Batman: Gotham Knight
Similar in spirit and intent to The Wachowski's
THE ANIMATRIX and George Lucas'
CLONE WARS,
Batman: Gotham Knight consists of six interlocking animated shorts that serve to bridge the gap between
BATMAN BEGINS and the upcoming
THE DARK KNIGHT. Japanese directors, studios and production houses handle the animation duties while American writers already intimately familiar with the Caped Crusader tackle the storytelling. Below are images and a synopsis of each individual tale.
Have I Got a Story For YouJosh Olsen (
A History of Violence)
Studio 4°C (
Spriggan)
A lone child coasts up and down the concrete bends of an empty skate park, waiting patiently for more of his friends to arrive.
"You won't believe where I've been!", his three friends say as they show up one after the other, each one just a little more eager than the next to tell their stories and one-up the last (very similar to the
"Legends of the Dark Knight" episode from Season Four of
BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES, which is included, along with three other classic episodes, on the bonus disc of the 2-disc edition). The first child to spin his yarn, coincidentally, looks like a member of the mutant gang from
THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS. In his story, Batman is a demonic and gaseous apparition.
"Dudes, he's like this living shadow! Every time the guy gets a hand on him, he disappears back into the other shadows...then pops out somewhere else!" The next story, told by the girl of the group, imagines Batman as a living, flying human bat. She exaggerates, describing Batman decapitating his enemy. When one of her friends calls her on it, citing that Batman doesn't kill, she shoots back,
"I'm making it more colorful, yo!" The third story has a mechanized, combat armor-covered Batman thwarting a robbery atop a skyscraper tourist attraction, arriving in a huge flying fortress. Just as the last story ends and the fourth friend complains of
"missing all the action", Batman and his nemesis from the three previous stories, The Man In Black, come crashing through the window, continuing their fight. Just as the bad guy is about to get the drop on Bats, the fourth kid saves Batman by clocking the criminal from behind with his skateboard and he's able to see Batman for what he really is: just a (extraordinary but still very much human) man in a suit.
"Nice work, kid. Looks like I owe you one."
CrossfireGreg Rucka (
Batman, Detective Comics, Gotham Central)
Production I.G. (
Ghost in the Shell, Blood: The Last Vampire, Kill Bill Vol. 1, Jin-Roh, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Blue Seed, Patlabor)
Jacob Feeley, an escaped inmate referred to as The Man In Black and
"the high-tech psycho" from the first story, gets mysteriously dropped off in Lt. James Gordon's office by the Batman. Gordon chooses two detectives from his hand-picked Major Crimes Unit who have been partners for six weeks,
Crispus Allen (who is very vocal about his distrust of Batman) and
Anna Ramirez (who disagrees and appreciates what Batman has done for Gotham --
"Because of him, I'm not ashamed to be a cop anymore.") to drive Feeley across the Narrows (which Ramirez refers to as
"a whole island abandoned to madness" and still shut off from the rest of Gotham due to the events at the end of
BATMAN BEGINS) and to Arkham Asylum to be incarcerated. Throughout the dangerous trip, (which Allen resents and considers to be
"running an errand for a vigilante") the two clash repeatedly and Allen reveals his intentions to transfer out of Gordon's MCU after dropping off Feeley. When Ramirez pulls their car over to talk to Allen and perhaps change his mind, the two find themselves directly in between a confrontation between two rival gangs,
Salvatore "Sal" Maroni's men and the men of a gangster known simply as "
The Russian." Maroni's men are mowed down and Maroni hides behind Allen and Ramirez's vehicle, which The Russian obliterates with a rocket launcher. Everyone gets clear in time just as the Batman arrives on the scene, easily dispatching The Russian and his men and saving Allen's life. Maroni tries to take Ramirez hostage but Batman rescues her and upon recognizing her, notes that Lt. Gordon is a good judge of character before disappearing into the night. Allen, who has his pistol trained on Batman, can only watch in shocked amazement from a distance.
