NML Crossing, Episode 041 – Batman #560 (1998)
NML Crossing, Episode Forty-One
Batman #560 (December, 1998)
“Bruce Wayne Goes to Washington, Part One: The Jackals”
Writer – Chuck Dixon
Art – Jim Aparo & David Roach
Colors – Lee Loughridge
Letters – Todd Klein
Edits – Gorfinkel & O’Neil
Cover Price: $1.99
Mr. Wayne Goes to Washington… and isn’t off to the greatest of starts in his attempts to plead the case for saving Gotham City with the United States government!
Also… ugh, Nick Scratch.
NML Crossing on Youtube
I find it interesting how fast plot points from Aftershocks were abandoned once editorial started down this Road to No Man’s Land. All the Wayne Enterprises plans to fund the people of Gotham’s new businesses have just been forgotten without a mention. I would love to know what the plans were before the Idea of No Man’s Land was suggested and we started on this path.
I think the Devil goons with Firefly were different Devil goons fron the ones Nick Scratch beat bloody.
For me, I would have rather they used an established character like possibly Hugo Strange in place of Nick Scratch. There seems to be no reason established for why Scratch hates Gotham so much.
This just hit me. Nick Scratch is a Discount Dollar Store Brother Blood. I don’t know if this was their intention, but I can’t unsee it now.
Glad to hear your plumbing woes are over.
I also would’ve preferred they used an established character like Hugo Strange.
I think some of the character moments that don’t make sense (Scratch and Batman acting dumber/asking questions they shouldn’t need to) was a flawed attempt at giving exposition and bringing people up to date that might not have read Aftershocks or Cataclysm. I know that was the case for me when I first read this 25ish years ago. That – plus the fact that I was young, this was still relatively early in me knowing Batman comics (not knowing Scratch at all), and Batman’s hyperintelligence, aside from Morrison’s JLA, wasn’t played up as much in comics yet as it would be – made me not notice how out of character and clunky these moments were. It doesn’t excuse it, but it seems to me like it was a clumsy attempt at helping new or lapsed readers get on board before NML proper started.