his surviving crew get taken away. Along with Corrigan.
Later, Barbara meets with Muller.
He’s sporting a broken nose and bruises from his fight with Batman. He tells
her he took the hit off her, so she should tell the Batman that. She wants to
know why he did it, when she did her job and got him the best deal possible.
Muller doesn’t believe that, saying that while he made mistakes, he doesn’t
deserve to be in here with the rest of them. Barbara tells him that she thinks
he does before walking away.
This was a good episode. Onomatopoeia
is a villain I hadn’t heard of before, so I looked him up. Turns out he’s a
relatively new character, having debuted in 2002 and was created by comic nerd
king Kevin Smith and artist Phil Hester. He’s a villain that mostly goes after
Batman and Green Arrow, being a contract killer that specializes in hunting
non-meta heroes. At time of writing it’s unclear if he’s a meta himself, but
he’s shown off endurance to indicate if not he’s getting hits off something
like Venom or other performance enhancing drugs to keep him going. I was
honestly shocked to hear that he’s such a recent villain. He’s got a vibe to
him like Clayface and Hugo Strange or other Older Batman villains. I have to
imagine he was chosen to be adapted at least in part because he was an easy
concept to fit into this 40-50’s universe much like Batman himself. I was
disappointed to see that Corrigan had turned traitor in order to get the reward
money. This is due in part to him being played by Roger Craig Smith, who has a
long filmography but I know him best as playing Captain America in Avengers:
Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. If you can’t trust Cap, who can you trust? But my
point about everyone having their price still stands. For most people, I’d like
to think it’s a dollar amount too exorbitantly high for someone to consider
paying, but for Corrigan it seems to be a lot lower. The ending was a bit of a
downer. Maybe I’m miss reading it, but it seems to me that that last scene with
Muller was to drive the point home to Barbara that she had been naïve and that
not all of her clients deserve what she gets them and that just feels a bit off
to me. But that’s a nitpick. Overall, a good episode. See you next time.
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/posts/111180217
Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero
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