| Unofficial Batman: Holy Terror Index |
BATMAN: HOLY TERROR
Cover Date: 1991
Cover Price: $4.95
Cover Credits:
Art: Norm Breyfogle (signed)
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Credits:
| Story | Alan Brennert |
| Art | Norm Breyfogle |
| Lettering | Bill Oakley |
| Colors | Lovern Kindzierski |
| Assistant editing | Kelley Puckett |
| Editing | Dennis O'Neil |
Feature Character(s):
- Batman (Reverend Bruce Anthony Wayne)
Guest Star(s):
- Barry Allen (a former Inquisitor Scientist; gained super-speed in a chemical accident; dies)
- Green Man (Kal-El; imprisoned and experimented upon by Dr. Saul Erdel; deceased)
Supporting Character(s):
- Thomas Wayne (personal physician to the Privy Council; deceased)
- Martha Wayne (deceased)
- James Gordon (first an Inquisitor recently transferred from New Amsterdam, twenty years later Lord High Commissioner of Gotham Towne)
- Alfred Pennyworth (gentleman to the house of Thomas Wayne)
- Dr. Charles McNider (a colleague of Thomas Wayne; later blinded with acid by a state agent)
Villain(s):
- An unnamed Lord Commissioner of Gotham Towne (James Gordon's precedessor)
- Joseph Chill (seen only on a printout, otherwise behind the scenes; deceased)
- Lord Protector Maleville
- Lemuel Brown (former Lord High Magistrate of the First Appellate Court)
- Witch (Zatanna Zatara; brainwashed into serving the state)
- Dr. Saul Erdel (a scientist involved in metahuman studies at Cathedral; overseer of Project Green Man; dies)
- Clayface (Matthew Hagen, a former smuggler mutated into sentient clay; dies)
- The President of the Star Chamber
Guest Appearance(s):
- Victoria Vale (a TV anchorwoman)
- Arthur (a test subject for Dr. Saul Erdel; a catatonic amphibian with limited telepathic abilities)
- Lori (behind the scenes only; a mer-woman and mate to Arthur, mentioned as having died in giving birth; their daughter is seen)
- Metamorpho (Rex Mason?; a test subject of Dr. Saul Erdel)
Other Character(s):
- Barbara Gordon (the pregnant wife of Inquisitor James Gordon; behind the scenes, mentioned only )
- General North (leader of the Crusade Battalion and conqueror of Brazil; behind the scenes, mentioned in TV report only)
- Jorge Amado (supposed dictator of Brazil; behind the scenes only; reported to have committed suicide when General North's troops marched into Buenos Aires)
- Oliver Queen (a millionaire industrialist tried and convicted of sedition for his covert support of such underground Jewish pornographers as Isaac Singer)
- Alan Scott (behind the scenes; mentioned as having been executed for starting an underground radio network)
- Carter and Shiera Hall (a pair of archaeologists; behind the scenes; mentioned as having been executed for smuggling weapons into the country)
- Rex Tyler (behind the scenes; mentioned as having been executed for manufacturing drugs for Wayne's and McNider's clinic)
- Myra Mason McNider (seen on a photograph only; behind the scenes; deceased, probably executed)
- Bishop Judson Caspian (Bruce Wayne's superior in the Church)
- Hainer (a guard at Cathedral)
- Reverend Cleery (of Gotham Towne's South Side Parish; behind the scenes; mentioned only)
- Terry (a test subject for Dr. Saul Erdel; capable of high-speed vibrating, but wioth no conscious control)
- Gus (a test subject for Dr. Saul Erdel; gained speed, but developed hyper-acromegaly)
- Corinne (a test subject for Dr. Saul Erdel; gained thought speed only)
- Arthur's daughter (the product of a forced union with Lori; amphibian test subject for Dr. Saul Erdel; killed by the Witch)
- Joshua (a test subject for Dr. Saul Erdel; gained accelerated aging)
- two more amphibian test-subjects (resembling a bipedal shark and a manta with a semi-human face)
- Jonathan and Martha Kent (a – unnamed – God-fearing couple in Kansas; behind the scenes; mentioned as having turned over an extraterrestrial child to Cathedral)
Comment(s):
- Since this book is an Elseworlds publication, all of the above characters appear here for the first - and so far only - time. However, many of them are counterparts of mainstream DC characters.
- The book was published on August 27, 1991, one week after the publication of Batman #470 which bears the cover date of October, 1991.
- Back in 1991, a sequel was mentioned as a possibility but has not been published so far. It is unknown whether any work had been done on it.
- Although Bruce Wayne dons a version of the familiar costume he is never referred to as Batman with the exception of the title.
- General North is the B:HT version of our world's Oliver North.
- In our world, Jorge Amado (1912-2001) and Isaac Bashevis Singer (1902-1991) are writers of great renown. Many of their works have been filmed.
Solicitation:
- An Elseworlds tale set in an alternate future where England manages to avoid the American Revolution and the Church rules supreme. His parents murdered before his eyes, a religious Bruce Wayne takes a vow of piety-but only until he uncovers the truth behind his parents' death.
