JERSEYLUCK'S SPACE

My journey back into the saga of No Man's Land continues with a tale about the Joker and Harley Quinn.

The story opens with two different gangs, but one of them flees when they realize that have been fighting the Joker's gang. And honestly, smart move you don't want Joker putting your underwear up as a trophy after you die.

Now to the character stuff, Joker recruits a cartoonist named Josh into his gang while Harley explores the territory (it is a skyscraper) for some loot. Harley finds a book of relationship advice and decides to use its methods to get Joker to love her.

Cut to later, with Joker is torturing a goon of Penguin, and Harley Quinn is playing hard-to-get and using Josh to make a home. That poor cartoonist who is going to die for being part of Harley and Joker's love life. The issue then cuts to a bit of Oracle and Batman looking for Joker. I only mention it because this is the only time they appear in the issue.

The story then has Harley and Joker go on a date with Joker being annoyed that Harley isn't playing attention to him anymore. After gassing a gang, Joker asks what he can do to get the people's love, when Harley suggests having an election to become mayor of Gotham.

Joker goes with it, because it is better plan than just giving out jellybeans. The Clown Prince of Crime decides to have Josh make some political posters (after threatening him to stay away from Harley) and decides that his opponent will be back cop Billy Petitt.

Huntress (Petitt's superhero ally) sees that Petitt is being run as presidential candidate and worries that he might become a pawn in Joker's schemes. Petitt, like an idiot, is not worried and thinks that this is just a nuisance. Spoilers... but this will come back in the saga of No Man's Land.

Huntress decides that it is up to her to stop the scheme! Except for some reason, Joker isn't feeling this scheme. He is upset that Harley isn't paying attention to him, and that people don't want to vote in this dumb election. He decides to fix both problems by having Josh get some explosives.

Josh tries to get some sexual action from Harley, but she pushes him away. Joker sees this and decides to something needs to be done, and I hate that I agree with the Joker.

Cut to Helena confronting Harley over Joker's election scheme. And we get Harley flirting with Huntress (don't let anyone tell you that Harley Quinn isn't a queer character) and quite frankly, I rather being this story than the Joker plot! They fight in a nice drawn fight scene, but Harley escapes by climbing down the skyscraper.

We then see that Joker tricks Josh into blowing himself, declaring that only he can have Harley Quinn's affection. Harley hears this and jumps into Joker's arms, only to have Joker get annoyed. Joker and Harley are back into the status quo, Huntress sees the aftermath from the exploding Josh, and Batman doubts that this story happened.

I am going to be honest and say that this arc wasn't for me. It is nice to have Harley get a big arc just after she debuted, but it is hard to make me care about Joker's and Harley's romance. Bronwyn Carlton doesn't have the touch that Paul Dini has with the relationship. That is why it was hard for me write this because the clown romance doesn't do much for me.

No Man's Land continues on with the most Larry Hama Batman comic of all time.

The story opens up on Batman noticing that Gotham's Chinatown still has power after Mr. Freeze's scheme. Bruce does some investigating and comes across some dead gangsters... and Lynx!

Because most people don't know about Lynx, here is a brief rundown. She is a ninja lady (Lethal Larry Hama loves a ninja) who has been in the Bat-Books as a gang leader to the Ghost Dragons. Lynx has mostly been a henchman to other forgotten 90's villain King Snake, but she is solo here. She appeared once a year in Robin (Chuck Dixon) storylines throughout the 90's, being a C-list villain.

So, you might be asking why Lynx isn't a bigger deal with how DC love a super-villainess. There are three factors: 1.) DC tends not to play with Chuck Dixon's toys because he is a terrible human being, 2.) She is mainly a Tim Drake villain, and DC downplayed Tim after The New 52 and 3) Lynx died in the background of a bad story in 2006.

This story is basically Lynx's one bid shot at being a solo player in the Bat-Books in the future. And has seen from my ramblings for above, it failed! Let's dissect why this story failed!

The dead gangsters found around Lynx are her crew and it turns that were annihilated in a gang war. And Batman is kinda of asshole about the loss of lives.

The pair fight but Bruce manages to calm Lynx down. They realize that a common enemy in the group that is supplying Chinatown with its power.

Now one might wonder why supplying electricity to people in Gotham is such a big deal that Batman in spending some time to solve the issue. Well, that power has come to somewhere, and Gotham wasn't not a big solar city in 1999.

