Detective Comics Annual #3
"Obligation"
writer: Archie Goodwin
breakdowns: Dan Jurgens
finishes: Dick Giordano
letters: Todd Klein
colors: Adrienne Roy
asst. editor: Kelley Puckett
editor: Dennis O'Neil
Batman created by Bob Kane
grade: B+
There's a definite theme running through the Bat Office right now. It's evident in the 1990 annuals, all three Legends of the Dark Knight story arcs thus far(though technically not run out of the Bat Office), and also Miligan's Dark Knight, Dark City storyline in Batman. Denny O'Neil is very interested in fleshing out more of Batman's past. Maybe he's simply been trying to ride the coat tails of Year One all this time, but we saw a similar ambition two years back to flesh out the details of Bruce's training, and here O'Neil continues his efforts to continually return to Batman's past history.
This story makes two contributions to this mission.
First, it introduces Mark Cord, who's father was indirectly responsible for Joe Chill mugging Bruce's parents (he managed to convince Chill not to mug him since he was carrying mob money, and then chose not to warn the Waynes that Chill was in that alleyway). Cord was given a mission on his father's deathbed to protect Bruce Wayne by becoming a cop, though (as the story explains) that's not exactly what ended up happening.
Second, it intertwines Mark Cord's story with the return of Tsunetomo, a martial arts trainer for the Yakuza previously seen in flashback in Detective Comics #599, where we learned that he was one of Bruce's trainers. This proves to be the more intriguing part of the story as Tsunetomo ends up on a mission of honor to kill Batman in revenge for the death of one of his students (No, Batman didn't kill him. Read the plot synopsis at the bottom). In their final encounter, we learn that Tsunetomo had hoped Bruce had surpassed his original training and was capable of killing him with honor since he was secretly dying of cancer. Yes, vaguely reminiscent of the Death of Captain Marvel, but it's still a moving revelation by the close.
However, there's one problem. That Bruce is able to surprise him at the end suggests that Bruce studied under other martial artists AFTER having studied with Tsunetomo, but this isn't accurate. Batman #431 establishes that Kirigi was Bruce's first martial arts instructor, and Detective #599 suggests that Chu Chin Li preceeded Tsunetomo as well. Surely, Bruce wasn't holding back what he'd learned from these masters in life or death struggles with Tsunetomo. In fact, as Chu Chin Li was involved with the Chinese mafia, and Tsunetomo was involved with the Yakuza, once might assume Bruce heard of and found Tsunetomo via Chu Chin Li or his connections.
But this is a nit-pick of course. And if you're interested in knowing how I keep all this straight, you might want to check out
The Full List of People Who Trained Batman (as of Batman #451).
It's a complex story with satisfactory twists and turns, but Jurgens and Giordano turn in surprisingly lackluster work on the art front. One terribly drawn face (p. 16) aside, there's nothing wrong with it. It just completely lacks impact/excitement/emotion, even when Goodwin is working hard to make us care.
Minor Details:
- Did Goodwin come out of retirement for this? I don't think I'd previously seen his name on a book after the 1970s.
- Who was the first to draw that iconic statue commemorating the grave site of Thomas and Martha Wayne? I'm pretty sure they had simple tombstones in Year One, and I don't recall seeing this statue in previous issues, but it seems to be how the Waynes' grave site is always depicted in the Modern Age. Surely, this wasn't the first story to draw it that way.
- Batman has a special cape and cowl that are reversible to be camouflage for snow cover? How would that work without the underside of Batman's cape being a glaring white?
- I get that it's a life or death situation, but when Batman trusts Bruce Wayne's Japanese business partner's surgeon to care for his open wound, I'm thinking there's a considerable chance someone's going to peak under the cowl while he's sedated or, even if he refuses sedation and doesn't pass out, someone can take a blood sample and, over time, match it against various medical records to try to learn Batman's identity (or sell that blood to the highest bidder). After all, we'll ultimately learn the business associate is a murderous backstabber who could foreseeably decide Batman is in his way.
-Tsunetomo comes off more honorably here than he did in his flashback in Detective #599, where he repeatedly used cheap tricks to try to surprise Bruce and emphasized Bruce cutting him his check at the culmination of Bruce's training. Then again, he's theoretically older and wiser now, he was Yakuza, and Bruce was a foreigner.
The plot synopsis in one abysmally long sentence:
Batman is visiting his parents' grave, he (conveniently enough) witnesses a police officer leaving one of his severed fingers at their grave, Batman starts talking to the man, but then Japanese hitmen arrive, launching a grenade at the two of them, they survive and Cord tells the story of why his family owes a debt to the Waynes that he failed to uphold by getting caught up in the Yakuza and selling out police information about Bruce Wayne out of loyalty to them, but he has since turned on them (thus the attack), and so Batman and Cord work together to thwart the Yakuza attack on Bruce Wayne, but Cord is fatally injured while also killing his Yakuza friend and arch assassin, and as Batman rushes Cord to the hospital, he explains more about how they became friends and his estranged Yakuza lover, Michi, who he was forced to lose contact with many years earlier since Michi's former lover was a powerful businessman who wanted revenge, and Cord then dies, and Batman meets his daughter, Rachel Cord, of the Justice Department, who is enraged to have overheard this last part, so the two go to Japan together (Batman to go ahead with a business merger in Japan that the Yakuza are trying to scare him out of, and Rachel to learn the truth about her father's secret life), and the Yakuza, holding Batman indirectly responsible for the death of their top assassin, as well as resenting his attempting to aid the merger of Wayne Enterprises with a rival businessman seeking to liberalize the country and open its markets, hires Tsunetomo (one of Bruce's former trainers) to take Batman down, a lot of chaos ensues, Rachel learns that Michi has secretly cared for a son she had with Mark Cord for all these years, thus earning Rachel's respect, Bruce Wayne's business partner was actually Michi's former lover and the one attempting to kill both Michi and Mark Cord, the Yakuza boss dies, and Batman defeats Tsunetomo, proving that he is superior to any one of his individual trainers because of the combined skills he has gained from all of them; he then reunites Rachel with Michi and her son in Gotham.
Fantastic, intricate plot reminiscent of the 1970s, while the art utterly fails to keep up.
