- Created By mayjayann
Mask of the Phantasm
Present Day: While Batman is busting one of his illicit operations, gangster Chuckie Sol attempts to make his getaway on wheels from a high-rise parking garage. He is confronted by a shadowy figure in a cape, which he assumes to be Batman. However, it is instead a different costumed figure, with a deep, echoing voice, a death's head mask, and a vicious blade on the end of one arm. A frightened Chuckie tries to run down the new threat, but as his target disappears in a cloud of smoke, Chuckie instead smashes through the wall of the parking structure and crashes into an adjoining building, dead on impact. Witnesses note Batman's arrival on the scene, and most jump to the conclusion that the vigilante has finally let one of his normally non-lethal pursuits go too far.
The Batman is still a mysterious and frightening figure to much of the public at this time. Fueling the anti-Bat bias is councilman Arthur Reeves, a vocal opponent of the Batman's methods and a major thorn in the side of Commissioner James Gordon. Reeves goes over Gordon's head to recruit police officers who share his distaste for the Dark Knight's activities.
Meanwhile, Andrea Beaumont flies into Gotham City, contacting her old friend Reeves, who asks Andrea about an old acquaintance of hers: Bruce Wayne. She dismissively calls the relationship "ancient history," but a flashback tells a different story...
Before the Bat: While visiting his parents' grave, a young Bruce Wayne overhears a younger (likely between 16 and 18) Andrea visiting her mother's, talking to her as though she is still alive. The two strike up a conversation, and sparks immediately fly.
Bruce has spent the last fifteen years of his life training himself to fight injustice, and is now very close to beginning the fight. That night, he dons a ski mask and confronts a group of thieves hijacking a truck of goods. When he yells at the crooks to surrender, they laugh at him and attack. Bruce's martial arts training and advanced equipment make short work of the thugs, and he is elated to see that his training has paid off. Then the remaining thug starts up the truck, and a simple job becomes a high-speed chase on the highway, ending in a crash that nearly kills Bruce and his quarry.
The next morning, Bruce is recuperating and relentlessly practicing his jiu-jitsu on the lawn. He says "The Plan" has gotten off to a good start, but he needs a way of striking fear into his enemies.
Andrea visits, tired of waiting for Bruce to call. To his surprise, she shows him a few moves of her own, and they end up in a tangle on the ground. Laughing, he kisses her, and Alfred turns away discreetly...
Present Day: Gangster Buzz Bronski, an old associate of Chuckie Sol's, visits his grave at night and drops a desultory wreath by the headstone. But then Bronski is confronted by the same mysterious figure and chased through the graveyard, yelling for his bodyguards. Buzz falls into an open grave, and the statue above it is tipped inside, crushing him to death. His bodyguards arrive in time to see his remains, and a figure in a cape disappearing over the next rise.
The next day, headlines confirm eyewitness accounts that Batman has turned to killing. Commissioner Gordon refuses to believe it, and tells Reeves that he will have no part in his crusade.
While spying on Reeves and Andrea having dinner, Batman has another flashback:
Flashback: Bruce and Andrea have been dating for a while now, and tour the Gotham World's Fair together. Afterwards, Andrea takes him to meet her father, Carl Beaumont, a high-powered Gotham businessman (Bruce also meets a young Reeves, a hotshot lawyer in Beaumont's company). Bruce receives Carl's stamp of approval, but their meeting is crashed by shady mobster Salvatore Valestra. Excusing themselves, Bruce and Andrea see a street performer being harassed by a motorcycle gang. Bruce tells Andrea to stay put, and leaps into the fray. With his training, he easily knocks out two of the gang, but, catching sight of Andrea's terrified expression, he becomes distracted for a crucial second, and takes a blow to the chest that knocks him to the ground, allowing the gang to escape with the performer's money box.
That evening, Bruce paces Wayne Manor in agitation: he has realized that he can't have it both ways, he has to choose between Andrea and his vow to fight crime. During a rainstorm, he goes to his parents' grave, and begs to be released from his vow: when he made it, he never expected that he could find happiness with someone else. No answers come from his parents' tomb, but Andrea, who knows him very well by now, appears next to him and gives him the answer he needs.
