Crisis Weekly #17

PAGE ONE

Panel 1

A darkened panel, but you can still glimpse Batman pulling on his cowl.

Panel 2

Pulling back now, Batman is stalking forward in a darkened corridor.  His hands are holding the sides of his cape, as if he’s fluffing it out.

BATMAN: Caballero.

Panel 3
Batman continues his march down the dark corridor, his arms now down at his sides, his cape flush against him, probably wrapped around.

BATMAN: You have successfully made yourself a target of the Batman.

Panel 4

Batman’s march continues.  One hand emerges from the envelope of his cape, clutching a batarang.

BATMAN: Congratulations are in order. 

BATMAN: You have managed to discover a novel approach.

TITLE: “Seven Nation Army”

WRITER: Tony Laplume
 

PAGE TWO

Panel 1

Exterior shot.  This makes it clear that we are once more at the Mexican presidential home of Los Pinos.  It is nighttime.

Panel 2

Batman has entered the executive office of the Caballero.  The Caballero waits patiently at his desk.

BATMAN: It took time, confirming what I had suspected from the start.

Panel 3

Batman continues his approach toward the Caballero, who remains immobile, inscrutable under his luchador mask.

BATMAN: I came here for a different purpose entirely, to prevent a tragedy I had…experienced…once before.

BATMAN: A tragedy I had been unable to prevent before.

BATMAN: A tragedy that has yet to occur again.

BATMAN: For the moment.

Panel 4

Batman has now placed his hands, and the batarang, on the Caballero’s desk, with his most frightful menacing look.  The Caballero has still yet to react.

BATMAN: My suspicions were unrelated, at the time unimportant.

BATMAN: Merely an intellectual curiosity.

Panel 5

Batman has removed his hands from the desk, leaving the batarang behind.  The Caballero has yet to make a move, although he now eyes the batarang.

BATMAN: As have others, I believed the true menace to be elsewhere.

BATMAN: But here you were, hiding in plain sight all along…

 

PAGE THREE

Panel 1

Batman has lashed out, ripping the luchador mask from the Caballero’s head, revealing…

BATMAN: …Bruce Wayne.

Panel 2

The Caballero has stood up.  He and Batman are glaring at each other.

Panel 3

The Caballero has reached for the batarang as he walks around his desk.

Panel 4

Now Batman and the Caballero are standing face-to-face, with nothing in-between them.

Panel 5

Close-up of their faces, from the side, as Batman removes his cowl, making it perfectly clear that Bruce Wayne is standing in front of Bruce Wayne.  This whole time, Crisis Weekly has been unfolding on a parallel Earth!
 

PAGE FOUR

Panel 1

The Caballero is flinging the batarang away.

Panel 2

We see a close-up of the batarang sticking into a wall.

Panel 3

Batman and the Caballero continue their confrontation.

CABALLERO: Fascinating.  I always wondered how things might’ve turned out differently.

CABALLERO: I’ve no idea why you would have come all the way here to facilitate such a discovery for me, but I assure you, the thought is appreciated.

 

PAGE FIVE

Panel 1

The Caballero leaps at Batman, his hands reaching for Batman’s throat.

CABALLERO: Ahhh!

Panel 2

Batman has quickly placed his own hands around his throat just as the Caballero’s have reached their mark.

Panel 3

Batman tumbles backwards, the Caballero’s hands still locked in his.

Panel 4

Batman has landed on the floor and is flinging the Caballero over.

Panel 5

The Caballero lands roughly on his back as Batman twists around to get back into fighting position.

Panel 6

But the Caballero has gotten his feet up and is ramming them into Batman’s chest.
 

PAGE SIX

Panel 1

The Caballero has leaped back to his feet and is swinging a fist at Batman.

Panel 2

The Caballero connects with another solid hit.  These are all body blows.

Panel 3

The Caballero connects again.

Panel 4

Batman catches one of the Caballero’s swinging fists.

Panel 5

The Batman lands one of his own hits, right in the Caballero’s face.

Panel 6

The Caballero is reaching for the imbedded batarang.

Panel 7

The Caballero swings the batarang wildly at Batman, who’s moving his finned gauntlets toward his face to protect himself.
 

PAGE SEVEN

Panel 1

Batman knocks the batarang out of the Caballero’s hand.

Panel 2

Batman hurdles himself into the Caballero.

Panel 3

They crash through the Caballero’s desk.

Panel 4

Batman struggles to his feet.  The Caballero looks out of it for a moment.
 

PAGE EIGHT

Panel 1

Batman stands staring at the Caballero, still laying amid the ruins of his own desk.

Panel 2

Batman continues to stand as the Caballero begins to stir, speaking in a shaky voice.

CABALLERO: You know, as fun as this was, it was also quite…

CABALLERO: Pointless.

Panel 3

Close-up of the battered Caballero, smiling madly.

CABALLERO: I released the beast before you ever entered this house.