#jayway

The premise of this comic: There is a cache of data stolen from every federal and spy agency and vigilant databank, including Batman's secrets, that is being auctioned to supervillains. Red Hood is teaming up Black Lightning and Katana from the Outsiders to recover the data before it falls into the wrong hands.

Jason tries to walk into the auction as Red Hood, The Dastardly Criminal Who Took Over Penguin's Iceberg Lounge, and is rejected. How very convenient that Killer Croc shows up, kicks up a fuss, and then drags him inside as a plus one.

Then, when the auction's bidding starts, a bit more interaction:

And at the end of the comic, we see that they were working together all along:

THEY'RE FRIENDS, YOU HONOR. A BROMANCE. A ROMANCE. TWO DUDES SHARING LITERATURE RECOMMENDATIONS. WHO KNOWS.

They planned to get Jason into that auction so he could kill Bane. Jason did not kill Bane because Katana talked him out of it. BUT he went to great lengths to try in order to avenge Alfred. (Tangent: that totally feels like a callback to UtRH's "If it had been you..." line. Ugh, he should have been allowed to have a little sexy murder. DC can literally just resurrect Bane later. There are Alfred-Jason emotions happening in this comic but that's not the point of this post.)

Back to the main point: When and how did Jason find out Croc likes classic French lit? I can't imagine that's something Croc would tell him just because of the data cache. Do they read together/have a book club? Buy books together? "Hey buddy, I saw a first edition of that book you're looking for go up for sale!" AND How did Jason get Croc to get him into the auction? Or did Croc bring up his concerns about the data leak to Jason?