The creations of the world's greatest stage magicians...
...Houdini, Carter, Thurston.
And now they're mine.
Show's over, Kadabra!
Batman, your clumsy antics are no match for my sorcery.
Don't worry, I brought an assistant.
Surrender, Abra. Don't make me say it backwards.
Ah, yes, Zatanna, your famous backwards spells.
Too bad you can't put everything into one magic word, like abracadabra.
Not bad, for an amateur.
Abracadabra
Defend me, my puppets.
- Abracadabra - Aa...!
- Mm! - That's quite enough out of you.
I had to train for years to fight crime, and all you do is talk backwards.
You know, Dad, that movie was pretty good after all.
Can I be Zorro when I grow up?
Absolutely, son. We'll need to get you a bigger sword.
Take that, you wicked tyrant, ha, ha.
- Dear. - Oh, Martha. Let him play.
Thomas Wayne, when he has nightmares tonight...
...you can be the one to calm him down.
- Ha-ha-ha! - Okay, that's enough for now, Bruce.
We'll start you on fencing lessons when you're older.
Say, 30?
- I'll take that necklace you're wearing, lady. - Leave her alone.
Thomas!
I swear by the spirits of my parents...
...to avenge their deaths by spending the rest of my life...
...warring on all criminals.
And so an ordinary mortal conquered tragedy...
...and became the greatest champion for the cause of justice.
Justice.
What is justice without vengeance, Phantom Stranger?
Simply a slap on the wrist...
...and an invitation for evil to continue unabated.
What would you have, Spectre, Batman to become like you?
Dispensing punishment without mercy?
Growing just as dark as the villains he fights?
You know the reason for this meeting.
Batman's darkest hour is at hand.
Soon he will confront the man who took his parents from him.
Then the final stroke will be delivered for vengeance.
For the sake of his soul, I hope you're wrong.
Batman must uphold justice.
I'd put it to a wager.
Interesting. And the prize?
If Batman falls, he is forever in my control.
An agent that hunts and destroys his prey...
...without conscience or mercy.
- And if I win? - Batman is free to go his own way.
So better late than never, eh, Padre?
Do you have anything you need to confess?
Confess, huh?
Yeah, sure. Why not?
When I was 9, I beat up Jimmy Flaherty for kissing my sister.
Yelled at my wife once.
Lied about my weight on my driver's license.
Oh, uh, and there's the 40 years I spent running Gotham's rackets.
Okay. I got one more big one.
A while back, I took a hit out on Thomas Wayne.
Remember him?
Bigtime doctor, rich guy.
Did a stint in Blackgate because of him.
Who did you hire to do it?
It went all wrong though.
The guy got antsy or something...
...wound up offing Wayne's wife too.
Who was it?
I mean, yeah, Wayne had it coming, but I'm no monster.
Left their kid without a ma.
Felt kind of bad about that.
What was the man's name?
Why do you care?
You're not the only one in need of forgiveness.
Yeah, okay. Some guy named...
Chi... Chill.
To Louie Moxon, a legend in his own time.
There was never a greater force to be reckoned with.
Then you've never reckoned with the force of justice.
The Wayne murders, years back.
That was one of Moxon's contracts. Who did he hire?
Get real, Bats.
Most of us were still in reform school when that happened.
Ah, what I do know is that maybe Moxon ain't the only one checking out tonight.
One of you knows something...
...and I've got all night to find out who.
Aah... Aah!
Batman, restrain yourself.
Phantom Stranger, this had better be important.
Very.
I'm alarmed at the way you're conducting this investigation.
Go haunt a house. I'm busy.
Batman, I'm here to offer you an insight into your parents' demise.
- What do you know? - Most things.
Be warned, you might be shaken by what you learn here tonight.
What does a Halloween party have to do with...?
Gotham. More than three decades ago.
Wait, that couple.
Yes, Batman. They're your parents.
I haven't seen them since...
I know. That night.
Know that as a visitor to this temporal plane...
...there is nothing you can do that will alter their unfortunate fates.
