Batman 372
Detective Comics 539
“What Price, The Prize?”
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| Most exciting image from this story. Doesn't happen in story. |
Dear reader, if one will recall,
I admitted to being very excited to finally sit down and and read
this run of Batman stories. While I'm not going to go all out and say
I'm disappointed, because I'm not, several stories, namely the
Deadshot and Joker
stories have been bang-on. I've also enjoyed the Jason Todd sub-plot
that's been the main push behind the characters action in these
stories. I'm not blown away though, for everything good story,
there's a horrible story. There was even one Catman (not a typo)
story that was so bad I just up and decided not to even write an
article about it. This is why we jumped from Batman #370 to Batman
#372. And I like cheesy villains like Catman as I've gone on about
numerous times in the past.
Long
preamble all to say: I do not like this Dr. Fang sub-plot, Sam I am.
I've mentioned before
that Fang is a pretty weak creation, all cheesy gimmick but with no
real characteristic. He's even a boring visual: bald, muscular white
guy in a cape with some theater fangs in his pie hole. Yawn.
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| Dr. Fang: Doctor, Mob Boss, Actor, and now...Boxer! |
I was
excited for this sub-plot when it started:
Gotham City Detective Harvey Bullock learns through underworld
contacts of a new up and comer in the mob business going by the name
of Dr. Fang. Bullock pursues the case and eventually gets Batman
involved who responds by punching the shit out
of about twenty dudes. This is how Batman detects. It worked though,
this attack from The Bat drove Fang back into the shadows and put a
temporary stop on his designs to take over the Gotham crime scene.
This is where we find Fang now on the eve of his fall.
How
does Fang fall? What grandiose plan does he have up his sleeve to
finally bring the Gotham underworld together under his wing the leads
to his incarceration? Rigging a boxing match. Sure, crime, don't get
me wrong, bad guys do it. It just seems so...anti-climactic. This is
where the audience learns that not only is Fang an actor, but he was
also a boxer in his earlier years. Boxer, actor, mob boss: at least
the guy doesn't remain stagnant in his career. Fang's big plan is to
prove that he is a rule-maker and rigging the championship match will
be the way to do it. I think he's crazy anyway, so the crazy logic
here makes perfect sense.
The
boxing rigging goes poorly in that the current champ, the man who has
been paid to throw the fight, refuses. He wins the fight in a
decisive manner and is shot for his troubles. Fang, even though he's
only proven that he can't even rig a fight correctly now gets Batman
back on his ass because of the poorly planned murder.
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| Oh Batman's not happy now. |
The
kicker: Batman doesn't even take down Fang. No, instead it's the
opponent of the rigged fight, the guy tricked into fighting the champ
in a fight he wasn't supposed to win. He helps Batman navigate the
boxing scene to find Fang (who used to be a boxer, ho ho ho) who's
hideout is in an abandoned gym. Pretty anti-climactic, as I said, but
at least Fang is finally down and out. In fact, he's predictably
punched so damn hard that his fangs are knocked out of his stupid
head. Whatever, at least this sub-plot is finally done.
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| Batman just watches, Fang is beneath his contempt. Crazy honky takes him out. |
As I
mentioned earlier, I think this sub-plot did have some promise, and
apparently so did the writer as he'd return to this sub-plot with a
different character in a story almost ten years from this point. The
stories from here on out will begin to focus more on Jason Todd and
specifically the legality of Bruce Wayne's adoption of the boy, so I
still have some level of excitement for these stories and we'll see
how it plays out.
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