The Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come is on the hunt.
Last time on Batman: Caped
Crusader, Batman became the center of a cult. The cult worshipped Barbatos,
the Demon Bat God, and under the orders of the Mad Monk, stole lots of treasure
to offer up to their dark god. The cult accelerates after murdering a man to
get their offering and are told by the Mad Monk to get the blood of Barbatos’
avatar, Batman, to summon their lord. Batman investigates the murder and the
cult and learns from Linton Midnite that it’s a scam. Barbatos is a fake god
that pops up every decade or so that occult grifters use to fleece people out
of their money. And obviously the fake Bat God’s cult would work Batman into
their mythology. The cult escalates further by kidnapping Jim Gordon and talk
show host Hattie Tetch (Gordon had agreed to an interview to try to boost
moral) and it’s revealed Hattie’s produce Dala Landry is part of the cult. They
kidnapped the two to sacrifice to Barbatos, as they represent an ally and an
enemy of the Avatar. Batman busts in and frees the captives before running down
the Mad Monk. He gets Batman at gunpoint and reveals that he was indeed a
grifter. Batman is able to get the gun away from him and capture the Monk. But
he doesn’t get far, as Dala heard his reveal, and so stabs the Monk as a
blasphemer. She sobs and calls out to Barbatos when Batman grappling hooks
away. After, Hattie Tetch has warmed to Gotham PD and Jim Gordon but is still
adamant that Batman is a menace that must be stopped. Really showing off her J.
Jonah Jameson right there. Enough recapping. Let’s get to it, shall we?
Oh, and I should remind you of Jim
Corrigan. He was introduced in season one and was largely a background
character until the episode “Moving Target.” A hit is put out on Barbara Gordon
(everyone assumes it’s on Jim because they’re always together when attacked)
and he’s one three cops protecting the Gordon’s for most of the episode. That
is until Batman is drawn away to fight the episode’s villain Onomatopoeia, it’s
revealed he’s a corrupt cop and is going to kill Barbara for the bounty. She
holds him off until her dad can arrest him.
Ep 15: The Spectral Hand
We open with Barbara at the gun
range doing target practice. She remembers Corrigan threatening to kill her as
she makes several head and body shots. Montoya calls out to her, but Barbara
doesn’t respond right away until prompted again. She insists she’s fine despite
being very obviously not fine. As shown by her sneer as she goes back to
shooting.
The two women head out, and Montoya
points out that Barbara seems… tense. Barbara reveals she’s on edge because Jim
Corrigan is going to be released from prison soon. Maybe. He’s offered to be
part of some medical experiment in exchange for a reduced sentence. Montoya
tells her that she doesn’t have to go as a witness, but Barbara insists that
she does, to look that ‘animal’ in the eyes. Montoya tells her she’s not going
alone.
At Blackgate, Corrigan is grabbed
and brought to a surgical theater for the experiment. Barbara and Montoya,
along with a late arriving Bruce, are some of the few viewers. Bruce claims to
be here because Dr. Peterson’s longevity experiences might be worth investing
in… but we the audience knows Batman is just checking in on an old case. Montoya
accuses him of only caring about money, and Bruce responds, “what else is
there? Besides wine, women and the occasional song?” he heads toward a seat.
Montoya and Barbara say, “I can’t stand him,” in unison. Dr. James Peterson
steps up, presenting his Osiris Project. Peterson claims that this project is
about reviving the recently deceased and increasing the longevity of people. He
thanks Corrigan for volunteering (Barbara snidely adding “Volunteering to get
his sentence reduced”) and they begin. They stop Corrigan’s heart with an
injection. As he goes under, the last person he intentionally sees is Barbara
in the crowd. He flatlines a few minutes later and they begin the procedure. They
stick a metal headband on his head and power up some electronics. This feels
very… movie Frankenstein. It seems to be going well for a minute, his
heart starts beating an everything, but then the machines start going wild.
Corrigan starts screaming in agony as his skin is burned and his hair goes
white with the stress. He dies on the table.
One of the prison guards lets a
colleague know that Corrigan died, and that leads to a riot as the prisoners
believe that if the cops will kill a cop, they’ll kill anyone. They’re able to
grab a guard, steal his keys and hold him at gunpoint. The second guard sets
off the alarm as the prisoners try to escape. Bruce hears the alert and runs
off to intercept. Montoya takes Barbara with her, saying that while she knows
Barbara can take care of herself, the prisoners finding the police
commissioners daughter is at the prison would be bad. Batman cuts off the
wannabe escapees at the gate, kicks their asses, and leaves them for the cops.
