There was very little that I enjoyed in Detective Comics in 1991, which is why much of it has been jumped. Little of significance happened in these pages until issue 641 (Feb. 92), which saw the end of the Destroyer crossover, which had begun in Batman, and had its second chapter in Legends of the Dark Knight. Alan Grant, Jim Aparo and Mike DeCarlo conclude the story of the aesthetic bomber in this story.
Continuing the cliffhanger from the previous chapter, the bomber is set to blow up the police headquarters. Gordon gets alerted, and gets his people out, but the building gets destroyed.
Batman uses his Bruce Wayne self to set a trap for the bomber, announcing that he is going to have the historic Wayne Building torn down, but that he will be spending the night there alone, before the demolition. Sarah Essen, already suspicious, finds this too convenient, and is all but convinced that Bruce is Batman.
The trap works, luring the bomber, and Batman takes him down. Alfred fakes Bruce’s voice, when Sarah Essen calls, after Batman tells her that Bruce had not been in the building at all, and she gives up on her suspicions.
The Destroyer storyline is not a great story, but it’s goal was to reshape the appearance of Gotham, bringing it in line with the visuals from Tim Burton’s movie. And it succeeded at that goal.
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