Whilst investigating a kidnapping, Batman fails to save Sissy Porter from a watery grave, all because he isn't strong enough. This whole opening sequence is beautifully drawn, with eerie green colouring in the repeated panels showing Sissy trapped underneath the rock giving a nightmarish quality to the scenes. The same panel, of Sissy's glassy eyed stare is repeated a few times in the comic, reminding us of the motivation that pushes Batman to desperation and, eventually, addiction.
Sissy's father, Randolph Porter, seems innocuous enough at first, but over the course of the story shows himself to be twisted and even hooked on his own designer drugs. He offers Batman one of his designer drugs shortly after Batman tells him his daughter hadn't survived - something which should have set alarm bells ringing in the mind of the worlds greatest detective!
Back at the Batcave, Bruce injures himself trying to push the limits of what he can do, trying to lift weights which are equal to the mass of the boulder which had trapped Sissy. With this injury, he confronts the two thugs who kidnapped her, and is defeated when they exploit his torn shoulder muscle.
This is the second failure in as many days, and it pushes Batman to return to Randolph, accepting his offer of the 'venom' which poisons the Batman we know and love. With his newfound strength, Batman hunts down and apprehends the kidnappers, his victory resulting in him laughing maniacally in an expression which had shades of The Joker's manic grin.
This deadly drug takes hold of Batman, making him more violent, and between the first and second chapter of this volume, he has ditched the cape and cowl altogether (albeit briefly).
When returning to pick up a 'repeat prescription' of the drug, Batman is introduced to the true villain of the story, General Slaycroft. This man, who introduces himself as a respected member of the US army, orders the killing of the kidnappers so that Batman cannot follow the lead back to him and Dr Porter, before murdering the men who committed the assassination as well when Batman hurls a fridge (!) at their car to prevent their escape. Shortly after, with the promise of more of the super drug, Slaycroft and Porter order Batman to kill James Gordon, who has been investigating the murders and kidnapping that these two men have perpetrated.
After leaping out at Gordon from a tree, Batman realises he has been brainwashed, warns Gordon and goes back to confront the two men. They flee, he patches things up with Alfred and asks to be locked in the Batcave so he can recover from his addiction to Venom.
Time speeds up into a montage of sorts, as Slaycroft and Porter take up residence in Santa Prisca with their designer drugs. They begin experimenting on Timmy Slaycroft, followed by other residents of the island, whilst Batman completes his rehab in the Batcave. These sequences on the island made me think of a more sinister version of the Marvel 'super-soldier' program which gave birth to Captain America. Only a twisted version where the men involved blew up their own wives and (I assume) organised the kidnapping of their own daughters.
When Batman finally arrives on Santa Prisca, parachuting from a plane after nearly being blown out of the sky by Slaycroft, we find out it has been six months since he was in action. This puts a bit of a spanner into the works of the old timeline, but as I have opted to do with the New 52 timeline, I have chosen to ignore these slight inconsistencies. It was enjoyable enough to read about the genesis of the drug which would eventually lead to Bane breaking the Bat.
Denny O'Neill seems to take great joy in writing Batman as a sort of uber-masculine super spy, with all the drug lords and island compounds. Not to mention the moments where Batman fights off 4 sharks!
What follows is a slightly rushed denouement, where Batman is captured and placed in a trap which mirrors the one which took Sissy's life at the start. He is in a room slowly filling with water, and the only way out is for him to lift an impossible weight. Rather than resort to the bottle of pills he is left with, Batman creates a pulley/weight system using the bricks from the wall and his bed. Fantastic.
Meanwhile, things have escalated quickly and Slaycroft has decided that Randolph is too weak to be his partner, and has him tied up so he can torture him for the details of his super drug. Batman escapes and frees the Dr. But Porter tricks Timmy the mindless thug into killing his own father.
I enjoyed the idea of seeing what would happen when Batman went to far in order to achieve perfection. And I enjoyed seeing the redemption of him beating the impossible trap at the end without resorting to drugs. For me this is probably one of the best moral messages in a Batman story so far. And it is probably one of the darkest as well, in terms of its exploration into addiction and madness.
Plus I love the knowledge of what this will all lead to - the seemingly loose threads of Santa Prisca and venom will come back to haunt the Bat very soon.
Next up - Batman : Tenses
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