Well as Batman and Lynx find out, a gang is using slave immigrant labor to power the destroyed city. And it isn't Batman that is offended by this scene but instead it is Lynx. Yeah, as part of her backstory, Lynx's mother worked in a sweatshop, where the conditions were so poor, that the mom died. As an orphan in Paris, Lynx was forced down a path of crime to survive eventually winding up in King Snake's hands.

When Lynx sees a child trying to save an older man from a beating by the slavers, she is ready to free the slaves. But for some reason, Batman isn't quite ready to pull an Abraham Lincoln.

Before the two can get into an argument about this, they are ambushed by the slavers. Batman and Lynx fight back-to-back against all these villains.

Eventually the fight goes down to where all the slaves are at. The previously mentioned little girl is inspired by Lynx's fighting against the slavers, but Lynx is eventually overwhelmed.

Batman has to take Lynx away for medical attention... but doesn't call the rest of the Bat-Family to rescue the children and innocents that are enslaved by this gang. This is a way too cold/dick-ish Batman for the situation.

Anyway, Lynx wakes up under the care of a local doctor/herbalist. And we get this weird message that injured gangsters are paying for the medical care for other people, so it is good that gangsters are around. What is the point, Larry?

An injured Lynx wants to go free the slaves, but Batman and the doctor try to talk her down. But she leaves... only to see the dead boss of the slaver. It turns out the slaves revolted after the battle, gaining their freedom... at the cost of the life of the little girl who was inspired by Lynx.

Batman and Lynx have a solemn conversation about heroism. Lynx says this is the one good thing she will do because it hurts too much to see an innocent girl die. But Batman says heroes have to humanity and emotions, and that people only know who heroes are after they die. Also, Bane is building a bomb for a future story.

This story sucks! Larry Hama is a bad Batman writer; you can tell that he at a lengthy run on Wolverine before this. This isn't Batman in this story, it is Wolverine. The issue ends with idea that Lynx will be a hero now, but the next time she is seen, she is back as a gang leader showing the lack of impact that this story has. The art (Paul Gulacy) saves this story from the very bottom tier, but just barely.

The saga of No Man's Land continues by introducing a new player in Gotham. Bane is here!

This issue starts off with Bane musing that Gotham now truly reminds him of his home (Jail) now that it has been cut off from the world. And like his original prison, Bane aims to conquer this No Man's Land!

So, despite having mysterious woman backing, Bane has chosen an extreme way to get into Gotham. First, he crashes car carrier-type truck on to a Gotham Bridge. Then he drives another car onto the tilted bed of the truck to get a speed/aerial boost that launches him into Gotham.

And to for some extra trouble at this point it is revealed that Bane stole a bunch of explosives to use in his quest to take over Gotham. The luchador uses some of that dynamite right away to blow up his car to scatter the gangster that see him arrive in the city.

Now, you might be wondering what Batman is doing during all of this. Well, he is incognito checking out a church. But when Bruce hears explosions, he rushes to the scene of the crime.

And the rest of the issue is basically a fight scene. A nicely drawn fight scene (Mike Deodato does some very good two-page spreads), but it is let down by this issue's basic story.

Now to sum up the rest of the issue: Batman wants to stop Bane before he gets in his claws into No Man's Land. Bane figures that if he was strong enough to quit Venom, then he is strong enough to take control of Gotham. There is an explosion in the sewers, and fight goes above ground.

Bane and Batman are evenly matched but tells Batman that he wired a bomb under the church. Bruce leaves to defuse the bomb knowing that he will have to deal with Bane another day. Bane looks out and declares that he is the King of this New Gotham. The End!

This is another slight comic from Larry Hama. This is an okay introduction to Bane and his status quo for the audience reading No Man's Land as an entry point for Bat-Books. And the art is decent. But when the NML saga is over, I won't remember this issue.

The No Man's Land continues with a Batgirl solo adventure. Nothing much else to say.

The comic opens with a gang trying to beat a gas station owner. But the hero of the hour, Cassandra Cain, shows up and saves the man. And in a weird moment (for what Cass becomes), Batgirl considers murdering the gang's leader but is talked down by the bystander. Some Early-Installment Weirdness here.

Batgirl goes inside with the gas-station owner (Sanchez) to inform the larger Bat-Family. Somehow Cass gets annoyed at the endless talking of Sanchez... despite the fact that Cass is still in "can't understand language mode only body language" so I don't get why she is so annoyed at him.

The story cuts to Batman, Oracle, and Nightwing discussing that Cass will have to defend the area for the rest of the night before they can assist her. And then we cut to a flashback, were Batman orders Batgirl to get some gas to power a medical center.

