Panel 1
(splash)
Going back
to the very beginning. This is the classic
moment that Bruce Wayne, seated in his study, utters the phrase that changes
everything. Now of course its occurrence
at the start of Crisis Weekly reads a lot differently!
BRUCE WAYNE:
I shall become a bat!
PAGE TWO
Panel 1
Crime Alley,
a burglar shooting Thomas and Martha Wayne as the boy Bruce looks on in utter
horror.
CAPTION:
There are early parallels, of course, moments that…had to happen.
Panel 2
Divergent
color schemes begin here. Batman’s are tinged
blue, and Caballero’s will be tinged brown.
This one is a Batman panel, and so it is, of course, tinged blue. It features the young Bruce Wayne clutching
at the pearls that have scattered on the ground.
CAPTION: My
first thoughts were of the incredible loss that had just occurred.
Panel 3
This panel
is the Caballero’s, so it’s tinged brown.
It’s the same moment, but instead of clutching for pearls, the young
Bruce Wayne is staring angrily toward the reader.
CAPTION: I
can only assume his were of anger, and vengeance, right from the start.
PAGE THREE
Panel 1
Batman
panel, blue. The young Bruce is seated
at a table in one of Wayne Manor’s many expansive dining rooms. He is looking up gratefully at Alfred as the
faithful butler gives him a steaming cup of cocoa.
CAPTION: It’s
easy to mistake the grim destiny of the boy in that alley, and what he would
decide to do with the rest of his life, later, as a sudden, relentless crusade.
Panel 2
Caballero
panel, brown. The young Bruce has
knocked the same cup out of Alfred’s hands.
BRUCE WAYNE:
Go away! Leave me alone!
CAPTION: But…despite
my loss, I was never alone, not for a moment.
Alfred was always there, suddenly asked to carry a…terrible new
burden. My counterpart would’ve…rejected
such comforts, out of necessity, out of his altered sense of survival. I…understand how that might have felt.
PAGE FOUR
Panel 1
Batman
panel, blue. The young Bruce is in a
karate class, sparring with a fellow student.
CAPTION:
Even before I knew what I would do, I channeled my rage and grief into
practical concerns.
Panel 2
Caballero
panel, brown. The young Bruce is getting
into a fight at school, obviously as the aggressor.
CAPTION: The
same instincts, played out differently, in his case. Unfocused, aggressive…cruel.
PAGE FIVE
Panel 1
Batman
panel, blue. Bruce is getting
older. He’s getting a tour of GCPD
headquarters from Jim Gordon.
CAPTION:
Gordon had been there from the start, too.
I leaned on him as much as I could, grateful that he had taken a
personal interest, been there when I needed him, never made me feel
uncomfortable, unwelcome, during the long years when all I wanted was to have
their murders solved, indulged a boy who for all appearances still had
everything, still had his parents’ millions, could’ve afforded anything. But all he wanted was to be understood, and
for the world to make sense again.
Panel 2
Caballero
panel, brown. Bruce is being escorted
through GCPD headquarters by Gordon, in handcuffs.
CAPTION: I
can only speculate, as our paths diverged.
I don’t imagine this Bruce Wayne kept many friends, allies. As isolated as the Batman tends to be seen, I
never really have been.
PAGE SIX
Panel 1
Batman
panel, blue. Bruce is boarding a private
plane.
CAPTION: I
traveled widely, around the world, for years, trying to find myself, honing
skills, creating the best version of myself with the considerable resources I
had available.
Panel 2
Caballero
panel, brown. Bruce is in an alley
conversing with obvious hoodlums.
PAGE SEVEN
Panel 1
Batman
panel, blue. Bruce is in a ski mask rescuing
a girl who was about to be mugged in an alley.
CAPTION:
When I came back to Gotham, I could no longer fight the urge. I had decided to become a vigilante. I viewed myself as outside the system, and
like all young people thought I could do things better.
Panel 2
Caballero
panel, brown. Bruce is in a ski mask,
running down the same alley, but he’s just robbed a bank.
PAGE EIGHT
Panel 1
Batman
panel, blue. The same moment we’ve
already seen twice in Crisis Weekly (and will see a fourth and final time
momentarily): Bruce seated in the study with his sudden revelation.
BRUCE WAYNE:
I shall become a bat!
CAPTION: But
things didn’t, initially, turn out as I had hoped. Something had to change. I had to make the biggest decision of my
life, become something else.
