Detective Comics #741

Issue Details

Synopsis

NO MAN'S LAND PART 86: ENDGAME PART 3 - ... SLEEP IN HEAVENLY PEACE... The Joker is pointing his gun to a defeated Huntress and is ready to kill her when Batman arrives, disarms him and saves Huntress from a certain death. However, Huntress' condition is bad and Batman lets the Joker and Harley Quinn escape to check on her. She tells Batman that Joker is there for the babies and Batman acknowledges Huntress' sacrifice before Nightwing carries her to Dr. Thomkin's medical centre. Meanwhile, Batman goes to Oracle's Watchtower and informs Oracle, Commissioner Gordon and Sarah Essen that Joker attacked Pettit's camp. Batman tells them what Huntress said about the babies and they all decide to meet with their forces at the GCPD Headquarters.  Later, the Batman Family and the Gotham City Police Department gather outside the GCPD HQ and they being planning their next move when Joker appears on a nearby rooftop and tells them that he has hidden the babies all across Gotham City and that they must look for them before he kills the babies. Everybody moves to look for the babies and Batman follows Joker. However, Batman is tricked by Joker and he follows a fake trail while Joker sneaks into the GCPD HQ when nobody is left there.   Robin, Nightwing, Bullock and Montoya look for the babies in possible locations, but all they find are booby trapped baby-dolls. Commisioner Gordon and Sarah find the same, but in the explosion, Sarah loses her radio. Jim tells her to go back to the HQ to replace the broken radio.   Meanwhile, Batman is chasing Joker, or it seems that way, but he notices an strange pattern in the man's movements. Joker is much more agile than usual.   At that moment at CampLex, Azrael and Batgirl are looking for the missing babies but they find a Christmas tree filled with booby-trapped baby dolls. Azrael sacrifices himself to save Batgirl and Mercy Graves from the explosion and as a result, Azrael suffers several burns all over his body and hair.   Batman finally reaches the Joker but at first contact the clown fights back with unusual martial arts attacks. Batman then realizes that the person he has been following isn't Joker, but Harley Quinn. Batman forces Quinn to reveal the Joker's location, much to Batman's horror.   Batman tells Oracle where Joker is and she radios all the members of the Bat Family and the GCPD to inform them that Joker is at the GCPD HQ. Jim Gordon is petrified as he realizes that Sarah is there as well.   Sarah is inside the GCPD HQ and she notices there are some loud noises coming from the basement. She approaches the source of the noise and finds that Joker is in there with the kidnapped babies. She tells him to drop the baby he is carrying, but Joker instead pulls out a gun, drops the baby from his height and in order to prevent the baby from getting hurt, Sarah drops her gun and reaches for the baby. She saves the little one and Joker shoots her in the head, killing her and leaving her body among the confused babies.  It is dawn in Gotham City as Joker comes out of the GCPD HQ and just as he steps into the light, all the members of the GCPD and the Bat Family notice him. Joker approaches Batman and surrenders, dropping his gun and giving in. Bullock and Montoya go inside the building as Jim waits outside in shock. When they come out, their expressions reveal the painful truth: Joker murdered Jim Gordon's wife. Gordon reaches for his gun and punches the clown with the weapon. Gordon aims his gun towards the clown tells him that this time he has gone too far. Jim remembers how Joker paralyzed his daughter and now killed his wife. Batman rebutted that all of them have gone too far. Gordon is broken, tearful but he couldn't fire. Joker mentions Gordon's son and the Commissioner has had enough. Gordon shoots Joker in the knee and the clown is shocked at first, but then he turns his pain into an awful joke about the similarity between his and Barbara's injury. Gordon tells the officers to place Joker under arrest for the charge of murder.   Gordon is broken and the only consolation he has is in his trusted ally's arms. Batman holds Gordon and shares the old man's pain.