Batgirl sneaks away from Sanchez to patrol the area, and she encounters the previously defeated gang: back with vengeance and a ROCKET LAUCHER!

The gang attack Sanchez's gas station again and Batgirl beats up most the gangsters again. In the struggle of the fight, the gang tries to steal gas from the pump... only to find out that Sanchez ran out of gas weeks ago. Sanchez stayed behind to make a point about never giving up and to provide for the community.

The gang leader uses the rocket launcher to destroy the gas station, and Cass goes on rage beating up gangster. Batgirl is only stopped by Sanchez saying that he stayed for principles and if she killed the man, she would no worse than him.

Anyway, Batman shows to congratulate Batgirl in managing to keep everyone alive aka the true mission of Bat-Family. And because this story doesn't want to be a bummer, it turns out Sanchez still has some gas on him. So, the hospital is saved! Hooray!

This story is a bit of a nothing. It is nice to have some more Cassandra Cain content, but Janet Harvey does not get Cass. I know this is still early Batgirl content, but this is boring. This story is not offensive, but nothing stands out. And that includes the art, which is just house-style. Not bad, but this is skippable.

After several side-adventures with members of the Bat-Family, No Man's Land continues with a one-shot about The King of No Man's Land.

The comic opens on Batman saving a white-collar criminal from some bankers/weekend-warriors who have gone full cannibal in the No Man's Land. And pay attention because the opening highlights the theme of this story!

After defeating the cannibals, Batman gets distracted by a makeshift Bat-Signal. Our hero goes off to meet with a priest and little girl to find out why he has been summoned.

The priest shows Batman a building of kids with mental and physical disabilities. It is explained that these people have survived the destroyed area with the help of a MacGyver (survivalist/engineer) style expert who is only known as The King. The King has been keeping in contact with kids, but recently, he has suddenly disappeared. Worried, the priest asks Batman to find The King.

This is proven to be a smart decision because The King is being held hostage by some gangsters. They plan to profit from his knowledge base by forcing The King to work for them, but then Killer Croc shows up. And I got to give Jason Temujin Minor for drawing a creepy Croc.

Anyhow, Batman goes to Penguin to get information about The King. The mob boss admits that he has been trading with man of the hour, but Batman realizes that in order to get everything that The King has been giving away means that he has been stealing resources from The Penguin.

Batman searches the city for the man, wondering who The King was before Gotham went full NML. He concludes that The King is probably an ex-navy seal which again is part of the theme of this issue.

But we still have a Killer Croc to worry about. And on the scale from tragic figure to full monster man, Ian Edginton writes Croc as that is more crocodile than man. He just kills a henchman for trying to calm him down, and the reason why he wants to kill The King is that his animal instincts see a ruler to be a threat to his rule.

Batman shows up to fight Killer Croc. And it is a fine fight scene, which Batman wins by throwing Croc off a building. Of course, Croc survives the fall and escapes to be a threat later on in the saga.

Bruce goes to talk to The King, but he is shocked to find that The King is an ex-con from Blackgate named Stanley. Stanley admits that he stayed in Gotham figuring that with his knowledge base, he could make a buck in the destroyed city. But when he ran across the kids in the city, Stanley regained some humanity and knew he had to help them.

And now to talk about the theme of this issue about what a massive crisis can reveal about person's character. The issue opened on some bankers who in the normal world were respected civilians. But in NML, they became unforgivable monsters that killed and ate people. Meanwhile, Stanley, a criminal that spend most of his life behind bars became some sort of folk hero. That some solid storytelling for Edginton.

The issue ends with Batman bring Stanley to center of disabled kids where he is welcomed as a hero. And this was a solid issue overall. The thing holding it back is that Killer Croc was a little too animal-like, because I prefer him as just a guy. But this issue was still great despite that. But this is a great example of a one-shot.

The saga of No Man's Land finally gets back to the mad men in Gotham sewers and Tim Drake's efforts to stop them.

The comic opens on everyone's favorite villains, Tommy Mangles and Gearhead being flushed down the sewers after the beatings Robin and Nightwing gave them last issue. And I am going to be frank; this duo does nothing of relevance in this story so why are we spending so much page space on them, Chuck!

Now with some actually important characters, the comic cuts to Batman and Robin watching some civilians trade some canned food. Bruce wants to know where this food is coming from, so he assigns Tim to find out! And we get to see the foe that will try to stop Tim on this journey in a separate scene, as Ratcatcher sets his rats to murder/eat some fools that try to steal from the supply catch.