Field TestJordan Goldberg
Bee Train (
Wild Arms, Noir)
Lucious Fox, the gadgets guru and head of Research & Development at Wayne Enterprises, invents a device that can deflect bullets. Bruce Wayne attends a charity golf tournament to get closer to businessman
Ronald Marshall and discuss the recent mysterious death of a woman, Teresa Williams, who was a thorn in the side of Marshall. During the tournament, Wayne steals Marshall's PDA using Fox's new toy. Later that night on his yacht, Sal Maroni dresses down his men for not locating and killing The Russian. Suddenly, Maroni's boat is taken over (hijacked remotely by Batman), and crashed into another yacht, one occupied by The Russian and his men. Recognizing each other, both gangs immediately open fire. Batman leaps into action, Maroni's men's bullets being stopped by Lucious' invention. After taking out all of each boss' men, Batman, his hand around their throats, attempts to arrange a truce between Maroni and The Russian until he can accumulate more concrete evidence on both. An accord is reached but a Maroni man Batman must have missed fires a shot at him which is automatically deflected and ricochets into another of The Russian's lackeys. Batman rushes the young man to a hospital in a tense drive.
"You killed me," the punk says. Batman gets the boy to help in time but Wayne has a talk with Fox the next day about the device,
"It works too well, I'm willing to put my life on the line to do what I have to. But it has to be mine. No one else's." Lucious puts the device away, into a box and closes it, where we have to assume it will stay.
In Darkness DwellsDavid Goyer (the
Blade trilogy,
Batman Begins)
Madhouse (
Ninja Scroll, Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust, Trigun, Highlander: The Search for Vengeance, Hellboy Animated, Todd McFarlane's Spawn, Perfect Blue, Wicked City, The Boondocks)
This segment opens with Lt. Gordon and MCU Detectives Ramirez and Allen investigating an incident of sudden mass hysteria at a cathedral where the preacher, Cardinal O'Fallon was abducted mid-sermon by a
"lizard man." Alone, Gordon and Batman bounce ideas off of each other. Batman suspects Jonathan Crane aka
The Scarecrow is responsible for the congregation's uncontrollable fear, stating that Crane has been at large since that night in the Narrows at the end of
BATMAN BEGINS. Gordon confirms his suspicions by saying that CSI found traces of the weaponized hallucinogen Crane is known to use. Batman gives Gordon a communication device (
"And in case you're tempted to try and track me with it, don't bother. The signal is locked with quantum cryptology. The signal bounces off a dozen different satellites. You'll never be able to follow it.") to keep in contact with him while he tracks O'Fallon's abductor down into Gotham's sewers. He's heard an urban legend about a "Killer Croc", a cannibal and he believes it to be true.
"I've found some footprints. Based on the size and depth of the depressions, I'd estimate our monster is weighing more than three hundred pounds." As Batman makes his way through the murky, dimly-lit labyrinth, Gordon updates him from a helicopter flying overhead. It turns out that
Killer Croc (real name: Waylon Jones) is a former circus sideshow freak and an inmate at Arkham Asylum where he was a test subject in Dr. Crane's fear aversion therapy program (his fear? Bats). Croc appears, Scarecrow's fear toxin boiling in his veins, and attacks Batman. Batman defeats him but not before he can bite Batman with his razor sharp teeth, infecting him with toxin as well. Batman finds Cardinal O'Fallon being put on trial by the Scarecrow for attempting to help the homeless, whom the Scarecrow states he doesn't want helped. Batman easily handles the Scarecrow's men, even with his judgment impaired, and uses the methane in the room to spark an explosion that allows him to escape with the Cardinal. Back on the surface, Gordon's helicopter arrives to usher the Cardinal to safety. He offers Batman a hand, but the injured Batman merely says,
"Maybe next time" and flies off on his own.