Present Day: Valestra, now old and in failing health, panics on seeing the headlines about Sol and Bronski's murders, and meets Reeves in private, asking him to confirm that the Batman is hitting "our people." Reeves confirms it, but hastily excuses himself, feeling he doesn't need Valestra anymore.
Batman, investigating possible connections between Sol and Bronski, finds that they were partners in several joint ventures, along with Valestra. Finding his past resurfacing, Batman examines old photos of the three gangsters, one of which includes Carl Beaumont.
Flashback: on the cliff overlooking the sea behind Wayne Manor, Bruce proposes to Andrea. She is astonished - she never really believed that Bruce would choose her over "The Plan," but Bruce declares that whatever plan he has for his life, she is now part of it. They embrace, but are interrupted by a swarm of bats erupting from a hole in the ground.
Bruce drops Andrea off at her home, where she notices other cars parked outside, and Valestra's "chauffeur" standing watch outside the door.
The next morning, Bruce climbs up from exploring the cave under the Manor, which is much more extensive than he'd though. Alfred is waiting, and regretfully gives Bruce a message: Andrea, returning his ring, saying she has to go away, and telling him to forget her.
Heartbroken, and having nothing left to hold him back, he adopts a new, terrifying appearance as "Batman," and resumes his crusade.
Present Day: Seeing no other choice, Valestra goes, alone, to meet The Joker, with whom he has some past history. Valestra offers to hire him to kill Batman. Joker appears not to be interested, but Valestra angrily reminds him that "his hands are just as dirty" as theirs, and he is likely Batman's next target. Joker loses his temper briefly, then laughs assures his "old pal" that Batman will never hurt him...
Batman confronts Andrea in her hotel room, demanding to know what she knows about the gangster murders. She claims ignorance, then coldly orders him out of the room. As he starts to leave, he spitefully asks her whether she's still following her dad's orders. She retorts that he's the only one in the room being controlled by his parents - apparently she knows who he really is. But as soon as he's gone, she collapses onto her bed, sobbing uncontrollably.
Later that night, the shadowy vigilante enters Valestra's mansion to execute him, only to find he is too late: Valestra has been poisoned by Joker gas. Sitting in his lap is a surveillance camera, and a radio from which comes Joker's voice. Sheepishly, he admits that he messed up, and the mysterious vigilante isn't Batman after all. Realizing the danger, the Phantasm leaps from the building's window just as the package in Valestra's lap explodes.
Batman confronts the vigilante, chasing him across several rooftops, but is then confronted by a police task force with orders to arrest him. Batman flees, and is pursued into a construction site by a tactical squad under Harvey Bullock's command. Seeing Batman above, one over-eager officer empties his submachine gun at the building, hitting a propane tank and igniting an explosion that knocks Batman senseless. He is forced to buy time by removing his cape and cowl and sending them flying up towards the police helicopter, distracting the task force while he escapes to the ground floor. Now unmasked, and severely dazed by the explosion, he stumbles to the end of an alley, with the police right behind him, and no means of escape... until Andrea appears in her car and tells him to get in. Bruce jumps in and she speeds away, leaving the police behind.
That evening, Andrea tells him what really happened the last night they saw each other:
Flashback: Andrea returned home to find her father in the clutches of three mobsters: Sol, Bronski, and Valestra. Beaumont had been doing business with them, but now they've discovered that he's been embezzling, and he must die. Beaumont begs for one more chance, saying that he can return their money, with interest by no later than the next day. Valestra agrees to give him that one last chance. But as soon as they are gone, Beaumont tells Andrea they must leave town immediately; the money will actually take weeks to free up, and Valestra won't wait. Andrea pleads that she and Bruce have just become engaged, but Carl tells her that they will both be dead by the next day if they don't escape. Anguished, Andrea asks why her father has ruined both their lives, and Carl swears that he will make things right again...
Present Day: Andrea fills in the rest of the story; she and Carl escaped to Europe, and Carl was eventually able to pay back the gangsters' money, with interest, but they still wanted revenge.
Bruce reaches the obvious conclusion: Carl had to find another way to rid himself and Andrea of the mobsters, so he has been hunting them down, one by one. Realizing that Andrea had no choice but to leave him, he remembers his love for her, and the two spend the night together.