Tim barters with some civilians in exchange for information about who is selling the food. Robin then puts the fear of Batman in the gangsters, learning that the food is coming from a bunker in the sewers. But I feel like I am forgetting to mention something...

That's right, Stephaine is in this story for ongoing Robin plot threads! For the Spoiler interlude, Steph is working out to get rid of her post-pregnancy weight. (Yes, this series gave Spoiler a teenage pregnancy, we do not have enough space to deal with that here.) But when she arrives home, her mom ambushes her with the Spoiler costume. Steph explains that she fights crime as The Spoiler, and her mom takes it decently...

Until she forbids Steph from going out as Spoiler in public ever again. And that some good parenting from Crystal Brown (especially in hindsight), but this is superhero comics, so it doesn't stick forever.

Back to No Man's Land, Robin is wondering in Gotham sewers. And he almost runs into Gearhead and Mangles, but the sidekick doesn't. Good use of space, Chuck. Instead, Tim manages to get to the bunker...

As he sees Ratcatcher giving a Hitler speech to his rats. Unfortunately, the guard rats manage to ambush Tim. Surrounded by the legion of rats, Robin manages to escape when his suit electric defense system shocks the rats.

Robin travels the sewers, finding himself getting ill from some rat bites and chased by an angry Ratcatcher. Tim takes some pills to help fight the infection but afterwards passes out. Also, Tommy Mangles and Gearhead are also lost in the sewers. (Yes, I know that was a random injection, but that is keeping in their role in this tale.)

We then get a dream sequence with Tim's family/supporting cast finding out that he is Robin. This is a heartwarming scene which shows something unique to Tim: the fact that he has someone other than Bruce that he cares about. Tim has a life outside of Bruce, which the other Robins did not have in their time as the sidekick.

Back to reality, Robin is being cared for by a group of teens who were left in Gotham after the quake. They are being led by an old classmate of Tim who is acting like he is a D&D character. They are caring for Robin, treating his injuries...including giving him some ice.

Now, one might be curious of where one gets ice in the post-apocalyptic Gotham. Well as Gearhead and Tommy find out, Mr. Freeze is in the sewers just healing from his injuries. Freeze, well freezes the two after finding out that there is a bunker with food and supplies.

Freeze goes on a journey to find this bunker. But he is not the only one. The teens caring for Robin go looking for the supply room too. Tim tries to stop them, but he is still worn out from his fight with Ratcatcher.

Speaking of Ratcatcher, he meets up with Freeze. The two have a war of words, before Mr. Freeze intimidates Ratcatcher by freezing one of his pets. The pair of villains then go back to the bunker.

The comic then gives a moment of character development by showing Tim's fear of not living up to Bruce's expectations with a dream sequence. This the highlight of the comic. Anyway, after this Tim powers through his injuries to save the teens from the villains that control the bunker.

And not a moment too soon as Freeze and Ratcatcher scare off all the teens, except for Tim's old classmate. But Robin manages to take-down with help of some archery on Ratcatcher, and some physics on Mr. Freeze. And the pretty sweet action sequence.

The comic ends with all villains being captured and put in jail. Batman makes Batgirl watch over the transfer police transfer as he lets Robin rest after the hard day of work.

I got to admit that this is a pretty solid comic. Tommy Mangles and Gearhead are pointless in this, but everyone else is great. Seeing Tim is still trying to prove himself to Batman is a fun dynamic to him. I wish we got to see more of teenage crew that are just chilling in Gotham sewers. And the comic even managed to include an important moment for Steph. Not revolutionary but it is enjoyable read.

After some rough personal issues, I am back on the No Man's Land grind. This time with some Catwoman issues by Jim Balent and John Ostrander.

The story opens with on update on what Catwoman's current status quo is. Catwoman has moved to New York City, and during her time there, Selina had to fake her death by having her alter ego assassinate her.

Catwoman is on a heist trying to steal a jewel that looks like a cat. But surprise, the jewel is actually a communicator with a message from Oracle. Batman is asking that Catwoman to come back to Gotham... which annoys Selina because she was already planning to return to the destroyed city. There was no reason for this dumb trap!

The comic cuts to Batman and Barbara discussing the fact that Catwoman has gotten the message. Bruce knows that Selina will return but after that... well Catwoman does have some cat-like tendencies so who knows.

