Batman #21

I know. The cover doesn't have much going on. But it's embossed!

Time to somehow make Batman's past make sense! What with all the Robins in five years and a ten year old kid and his year spent dead or traveling through time or whatever he was doing while Dick took over and his relationship with Talia and his training and all the other stuff that you're probably thinking about that I don't remember.

The issue begins six years ago and Goddammit I don't know where that places it! Does that place it right around when Darkseid invades since The New 52 has been going on for about a year and a half? Or does this place it a year before Darkseid arrives? I'm going to guess it happens a year before Darkseid arrives because I'm pretty sure only a month or two have passed since The New 52 began! At least in this comic book. Maybe. Oh, who cares. This almost definitely is going to describe the year before Batman met Green Lantern and ran off to fight Darkseid.

Six years ago, Wayne Tower was a mess, the theater that changed Batman's life was falling apart, and the subways were full of Koi.

And some gang with mutant bats painted on their faces were hassling poor subway fishermen. Unless the mutant bat faces are actually mouths with teeth. Yeah, that makes more sense!

Batman arrives to save the day on his Batdirtbike. He's loaded down with packs and shovels and weapons and pouches because he probably hasn't met Lucius Fox yet. Also, he apparently doesn't have a shrink ray. Although six years ago, he had a much fancier bike in Batman #0 and a safe house full of technology. So that must all have been destroyed when all of the other shit that messed up Gotham went down. The kid Batman saves gives him some information about the guy that has apparently mostly destroyed Gotham: he thinks Batman is dead. This is definitely six years ago before everybody learned that you can't kill The Batman.

After this introductory scene, Snyder realized he didn't begin the comic book back far enough in time and corrects his mistake by beginning again six years and five months before Now. Bruce Wayne, in disguise of course, has been giving The Red Hood Gang a tough time for weeks. They seem to have him cornered but he'll end up getting away by using his high tech gadgets. At the end of Batman #0, The Red Hood Gang was about to burn down Bruce's Crime Alley High Tech Safe-House. It's yet to be determined if this is happening after that happened or before it. Not that The Red Hood knows Bruce Wayne is the disguised man ruining their plans. But they probably think, like Gordon does, that Bruce Wayne is helping outfit this vigilante with high tech weapons.

Bruce Wayne foils The Red Hood Gang's plan and flashes the Shocker at them. Or maybe a peace sign. It would be easier to know what he was doing without that stupid bar!

Later while Bruce and Alfred are conversing, Alfred mentions that Bruce arrived back in town six weeks ago. Nobody in Gotham yet knows that Bruce Wayne is back. So this story definitely takes place before the Red Hood Gang try to burn down his safe-house.

Bruce has no clue who The Red Hood is. He believes none of the gang members know who The Red Hood is either. I suppose his next order of business is to infiltrate the Red Hood Gang and almost get killed?

But first he spends some time with his Uncle Philip Kane.

But why the penny? To show that somewhere, sometime, one of the Wayne and/or Kane family ancestors started with next to nothing?

I guess the penny is about Lincoln giving up the many things in his own life to do what needed to be done for his country. And using Lincoln's image on the penny probably has something to do with bootstraps and seeing greatness in small things or some message about humility or maybe he just likes pennies.

Anyway, Bruce has no interest in playing Billionaire Playboy Bruce Wayne anymore. So Philip has to go back empty handed to his new business partner, Edward Nygma. Eddie's solution to their stalled business's problems is to kill Bruce Wayne. I'm not sure how that's supposed to help since Bruce Wayne is legally dead anyway. But then I'm not very good at riddles. They always seem to take a very specific intuitive leap and my intuitive leaps cause me to sail right over the correct answer and into weirdsville.

Earlier in the comic, The Red Hood mentions that he doesn't know where Bruce Wayne learned to drive, so the back-up story decides to shine some light on that subject. Bruce Wayne is in Rio De Janeiro at nineteen being taught how to drive like a madman by some guy named Miguel who learned the art of the getaway by reading William Faulkner's "The Bear". The man is also a thief and a murderer, so after Bruce learns all he knows from him, he leaves him for the policia.

Batman #21 Rating: No change. Throughout this issue there were some nice moments of Bruce as a young boy hanging out in Gotham and interacting with his father and stealing his father's gadgets so he can map the scary cave he fell into earlier in his life. People are continuously asking Bruce who he is but he hasn't figured it out yet. He also hasn't figured out who The Red Hood is either. Maybe it's Bruce Wayne!