Panel 2
Caballero
panel, brown. Same as above.
BRUCE WAYNE:
I shall become a bat!
PAGE NINE
Panel 1
Batman
panel, blue. Bruce is dressed as Batman
for the first time, perched up on a gargoyle deep in the heart of Gotham.
Panel 2
Caballero
panel, brown. Bruce has transformed into
Man-Bat! He’s soaring through the skies
of Gotham. The gargoyle in the above
panel can be seen.
CAPTION: As
near as I can tell, either this world’s Bruce Wayne stole the Man-Bat serum
from Kirk Langstrom, or invented it himself.
At any rate, it doesn’t matter.
The end result remains the same.
PAGE TEN
Panel 1
Batman
panel, blue. Batman is shaking hands
with Robin, the Boy Wonder, the original Dick Grayson version.
CAPTION: I
continued surrounding myself with allies.
There are those who will quibble with some of my choices, and how things…sometimes
turned out, but I took on partners, I had teammates. The nature of the Batman’s crusade, though
often shrouded in mystery, was never in doubt by those who knew him best.
Panel 2
Caballero
panel, brown. Bruce Wayne putting on the
mask of the Caballero for the first time.
CAPTION: He
decided one mask wasn’t enough. He
traded one for another, and forever closed himself off, his true identity, from
the rest of this world.
PAGE ELEVEN
Panel 1
Batman
panel, blue. Bruce Wayne, now fully an
adult, sits down at a meeting of Wayne Enterprises. We can see Lucius Fox seated near him, just
as another reminder of how this man surrounds himself with allies.
Panel 2
Caballero
panel, brown. The Caballero, at a press
conference, the Mexican flag flapping behind him.
CAPTION: He
had himself elected, in this new guise, as the president of Mexico. The details of how he accomplished this would
no doubt be quite interesting. No one
knew who he was, that he wasn’t even Mexican.
Perhaps he succeeded to the office by assassinating his
predecessor. Perhaps he started out in
the vice presidency. Once ensconced, he
had the resources to tighten his grip, unchallenged, unquestioned.
PAGE TWELVE
Panel 1
Batman
panel, blue. Batman observing a smoking
Metropolis. He is there physically,
perched on a tall building. Down below
we can just barely see what he’s looking at, amid the rubble.
CAPTION: The
darkest day I ever saw was the day a Superman died.
Panel 2
Caballero
panel, brown. Caballero is watching on
television.
CAPTION: I
believe what he saw was…opportunity.
PAGE
THIRTEEN
Panel 1
Batman
panel, blue. Batman attending the
funeral of Superman. Among the mourners
we can see Bloodwynd, Guy Gardner, and Firehawk.
Panel 2
Caballero
panel, brown. Caballero is surrounded by
consultants, who range from scientists to politicians to supervillains (none
specifically).
PAGE
FOURTEEN
Panel 1
Batman panel, blue. Batman embraces Superman, returned from the grave. (As with the original comics, Superman sports his long hair, the “super mullet.”)
CAPTION: For
a lot of people, his return from the dead was so swift, it almost began to seem
as if it had never happened at all. Life
returned to normal, and…our efforts began to seem routine. Expected.
Easy to take for granted.
Panel 2
Caballero
panel, brown. Caballero is again
watching television, Superman soaring in the air, surrounded by the Big Seven
version of the Justice League depicted by Grant Morrison and Howard Porter.
CAPTION: The
White Martian crisis occurred on both our worlds. On this one it…gave the Caballero an idea.
PAGE FIFTEEN
Panel 1
Batman
panel, blue. Batman in the Batcave,
analyzing information at his massive computer banks. I realize that, perhaps, a modern Batcave
probably doesn’t need massive computer banks, but I love the imagery.
CAPTION: I
became aware of what was happening here, what was going to happen, completely
separately from the identity of my doppelganger. My allies had discovered the theft of a
corpse, the most famous corpse and the one everyone hoped would at last remain
one forever, and I traced it here, and from there only one conclusion was
possible, only one thing that would matter.
Panel 2
Caballero
panel, brown. Caballero, back in the
present, repeating the last thing we heard him say.
CABALLERO: I
released the beast before you ever entered this house.
CAPTION:
This madman was no longer anything I recognized in myself. He had perverted everything that Bruce Wayne
had ever meant. His world had ended, for
him, in that alley, and he had determined to end it for everyone else…
PAGE SIXTEEN
Panel 1
(splash)
Doomsday, roaring.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.