| Storyline |
chapter one: Perception
Batman arrived on the scene of an arms trade to find seven unconscious
gangsters. The Wayne Enterprises Board asked Bruce to resign as president
in lieu of his recent fugitive-from-justice status. Batman and Robin
investigated a new vigilante being dubbed "the Tracker." He'd
been hitting the Rossetti mob hard for two months. Batman finally got a
confrontation with him, but the Tracker was called back and escaped.
Another masked man, this one calling himself the Suicide King, offered his
assistance to the Rossetti family for a cut of their profit. Bruce's main
opposition at Wayne Enterprises was federally indicted; he offered her job
to an old acquaintance of his mother's. Robin went after a man who was
obsessed with Bruce Wayne. Tracker zapped Batman with enough volts to
knock him out; Suicide King confronted the Tracker, they fought. Batman
got up and went after them both. Suicide King escaped, and the Tracker
fell from the rooftop avoiding Batman. Batman realized the dead man was
working with Suicide King, not against him. Oracle notified Bruce that
Tracker's body turned up missing from the morgue. His mother was the woman
Bruce appointed to head Wayne Enterprises.
chapter two: Duplicity
Celia Kazantkakis, Wayne Enterprise's new CEO and mother of the now
deceased Tracker, went over known facts and allies of the Batman with her
"network." They decided to start with the weakest link -
Spoiler. They attempted to seduce her into their ranks. Spoiler met with
one of their operatives and took the bait. She went after her prey, but
was thwarted by Catwoman. Her second attempt wasn't in vain, but Catwoman
(who'd been hired as the guy's bodyguard) didn't put up a fight against
her when he bad-mouthed women. The man turned state's evidence against his
former employers.
chapter three: P.O.V.
Orpheus, one of Gotham's newest vigilantes, witnessed a senator go berserk
and die. When investigating the experimental hospital the senator had been
treated at, Orpheus was attacked and drugged. Black Canary rescued him,
and the hospital fell victim almost immediately to arson.
chapter four: Identity
Kazantkakis's Network watched Huntress. Suicide King was sent to contact
her. Batman confronted her and asked her not to intervene with the
Rossetti family. The Network uncovered her true identity and planned to
use it against her. Helena bested Suicide King, but he escaped. She took
off her mask when she realized she had no use in a secret identity - she
had no friends or family that could be hurt by it.
chapter five: Interrogation
The Network watched Robin save a mugging victim. He took the lady back to
her apartment, where he questioned her about Sloan (the dead reporter who
was obsessed with Bruce Wayne). She gave him a computer disc that she was
told to give to "some reporter named Kent in Metropolis."
Freeway, one of the Network's operatives, burst in on them. After a chase,
Robin was captured. They let him escape; Freeway told him he knew of an
American boy that trained under Shiva in Paris and fought Kingsnake (see
Robin 1 miniseries). Robin went to a surgeon who owed him a favor; she
removed a tracking device they'd implanted under his skin. Robin showed
Batman Sloan's files.
chapter six: Machinery
The Batsquad went over known details of Sloan's credentials and the
possibility of the "Network." The cops began looking for someone
called the Technician, who orchestrated a huge mechanical monkey that
served as a diversion for a armored car heist. Rumor was that he outfitted
Gotham's biggest criminals with their toys. Batman met with his insider in
the Rossetti family, an A.T.F. agent. He and the cops moved in on the
Technician's hideout. Batman captured him.
chapter seven: Precipice
Batman interrogated on of Kazantkakis former associates while the rest of
the team ran surveillance. The Network located the Technician by a similar
tracking device that they'd implanted in Robin. An operative, Mr. Fun, was
sent to retrieve and/or kill him. He ambushed Nightwing and Batgirl and
killed the Technician while they were unconscious.
chapter eight: Blackout
The Batsquad was called in (even Orpheus, Black Canary, Spoiler, and
Huntress). The Network shut off all power in Gotham City, while attempting
to syphon $2 billion from Wayne Enterprises. Oracle battled the hacker and
kept the money where it was. The rest of the team took down the Network's
operatives. Athena (Kazantkakis) escaped, but her plan and operation were
both smashed.
editorial: Overall,
I liked this storyline, especially the attention to continuity (ie the
first Robin /Tim Drake miniseries). I had a problem with issue 7. Early on
in the issue, Robin attempted to sneak up on Nightwing when it was time
for him to relieve his partner in surveillance duty. Nightwing easily
detected him and announced the Boy Wonder's presence before he was even in
sight. Tim made an off-handed remark like "someday I'll surprise
you." Later in the issue, Mr. Fun, one of the Network's assassins,
walked right up to Nightwing and bashed his skull with a golf club.
There's no way this guy could do that if Robin couldn't. Also, he bested
Nightwing and Batgirl in combat at the same time. No chance this happened.
Since defeating Shiva, Batgirl is the most dangerous/lethal martial artist
in the DC universe. Nightwing is probably in the top ten. No one human
could defeat Batgirl, and especially not if Nightwing was with her. Also,
why didn't Robin have the Technician's tracking device removed? He had to
have known there was one; they'd put one on him, why wouldn't they track
their own operatives?
Just my two cents, sorry for the rant.
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