Later, we see a pair of coroners
taking Corrigan’s body. One of them says that it is hard to feel bad for
Corrigan, but they both agree the way he died was nasty. As they start chatting
about their Christmas and New Years plans, Corrigan opens his eyes and sits up.
Seeing a corpse get up obviously freaks out the guards and they drive off the
road. Alfred drives Bruce home, mentioning that maybe it’s better the
experiment failed, and muses about how extending life indefinitely could be
dangerous. Bruce is barely listening. Alfred suggests that maybe he should make
the biscuits that Bruce liked as a child, but those were tied to memories of
Bruce’s mom, so that really shuts Bruce down. They come across the scene of the
accident and Bruce gets out to investigate. The coroners are both dead, but he
sees a trail walking off into the distance.
At the police station, Gordon chews
out Barbara for going to the experiment, saying that she could have been
killed. Montoya excuses herself from the parent/child dispute. When alone,
Barbara says that she felt relieved when she found out Corrigan died, and asks
what that says about her. Gordon tells her that it means she’s human that went
through something traumatic. She heads home, Gordon warning her to be careful
as the storm is getting bad.
We cut to a bar where a drunk named
Vinny de Leone is forcing the bartender to stay open and serve him drinks. Corrigan,
who grabbed a green hooded jacket at some point stumbles in. He still looks
like a walking corpse, and only mutters Vinny’s name and the word “Vengeance.”
Vinny takes several shots at Corrigan, but he barely slows his plodding step.
Once close enough, Corrigan’s eyes go black and he seems to give Vinny a heart
attack. The bartender calls the cops and tells Montoya what happened, saying
that Corrigan walked off with two bullets in him, and that he didn’t seem
human.
At the Gordon house, Barbara is
reviewing Corrigan’s case while listening to the radio. The host says that he’s
going to be doing a dramatic reading of a Christmas Carol, which Barbara
shuts off. She hears a thumping outside her window, goes to check and sees it’s
just a loose shutter.
Corrigan finds another victim,
Roger Marshall as the man is threatening to beat up his lady. Roger runs off
when he gets a look at Corrigan’s corpse like face. He runs into a department
store and starts throwing things over to try to slow Corrigan down. Batman
hears about a break in on his police scanner and goes to investigate. Corrigan
corners Roger, and tells him, “Vengeance.” Roger seems to think this is about
the death of his wife, who he definitely murdered. He tries to (badly) convince
Corrigan that his wife fell down the stairs, the jury acquitted him and
everything. He throws a chair at Corrigan, but he bats it aside. Roger runs
outside and laughs at having escaped Corrigan… right up until he’s hit by a
Christmas tour bus. Batman pulls up in time to see Corrigan’s black eyes return
to normal and then shuffle off. He runs after the ghoul, but once Corrigan is
out of sight, he seems to vanish. Must be weird to be on the receiving end of
that for once.
Gordon calls Barbara to let her
know that he’ll be even later than normal getting home. He claims Christmas is
like a Full Moon in Gotham. Gordon asks if she’s okay, and Barbara admits that
she can’t get Corrigan out of her head. He reassures her that Corrigan isn’t on
her, and that she should get to bed and have some of his terrible eggnog before
she goes.
Batman hears another sight of
Corrigan the zombie and heads for the Hotel Gothamite. Freddy Borke is up
waiting for his mistress to show up and complaining that she’s late. He hears a
noise and has his goon check it out. The goon opens the door and Corrigan is
waiting on the other side. He comes in, crushes the guards windpipe and throws
him at the radio, shattering it. Freddy makes a run for it, climbing up the
fire escape to the top of the hotel. Batman pulls up as Freddy runs across the
roof. He grappling hooks up to the roof and tries to fight Corrigan, but the
undead ma barely notices him. He uses his mysterious power to trap Batman under
a fallen letter from the Hotel’s sign. Freddy tries to escape Corrigan by
climbing on a flag pole, but falls and ends up improbably impaling himself on
the Star atop the Christmas tree the city set up. Graphic way to die. Corrigan
slips away into the crowd, somehow reaching the ground as Freddy hits the star.
