“Medicine Soldiers”
Bruce Wayne Batman's expansion of the “Batman Incorporated” franchise in preparation for a looming conflict with “Leviathan” takes him to an American Indian reservation where one of the heroes he has inspired by his example, Chief Man-of-Bats – a character who dates all the way back to Batman #86 in 1954 and was brought into the modern mythos (along with all the other members of the “Batmen of All Nations”) by Grant Morrison a few years back in the “Island of Mister Mayhew” trilogy (Batman #667-668 in 2007) – has been captured by an agent of Leviathan. Batman and Man-of-Bats' son and sidekick Little Raven to the rescue!
That's pretty much the plot, against which we see another corner of the DCU as envisioned by Morrison who brings everything ever published into a vast meta-continuity. Nothing is out of bounds, no matter how goofy it may appear on the surface. Everything can be and must be made to fit in some way. This is great stuff! Along with some great commentary on the generally poverty-wracked conditions that prevail on many of the reservations with attendant social and crime problems, we also get a great view of what Bruce refers to as “Batman on a budget.” In context it doesn't come off as condescending as that seems when I wrote it. Bruce is actually admiring the ingenuity of Man-of-Bats and Raven. “It doesn't have to take millions, does it? The idea works.” The idea of “Batman Incorporated.”
“Turbulence, Part Two”
Taking up immediately from last issue, Booster is having a rough time of it defending himself against the monster that had cleaned his clock years ago and gone on to kill Superman – Doomsday – whom he discovers is not a mindless beast in this world. Well, he is, but under the mind control of General Nathaniel Adam (whose DCU counterpart is Booster's JLI teammate Captain Atom). Booster manages to get away, but in the process rescues a young refugee from the Flashpoint-universe's Greece, Alexandra Gianopoulos – who unknown to him is herself some kind of metahuman. While hiding, Booster manages to hack into a computer system and get more or less up to speed on the nature of the world in which he finds himself. He realizes that it is the doing of Flash's enemy Professor Zoom. Detecting some trace of chronal anomaly at Wayne Manor, he heads there, only to be attacked once again by General Adams Doomsday. Alexandra has followed Booster and disrupts the link between Adams and Doomsday – uh oh! Booster now faces a mindless killing machine!
For some reason the name "Alexandra Gianopoulos" sounded familiar to me, but apparently she is a totally new character introduced in this issue. I'm sure this is not a throwaway character.
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