Batman #435 July ,1989

‘The Many Deaths of the Batman – Chapter Three: The Last Death of the Batman’

The Gotham City Police Department are on the scene of a homicide, when they find that the deceased young woman scratched a bat into the carpet before she died.

Meanwhile in Wayne Manor, a frustrated Bruce Wayne laments to Alfred that so long as the police are at the Manor protecting him, he cannot leave as Batman, preventing him from finding the Bat-killer. Furthermore, Bruce informs Alfred that the killer has somehow deduced Batman’s identity because all of the victims were mentors of Bruce Wayne on his quest to become Batman.

At that moment, Commissioner Gordon goes over the evidence and tries to find a connection between the murders and eventually, he realizes that there is one killing among all of them that doesn’t fit the pattern. Frederick Stone was killed in a manner similar to his own area of expertise, while all the others were killed using clues and references to the next victim. Elsewhere, a man called Jerry Sawyer perpares another deadly Batman costume, hiding it away from the woman he loves.

Finally, Bruce Wayne can take it no longer, and risks sneaking into the Batcave with help from Alfred, who distracts the police officers in Wayne Manor by preparing a delicious meal. In the cave, Batman analyzes the list of the Batkiller’s victims so far. Knowing the killer’s pattern, Batman deduces the next victim would be Aurelius Boch, the man who taught him about toxins and poisons. However, his deduction comes too late as Batman learns that Boch has been found dead shortly after his arrival to Gotham.

Moments later, Batman meets with Commissioner Gordon for the first time since the whole affair started and learns about Gordon’s deduction regarding Stone. During the conversation, Batman explains the killer’s pattern and his ‘confusion’ regarding Bruce Wayne. After this, Batman follows the pattern of the killer and deduces who his next victim would be. Jerry Sawyer, the killer, meets with Mr. Shastri to give him a Batman costume, but Shastri is in fact Batman in disguise. Batman tries to stop Sawyer, but the eleftrified costume stuns him long enough to allow Sawyer to escape.

Back at the Batcave, Batman analyzes the evidence and finally deduces that Jerry Sawyer is a forged identity created by Frederick Stone, one of his former mentors and the one responsible for starting the whole Bat-killings. At that moment, Stone makes last minute arrangements to kill the next victim, a man called Campbell and he leaves his house in a hurry, much to his woman’s concern. Batman appears after Stone has left and warns the woman to leave her home as a security measure.

Finally, Stone is about to kill Campbell at his hotel room, when he is stopped by Batman. Confronted by the Dark Knight, Stone reveals that he had deduced that he trained Batman in the past when the Dark Knight used a technique to defuse explosives only known to him. Fearing that some of Batman’s greatest enemies might deduce the same, Stone faked his own death as part of the Bat-killings and started to kill the people who had trained Batman. Adopting the new identity of florist Jerry Sawyer and thanks to his own deductions, Stone managed to find many connections to the Dark Knight and his ultimate goal was to eliminate as many mentors of the Dark Knight as possible in order to prevent any eventual conflict with Batman’s enemies. Finally, Stone inquires as to how Batman found him and the Dark Knight reveals that all the information he needed was provided by the woman that the police had found, who was also murdered by Stone. After hearing Stone’s confession, Commissioner Gordon and the Police arrive at the scene and they finally capture the killer. Batman doesn’t stay long as he needs to go back to a certain woman and tell her about her beloved, Jerry Sawyer.