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Gotham City is darker than ever, a dystopian society where all superheroes, with Superman as the sole exception, have been forced to retire or otherwise turned away. The time is unspecified, but it seems to be the eighties, with the cold war still raging.
Batman has retired following the death of the second Robin, Jason Todd. Gotham City is overrun by criminals, especially a gang calling itself The Mutants. But it takes the return of an old enemy, Two-Face, to compel the fifty -five year old Bruce Wayne to come out of a self-enforced retirement.
Harvey Dent’s face is now cured, after the plastic surgery paid for by Wayne. But, in his own mind, he is still disfigured. He holds the city to ransom with a bomb. Batman saves the city, but the media stirs up a hot debate over the vigilante activities of Batman and whether they are still relevant in contemporary society. Meanwhile, Batman acquires a new Robin in 13 year old Carrie Kelley. He also defeats the leader of the Mutants gang, after which they break up into smaller gangs. One of them embarks on his own brand of vigilante action to clean up the city of its criminals.
The return of Batman causes the Joker to awaken at the Arkham Asylum. He convinces his psychiatrist, Dr. Bartholomew Wolper that he is now sane, and sorry for his crimes. Wolper wants to discredit Batman so the two appear on a television show. There, the Joker murders everyone and escapes. He forces a confrontation with the Batman which ends in the Gotham City police launching a manhunt for the caped crusader.
Meanwhile, somewhere else, Superman diverts a Russian nuclear missile which detonates in a desert, but Gotham City is hit by an electromagnetic pulse, and the city descends into chaos. Batman and Robin train the former Mutants gang members in non lethal combat and help bring the city under control. Everywhere else, the country is sunk in a nuclear winter and chaos, but Gotham City is now a safe paradise. This embarrasses the government. They order Superman to take down Batman, and the two face off in a final confrontation.
This book is considered a classic in the super-hero comic book genre, and is the inspiration for the latest Batman movies.ISBN - 9781563893421
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Pages : 224
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