Dude is slow when observed, but the Flash when not.
Barbara is still waiting up when
she gets a call. She assumes its her dad, but it’s Batman. He lists off the
victims: Vinny De Leone, Roger Marshall, and Freddy Borke, and asks how they’re
tied to Corrigan. This is how Barbara learns Corrigan is somehow wandering
around. Barbara starts to list off their crimes, but Batman cuts her off (De
Leone bilked people out of insurance money, Marshall killed his wife, and Borke
was deep into the drug trade), he needs to know how they tie back to Corrigan. Barbara
says that he was the arresting officer in all three cases, but they were let
off due to insufficient evidence. Batman realizes that Corrigan is going after
people that got away from him, settling unfinished business. Barbara says that
can’t be true, as the bounty was lifted, but Batman warns her to call her
father. He was going to say more, but Barbara hung up on him and got her own
gun ready.
Batman sees people fleeing from the
subway station and runs in just in time to follow Corrigan onto the train. They
fight again, but Corrigan’s supernatural strength is too much for Batman. He
tries to choke out the zombie, but it doesn’t work and he almost loses his head.
Corrigan beats Batman and then throws him out the back of the train.
Corrigan gets off the train and
walks down Barbara’s suburban street. She opens the blinds and sees him coming.
She decides she’s going to face him, to end this one way or another. She opens
the door with her gun drawn. Batman is following, but his injuries have him
moving slowly. Corrigan calls out Barbara’s name. She asks if he’s “ready to
die again, you son of a bitch!” Corrigan pulls down his hood and just looks at
her. Barbara shakes as she holds the gun on him and finally asks why. She’s not
a criminal that got away, he attacked her, so why is she on his
list. He then mutters “Forgiveness,” and “Please, Forgive me.” Batman comes up
as Corrigan drops to the ground. Barbara says that he came all this way to ask
for forgiveness and starts to tear up. Batman reaches out to maybe comfort her,
but pulls back. He leaves her be as the cops and Gordon pulls up. He covers
Barbara with a coat and asks if she’s alright. She says no, but that she thinks
she will be.
Batman returns to the cave and sees
Alfred left him a plate of Christmas cookies. He grabs a cookie as he walks by.
This was an interesting spin on The Specter. For those that don’t know, James “Jim” Corrigan is best known as the Specter, the spirit of Vengeance. As the name implies, he’s a supernatural ghost that hunts down individuals that need to be punished. He’s a lot like Ghost Rider but without the flaming skull or motorcycle. He’s typically given near god-like power and omnipotence. This version of Corrigan seems to be a less powerful version of that. He knows where his targets are and can seemingly reach them wherever they are, and he can hit them with enough bad vibes that they die. While obviously the procedure is what triggered this short undead life, I like that the story kept it vague as to the actual mechanics. Is this some sort of latent Meta ability? Is he possessed by the Spirit of Vengeance? The episode doesn’t spell it out, and that’s for the best. I very much loved how they set up this final confrontation with Barbara. From the very start, Barbara doesn’t fit the pattern of guys Corrigan is going after. He strikes at low lives, people that escaped justice, and yet we’re all worried that he is going to go after Barbara. She was the last person he looked at in life. And while we don’t get shown what’s going through Corrigan’s head in this episode, I think the implication is there that she was as much on his mind as he was hers. The episode seems pretty vague on how dirty Corrigan was as a cope, but the implication I got was that he was supposed to be a lot like Dent. Did he cross ethical lines? Ya, probably. But it was ultimately in the pursuit of trying to do good, at least up until trying to kill Barbara. Ya don’t come back from the dead and kill three dirt bags unless you had at least a little of your integrity left is all I’m saying. I don’t have much to say about Batman himself in this one, as most of the episode was just him in pursuit of Corrigan. He’s not questioning how a zombie is walking around or anything, just running. But I liked that small moment when he almost reached out a hand to Barbara. Batman of the last season I think would have just left the moment he knew that the danger had passed. But after at least a year of growth in universe, he was willing to at least consider offering someone a bit of comfort when they needed it. That’s real growth for this ice king Batman. And that’s all I have to say about that. When we come back next month, we’ll see the return of a season one champion, Harleen Quinzel. Look forward to it. Have a good night and stay safe.
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Bluesky: @basicssuperhero.bsky.social
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