Batman: Gotham Adventures #23

Batman: Gotham Adventures

by Bob Smith (Cover (Pencils)), Terry Beatty (Inks/Cover), Lee Loughridge (Colors/Cover)

A plot involving the kidnapping of oil magnates and the acquisition of their property leads Batman on a globe-hopping adventure that takes him to the frozen wilds of Northern Canada.

Genres: Comics, Comic Book, Batman

36 pages, Comic Book

First published April 1, 2000

Reviews

[cauldronofevil · Rating 5 out of 5]

Terrific cover - both homage and yet original.

”Do the Wrong Thing” starts with a thug holding a gun to Batman’s head. You know how it is, the price of health care is too high.

”Sometimes we have to stop someone from doing the wrong thing for the right reason. ”

At work, Bruce learns that the forth business associate of Waynecorp (Omar Alhazred) has disappeared in the last month.

Slipping into Omar’s home he encounters some guards with weapons (six) and quickly ties them up for questioning. But they don’t know anything.

Great scene!

Neither does his son. Maybe. But all of these disappearances have sold everything they own and moved into seclusion. Bruce Wayne knew all of them. They also all knew each other.

Batman visits Preston Wainwright who is known to have gone into seclusion in the south of France. He has to get through a few machine gun armed me to do so once he gets to his villa.

Batman learns that Ra’s Al Ghul is behind this. And since buying all of the possessions of four of the richest men, he now owns 25% of the world’s oil supply.

I’m glad they finally gave Ra’s a definite motivation. Too many people kept bringing him back (including Christopher Nolan) but not giving him a motivation worthy of him.

A clue leads Batman to an island with a castle on it. Lots more guards, but only welding scimitars.

Terry Beatty and Lee Loughridge supply art good enough to make me want to know their names.

Batman gets to the throne that seats Ra’s. They talk. Ra’s hands him a sword. They fight.

Ra’s “insane” plan to save the Earth is to simply leave the oil in the ground causing an energy crisis that will force people to conserve energy and get energy efficient.

Kinda on Ra’s side!

Nice! The seemingly meaningless opening makes a poignant note on this very light handed environmental story.

5 stars for thinking outside the box and making Ra’s fearsome - and yet right.

[Jimmy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This issue contains a short story called “Do the Wrong Thing” which opening scene is Batman stopping someone who commits a crime to get money for medicine for his daughter. This generate some compassion from Robin who asks Batman about it and Batman says “Sometimes we have to stop someone from doing the wrong thing for the right reason,” although Batman admits its not easy. This short and seemingly unrelated scene and discussion then segway into the main story about kidnapped oil magnates and Batman suspecting it is Ra's al Ghul behind it. Batman goes to North Canada to a fortress where Ra's al Ghul resides in and he finds the missing individuals and what they say about family and Ra's al Ghul’s question leaves one to think and reflect. I enjoyed the issue.

[Steven Shinder · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice Ra's issue.