Batman: Second Chances (Batman (1940-2011))

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In my excitement for James Gunn's upcoming DCU, I've decided to become more involved in my reading of DC Comics. And what a better place to start than the original jumping on point, Post-Crisis? Take a Third Option: Two-Face has to choose between letting Batman save him, but letting his coin drop in the progress, or falling to his death. He drops the coin and refuses Batman's help, causing him to fall, but Batman saves him at the last second.

While Robin attempts to sneak in on Thorne, he's caught and taken to his target. Robin explains that Harvey's been kidnapped and he thinks Thorne's behind it. Thorne just laughs at the thought and has his thugs take Robin to the Gotham Gate Bridge to throw him into the river. Fortunately, Robin has a glass cutter in his glove and manages to cut his bonds. He makes short work of the thugs but is no closer to finding who is behind Harvey's kidnapping. Just before he is to undergo the operation that will restore his face, Harvey Dent is kidnapped by a mysterious villain. Batman and Robin split up to nab the criminal behind the scheme to abduct the Dark Knight's old friend. They suspect that either the Penguin or Rupert Thorne may be behind the kidnapping, but after doing their investigation, they come to realize there is an unsuspected third enemy in the scheme.Hypocritical Humour: In-universe, Frankie "disposing" of Robin remarks how people have no respect for the environment, throwing garbage into the river so often. Batman and Robin meet up at the hospital. Batman is now sure he knows who kidnapped Harvey. Examining the scene of the crime, he finds masonry dust on one of the kidnappers’ boot prints and deduces where Harvey is. Robin says he should go with him to help, but Batman refuses, saying he needs to do this alone.

That's another thing I liked about these stories. Batman wasn't written so deeply in darkness that there weren't a few moments of levity, of humanity. Of course, some of those moments were a little cheesy, but that honestly just felt nostalgic, so I can't really complain. Some of the narration also crossed that line from dramatic to cheesy, but again... nostalgia. And, for the most part, the writers delivered perfectly pitched stories and character interactions. After a month, Bruce left for a Justice League mission. Alfred and Jason begged him not to go. Bruce at this point barely slept and being in the field would definitely kill him. Their pleas fell on deaf ears and Bruce went anyway. Firstly, I fully do not understand why they decided to collect all these stories together besides the fact that they were published in succession to each other. But that's not even true since the first two issues are published separately. I genuinely just don't understand the logic. Three of the stories are left unfinished. If they're published as a collection then surely you would try to /collect/ the stories. Weird.Even Evil Has Standards: The Penguin has done terrible things during his criminal career, but he admits that kidnapping "a fellow rogue" while they're in the hospital is going too far, and he seems disgusted both at being accused of doing so and the fact that someone went that far in the first place. When he opened his eyes, he froze for a second. He was expecting to be in a hospital, smelling the familiar scent of antiseptic.