Detective Comics #587

NIGHT PEOPLE On a cold, rainy night, murderer Derek "Deke" Mitchell escapes from prison and seeks revenge against an old business partner named Kadaver. Moments later, a brutal murder occurs in Cardboard City, one of Gotham's many homeless communities. Batman, unaware of either of these events, spends the night foiling a cocaine smuggling at the Gotham docks, though he fails to capture the ringleader, Harlan Woolf.  Mitchell is eventually spotted by the police and chased into a chemical dump-site adjacent to the docks. Unwilling to surrender, he hides among the barrels of toxic waste, but a freak bolt of lightning strikes the dump-site and ignites a massive explosion. The police, the news media, and Batman all believe Mitchell to have died in the explosion, but moments later, an inhuman figure rises from the chemical fires, bellowing in pain.