The next morning, he sees her off. Alfred is happy for his master, but Bruce is unsure whether he can still make the same choice he made ten years before. But while he is looking over the photo of Carl Beaumont and the three gangsters, he realizes something: Valestra's thug, standing in the background, is none other than the Joker before his transformation!
In his office, Reeves fumes about the police's failure to catch Batman, but is confronted in secret by the Joker. The Joker now has his own pet theory: that Reeves has hired the mysterious vigilante to wipe up the traces of his dealings with Valestra and the mob - which means that, according to that theory, Joker himself is next on Reeve's list. Flustered, Reeves denies it, but then Andrea telephones his office to cancel their dinner date. Needing no further proof, Joker stabs Reeves with a needle, injecting him with a slow-acting version of his Joker toxin.
Reeves is rushed to the hospital, laughing hysterically. A doctor sedates him, warning him that he has to stay calm in order to let the toxin run its course. But as soon as he is alone, Batman confronts him, wanting to know what Joker wanted. In his agitation, Reeves confesses though hysterical laughing: Beaumont enlisted his help in getting himself and Andrea out of town, and kept quietly in touch over the years. Later, when Reeves was running for office for the first time, Beaumont refused his pleas for financial assistance, and Reeves, broke and desperate, sold Beaumont's whereabouts to the mob.
Realizing the truth, Batman rushes to Andrea's hotel room, which is empty. Then the Joker calls the room, telling her he's sending her a gift, "airmail!" Batman looks out the window and sees a toy plane flying towards the window, carrying a bomb. Batman manages to detonate it before it gets inside.
Outside the Joker's hideout, in the ruins of the World's Fair, Andrea remembers what brought her to this point:
Final Flashback: Andrea returns home from grocery shopping, to see Valestra's thug (now the Joker) emerging from the house. He walks past her without saying a word, and she rushes inside to find her father murdered.
Present Day: Andrea, the mysterious vigilante, confronts the Joker. He manages to distract her and escape the room, and lure her into the path of a gigantic aircraft engine, which sucks her off her feet and nearly kills her, before Batman arrives on the scene in a Batcycle and crashes it into the engine rotors, destroying it.
Batman confronts Andrea: he now knows her father is dead, and Andrea has been killing his tormentors, one by one. She says she has nothing left except her revenge on the men who ruined their lives. But he pleads with her to leave, and let him apprehend Joker his way.
Elsewhere, Joker starts a countdown to blow up the entire complex. Batman's pursuit of Joker takes him through the old exhibitions, and Joker distracts him with a set of boobytraps, long enough to don a jetpack and helmet and fly into the sky. But Batman jumps onto his back and yanks him off course, causing them both to crash, leaving them exhausted.
Then Andrea reappears and grabs hold of Joker. Batman pleads with her to run, but she says, no: "Goodbye, my love." The bombs explode, and the entire complex begins to burn. Joker begins laughing maniacally, and both he and Andrea disappear in a cloud of smoke. Before he can follow them, the ground collapses under Batman and he falls into a sewer line, which carries him away from the inferno.
In the Batcave, Bruce laments that he was unable to save Andrea. Sadly, Alfred tells him that Andrea was beyond redemption. Then Bruce notices a glint in the distance, and finds a locket that belonged to Andrea weged in a nook in the cave wall: inside is a picture of her and Bruce. Desolate, Bruce realizes that she must be alive, but is still lost to him.
On a cruise ship out at sea, one of the passengers notices an attractive woman standing alone at the rail. He starts to introduce himself, but notices her cold greeting, and mourning veil.
"Do you want to be alone?" he asks. "I am," Andrea replies.
Batman stands on a rooftop overlooking the city, as he has countless times before. Whether by fate or by design, it seems he cannot escape his purpose. Seeing the Bat-Signal light up the sky, he throws off his reverie, and swings into the night.
see no evil
In a somewhat run-down suburb of Gotham City, a window of a house opens, seemingly of its own accord, and then a disembodied voice wakes the young girl sleeping in her bedroom, Kimmy. She wakes up and greets her friend, "Mojo." To her delight, invisible hands place a gold locket around her neck, and Mojo promises to bring a pearl necklace when he next visits. Kimmy mentions that she and her mother are planning to move away soon, and there is shock in Mojo's voice. Then Kimmy's mother, Helen, comes in, asking who Kimmy was talking to. Kimmy says, Mojo, and Helen chuckles, thinking her daughter has an imaginary friend.
