BATMAN CONFIDENTIAL #34

The Bat And The Beast, Part Four

December 2009

Written by Peter Milligan

Pencils by Andy Clarke

Inks by Andy Clarke

Cover by Guillem March

Synopsis

In the tunnels of Mosco, Petr leads Batman to the lair of the Beast, who is not there.  Later, Batman confronts a Russian mobster to learn the location of the thermonuclear bomb held by Boris Stavrogin (aka the Tsar of the Kingpins).  Elsewhere, the police guard the wife and daughter of Colonel-General Lukzov of the police, who once worked for the Tsar but decided to end that relationship.  However, the police are no match for the bear, who kidnaps the wife and daughter.  Meanwhile, Batman finds the bomb.  Stavrogin decides to set of the bomb, but it turns out to be a fake.  Stavrogin then orders Lukzov to kill Batman or his family dies.  Lukzov sets a trap at Solzhenitsyn Square with snipers ready to shot at the Dark Knight, but at the last minute changes his mind.  When he hears of Lukzov’s decision, the Tsar orders the Bear to kill Lukzov’s family. 

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

I am not a fan of the ending.  Not so much in the actual cliffhanger of whether or not the family lives, but in the way Milligan structured the story to set it up.  I think it is fairly obvious that the Beast is going to have a change of heart, is going to see a little bit of himself in the girl, and decide that he has had enough and thus won’t kill her.  For so long the Bear has been afraid because he is different, but the girl will help him overcome that fear.  I suspect, as well, that the Beast will turn on the Tsar, exact revenge for all of the horror that has been done to him, and kill him.  The shame of that murder will then drive the Bear underground, where he live, probably along with Petr.  I really hope that Milligan has something else in mind for the final issue or come up with some twist that I am missing.  This has been a fairly good story and I have really liked a lot of it up to this point.  I will wait to judge until I have read the final part, but for all the goodness in this story up to this point, it may be undone by the predictable ending. 

During my reviews, I talk a lot about plot and story.  They are two different things.  The plot is usually what the characters do.  The story is what happens to them.  This story is the perfect example of two different things and it is best exemplified by the McGuffin of the bomb.  A “McGuffin” is a word coined by Alfred Hitchcock and is a key part of most of his films.  It is the plot element that drives the actions of the characters, but in reality is unimportant to the story.  The bomb drives the plot in the sense that it gets Batman to Russia and it is the reason why he needs to get the Russian mobsters to fear him.  But it is not important; hence, it was a dude.  It was just the thing that drove Batman to Russia so Milligan can concentrate on the story he wanted to tell.  Besides the story arc of the Bear that I outlined above, the other story has been about fear, such as the cop overcoming his fear and doing what is right, the mobsters falling prey to Batman’s brand of fear, and the Tsar finally learning what it is like to be in fear after being feared for so long. 

 

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