Batman: Batman: Battle for the Cowl (Paperback)

The setting is after the apparent death of Batman (Bruce Wayne) and the streets of Gotham City have been turned into a war zone. With the fear of the Caped Crusader gone, organized criminal gangs are now battling for control of the rackets and ordinary citizens are regularly collateral damage. Three of Batman's protégés are vying for the position of successor, but one is cleaning up the criminals by brutally killing them. The two main gangs are run by Two-Face and the Penguin, but there is a third entrant that is manipulating the situation so that the other two gangs are expending their energies and being blamed for all the destruction. Many of the other powerful villains that have fought Batman over the years, such as the Catwoman and Poison Ivy are also part of the complex mix of soldiers battling on both sides of the law. The situation gets so bad that martial law is declared in the city with U. S. soldiers patrolling the streets and the skies. I found this story too dark and brutally graphic for my tastes. A lot of blood is splattered around, there are depictions of severed heads and limbs and the characters, even the heroes are drawn with shadowy faces showing no emotion other than anger, hatred and fatalism.