The next day, a man, Lloyd Ventrix, enters the men's room at a jewelry expo, and covers himself in a sheath of grey material, then touches a button on his watch, and becomes invisible. He then walks outside and proceeds to lift jewels off their displays in plain sight, as people stare, baffled. Bruce Wayne happens to be attending the expo, and after a quick costume change, takes off after the invisible man. He corners the ghost at a construction site, and reveals him by throwing a can of paint. However, the man just touches his watch again, and the paint burns away, making him invisible again. He taunts Batman, who is unable to follow his voice because of the echoes caused by the narrow walls of the site, then gives him a sound beating, before slipping away. Back at his hideout, Ventrix becomes visible again, then empties out his loot. Looking at a photo of Kimmy, he says bitterly that Helen is trying to take her "where [her] dear old Dad can't find [her]." He vows that he won't let her.
Helen drops Kimmy off at school, and then goes to her job as a cashier at a grocery store. On her lunch break, she is confronted by Ventrix, her ex-husband, dressed in a smart suit and offering to pay for her lunch. He swears that he's not only turned over a new leaf, but is doing very well, and can provide Helen and Kimmy with everything they need. Helen refuses to have anything to do with him, and ignores his pleas to at least be allowed to see Kimmy.
Bruce remembers the name of a scientist, Dr. Karos, who approached Wayne Tech with a project, a "Cloak of Invisibility." Lucius Fox remembers that they were interested, but Karos suddenly withdrew his proposal. Karos passed away a year ago, but his assistant, Sam Giddell, is still alive.
Suspecting that Giddell might be the invisible man, Batman enters Karos's old lab and confronts him. Giddell swears that he was working in the lab at the time of the robbery. Seeing a roll of the special plastic Karos invented, Batman asks how it works. Giddell explains that when an electrical current is run through the plastic, it bends light instead of absorbing it – but the electricity also makes the plastic toxic, which is why Karos withdrew his proposal. Giddell has been trying to correct the problem, but without success, and so he is preparing to destroy all of the plastic. But he has noticed that some of it seems to be missing; when asked who else might know about the plastic, Giddell remembers the "errand boy" who worked in the office, an ex-convict: Ventrix.
That night, Batman tracks down Helen outside her house, to tell her about the plastic. Unknown to either of them, inside "Mojo" is giving Kimmy the pearl necklace he promised her, and then leads her by the hand out of her window, to show her a "surprise."
Realizing the truth behind Kimmy's "imaginary friend," Helen rushes back inside and sees her daughter gone. Since she has only been gone a few minutes, Batman takes off after them. In an abandoned drive-in theater, "Mojo" reveals his face, telling Kimmy who he really is. Kimmy recoils, since her mother has always told her her father is a "bad man." Ventrix tries to drag her into the car, when Batman catches up with them. Ventrix lets her go, and Kimmy runs back home.
Ventrix gets into his car, which he has also sheathed in the plastic, and turns it invisible, before driving straight at Batman. Batman manages to jump onto the roof of the car, which crashes after a wild chase. After driving off a set of elevated train tracks, the two men end up on a roof beneath a water tower. Batman takes a beating from Ventrix, who is still invisible, and refuses to listen as Batman tries to warn him about the suit's toxicity. Finally, Batman throws a trio of Bat Stars into the water tower, causing a shower of water that reveals Ventrix, and Batman quickly subdues him.
On a later night, Kimmy is talking to someone outside her window, saying that she and Helen will be moving away to where Ventrix can't find them. Helen rushes in, alarmed, and asks who she is talking to. Kimmy says, Batman. Helen, who has been hearing Kimmy talk to Batman a lot lately, doesn't believe her – not knowing that this time at least, Batman is indeed on the roof of their house. 
