Batman: The Dark Knight #20

Through the Looking Glass, bitch.

Last issue, Alfred Pennyworth was ecstatic to finally have some female company in the house without having to worry about accidentally blowing Bruce's secret super hero identity. That's because Bruce already blew it and told Natalya that he was Batman. Now The Mad Hatter is planning on kidnapping Natalya to use for his play, "The Day A Woman Seemed To Like Me But Was Just Being Nice." Also, Damian is still dead.

At the end of last issue, Batman was facing a river of corpses flowing out of the Gotham sewers. Now he and Jim Gordon have to figure out where they came from. I think Batman knows they're victims of The Mad Hatter because unless there has recently been a breakout at Arkham, he generally only has to deal with one madman's plot at a time.

It's about time they made this announcement! Even if they didn't know the exact way The Mad Hatter was distributing the hats, once Batman found out he was battling the Mad Hatter, they should have released the news to force your loved ones to stop wearing their stupid new hats twenty four hours a day.

Batman investigates the sewers and comes pretty close to finding the abandoned missile silo that The Mad Hatter is using as his base. But Alfred has to hack into some government files first which means Batman has a little downtime to contemplate his situation.

I guess the Bat Computer is doing all the hacking work since Alfred is busy giving Bat Therapy.

Meanwhile Natalya is busy being kidnapped. The Mad Hatter, parodying his literary self with the line "your hair wants growing," has thrown her in a cell to wait for her hair to grow out so that she'll look more like Alice. The Mad Hatter did not kidnap Natalya's dress with the Bat Tracer on it though, so Batman is going to have to wait until his Bat Computer is done hacking the government files to figure out where The Mad Hatter is keeping her. I bet the Court of Owls know about the abandoned missile silo! Batman is a terrible keeper of Gotham City.

After the Damian thing and now that Bruce seems to have found love with Natalya, he's actually beginning to think about a future where he gives up The Batman. He flies off to discuss it with Natalya. Too bad he's going to find her apartment filled with broken glass and her urine from when she was kidnapped. That might cause him to rethink the rethinking The Batman thing. It's just going to remind him that he can't get close to anybody ever. He'd probably ditch Alfred if Alfred would let him.

No, that's not true. Alfred is the only non-Nightwing person that Bruce can trust and confide in and doesn't have to really worry about because he can, mostly, take care of himself. He even dealt calmly with being The Joker's butler for a few days.

Back in Wonderland, The Mad Hatter figures out that Natalya isn't going to be a very convincing Alice when she scratches the shit out of his face. So it's time to find another lead actress. Well, almost time.

Doesn't he have a special Hypno-hat that would make her talk?

Batman shows up at the scene of Natalya's kidnapping where the police are already investigating. Batman ignored the Batsignal to head to Natalya's first. It turns out the Batsignal was to alert Batman to Natalya's disappearance. So now Jim Gordon has a few handy clues to figure out the identity of The Batman. You know, if he thinks about it for a few seconds. I'm pretty sure people know Bruce Wayne is dating Natalya the famous pianist.

As I supposed last issue to make any sense out of Batman seemingly acting stupid, his Bat Tracer he put on Natalya seems to have been a subdermal implant. Batman begins tracing her as Natalya is beaten by Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum in an effort to have her give up The Batman's identity.

Natalya's interrogation is happening on a helicopter and when The Mad Hatter finally realizes she either doesn't know or she's just not going to talk, he dumps her out. Once again, Batman is too late. How much more death can Alfred handle?

And thus Bruce Wayne never ever again thought about retiring The Batman.

Batman: The Dark Knight #20 Rating: +3 Ranking. This comic book needs to rise through the rankings faster than it has been, so I'm giving it a little boost. Since Gregg Hurwitz has taken over, it's become a great Batman title staking out it's own little corner of the Batman Universe. It really reminds me of Shadow of the Bat when that series first began.