#tommy mangles

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.

It is time for No Man's Land to bring the crew back together. See Greg Rucka show the dynamics of the Bat-family and Chuck Dixon tell the tale of how Robin and Nightwing broke into Gotham...again!

This is a story that is important to tell in chronological order, so I will start with first 7 pages of Legends of The Dark Knight #130, then we will do the Robin issue, and then we finish out the Legends issue.

The story opens up with Batman telling Barbara to call Nightwing and Robin to bring them back to Gotham. After this, Bruce goes to Commissioner Gordon to see if the GCPD will ally with the Bat-Family over Two-Face's forces.

Gordon does not take the meeting well. The police commissioner is still hurt by the fact that Batman was nowhere to be seen when the city needed him the most. Gordon is so angry, he slugs Batman's face. Batman leaves Gordon to his lonesome after this.

And now it is time to see the journey Nightwing and Robin took in order to get into No Man's Land.

Oracle has found an access point in the sewers that the two Boy Wonders can use to get into Gotham unnoticed. While the two go to this entrance point, they kind of dunk on the fact that Bruce called on them now, when they were willing to fight in No Man's Land since the very beginning.

Anyway, they get to the point where the aqueduct and sewer cross (having a moment of Gotham history explaining the entrance, which okay, sure, fill that page count) and the heroes need to crawl a mile in a mine shaft to go into Gotham sewers proper. And they succeed, but when they get there, they alert their presence to some villian.

Gearhead and Tommy Mangles show to fight our heroes! What, you want to know who these villains are? Okay starting with Mangles, he is normal muscular thug who exists, so GCPD characters have a villain to beat.

Gearhead on the other hand, is a villain that Chuck Dixon created and pushed hard in the year running up to No Man's Land. He is basically cyborg who really hates Batman for stopping in a crime that led to him getting turned in a cyborg. You can see why the only people who have used him are Chuck Dixon and the writers of The Batman cartoon (and that cartoon did a major reinvention that made Gearhead a speed freak, which actually works).

Dick and Tim win the fight (I want to point that because of the low-tech state of No Man's Land; Tommy is just giving Gearhead a piggyback ride) by throwing them into a river. But a single rat watched the fight. That sure would be a problem if Batman had a rouge that controlled rats. Anyway, how's Ratcatcher doing?

But that cliffhanger will have to wait for another day! As we continue with our Legends issue, we get to see Cassandra Cain (had this point the Bat-family still has no idea what Cass's name even is, so she is called nameless girl for this issue) and Jean-Paul Valley hanging out, with Azrael even figuring how to communicate with her by using fists bumps. And then Nightwing and Robin show up.

Batman enters soon after everyone starts to get used to Cass and takes Nightwing on a side mission dealing with mysterious new Batgirl. We see the Batgirl praying outside, but when she comes in, it is revealed (to the readers) that new Batgirl was actually Huntress/Helena Bertinelli the whole time!

Bruce gets very aggressive towards Huntress, telling her she blew it one too many times. Batman takes the Batgirl identity back; but admits to Nightwing later that he did so, because he wanted Huntress to go rouge, as part of the larger plan to take back the city.

The story cuts back to the rest of the Bat-Family just catching up with each other. When Dick and Bruce arrive back, Batman tells the group that he needs all of them to take back the city. There is some questioning about whether they can trust Cass (Bruce's word is worthless because of the way he acted towards the family in the leadup to No Man's Land), but Barbara vouches for her.

Batman gives the missions: Robin and him will go to Ivy's territory in Robinson Park to deal with her, Nightwing is to take back Blackgate, and Azrael and Cass will hunt down Nicholas Scratch before he can do more harm!

As a special moment, Batman gives Cass the Batgirl costume telling her to honor the Bat-Code, and the issue ends with family swing out together!

And we are passed the halfway point of No Man's Land, the crew is back together, and we got a solid story. Firstly, the Chuck Dixon issue was the shakiest part of this story, but it leaves some interest in the Gotham Underground. But the Greg Rucka issue really captures the quiet beats and just heartwarming moments of the family getting used Cass. Excited to see what happens next!