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thecomicsnexus · 6 years ago

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Swamp Sinister

Batman #235. September, 1970. By Dennis O’Neil and Irv Novick.

A heavy and large package arrives for Bruce Wayne at the Wayne Foundation Penthouse. Alfred and Bruce manage to open the box and they realize that it is a coffin with a dead body inside. Bruce quickly changes into Batman and prepares to leave with the corpse to the GCPD Headquarters and start an investigation, when suddenly Ra's al Ghul appears and informs Batman that he sent the package because he needs Batman's help.

Ra's tells Batman that Striss, one of the scientist working for him, had developed a formula to alter chemical elements' properties without his permission and that during a confrontation between them, Ra's was knocked by Striss' assistant, Polard. Ra's was thought to be dead, but with help from his other scientists, Ra's recovered and started looking for Striss. After an extensive search, all his men could find was the dead body of Polard, the man who attacked Ra's. When they examined the body, they found traces of the formula developed by Striss and also discovered that when humans were exposed to the formula, it turned into a deadly plague, which is what killed Polard. After telling the story to Batman, Ra's asks the Dark Knight to find and stop Striss from spreading the plague and also save Ra's daughter, Talia, as she had already begun a manhunt for the scientist, unaware of the dangers.

Batman starts his investigation in the house of a notorious chemist, who could provide Striss with the chemical elements he needed to test his formula. When Batman arrives at the place, he realizes that it is too late, as both Striss' men as well as Talia's henchmen have arrived before him and someone had kidnapped the chemist. Batman takes down the thugs guarding the house and when he enters the place, he interrogates the housekeeper, who informs Batman that the thugs have taken Mr. London to a "small stream".

Batman deduces that the housemaid refers to the Louisiana swamps and he prepares a flight on Ra's private jet to Louisiana. Batman descends on the marked location and starts following the traces left by Striss' formula until he finds an odd abandoned cabin in the middle of the swamp. When Batman enters the place, he finds a concealed elevator inside and he prepares to descend, unaware of the activities taking place below, where Talia had already caught up with Striss and Mr. London, and she was ready to eliminate the scientist for the murder of her father. Batman arrives in time to stop Talia from killing Striss, but when he is explaining them about the deadly plague contained in the formula, Striss attacks them and Batman is forced to defend Talia from Striss, who grabs a machine gun and tries to shoot at them. Batman manages to hold Striss' aim away from them, but one of the bullets hits the vial with the formula, spilling the chemical over the desk. Batman punches Striss and the man falls on top of the formula, which starts affecting him immediately. Batman takes Talia and Mr. London out of the room and he seals it completely in order to avoid the plague from spreading away.

Finally, Batman, Talia and Mr. London reach the surface of the swamp, where Ra's is waiting for them and Talia is overjoyed to learn that her father is still alive. Ra's has taken a team of doctors to make sure they are not infected and they prepare to leave the place. Before leaving the swamp, Talia shows her gratitude to Batman by kissing him, but Batman is still shocked at Talia's willingness to kill, which makes him unsure about her last kiss.

Current Batman wouldn’t even entertain the idea of letting Ra’s and Talia free after this story. But I suppose the seventies were different.

I think it was a good thing that Denny tried very hard to find new antagonists for Batman that he felt more comfortable with. This cults, demons, leagues and martial artists are all in his comfort zone. And of course, Ra’s Al Ghul is one of his most famous creations.

Having said that, this episode wasn’t as awesome as the “daughter of the demon”, it just feels an excuse to revisit the characters.

Irv Novick is a great artists that we do not tend to remember as much as Neal Adams or Dick Giordano, but his Batman is pretty good.

I give this issue a score of 5.50.

#bronze age #batman #ra's al ghul #talia al ghul #review #dc comics #1970

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theazurerat · 7 years ago

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OTD - XII “The Cursed Empress”

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+++ Ordo Tartarus Inquisitorial Datatomb Lexob accessed +++ +++ Awaiting Inquiry… +++ > Retrieve OTD - XII +++ Retrieving… +++ +++ Datatome Found. Clearance granted.+++ +++ “Success is measured with blood – yours, or your enemy’s.” +++

OTD Number: OTD – XII

Designation: “The Cursed Empress”

Threat Level: Malleus Extremis

Status: Captive, in stasis.

