BATMAN #332

"THE LAZARUS AFFAIR: FALLOUT!"
Writer: Marv Wolfman | Artists: Irv Novick & Frank McLaughlin
Colorist: Adrienne Roy | Letterer: Ben Oda | Editor: Paul Levitz

After a brief prologue that we'll look at in a moment, this week's BATMAN installments begin where last week's ended -- with Robin storming out of the Batcave after Batman has agreed to allow Talia to stay there. But Batman soon leaves his love behind to go investigate Gregorian Falstaff, and we learn some tidbits I don't think Len Wein intended when he created the character: specifically, that Falstaff was virtually unknown before three years ago, when he made all his money, and that he is operating as a front for someone else. This is confirmed a scene or two later, when Falstaff himself refers to a mysterious "master" while chatting with his lieutenant, Karlyle Krugerrand.

Batman deduces that Falstaff has been getting intel on Wayne Enterprises from Bruce Wayne's secretary, Caroline Crowne. The Caped Crusader payes Crowne a visit and saves her from being roughed up by a "mutate" on Falstaff's payroll. Crowne admits that she's only been spying on Bruce because Falstaff is holding her daughter hostage. Batman changes to Bruce and visits Falstaff, where he learns that the villain is seizing Wayne properties left and right. Later, back at the Batcave, Talia sedates Batman, but as she leaves to carry out a mysterious errand, she fails to realize he's still conscious.

Meanwhile, Robin has sought out Selina Kyle to discuss what he perceives as Batman's irrational behavior. Selina agrees to help Robin get to the bottom of everything, and as Catwoman, accompanies him to Falstaff's building. It's unclear exactly what these two hope to discover here that will clear up anything involving Batman and Talia, however -- unless Robin told Selina that Batman is actually Bruce Wayne (which he of course would never do), Selina should see no connection whatsoever between Batman and Falstaff, and there isn't any connection yet established between Talia and Falstaff.

That changes when the two arrive, however, as Batman has trailed Talia to Falstaff's building and interrupted a meeting between the pair. But when Falstaff threatens Batman with an energy weapon, Talia shoves him into the gun's blast, incinerating him. Batman is immediately suspicious of Talia, but when Robin and Catwoman arrive a moment later, his concerns have apparently been assuaged, as he and the Daughter of the Demon are making out (apparently right beside Falstaff's ashes and in front of Crowne's daugther, who Falstaff had in the room with him when he was killed).

If you think that's a lot going on for one issue, I didn't even mention the part where Bruce has a brief chat with Lucius in the hospital about the Falstaff situation, plus there's that prologue I mentioned above -- in which a man escapes a mysterious place in the Indian Ocean called Infinity Island via raft after ten years of imprisonment -- only to be disintegrated (not unlike Falstaff) in a bookended epilogue to the story.

And on top of all that, there's a backup story starring Catwoman! Written by Wolfman with art from Don Newton and Steve Mitchell, colors from Adrienne Roy, and letters by John Workman, it sees Catwoman trailing Karlyle, who she believes is working for Talia, as he attempts to create more mutates for the mysterious "master". But Karlyle and the would-be mutates are all killed on the final page, and Talia watches from the shadows as Catwoman departs, no closer to any leads.

This is easily the densest BATMAN issue we've looked at since Marv Wolfman took over for Len Wein. It's also the densest since Wein's run began, and far denser than anything written by Englehart, O'Neil, or anybody else we've looked at over this past year. And it's not unprecedented for Wolfman at this point in his career -- I seem to recall that when I read NEW TEEN TITANS a few years back, the stories there were just as cram-packed with storylines, plot developments, scene changes, and characters. There, I felt that Wolfman and George Pérez were cramming too much story into their allotted space. Here, however, Wolfman has a pretty good handle on his pacing. Everything flows naturally, and the issue whizzes past even with all this stuff going on.

Though, while the pacing is fine, I do take issue with some of the plotting. Clearly, as noted above and last week, Wolfman is departing from some of Len Wein's original ideas. Last week, he changed Caroline Crowne from a normal secretary with a crush on her boss to a schemer working for Falstaff. Now, this week he's changed her again -- to an innocent victim blackmailed into working with Falstaff. And Falstaff himself has been modified too, from a mysterious magnate in competition with Bruce Wayne to the puppet of an unseen master out to ruin Bruce Wayne (and apparently with a connection to Talia, and therefore to Ra's al Ghul as well).

It all makes me wonder if there's more here than Wolfman simply going his own direction with Wein's ideas -- perhaps we have a bit of editorial interference in the story as well. At any rate, the idea that all roads lead to Falstaff and his master (including, for those who forgot, the part where Lucius's son is running with a gang) certainly can't be where Wein was headed with all this. But it's where we're going, so hopefully Wolfman is skilled enough to bring it all together in the end.

Next week, "The Lazarus Affair" continues in BATMAN #333.