| Batman: Holy Terror | |
|---|---|
 Cover ofBatman - Holy Terror one-shot | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Elseworlds (DC Comics) |
| Publication date | 1991 |
| Creative team | |
| Written by | Alan Brennert |
| Artist | Norm Breyfogle |
| Letterer | Bill Oakley |
| Colorist | Lovern Kindzierski |
| Editor(s) | Dennis O'Neil Kelley Puckett |
Batman: Holy Terror is anElseworldsone-shotcomic published byDC Comics in 1991. The story is written byAlan Brennert and illustrated byNorm Breyfogle. The graphic novel is significant in that it was the first to bear the Elseworlds logo.
The story is analternate history whosepoint of divergence came in 1658.Oliver Cromwell recovered fromsepsis and lived until 1668, consolidating theProtectorate of England and its sistertheocracies in theNorth American colonies. In the late 20th century, the United States of America is a "Commonwealth" run by a corrupt theocratic government.World-building is established in an expository scene narrated by newscasterVictoria Vale. In 1991, the Commonwealth is waging a war of conquest across South America, under the command of General North (possiblyOliver North), and Brazilian PresidentJorge Amado has committed suicide as his country was being overrun. Back home, industrialistOliver Queen is hanged for publishing forbidden "pornographic" works byIsaac Bashevis Singer.
Twenty-two years after the death of his parents,Bruce Wayne is planning to jointhe clergy when he is visited by his friendJames Gordon. Gordon was theinquisitor who investigatedThomas andMartha Wayne's murder at the hands ofJoe Chill, and has come to tell Bruce the truth about what happened. Their deaths were not a random mugging, but a state-planned execution. Despite Thomas' position as physician to the CommonwealthPrivy Council, both wereanti-government radicals who ran a clinic for the victims of the government's brutality and brainwashing. Bruce consults his father's coworkerCharles McNider, who confirms the truth about his parents, and that of many others killed by the state. McNider, a broken man who lost both his wife and his eyesight, tells Bruce about a government conspiracy called "the Green Man", but warns Bruce that nothing good has come of fighting the system.
Bruce starts a crusade to hunt down those who killed his parents. After hisordination as a priest, Bruce discovers a demon costume his father once wore in a morality play:a garb shaped like a bat. Hacking into government files, he hunts down one of the Privy Council members for information, and learns that the ones who arranged the death sentence were theStar Chamber, the highest court in the government.
Bruce finds the Star Chamber's location, as well as a government facility filled with human test subjects. He helps free a man with super-speed namedBarry Allen, and learns that the others are men and women who were unsuccessfully put through the samegene splicing process that gave Barry his speed abilities. Among these isArthur Curry, who has been rendered nearly catatonic. The two are attacked by a witch converted to the state,a woman who pronounces spells backwards. During the scuffle with this witch, a test subject is killed by collateral damage, and Barry is killed bySaul Erdel, who negates the aura that protects him while he is running. Erdel has another of his agents,Matthew Hagen, capture Bruce and bring him to see "Project Green Man". This wasan extraterrestrial child found in a rocket ship found by a "god-fearing" couple inKansas, who was raised by the state and studied before being killed with anirradiated green rock when he became too difficult to control. Enraged, Bruce breaks free and attacks Erdel. Bruce tricks Hagen into falling into liquid hydrogen, causing him to freeze solid, at which point Bruce smashes Hagen with a hammer. Erdel tries to shoot at Bruce, but the bullets ricochet off the alien's corpse, killing him.
Bruce enters the Star Chamber and confronts its caretaker about his parents. The man tells him that everyone ever sentenced to death by the Chamber has been put to death by secret ballot, with no records kept of each individual vote, as a means of assuring members that the state is the source of their power. Bruce no longer finds a reason to kill the caretaker, because it was the system that was responsible for the deaths of his parents. He vows to bring it down once and for all, no matter how long it will take.
With a new cause, and motivated by God, Bruce continues to serve fight against the government as the Batman, but wonders if everything might have been different if his parents had truly been the victims of a random mugging years ago.[1]
IGN said: "Though there are some interesting points about how the state attempts to mimic God's will, there's far too much exposition and far too little intrigue... WhileHoly Terror won't go down as the worst Batman Elseworlds tale, it certainly won't be making any "Best" lists. The cover makes for an awesome poster, but the interiors fail to excite the imagination".[2]
