Batman: Gargoyle of Gotham #2 (2023)

In a house full of books in Gotham, a man with a severe hunchback copies out a diagram of energy points along the human head and neck. The serial killer, revealed to be a pale faced woman in a black robe and wearing a strange cross talisman, breaks into the house and murders him with long needles built into gauntlets. At Arkham Asylum, the warden tells Detective Gordon that Dr. Quinton was a brilliant doctor who worked hard to help his patients, but when he disappeared the Children's Wing was shut down and Arkham was no longer seen as a place of healing, but a dumping ground for mentally ill criminals. Batman, who fled the scene and left Crytoon for the police when they responded, calls Gordon and tells him that Crytoon is in custody and was manufacturing TNT using homeless slave labour. Gordon rushes back to the precinct to interrogate him and demand to know where the explosives were. Crytoon denies being the serial killer that Gordon is hunting, but Gordon confronts him with the information he got from Batman, including that he was responsible for the mysterious explosion in the industrial zone. The watching Commissioner realises that Gordon couldn't have gotten the information through a normal investigation and is still working with Batman despite explicit orders not to. Crytoon sketches a triangle with two crossed lines drawn through it in blood on the table. The Commissioner calls Gordon out of the interview. The police psychiatrist says that Crytoon is too insane to give them useful information and recommends that he be sent to Arkham. Gorson insists he can break Crytoon with more time but the Commissioner agrees with the doctor and orders Officer Lucho to transport Crytoon to Arkham. He calls Gordon into his office and asks how he tied Crytoon to the explosion in the industrial zone. Gordon tries to dodge by claiming he will make a formal report soon. He then says that he believes Crytoon is not the serial killer, but he has identified the next two most likely victims as former Arkham Children's Wing patients within the killer's usual area of operation. He asks for a task force to guard those people and the Commissioner says he will give whatever officers he can spare. However, he refuses to let the explosives go. He tells Gordon that he knows he's still working with Batman, and if he continues to do so, he will make sure Gordon is arrested and charged as an accomplice. An elderly priest giving Mass in a church notices the pale skinned woman, now wearing a red hoodie and without her talisman, in the second row. He quickly leaves, telling the younger priest to complete the Mass. When the services end, the pale woman follows a couple home. Two police officers dispatched to check on one of the possible victims Gordon identified go into the house to find the hunchbacked man dead with the usual pattern of punctures in his back. Meanwhile Gordon goes to meet with the other potential victim: Bruce Wayne. Alfred tells him that Bruce will not be available for several weeks, although he is in fact watching from the cave. Gordon tells Alfred that a serial killer is targeting of Dr. Charles Quinton's former patients, much to Bruce's shock as he doesn't remember ever being in Arkham. Gordon admits that he was in charge of the district where Thomas and Martha Wayne were shot, and claims that they both lost their families that night, as that was the same night his pregnant wife left him. Alfred refuses police protection and Gordon leaves, and as soon as he is gone Bruce comes up to confront Alfred. Alfred tells Bruce that he was briefly in Arkham and didn't realise that he didn't remember. Bruce asks why Alfred never talked to him about it and Alfred tells him that Dr. Quinton instructed him never to speak of it, in case it triggered another violent outburst. Bruce is again confused and Alfred asks him what he remembers. Bruce tells him that he remembers his parents being shot, but after that all he can remember is the image of a demon cub with a broken wing. Alfred tells him that what really happened was Bruce disappeared from the car when Alfred came to pick him up, and he and the police searched for Bruce for hours. They eventually found him in an alley viciously beating a homeless man with Gordon's stolen billy club, believing he was his parent's killer. He was sent to Arkham where Dr. Quinton was seemingly able to help him with his rage and alter his memories of that night so he didn't remember what he had done. Alfred admits that he believes Batman may be a manifestation of the violent impulses Quinton helped Bruce repress, but he never told Bruce because Batman at least gave them meaning in their lives. Bruce wonders if Batman was even his idea and Alfred tells him he can only discover that by learning who Bruce Wayne really is. At the church, the priest meets with a man who tells him the deformed man, known as "the scribe", is dead but they managed to get his books. The priest tells him about the pale woman in the red hoodie, but also tells the other man he will handle it. Alfred takes Bruce to the assisted living facility where the man he attacked now resides. The man, who was left quadriplegic by the assault; claims that he really did kill the Waynes, after swearing his innocence for decades. As they drive home, Bruce wonders if the man was telling the truth or just trying to hurt him. They pass a protest against Gotham's elites outside Wayne Enterprises Tower, lead by social activist and journalist Nia Garcia. Bruce tells Alfred to stop and Nia runs over to interview him but he brushes her off, believing that she has no idea what the real threats to Gotham are. They drive away, making Bruce appear to be an oblivious, uncaring billionaire. Batman meets Gordon at "The Scribe's" house, which has indeed been stripped of the books. Gordon shows Batman the symbol that Crytoon sketched and Batman tells him that he missed that the scene has been tampered with and many objects have been removed, likely by dirty cops. He finds the cross talisman between two floorboards and hands it over. Gordon is annoyed by Batman's arrogance, telling him that he is taking a major risk by working with him. Batman bluntly instructs him to look in Quinton's other patients and Gordon tells Batman that he doesn't take orders from him and storms off. Nevertheless, he does go to look in on the next name on the list, Vincent Strasbourg III, who turns out to be the old priest; much to Gordon's surprise as he is a member of Father Strasbourg's church. He tells Strasbourg that he was on the list of Quinton's patients but he is far too old to have been in Arkham's Children's Wing. Gordon asks Strasbourg how it could have happened, but Strasbourg claims he has never heard of Charles Quinton. He goes into the kitchen, claiming he needs an aspirin, and Gordon notices a cross matching the talisman on Strasbourg's bible. Alfred matches Crytoon's symbol to a stopped clock on the Townsend Hotel in Gotham's historic west side. Batman heads over and finds it heavily guarded although the hotel is supposedly abandoned. He drops down onto the roof from a statue above and attacks the guards. Meanwhile, Lucho and the two other officers transporting Crytoon reveal that he and they are all members of a secret society called the "Stadtgeist", and now that he has let himself be caught they will kill him. Crytoon escapes his handcuffs, steals Lucho's gun and shoots them all, causing the van to crash. Gordon draws his gun and follows Starsbourg into the kitchen, where he finds Strasbourg wearing a moth costume. Strasbourg, who declares himself to be "Moth-er", attacks Gordon, showing great strength despite his frail appearance. The pale woman suddenly runs in and stabs Moth-er in the back. He tells her that she can't stop "the bells" and flees out of the window. The pale woman immediately surrenders to Gordon. Batman crashes through a skylight and falls into the room behind the clock, filled with people in white robes and wearing masks with the cross symbol. Their leader says that he sensed Bruce coming and tells him "Welcome home, child".