Detective Comics 974: Who Deserves Redemption?

Knights Fall

Writer - James Tynion IV, Artist - Philippe Briones, Colors - Allen Passalaqua, Letters - Sal Cipriano, Cover - Guillem March & Jason Wright, Assistant Editor - Dave Wielgosz, Editor - Chris Conroy, Group Editor - Jamie S. Rich

Initial Reactions

This is a jumping-on point for me with this book.  I think this is a strong entry which asks some tough moral questions.  We deal with the issue of justified death as well, where to seek identity, and who deserves redemption.  I am excited to get into this issue and talk about these things in more detail.

The Story

We open with a very emotional (and beautiful) credits page which shows Orphan holding her teammate Clayface, who has just been shot.  The rest of the team comes running to the scene, asking what happened.  Dr. October confirms that Clayface is definitely dead, and Tim Drake knows exactly who took the shot.  

It was Batwoman!  She is on a rooftop, where Batman angrily confronts her, snaps her gun and demands answers.  The next two pages lays out the different sides  of the argument.  Batwoman claims she was following her military training by taking out the threat (even if he was her teammate) in order to save the lives of the city.  Conversely, Batman and Tim insist that there is always another way, that they must rise against purposeful killing.

Orphan charges Batwoman angrily telling her he could have been saved.  Previously, he was given a serum that was supposed to cure him, but it did not work and he started reverting back to his villainous past.  It is clear that Orphan, along with most of the team, never gave up on him.  Orphan rips off the Bat symbol off of Batwoman's uniform, and passionately reminds her that it, "Means don't kill. Means never kill."  Following this exchange, Batman suspends Batwoman from the team.  Azrael and Batwing swing in to voice their support for Batwoman, and their seems to be a clear division of the team.  

The story fast forwards 3 days, where we see Dr. October giving the cure to Mudface, aka Glory Griffin in Arkham Asylum.  The serum works, and Glory Griffin returns to her pre-Mudface form.  This was the last wish of Clayface before he was shot.  It is clear that the doctor is not thrilled about doing this, but she had promised Clayface.  She snarkily told her to make her second chance worthwhile.

We are at the Robin's Nest, where Tim is working on something called the Belfry 2.0 when Spoiler shows up.  She scolds him by saying he is putting all his identity into this Bat Family.  She sees that he is giving up on his dreams to be a part of this team and she can't stand it.  She then reveals that she is going to be leaving the team, which leaves Tim devastated.  He then confides in Batman, again revealing his fear of turning into the murderous Batman of tomorrow that he met in a previous arc.  Tim is putting so much pressure on himself, it really does feel like he may soon explode.

Back at the cave, Batwoman is nursing her black eye when her dad comes to visit to say he is proud of her, and wants her to keep fighting. She reminds him she is off the team for now, he seems to imply that he has a mission for her, and shows her a new symbol on her costume.

The last page is Ulysses Armstrong using Brother Eye to look into the future of the Gotham Knights.  His plan seems to revolve around speeding up the timeline in order to take down the team.

Final Thoughts

The biggest storyline is clearly Batwoman and her decision to shoot Clayface.  But what I found more intriguing was the idea posed about redemption.  Clayface was not given that chance, yet he granted it to Glory.  By all accounts in this storyline, Glory has been far worse of a character than Clayface.  Why does she deserve to be given a second chance?  God reminds us in His Word that we all can have redemption through Him.  We certainly do not deserve it, but it is granted to us through Jesus.

Another topic that is addressed here is that of identity.  Tim keeps putting his into the Gotham Knights and Batman specifically.  What Spoiler asks him to do is to forge his own identity.  In the case of the story this is good advice.  However, we must remember that while God has given us all unique traits, talents, and passions, our identity is ultimately found in Him!  What great news, because that identity leads to our redemption, like we discussed above.

In the end, this issue brings us a lot of moral questions for us to wrestle with.  Is there such a thing as a justified killing?  Who deserves redemption?  From where do we draw our identity?  I look forward to hearing your thoughts on the issue and these questions!