Catwoman is pissed at Batman for this trap/summons, but she catches a helicopter ride to Gotham. And in wider No Man's Land news, the mysterious woman who hired Bane is continuing the hidden mastermind's plan to take control of Gotham by having 3 henchmen block the only unknown path in/out of the city.

So how does Catwoman get into No Man's Land. She rides a boat with idea that the military will blow it up as it gets close Gotham. While the armed forces look at the wreckage, Selina would scuba into Gotham unseen.

This does not work flawlessly, so Catwoman has to hide from some Navy Seals while underwater. It would be a boring story, if Selina got caught here, so she gets into the city. Selena swings around the destroyed city to meet Batman...

But when Catwoman gets there, it is revealed that Batman called her into Gotham to tell Selina that he needs her to heist some computer disks... back in Manhattan. Bruce is such a dick in this story, and Catwoman agrees with me, because she is furious that Bruce is wasting her time. But the tensions are cooled off with a kiss between the two.

Cut to Selina trying to escape Gotham... with the passageway that the crooks are guarding. So, as Selina tries to escape, one of gangsters (Mookie, he will be important for the rest of the run) blows up the tunnel. Luckily, Selina manages to open a valve that gets all four them out of the city.

Selina recruits the schmucks to her crew, and she will need them. Because the people guarding the computer disks are a security group known as Hardcases Inc. They are great idea from John Ostrander, which is a shame that only exist for this story. Hardcases Inc are a group of ex-military recruits with low-level superpowers, who after leaving formed a security company. And they were hired by Bruce Wayne to guard these disks... which is a problem considering that he is trapped in Gotham, but he needs those disks now!

Catwoman has to outthink these guard-dogs in order to get these disks. She starts by dressing up in civs to let Hardcase know that Catwoman intends to steal the disks. But Hardcase's goons are not stupid and realize that this mysterious woman warning them is probably Catwoman, and they go on red-alert.

Cut to the night where Hardcase is on lookout duty on the opposing building. But they have to move when Catwoman launches a full-on assault with missile launchers and local crooks on helicopters. Hardcase Inc manages to handle this pretty well, but they are shocked when Mookie in the Catwoman costume blows himself up.

It turns out that Selina never left the building after warning the security company, so she just sneaks into the vault after Hardcase is distracted. Hardcase thinks they outsmarted Selina with a fake disk, but Catwoman just swapped out disks, so she as the information.

Cut to the aftermath where it is revealed that Mookie is still alive. It turns out that the crook is a metahuman with power to absorb kinetic energy. Back in Gotham, Oracle and Batman are discussing the fact that Catwoman is thought to be a murderer. Bruce tries to defend Selina, but then it is revealed that Catwoman has decided to sell the stolen disk.

And we get to see three interested parties. One is Hardcase Inc. who want to get back the stolen property. The next is the mysterious woman who is told to retrieve the disk from her boss. And the third is Maxie Zeus, a gangster from the Gotham who believes that he is the mythological Zeus (I want to be clear that he isn't actually a god, because Zeus is a thing in the DC Universe).

Selina sends her henchmen to World Trade Center to meet with Maxie. They are ambushed by Hardcase Inc, but it turns out this meeting is part of Selina's plan. There is a fight, but Catwoman is not near the meeting.

Selina is making a deal with mysterious woman elsewhere. But it turns out the woman has come prepared to deal with Catwoman, because the information on the disks is only important if no one knows about it.

Catwoman is blinded and is beaten badly by this unknown foe, but she is "saved" by the leader of Hardcase Inc. Catwoman gets shot when she tries to escape in the ocean, and this story ends with the mysterious woman escaping to do more crimes in No Man's Land later.

I really enjoyed this story. John Ostrander writes some compelling stuff in this brief run that I wish we could see more of. Hardcase Inc is a simple idea, but it builds in such a way that I want more of them. And he writes a fun Catwoman. Jim Balent is such a master at cheesecake, but it fits this fun story. Just good sexiness from Selina.

After many mentions in other stories, it is about time to see Nightwing's grand plan to take over Blackgate Prison from Lock-Up.

The comic opens up by showing the awful conditions that Lock-Up has been keeping the prisoners that Batman sends him. Yup, many prisoners shoved in one bunker, getting shocked for attacking up, using muscle (KGBeast/Trigger Twins) to keep everyone in line! Sounds like the American prison system.

The comic cuts to Batman and Nightwing discussing the issue. Are they going to take over the prison because of inhuman conditions that the prisoners are facing?