Mudslide
Clayface has returned to Gotham and is up to his old tricks again, albeit with a small problem: his clay body is finally giving up and falling apart. Fortunately though, an old friend and co-star of his, Dr. Stella Bates, knows a way to keep him together, although to acquire the necessary funding, Clayface is forced to commit robberies, one of which at Tarnower Financial brings him into a conflict with Batman, who offers him help the legal way. Clayface angrily refuses, knowing that Batman will most likely send him to Arkham Asylum, and tries to run away, but his body starts giving in and Batman catches up. Clayface collapses onto a bin when Stella arrives and rescues him in time. Stella takes Clayface to her laboratory and uses a machine to put him in a plastic coating to keep him together, a procedure which knocks him out cold for a while, until he wakes up and lashes out at Stella for watching an old movie of his, claiming "that's not me anymore!" Clayface immediately apologises, and Stella shows him a way to increase his powers allowing him to take the form of Matt Hagen permanently: an isotope called Mp40, the only source of which is found at Wayne Biomedical Labs. Willing to risk his life, Clayface vows to remove the plastic coating and steal the Mp40 from Wayne, unaware that this will arouse Batman's rage.
Batman, meanwhile, takes a sample of Clayface's body back to the Batcave, and learns of Clayface's condition. Also remembering Stella from the Tarnower Heist, Batman tells Alfred to look through Hagen's career records for any sign of a relationship with a female doctor. Alfred searches the records, but finds nothing, and informs Bruce, who is at Wayne Biomedical. However, Bruce's own problems rise when an intruder breaks into the laboratory.
Bruce investigates as Batman, and finds Clayface, disguised as a woman, fleeing the building with a canister of Mp40. Enraged, Batman persues Clayface onto a train, where Clayface's body starts to give up again, and he "melts" back into his own form, scaring the passengers out. Batman and Clayfce then fight alone, until Batman sprays Clayface with a freezing gas to get the canister back, but Clayface jumps out of the train window and lands in a truck's cargo hold, breaking into pieces. Batman watches the truck leave, but Clayface thaws out and eyes the canister in his hand, laughing maniacally.
Batman returns to the Batcave, where he and Alfred finally learn the identity of the female doctor from Hagen's movie Dark Interlude (the movie Stella was watching), and Batman finds her location in the bank's records, tracking her to her laboratory by the ocean. At the lab, Stella starts pumping the Mp40 into Clayface, who is once again inside the plastic coating. Clayface demonstrates the Mp40's success by attempting to transform back into Matt Hagen, which he almost does until Batman arrives and coldly turns the machine off. Batman taunts Stella and Clayface for their carelessness, and an angry Stella lunges at Batman, only to smash headfirst into a pile of test tubes when Batman dodges. Clayface, losing control, breaks out of his coating and proceeds to absorb Batman, hoping to drown his enemy. But Batman uses his grappling gun to blast his way out of Clayface's body.
Batman and Clayface fight again, and take the battle outside. The rain weakens Clayface, giving Batman the upper hand, but Clayface, determined to kill Batman no matter what (ignoring Stella's warnings), pushes him off the cliff, but Batman pulls him off as well. Batman holds on with a Batarang as Clayface holds onto Batman's leg, but the rain weakens Clayface even more, and when Batman tries to hold him, his arm breaks, sending him plunging into the ocean below, where he dissolves. 
What Is Reality?
On recent occasions, several Gotham City citizens have fallen victim to a mysterious computer hacker. What's more, a strange riddle is left at every scene. First, a late night jogger tries to make a withdrawal from an ATM, only to have his account wiped clean. With it came the message "Where does a 500 pound gorilla sleep?". Later, the Stock Market is attacked along with the question "What's worse than a millipede with flat feet?" Finally, the Department of Motor Vehicles is attacked, with the riddle, "How do you fit 5 elephants into a compact car?"
Under pressure from the press, Batman and Commissioner Gordon deduce that The Riddler is behind this, and also discover that Edward Nygma (Riddler's true name) is erasing all of his personal records from existence (or as Riddler puts it, "deleting Nygma"). Just then, Gordon gets a message that a crate with a question marks painted on it has been delivered to the Department and it's ticking.
Meanwhile, the Police Records Room is evacuated but the guards turn out to be the Riddler's men and they steal the hard copies stored there. Batman, Gordon and Robin go to investigate the crate and discover that it's a variation on the Chinese Box Puzzle. Robin claims he can open it as he had once solved the "Baxter’s box puzzle in 37 seconds" and off side mentions how he had a sledgehammer. All the same, Robin manages to find the secret way to open the crate and finds that it's a giant computer. Robin is assigned to investigate it while Batman returns to the Batcave.
