Batwing #7

Batgirl and Nightwing look like amputees.

Basically the entirety of this issue takes place on the plane from the Democratic Republic of the Congo to Gotham. Steelback explains to Batwing and Batman how The Kingdom led The People's Republic into battle against a corrupt president and six warlords and their armies of stolen children. But they refused to be part of the final battle because they felt the People's Republic needed to win the fight by their own hands. Except when the final fight came around, the Warlord's armies and the President's army joined forces to put down the People's Republic. It was going to be a Massacre!
But before the final battle could start, President Okura contacted The Kingdom.

So The Kingdom removed the president to safety and the president's army was disbanded. The People's Republic fought merely against the Warlords' armies. The People's Republic killed 50,000 people, mostly kidnapped children forced to fight for the warlords. And that is the atrocity that The Kingdom committed.

Really? That's it? That's the big deal? The Kingdom was already leading the People's Republic into battle against armies of children anyway. What did they think was going to happen? Somehow the children would eat too much candy and surrender from stomach-aches? One way or the other, children were going to be killed in this conflict.

What The Kingdom really feels guilty about is letting President Okura off the hook. The man brought war, extermination, and poverty to his people so that he could become rich and powerful. And The Kingdom let him go without ever paying for his crimes. And that's what they feel so guilty about.
It's also why Massacre is killing them. He feels betrayed by The Kingdom for how they went about their work. Since he was one of those children fighting for a Warlord, he probably feels doubly betrayed that they would allow the massacre of these children to take place. Maybe that's why he chose the name Massacre. Maybe he could have also gone with Never Forget or Always Remember.

On the flight to Gotham, Batman enlists Batgirl, Alfred, Robin, and Nightwing to track down Razorwire and Staff. Eventually Nightwing and Robin find them. But it's too late. They've both been taken down by Massacre. And his new friend.

How is Steelback a super hero? His armor does all the work!

So Massacre and Steelback's Armor are already in Gotham and have killed the last two members of The Kingdom. My guess is that Steelback is Kone, the science technician for The Kingdom since he was just as angry at The Kingdom for letting President Okura go as anybody. And he knew the secret identities of the members as well, so he could lead Massacre to them all. The only thing I don't get is that Massacre was last seen in Egypt on fire and now he's beaten Batman and Batwing back to Gotham? Batwing and Batman are still on the Batjet and Massacre is already done killing the two Kingdom members in Gotham. What's faster than the Batjet? The Kingdom Rocket?

Next issue, Massacre's identity will be revealed (Isaac!) and Steelback's Armor's identity probably will be too (Kone!). And this story arc should finally be over!

Batwing Issue #8 Rating: Even Rank. We finally got the big reveal on The Kingdom's atrocity but it wasn't a real atrocity. Just another one of those comic book atrocities where the good people somehow didn't do enough to stop the evil people so the good people get the blame. That is dumb. But I like that The Kingdom thinks of it in this way because there's too much guilt involved with believing their greatest crime was letting the President go.