Nope, this is a Chuck Dixon comic, this is not about helping prisoners Batman wants Nightwing to take control of Blackgate because the Caped Crusader is worried that villains will team-up with each other and will form organized groups to take action. You know like a union! God damn Dixon and your backwards politics.

Anyway, Dick contacts Oracle to establish the plan to the audience. There is a prisoner in Blackgate that kind of looks like Dick, so Nightwing will free the guy and take his place. At some point, Lock-Up will be ambushed and Bat-family will control the prison system.

Nightwing scubas his way to Blackgate prison, while Lock-Up are welcome new convicts to their new home. Fun spy shit.

But as Nightwing approaches the prisoner he wants to replace, we are reminded that is a No Man's Land story. Lock-Up prison conditions are inhuman... but the prisoners are feed on a regular basis with a roof over their heads. But that is better than a lot of wildlands that Gotham is in.

So, the prisoner alerts KGBeast and the Trigger Twins (not enough space to discuss what their deal is) that Nightwing is here. KGBeast is a master assassin, and the Trigger Twins are good at shooting people at a distance, so Dick is in trouble. When our hero takes a breath thinking that he got away, Lock-Up ambushes Dick knocking him unconscious.

And this is where Nightwing Secret Files is placed in the NML reading order. But that issue adds nothing to this arc, so I am skipping it. Instead, I am going to update you on the Bludhaven developments that Dixon put it here to establish stuff for the longer Nightwing series.

Nite-Wing (the crazy copy vigilante that just beats anyone, not just criminals) is captured by Bludhaven's police. But the corrupt Chief of Police decides to manipulate the kid, aiming him at Blockbuster's forces. Meanwhile, Blockbuster finds out that he needs a heart transplant (and god I want to talk about where he found his new heart instead of this story. It is very fun/stupid.) and the crime boss's mom is not taking it well.

Okay, back to main story, Lock-Up throws Nightwing into a pit with all of the supervillains. Dick can't escape by climbing up the hole because KGBeast is guarding it.

There is a huge fight among the villains about what to do with Nightwing. Scarecrow wants to spare the hero, but Firefly and his crew want to kill Dick (especially Firefly, in a previous story the arsonist's body was severally burned in a fight with Dick). It comes down to Ventriloquist and his sock puppet (yes, really) to calm down everyone.

Nightwing leads the villain to attempt to blow a hole in their pit so they can escape. But then Lock-Up comes to check-up on Dick (because he doesn't want to piss off Batman), but the prisoners lie and say that did some cannibalism instead. Lock-Up decides he needs to kill the supervillains to hide his crime.

Nightwing finds some gunpowder to blow a hole with help of a Z-list villain. And they manage to get hole to open before Lock-Up can flood the pit with seawater. In the next room, Nightwing notices some chains that he can climb up.

But as he climbs up, KGBeast ambushes Nightwing as he climbs up and Firefly is chasing after Dick for revenge. So, in a pretty solid fight scene (Scott McDaniel is a great artist for acrobatic action), Nightwing throws KGBeast down into the pit, trapping the supervillians.

Lock-Up and The Trigger Twins attack Nightwing once he is out, but Dick uses a forklift to defeat the jailers. The GCPD takes over the Blackgate, and Dick goes to Barbara's tower where he collapses from exhaustion. The End!

Yeah, this sure was a story. Let's start with good bits. McDaniel's art is great for action...but it is hard to make out who is who. There are so many villains in pit, but it is hard to make out the different faces to know who each other are. And this issue makes me curious about the ongoing Nightwing story. But this story is just fine.

No Man's Land continues on with the final Chronicles issue of the saga. And we are doing a character study on Leslie Thompkins for it.

Unlike every other issue of Batman: Chronicles, this issue only has one story in it, so we got an extra-long tale.

The issue opens on an overwhelmed/overworked Leslie Thompkins trying to assist a large number of people with medical issues. She has no supplies to help everyone relying on her...

But this is a fake out, cause it is just Leslie's dream! But reality is about as grim as the nightmare, it is still No Man's Land.

Leslie does a checkup where it is revealed that Victor Zsasz is being treated there. Which is a bad thing because as this issue keeps telling us, Zsasz is a man who only wants to kill people... so her decision to give the serial killer medical assistance is very unpopular.

Mikey (the ex-gangster from the second arc of NML) is assigned the job of watching over the ticking timebomb that is Zsasz. Leslie continues to some doctoring...