I remember that costume of his.
It must have been in the back of my mind when I designed this one.
It seems your creativity has not gone unnoticed.
And here I thought I was going to be one of a kind.
I guess great minds think alike, Mr.?
Uh, Malone. Mat... Matthew Malone.
Thomas Wayne. This is my wife, Martha.
Oh, my, you're friendly, aren't you?
Hey, what are you...? Oof!
We'll be out of here as soon as we get what we came for.
It's Moxon.
Hands off.
What was it you said about great minds?
Martha.
It's him.
That's right, everyone, just take a breather. No sense in getting someone hurt...
...over money you were all just gonna give away anyhow.
- How's your aim? - Impeccable, old chum.
He's getting away.
That moment has passed.
Spectre, what's your stake in all of this?
- That depends on you. - I don't have time...
...to play cosmic guessing games with you and the Stranger.
I've finally uncovered the motive behind my parents' murder.
- Yet you are restless. - I still need to know who pulled the trigger.
And to what end, Dark Knight? What will you do once you find out?
L... I don't know.
Surely the world's greatest detective has thought that far ahead.
You're the spirit of vengeance, Spectre.
A criminal has walked free for over three decades.
You have to know who he is.
Don't walk away from me.
This must be Blackgate Penitentiary.
Ten minutes, Chill.
"Chill." Moxon's last word.
He named the gunman.
You've seen that man before?
Every time I close my eyes.
You got some nerve showing up here after running out on the charity job.
I'm sorry, boss.
Yeah, and when I get out of here, you'll be even sorrier.
Wait, listen. I'll make this right.
I can even the score for you with Thomas Wayne.
He's the reason you're in here, not me.
I'll make sure he suffers, him and his whole family.
Whatever. Just make it look like an accident.
So just like that he signed away their lives, so casually.
Without remorse. Without blinking a filthy eye.
Where was justice?
Where, indeed.
Take me to the Batcave, now.
At last, I have a name to go with that face.
So again I ask, what will you do with this knowledge?
This ends before dawn.
These days, Joe Chill is an arms dealer...
...who turns a profit selling weapons to super criminals on the black market.
And there's a sale going down tonight.
This is the big one, friends. The sonic disrupter.
Capable of emitting a sound-generated pulse so strong...
...it splinters anything it's aimed at.
So, come on, what am I bid?
Okay, let me put it this way.
If it can do this...
...just think of what it will do to Batman.
- Ten thousand. - Fifteen thousand.
Two bits.
Ha, ha. Thought I'd lighten the mood.
Wasn't mine.
Batsy. It's just not a party till you show up, is it?
Unh!
Batman's here. Plant him.
Joe Chill.
You are the slinking coward who murdered Thomas and Martha Wayne.
That was a lifetime ago.
Yes, my lifetime.
You took them without mercy or regret, and in cold blood, Chill.
How do you know this? How could you possibly...?
I know because I watched it happen.
I know because I am the son of the man you murdered.
I am Bruce Wayne.
No. Oh, no.
He is beaten.
Let your devotion to justice temper your rage.
He took your parents. Ruined your life.
Fulfill your destiny.
Become what you have trained to be...
...an agent of vengeance.
He knows who you are.
If this man lives...
...Batman dies.
Batman may die, but Bruce Wayne...
Oof.
...never.
Guys, you gotta help me.
Way back, I whacked a guy for a job...
...and now that guy's son is back for revenge.
That guy's son is Batman.
What's funny?
You're saying we owe Batman's existence to you? That's a killer.
So it's your fault Batman's always on our backs.
No, guys. Wait.
Oh, yeah. Almost forgot about you.
Funny, unh...
...because I started you off as Batman...
...those other mugs made me pay.
Ugh, yeah, I...
I guess you got me after all.
Batman made the right choice.
Ultimately, it was karma that delivered the final blow to Joe Chill.
Funny how Chill just happened to be under that crumbling ceiling when it came down.
I wouldn't know anything about that.
Case closed.