Synopsis: - When Oliver Cromwell rallied from his near-fatal illness in 1658, he served ten more years as Lord Protector of England uniting the land and cementing the faith. More than three-hundred years later, the western hemisphere is effectively ruled by the Church-dominated Commonwealth whose Crusade Battalions by now have conquered both Americas with the single exception of the tiny nation of Peru. Faraway Europe is powerless to interfere with the fulfillment of the Commonwealth's manifest destiny. The Commonwealth is a restrictive state: Jews are persecuted and their writings are condemned as being pornographic, homosexuals are exterminated by the millions each year (although the state has become more lenient in recent years and now opts for mere behavior modification by physical means), and the balance of suffrage has been altered for the first time in fifty years.
- Twenty years ago Inquisitor James Gordon, recently transferred from New Amsterdam to Gotham Towne, arrived on the scene of a double homicide. The victims were Thomas and Martha Wayne, their young son Bruce had witnessed the crime. Gordon suspected foul play when a valuable gold cross was found on Thomas' body – something no ordinary robber would have left behind. Gordon's investigation later turned up a professional thief named Joseph Chill who had just been killed in prison. Despite strong evidence, the Inquisitor received pressure from the Lord Commissioner to drop the case.
- Twenty years later, Bruce Wayne prepares to take final vows of service as a Reverend. He has ceded Wayne Manor to the Church and says a tearful goodbye to Alfred, gentleman of the house and his fatherly friend from childhood. During a last round of physical exercises, Bruce is called upon by James Gordon, now Lord High Commissioner of Gotham Towne himself. He reveals to the young man that Joseph Chill killed his parents on the state's behalf since they had been considered radical agitators, tried and convicted in absentia of counter-reproductive measures. He apologizes for his earlier silence and hands the dumbstruck Bruce a disc with the results of his findings.
- Later Bruce finds among the boxes prepared for storage the diary of Thomas Wayne who, with Martha and a surgeon named Charles McNider, ran a covert clinic treating the victims of the state's behavior modification program. Bruce visits McNider, now old, blinded and widowed, who tells him about the underground and its fighters brought down one by one – Alan Scott, Carter and Shiera Hall, Rex Tyler, and many others. McNider is presumably the lone survivor and tells Bruce to just let it rest. This is something Wayne can and will not do.
- After Bruce has been appointed Reverend of the Church he breaks into Bishop Judson Caspian's private rooms and draws from the Bishop's computer the names of the three members of the Privy Council from the time of his parents' murder still living. He then enters a cave below his family's house and dons a demon costume his father once wore in a passion play. Thus disguised, he visits Lemuel Brown, former Lord High Magistrate, who tells him of the Star Chamber in Cathedral, the Church's vast administrative and military complex in Gotham Towne, a place of many secrets. Leaving Brown made-up and dressed in a maid's uniform (and thus discrediting his testimony), Bruce departs and sets for Cathedral which he enters in his priest garbs.
- Changing into the demon costume and taking out two guards, Bruce gains access to the subterranean levels where he enters the Detention area, a place where the experimental subjects of a certain Dr. Saul Erdel are held. He frees Barry Allen, a former Inquisitor Scientist who gained super-speed after a chemical accident who then shows him the other subjects – Terry, Gus, Corinne, Joshua, Arthur and his water-breathing daughter, and others – all of them captive, suffering, catatonic or insane. Then, they are attacked by the Witch, a converted magic-wielder, spouting spells in backward language when not uttering hate-filled tirades against the "heathens". She kills Arthur's daughter and is about to mindwipe Barry when Bruce takes her out with gas pellets. Then Dr. Erdel, overseer of Project Green Man, enters the scene. When Barry in his rage attacks him Erdel deactivates the speedster's protective aura causing him to combust before reaching the doctor.
- Then Bruce is being restrained by Matthew Hagen, another paranormal minion of Erdel's who has been turned into some kind of clayface after being exposed to an odd kind of protoplasm. Erdel tells Bruce about his discovery of a "para-gene" and shows him the body of the Green Man, a powerful humanoid found by a god-fearing couple in Kansas. When his powers became too strong for Erdel's control, the doctor killed him with a bit of radioactive debris discovered in the spacecraft he was found in.
- Bruce has reached his breaking point. He breaks free of Hage's grip, avoids his attacks and exposes him to liquid nitrogen stored in canisters. Hagen literally shatters to pieces. Erdel draws a gun, fires on Bruce but hits the Green Man's still invulnerable corpse and is killed by the ricochet. With a silent salute to the dead alien, Bruce takes his leave.
- Finally he has reached the Star Chamber, site of the court of no appeal, where he is met by an ancient cleric who has been presiding over it for over forty years. He tells Bruce that the chamber's twelve magistrates vote on guilt or innocence of the accused by secret ballot without noting nor knowing who votes for acquittal or conviction. Bruce realizes that the death of this man would accomplish nothing and that he will have to kill the system itself. The ancient man is looking forward to that contest, and Bruce departs.
- Later, Bruce is celebrating his first mass. He still has faith in God but will defy His self-styled interpreters. By day, he will wear the holy cloth, by night, a darker shade of vestments. And he wonders whether his path would have been any different if his parents truly had been the victims of a random senseless street crime...