But at as time passes, Leslie takes a break and talks with Killer Croc. It turns out Mr. Zsasz got his injury from attacking one Croc's lieutenant... and said lieutenant got seriously injured in the fight. Croc is there to get update on the injured man, and to see if he can kill Zsasz in retaliation.

Leslie manages to calm down Croc... until the cops come to make everything worse. Pettit, Huntress, and the rouge GCPD officers came to Thompkins's Clinic for medical help. Leslie yells at Pettit for being, well, a cop, but accepts the injured anyway.

Mikey yells out in pain, because he was assaulted by Zsasz. Huntress and Leslie go to help Mikey. Huntress judges Leslie because the doc just won't let a psycho like Zsasz die. But Leslie explains that as a person, she can't let a person die even they are a serial killer. Leslie will help anyone who needs help. If she just him die, then Leslie couldn't be live with herself.

Anyway, we get a fun moment of former Batgirl, Helena, meeting up with the new Batgirl, Cass, who is wearing her old costume. It is a cute moment for the comic that needed to happen.

But Batgirl did not come alone, because Batman is also here. Bruce gives Leslie medical supplies...until he realizes that the medical supplies were meant for Victor Zsasz. Batman is annoyed, but he has to leave when the hero hears some gunshots. Before Bruce can leave, Cass asks if Leslie is his mom; Batman tells her no, but Leslie is a motherly figure to him.

Everything is heating up, as the cops are shooting at Croc, who decides if he is getting shot at might as well kill Zsasz. Batman tries to move Leslie out of fear she might be shot, but she refuses. Instead, Bruce leaves Batgirl to protect her from the powder keg that is happening.

As things are getting worse, Zsasz finally wakes up. And like the bastard that he is, Zsasz tries to some killing. Leslie stands up to Zsasz, trying to get him to feel compassion. While this is happening, we get scenes of Huntress and Batgirl/GCPD and Killer Croc fighting each other. It is a really neat sequence.

But Zsasz is a psychopath and decides to kill our good doctor. Leslie does not resist because she does not violence to be done in her name. Luckily Croc's friend has no such ideals, so Killer Croc charges at Zsasz before he can kill Leslie! Croc is just a fun character.

Batman ends the fight by trapping Zsasz in a metal tube. Bruce tells Leslie that Zsasz will be going to Blackgate (as soon as Nightwing takes it over). Leslie gives Bruce a hug for saving her, and out of sight Batman gives a smile at the soft, caring moment.

Anyway, this is another strong one-shot in the No Man's Land. It has great Leslie Thompkins moments, highlighting her role as caring, pacifist, motherly character in the Bat mythos. It is great to see Bruce to happy. Devin Grayson understands this character and Dale Eaglesham gives the issue some great art.

But the role of out villains in this tale are excellent too. It is nice to a frightening Zsasz as the villain. It is terrifying to see him as this psycho killer. This one of definitive Zsasz tales (and this issue is in his collection of stories about him. It is a correct choice.) Killer Croc is also fun here, and it builds up the crapness of bad cop Pettit in a compelling way. Just a fun story.

Continuing on in No Man's Land with the other character find of 1999: Harley Quinn! Yup, we this is how DCAU Harley Quinn was turned into the long running we love today.

This comic opens on everyone's favorite love interest to Harley: Poison Ivy! The plant villainess is leaving food for the citizens of Gotham, when she comes across the remains of rockets. And somehow Harley Quinn is in the rocket.

When Ivy brings the world's greatest clown girl in for medical treatment, Harley decides to tell us what she has been doing. Harley (back when she was Harleen) interned at Arkham Asylum. While working she fell in love with the Joker when she was supposed to treat him. When Harley was caught letting the Joker free, she was forcibly committed into Arkham.

That is where she stayed until the earthquake hit Gotham. When Harley went out in the world, she discovered evidence that Joker was still out there, and she decided to go full supervillain to be by his side. And the moment of her trying on costumes before she picks the classic costume, is just perfect little moment. One of many that Paul Dini and Yvel Guichet give the audience in this issue.

Harley catches up to the Joker as he is threatening Penguin for supplies. And Harley's gymnastic skills come in handy, allowing for Penguin's henchman to be killed. Joker recognizing her past identity and figuring that she might be useful, allows Harley to stay.

We cut to Harley doing some grunt work (finding a lair for Joker's crew, fighting opposing gangs, and eventually fighting Batman allowing Joker to escape) to gain Joker's favor. Eventually, Harley gets to spend a night with the Joker that she can't remember (Ivy assumes Harley was drugged).