Working Through PainBrian Azzarello (
Batman, 100 Bullets, Hellblazer)
Studio 4°C
Back in the sewers, Batman is confronted by a fear toxin-infected man so frightened at the sight of him that he shoots Batman and runs away. Batman staggers to a secluded corner and pulls a device from his utility belt that cauterizes the wound. In a flashback, we see a young Bruce Wayne volunteering at a makeshift hospital, assisting doctors performing surgery without anesthesia. Back in the present, Batman attempts to climb his way up out of the sewers but is too weak. Another flashback finds Bruce at a market in India, looking for training. The group he wishes to train him won't accept him so he becomes the student of a woman named Cassandra, who is an outcast for deceiving the group that declined Bruce and teaching their secrets to outsiders. As a montage of Cassandra teaching Bruce skills that eventually sees him sleep on a bed of nails and walk on hot coals, Batman contacts Alfred and arranges to be picked up. Lying under the grate where Alfred is coming, Batman discovers a gun in the garbage. In flashback, Cassandra is harassed late one night by a group of young men at her home, calling her a betrayer for teaching Bruce. Before going outside to confront them she begs Bruce to stay inside but he disobeys her, taking on the group of men and using his martial arts skills (and his newly-learned skill of withstanding pain) to send them running. When he goes back inside looking for Cassandra, however, it is him who is sent packing.
"It's time. You have learned what you wanted to, haven't you? You shouldn't thank me, Bruce. I failed you. You came asking for help in dealing with your pain. But your pain is beyond my abilities. Perhaps yours, as well. For your pain is leading you down a path you desire." In the present, Batman burrows deeper into the garbage beneath him, finding more and more guns. When Alfred finally arrives, he looks down into the sewer and asks for Batman's hand only to find Batman staring back up with two arms full of pistols.
"I can't." Those final words and that final image of him staring up helplessly at Alfred is such a great metaphor: he can't reach out to even help himself because of the pain and the burden of the guns, which he won't leave behind so that they don't hurt anyone else in the future.
DeadshotAlan Burnett (
Batman Beyond)
Madhouse
"Deadshot" opens with Bruce reliving the night of his parents' murder. In his gym he does one-armed pushups to let off some steam but Alfred arrives with a large bag of pistols which he refers to as Wayne's
"gun collection." Bruce reaches in, pulls one out and cocks it.
"You have to know your enemy, Alfred. I'd never use one but even I can appreciate the attraction of a gun. The heft, the sleekness, the cool steel, the precision and the power. The power to change lives, history. The power of God." As he says this, somewhere else, a masked hitman is assembling his sniper rifle as he rides a ferris wheel. He fires a single shot, which goes several blocks and finds its mark,
Mayor Manning, at a party holding a champagne glass. The bullet goes through his head, killing him instantly. The assassin leaves a single shell casing, engraved with the initials "D.S." on the amusement park ride. The next day, he sips drinks on a yacht with the man who contracted him to carry out the killing. He has another job, this time in Gotham.
"The place is changing," the figure tells him.
"The police are developing a backbone which is why we need this hit. Our Russian associates have been having difficulties there. His removal would alleviate most of their problems." Back in Gotham, Batman talks to Detective Crispus Allen on a rooftop where Allen reveals that Lt. Gordon has been targeted by the Russians for assassination by a mercenary named
Deadshot. Batman vows to do his part to protect Gordon and hints that Deadshot may have been in Gotham before. He tosses Allen the PDA from
"Field Test" that he stole from Ronald Marshall at the golf tournament. He says that in it there is evidence of a wire transfer made to someone just before Teresa Williams was killed. As Gordon's motorcade moves through the streets, Batman watches and Alfred lends satellite-assisted support from back in the Batcave. Gordon's car passes by two subway trains, one of which houses Deadshot, who has Gordon in his sights. Batman is able to deflect the bullet meant for Gordon but that is when Deadshot reveals his true intentions: to flush Batman out by going after Gordon and then kill Batman for his client. The climax takes place in a tunnel atop a moving subway car where Batman rushes Deadshot and uses the razors on his gloves to dislodge the machine gun mounted on his wrist and best him hand-to-hand.
"It was just like that night in the alley, Alfred," Bruce says later.
"The closeness of the walls, the gunfire. It seems I've been trying to stop those two bullets all my life. It's a fool's dream, Alfred. Sometimes I think I should just be done with it." But Bruce wanders to an open window where he sees the Bat-Symbol in the night sky and we know that his crusade will never end.
