Batman: No Man's Land: Difference between revisions

A [[Bat Family Crossover]] that ran through the main ''[[Batman]]'' titles in 1999. After [[Trauma Conga Line|a rash of bad luck]]--superflu—superflu/ebola outbreak, another outbreak, and a 7.6 earthquake, two of which were courtesy of [[Knight Templar|Ra's]] [[Well-Intentioned Extremist|al Ghul]]--the—the US Government decides Gotham City is too costly to save and instead blows the bridges, effectively cutting the city off from the rest of the world for a year. The inmates of Arkham Asylum are loose, no one's coming to help, there are about a dozen honest cops willing to save the city, and [[Oh Crap|Batman is missing.]] Worried yet?

The story also brought to an end the majority of Batman stories throughout [[The Nineties]]--notably—notably, the aforementioned ''Contagion'' and ''Cataclysm'' stories, as well as ''[[Knightfall]]'' and even ''[[Batman: Year One]]''. Somewhat surprisingly, the political angle of the story averted any particular anvils being dropped, except when talking about unconstitutionalism (and even then, the characters [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] away any possible accusations of silliness). Elsewhere, ''NML'' also gave the comics new characters like [[Batgirl|Cassandra Cain]] and her father, [[Psycho for Hire|David]], introduced [[Harley Quinn]] into the DCU, and set up plot points that later books like ''[[Gotham Central]]'' and even ''[[Superman]]'' would deal with (namely [[Lex Luthor]] becoming President of these United States).

** If you were looking for a grand rematch between Batman and Bane, sorry. Their meeting was fairly civil -- butcivil—but, somewhat paradoxically, still manages to be ''awesome''.

* [[Big No]]: {{spoiler|Scarecrow}} when his [[Humans Are Bastardsthe Real Monsters]] theory is disproved by the refugees in the Ark Project cathedral.

* [[Closed Circle]]: Gotham's shut off from the world for a year. There are National Guard outposts stationed outside the city with kill orders for anyone trying to get in. Or out. This also means anyone in town after the bridges are blown ''stays'' there. [[Playing with a Trope|Played with]], though, when Nightwing, Robin, Bane, Luthor and David Cain make their way ''into'' the No Man's Land--allLand—all under different circumstances and for different reasons.

** The Huntress, who faces the Joker--whoJoker—who it should be noted is at the utter top of his game--andgame—and lives to tell the tale.

* [[Knight Templar]]: "Commandant" Bill Pettit. Breaks with Gordon and the GCPD remnant because he thinks the NML's making them soft. Then he starts hoarding bullets, keeps his men very-nearly prisoners, and bullies Huntress like the tin-pot dictator he imagines himself to be--andbe—and all so he can maintain order. [[It Got Worse|It gets worse]] when Joker starts threatening his people. {{spoiler|The novelization makes it clear that he eventually just completely loses his mind.}}

[[Category:Comic BookBooks]]