Batman: No Man's Land #1 (1999)

Following the declaration by the US Government, Gotham City has become No Man's Land. Signs which used to welcome visitors to the city, now declare that hell has come to the city, and are flanked by signs declaring the area off limits and no longer part of the United States. Outside the city limits, a group of soldiers are patrolling and debating the legality of the declaration, when a supply truck with aid from the Red Cross drives up. The soldiers tell its driver, a priest that he cannot enter the area and don't even allow him to throw food over the wall. No Man's Land is off limits to everything and everyone. In another area, outside the wall, a helicopter pilot advertises tours over the Gotham perimeter. A cameraman bribes the pilot to bring him in close to Gotham, despite the no-fly zone which had been declared. The cameraman brought a box of food, and planned to drop it and film people fighting over it, but after dropping the box, they are chased away by a government helicopter. The story follows three people who found some of the food dropped. A young boy, Ramon, finds a sandwich, but before he can eat it, it is stolen from him. Ramon manages to shoot the thief in the back with a spiked tennis ball with his name on it. He is stopped by a pair of police officers. While standing in front of a wall which has been spray painted "GCPD", they tell him that this area is under the Blue Boys protection. A young girl found a pack of cookies from the drop, which are promptly stolen from her. The thief, however, runs into part of Scarface's gang. He is brought to Scarface and the Ventriloquist, and when he doesn't willingly give away his cookies, is shot by Scarface, who is the leader because he has the bullets. A young boy found the final piece of food, an apple. He quickly trades it to a man for beans and soup, who trades it to The Penguin's henchmen for a flashlight. The Penguin, who is living in opulence since the declaration of No Man's Land, holds an auction for the apple. Though he gets offers of gas and women, he sells it for a diamond, but takes a bite out of it first, claiming he always gets his 10%. According to Barbara Gordon, it is day 93 of No Man's Land and "Gotham is still dead." She couldn't leave when the evacuation was ordered, but she stayed safe because her building, built by Wayne Enterprises, had been quake-proof. As Oracle, she has kept herself apprised of the goings-on outside in Gotham. By setting up a ring of informants and promising help to others, she has kept herself informed and fed through the three months. She knows that when Jeremiah Arkham left the city, he released all of the prisoners from the asylum, and since then they have divided the city amongst their gangs, tagging their territories like animals. She is putting together a map of all of the territories, and although there are a few friendly areas, like Tricorner where the GCPD have secured, most of Gotham is controlled by warring gangs. The people join the gangs when they have nowhere else to go or nothing to do. She realizes that Gotham needs Batman, but no one, not even Robin or Nightwing have heard from him in three months. In Tricorner, the GCPD save a family from some thugs. While some of them wonder aloud to each other why they stayed, others are creating make-shift weaponry to use, since they are low on bullets. Officer Wilson calls Commissioner Gordon to the roof and shows him a make-shift Bat-Signal that he made. Gordon destroys it, telling him that the Bat would not be coming and has abandoned them all. His wife, Sarah Essen explains that Gordon tried to get a job outside when No Man's Land was declared, but had been laughed at because he couldn't keep his city safe without the help of a vigilante. She warns the officers to not speak about Batman around him anymore. Elsewhere, a pair of teens are in the city alone at night. They are planning on stealing some boxes that one of them found earlier. They stop, however, when they see an image of a bat tagged on a wall. Unseen to them, the figure of someone in a bat costume hides in the shadows.