Batman: Gargoyle of Gotham is a pleasantly strange and compelling Batman story under DC’s Black Label, allowing the writer and artist Rafael Grampá to use whatever language he desires and depict almost limitless violence. I reviewed issue one here and issue two here, giving them both a 9.5 out of 10. They are phenomenal reads, but issue three answers questions from the last issue
SPOILERS for Batman: Gargoyle of Gotham #3 below.
The third issue in this series answers almost all of the questions the second issue left me with. Right away, we learn the identity of the man with the massive forehead, which I now understand is a mask. It is Dr. Geist, the doctor who ran the children's wing of Arkham and altered Bruce's memory. It turns out, this Dr. Geist has been creating soldiers called stadtgeist, some of which have metahuman abilities.
We now also know why the serial killer has been killing and how the victims all connect. The victims were indeed all treated in the children’s wing of Arkham, but not every person there has been turned into a stadtgeist. The children who did turn into stadtgeist are the ones being hunted and killed. The strange owl/moth person who replaced the old priest Gordon went to visit (or maybe the priest turned into the owl/mouth creature?), is one of the stadtgeist as is the crying, all black villain who is obsessed with the crytoon. It still is unexplained how an old man is connected to a case that deals exclusively with children otherwise, but that may be revealed down the line.
It seems as if the wound patterns in the killings from issues one and two that coincided with energy points on the body, play into how Dr. Geist creates stadtgeist. A panel shows how Bruce’s memories were wiped, or at least how he was experimented on. Needles with the glowing symbol from issue two were inserted into Bruce exactly where the victims had entry wounds on their bodies. Whether the killer, who is able to telepathically speak to Gordon, is stabbing her victims in this way for a specific purpose or simply for symbolic revenge is unknown.
Another unknown is exactly what plans Dr. Geist has for Gotham. The serial killer, who remains nameless, said that Geist had “heinous plans” for Gotham but, despite all the information given to us in this issue, those plans are still known only to Geist and Grampá.
In the first few pages of the comic, when Batman drops into the tower to confront Dr. Geist, Geist says something to him that makes me think there is more to what he did to young Bruce than just wiping his memory. Geist tells him to “unleash the dark aura”, and Batman immediately goes into a rage, thinking, “I remember”. Using rage to be more successful in combat isn’t anything new to this Batman, so this makes me think he may have some kind of innate ability, maybe a metahuman ability, he hasn’t unlocked.
This issue introduces two new elements to the story: the Ratz and the Joker.
This issue sort of explains who the Ratz are, but there is no direct explanation. When Batman starts fighting all of the cultists surrounding Dr. Geist, some of them turn out to be Ratz, not cultists. They seem to have infiltrated the group and had some kind of plan that Batman interrupted. When Batman attempts to fight Geist, he moves like a ghost around him and jabs him with an electrified, pointed blade, sending him flying through a wall. On the other side, there are barrels that all look to be wired to blow. Later, this is confirmed to be the TNT the crying stadtgeist was kidnapping homeless people to make. The Ratz take an injured Batman down into the sewers. If they intend to use him or help him, I do not know. However, when he wakes up and attacks one of them, they stuff him in a cell while a few of them go to track down the TNT. This is also where Gordon was heading. The Ratz don’t come to blows with Gordon, but they’re both working to stop the truck with TNT. However, they both fail and one of the Razt dies.
This world’s version of Joker is definitely the weirdest version I’ve ever seen. This world’s Joker, who is on the front cover, is a little boy. The crying geist, the all black villain, after escaping the police, he encounters this Little Joker out in the desert. I’m not sure how they actually got to a desert as Gotham is usually depicted as being on the east coast, but that’s where they are. This kid, who is expertly drawn to be as creepy as possible, was left in the desert by a clown, potentially the full sized Joker, and is so creepy, the man that takes care of him is horrified of him. Some cops, who somehow know what a geisterman is, show up and try to take down the crying geist. He brutal murders them with a scythe in a great action scene, then Little Joker mimics him as children do and begins killing. He has a grand ole time stabbing police in the head while shouting “that’s fun!” The crying geist agrees to take the Little Joker with him after his adopted father begs him and the head to an amusement park for issue four.
There’s one remaining plot point I haven’t touched on: the eat-the-rich movement, which seems to be completely dead. Bruce Wayne, after telling the leader of this movement he won’t validate her speech, has become a hero for the elite, completely killing the movement.
There’s some odd narrative choices made in this comic. Choosing to introduce so many new characters like Ratz and Little Joker so late into a story is not something I would have expected. The story is now three fourths complete, so issue four has a lot of wrapping up to do. What’s going to happen to the crying geist and Little Joker? What are the Ratz up to? Who even are they? What is Dr. Geist’s plan? Is the owl/moth creature dead? Is Bruce a metahuman? What is the name of this cult? How are they connected to the Catholic church? How exactly does Dr. Geist create his geistmen? Why is the serial killer with telepathy killing in such a specific way? Why was the eat the rich style movement even in the story if it was just going to be shut down?
Perhaps the most disappointing part of this comic was the exclusion of Batman contemplating killing Bruce Wayne. I was very interested in seeing where that would go, but this issue excludes it entirely.
Regardless of the sheer volume of questions that still need to be answered, this comic is a great read. The art, once again is incredible, the storyline is very complex, and it has me excited to read the next issue. Overall, I give this a great 8/10.