When Harley wakes up, she cannot find the Joker but does get a message...to meet him on the amusement park's rocket ride. Cut to Harley getting launched off because Joker hates that he feels some romantic feeling for Harley, because it makes him boring. Harley manages to steer the rocket into Ivy's territory, and we cut back to where our story started.

Ivy feels some pity towards Harley, and gives her potion that will increase Harley's reaction, strength, and immunity to poisons. Ivy then recommends that Harley go attack Batman and Joker... out of spite that both feel towards the duo.

Cut to Harley (with great humor) making a makeshift Bat-Signal for Batman. Bats tried to talk Harley away from the Joker, but she tells Batman that Joker has a plan to kill the aid workers of Gotham in one big explosive trap.

The comic then cuts to one of the best Joker moments: Joker trying to make conversation with his henchmen about the women in their lives. Once one of them actually starts conversing with Joker about the lady he loves, Joker just kills the man... because Joker always has to be the center of attention.

Harley and Batman sneak into the lair. Batman deals with henchman while Harley confronts the Joker. The Clown Prince of Crime tries to use Joker Venom to kill Harley, but thanks to Ivy's formula, she lives. Cut to Harley beating up the Joker.

Batman tries to intervene (he thinks that Joker plans to kill all the medical worker, but doesn't know that was a Harley lie), but Harley whacks Batman over the head with her trademark giant mallet.

Joker tries to escape Harley's wrath, but she catches up to him. But then we see the (early) Harley Quinn character flaw of her going back to the Joker, with him only doing the smallest gesture of kindness. Granted, even Joker seems annoyed by this sequence of events.

Batman wakes up from his head injury and finds that the duo set the hideout to explode. This explosion tells the wider Gotham that the Joker is back... and he is done giving out jellybeans. The comic ends with Batman complaining to Alfred that he has to now deal with two crazy clowns!

Yeah, this comic is amazing! Paul Dini can write the best Joker stories out there, and he writes one here. Just so many little moments that show Joker's vanity. And the art by Yvel Guichet captures the humor from his sick mind.

But this is the intro to Harley Quinn, and it really works. It established the line of her being a foe for both Joker and Batman. Plus, it is nice to have Ivy involved in her life straight from the beginning. And Harley is fun, making you want to see more. Just a classic comic, and I think the best of No Man's Land.

No Man's Land continues on with... what? I guess I have to stop cause It Hama Time!

That's right, it is the first Larry Hama story in the No Man's Land. For those who don't know, Larry Hama is one of the comics writers of all time. Hama has written Wolverine and GI Joe, one of the longest running runs written by a single writer. And the thing about Hama is that he does not preplan events/endings, he just writes a single page at a time having no idea how story ends until he writes the final page. This results in some of the wildest comics in all of the medium.

And he is now writing Batman! This story opens on Batman going to Gotham's Chinatown where he sees some people trapped in ice. As Batman does some investigating, he realizes that this Mr. Freeze's fault (no duh!), the frozen gangsters are from outside their territory, and there is power running in the area.

But before Batman can solve this mystery (?), he is ambushed by Asian gangsters with ninja weapons (like nunchucks and chains). I should mention Larry Hama is a Japanese American person. Anyway, Batman takes the goons down in a fun fight scene.

After Batman takes down the goons, he learns that Mr. Freeze is burning anything (Wood, family heirlooms, furniture), so that he can supply power to people.

We cut to Mr. Freeze's ice castle next to the power plant, where Batman does a Trojan Horse to get into the lair. And we get to see one angry Victor Fries ranting that people are just using the power to watch TV, and also his wife is dead! (At this point in continuity in Freeze and Batman's first fight, Nora got shattered by a stray blast from Victor's gun)

Batman arrives and tries to talk down Freeze. But this is a Hama comic, so we get beautiful drawn fight scene instead. And I want to shout out the colorist, Felix Serrano, for capturing the clashing vibes for heat and ice.

Freeze eventually captures Batman, but before Bruce even started the fight, he sabotaged the power plant. The explosion destroys the ice castle, leaving Freeze on an ice float in the Gotham River. There are references that Victor is a Prometheus figure... which turns into a confusing Frankenstein reference, and the villain swears vengeance.

And yup, this was not the best comic. The biggest positive is that the artwork in this issue is really great. Standout work from Rick Burchett. But this is in that weird middle phase that where people are trying to make BTAS Freeze into actual DC continuity. And the issue that sometimes pops up in Hama's work of confusing events happening, appears here. Could be better, but it isn't awful.