Later, in the Bat-cave Batman and Alfred try to decipher the clues, and eventually realize that the clues aren't in the answers, but the questions themselves. More specifically, the numbers in the questions (500, 1000, 5). Batman then converts the numbers to Roman Numerals getting the letters D, M & V, indicating that the Department of Motor Vehicles is once again his target. Batman unsuccessfully attempts to stop Riddler's men from stealing Nygma's information. And when Batman tries to stop them Riddler attacks him with a robot controlled van filled with nitro glycerin. Batman manages to evade the van but the subsequent fire caused by the explosion takes up his time as he tries to put it out.
While this is happening, Robin is at police headquarters, examining the computer left there. He explores the mainframe and finds it's a virtual reality simulator. He invites Gordon to try it and shows him the program that Gordon claims, "even feels real." Robin leaves Gordon to get a snack and immediately discovers that the door has been locked. Riddler then takes control of the program and "kidnaps" Gordon by trapping his mind in the virtual reality program. Meanwhile, Batman puts out the fire and Riddler contacts him on a payphone; leaving him a riddle, "Ask me no questions, I'll tell you no tales." The phone then drops out four quarters and a penny. Deducing that a penny is made of copper and copper is another word for police and that the "no tales" meant "no tails on the quarters" thereby leaving him with only head quarters Batman realizes Riddler is directing him to Police Headquarters. And the fact that four quarters and a penny makes one hundred one cents means he's to go to room 101.
When he gets there, he finds Riddler hooked up a cordless modem and Gordon is inside the virtual world, strapped onto a rapidly spinning "swing carousel" type ride. Everything that happens in the program will seem so real to Gordon that his body will react as if it truly happened so his heart is beating at a dangerous rate and simply shutting off the program would be like "hitting a brick wall at 400 miles an hour." After giving Robin a microphone so that they can still talk to one another, Batman goes "inside" the machine to save Gordon.
Batman finds himself in an endless hall of doors and Riddler tells him to find the door that "leads to a plane where kings and queens contend." Unable to figure out the riddle, Batman opens a door at random and finds three question marks that start firing exploding dots at him. Evading them, Batman opens a door marked "crazy intent" which also means "loco motive." The door releases a train that smashes the question marks and Batman moves on. Robin finally realizes that the riddle refers to a chessboard. Finding a door marked 4096 which is sixty-four squared (a pun on there being sixty-four squares on a chessboard) he enters.
Riddler tells Batman that only Batman can put the king in check and that he has to "move according to the rules or it's the end of the day." The pieces attack Batman and he runs from them finding that the tiles break under his feet. Realizing that Batman is the Dark Knight, Robin realizes Batman must move like a knight and put the white king in check. Batman does so creating nightfall and is knighted. Suddenly Batman finds himself riding on a Pegasus. Realizing that Pegasus is also the name of a constellation, Batman has Robin guide him to the proper constellation while the signs of Orion and Taurus attack him.
Finally having made his way through the virtual landscape, Batman finds Gordon is inside a "Baxter's Puzzle Box." Robin is confident he can help Batman open it in less than the minute that they're given. However, Riddler cuts off the feed so Batman has to work on his own. Batman, remembering Robin's previous comment about the Baxter Box takes advantage of the world's "virtual reality" aspect and morphs his hands into sledgehammers, trying to break the box apart.
However, the Riddler responds by stopping Batman and putting the box back together. Batman retaliates by duplicating himself and continuing his work. Riddler duplicates himself to even greater numbers that Batman does. Unfortunately for Riddler, with his consciousness ultimately spread across thirty-two bodies, he no longer has the concentration to keep his world together, and it begins to collapse.
Batman then gets Gordon out, and realizes that Riddler left a clue as to where he is. They find him inside the "World's Fair Exposition" ("If the planet were equitable, I'd still have my old job".) Unfortunately, Riddler did not escape in time, and is found a mind-wiped vegetable.
Fire From Olympus
Commissioner Gordon waits for an informant outside the ZΩrbΛs. Unbeknownst to him, however, the informant, Yanni Stavros, is being chased by a couple of thugs. They inform him that his meeting's been cancelled and they chase him towards their boss. He is finally cornered in an alley filled with old tires. The boss comes out of his car and Stavros pleads with him. However, his words make the boss even angrier that he defied him, forced him to come to the mortal coil, and then claims that he doesn't know what he thinks. He condemns Starvos to Tarturus and a bolt of electricity strikes.
Gordon takes Stavros to the hospital where he is diagnosed as being struck by lighting and only alive due to the tires absorbing the shock. Gordon is skeptical of the diagnosis as it was a clear night. Later, Gordon takes Stavros' file to Batman and the two talk about his past record of selling shipping schedules to hijackers. As a scheduler for Maximillian shipping lines he is well suited to this kind of work. Gordon then tells Batman that Stavros was going to tell Gordon about a new energy weapon capable of firing bolts of lightning. The weapon has been stolen and Batman fears that it may already be in the wrong hands. He heads out to see Maxie Zeus, owner of Maximillian Shipping.
On top of Maxie's office building (made to look like a Greek Temple) Maxie's assistant, Clio, tells Maxie about a case that's being built against him. Maxie (who is dressed like the Greek god Zeus) doesn't much care claiming that he's bored with tales of human concerns. Clio is upset that Maxie is acting like he's a god who thinks she is a muse of history. She tires to talk some sense into him but he will not hear reason. Just then, Batman arrives in the batwing. Zeus sees him and decides that this is Hades. Clio tries to tell Maxie that "Hades" is really Batman, but Zeus refuses to listen claiming that no mortal could make it to the top of Olympus. He sends Clio away and talks with Batman. Batman asks Zeus about the electron cannon but Zeus claims he has no need for mortal weapons as he can summon thunderbolts of his own, revealing that he has a lighting staff capable of generating thousands of volts of electricity. Upset that reality is starting to enter into his world, Zeus tells Batman to leave and activates guns in his decorative stone harpies. Batman gets the message and leaves. After "Hades" leaves, Zeus reveals to his thugs that he has the electron cannon and will now cause mortals to tremble, "at the fury of Zeus reborn!"
Clio returns home and cries over her Boss' condition when Batman arrives. She explains that Maximillian Shipping started losing business and to save it, Maxie started handling cargo for the mob. However, the pressure and tensions became so great that he got confused and now lives inside a fantasy. Batman asks Clio to take him to Zeus so that he can be helped and she agrees. Clio drives Batman into the company building and heads up in an elevator. Unfortunately, Zeus' thugs capture her and take her to their boss.
On top of the building, Zeus sees a police blimp and believing they're trying to encroach on Mt. Olympus, he fires the electron cannon onto it setting the blimp on fire. Clio runs up to him and tries to talk to him into reality. For a moment it seems to work and Maxie is returned. However, he soon falls back into his delusions and claims that Clio is no longer fit to be around him. He orders his thugs to tie her to the cannon. Meanwhile, Batman sneaks into the buildings but security systems detect him.Discovering him, Zeus activates a trap door and drops him into a room filled with traps. First, Zeus releases his "hydra" a python that tries to squeeze Batman to death. Batman is able to spray it with a sedative and it falls to sleep. Next, Zeus releases a warthog that Batman manages to harness with a rope. However, the warthog is too strong for him to stop and Batman is hurled through the window out of the building. Fortunately, Batman manages to catch the ledge of the building.
On the top of the building, Zeus prepares to fire the electron cannon with Clio on it. Before he can fire it, Batman arrives and stops the firing procedure. Zeus orders his henchman, Alexander, to take on Batman but he hesitates. Zeus takes this as a sign of defiance and activates his harpies having them fire on Batman and Alexander. Batman manages to destroy the harpies and Zeus attacks him with his lighting staff. Batman easily beats Zeus and deactivates the cannon. Unfortunately, Zeus fires his staff at Batman pushing him off the building, and then activates the cannon again. Batman climbs back onto the top of the building and grabs Zeus' staff. Hurling it into the cannon, he deactivates it. Zeus dives after the staff and is electrocuted when it overloads. He then falls onto a ledge and is knocked out.
Later, Zeus is taken to Arkham where he equates the inmates with the Greek gods. Although locked up, he's happy that he's now home.