Conditions of Containment: OTD – XII is kept in a medically induced coma in a Polyphemus pattern stasis tank, within a 20m x 15m x 10m holding chamber. The chamber is equipped with 3 redundant plasma generator subsystems to minimize the chance of power failure. The control room for the OTD – XII holding chamber has cogitators for communing with the machine spirits of the stasis tank, and the chem administration systems. Tech adepts controlling this chamber are to administer Elixir – XII, a chemical mix consisting of Tyche’s Kiss, Amnecium, Pherlyxa, and [INTERDICTED], every 12 hours. There is to always be enough component chems in storage to maintain the being’s stasis for at least 5 terran years without re-supply.

The Polyphemus pattern stasis tank is heavily modified. Ordo Malleus daemonologists and psykers have inscribed 3 complete pentagramic wards on the outside of the tank. In the event of OTD – XII awakening and attempting to breach containment, a Truesilver Sarcophagus is has been constructed into the base of the tank, that will emerge from the floor and seal in the tank completely. Should the need for this contingency arise, on-site Astropaths are to send out an encrypted emergency signal to any nearby Ordo Tartarus cells and retinues with psychic capability. Simultaneously, Levy-XII-Primus, led by Primaris Psyker ██████████, is to be immediately deployed to pacify and re-contain OTD – XII. Astropaths are instructed not to send out any signal indicating tranquil status until complete repairs of the being’s stasis tank and holding chamber are completed, and OTD – XII is returned to a comatose state.

All armed forces responding to an attempted containment breach by OTD – XII are instructed to engage entirely with non-lethal force. Despite OTD – XII being an immediate threat, terminating the being’s life functions would be tantamount to a complete containment breach. Levy-XII-Primus is to utilize their psychic personnel to assist in disarming and subduing OTD – XII. Any lethal blows struck against OTD – XII will be punished with immediate execution.

Description: OTD – XII is a Serpent-XI class daemonic entity bound to the body of a human female. The vessel OTD – XII inhabits is no longer identifiable due to extreme mutation caused by OTD – XII. The lack of any semblance of human soul within OTD – XII indicates that it is a daemonhost, as opposed to a possessed individual. The mutations have changed OTD – XII into a 2.8m tall being with very prominent musculature. Its flesh has become a porcelain white color, and the subject’s eyes are entirely black, with no visible whites or irises. In addition, the being’s right arm has mutated to resemble the claw of a large arthropod, and several violet colored horns have grown out of the subject’s shoulders and face.

OTD – XII is highly prone to violence, and has suicidal tendencies. The being will intentionally seek out battles it knows it will be defeated in, and charge into combat with no concern for its well being. When attacking, it will either slash and crush with its claw, or slash with the talons on its left hand. The talons are sharp enough to cut through carapace, and the claw can crush with a force of up to 600 Pascals. OTD – XII is also capable of sustaining hits from most solid projectile and las weaponry with little to no damage. OTD – XII has proven to be vulnerable to weapons crafted of Truesilver, psionically charged ammunition, blessed armaments, and direct psychic attack.

OTD – XII has been interrogated, and has revealed that it is currently under a curse from ████████████, an Eagle-IX class daemonic entity it encountered █ centuries before its containment (See Interrogation-XII-I). OTD – XII has expressed an intense grudge toward this being, and has expressed a desire for vengeance. The following are the conditions of the curse.

1) Upon vessel death, OTD – XII will be barred from passing into the Warp. OTD – XII will then manifest within the body of another human and be permanently bound to them. There is no determined range for this process to occur, which leads Ordo Tartarus Inquisitors to believe that it could occur anywhere in the galaxy. 2) OTD – XII is to be laid low in battle six times, before its full daemonic form will finally be restored to it. At that point, the seventh human OTD – XII manifests within will instead serve as a means for OTD – XII to pass into the material realm.

OTD – XII has died four deaths in battle already. With each death, and subsequent binding, OTD – XII’s vessel mutates into a stronger form. If OTD – XII were to be terminated, locating the entity would be nearly impossible. Because of the battle tendencies of OTD – XII, it would likely suffer its fifth and sixth death before we could locate it. This would result in the complete manifestation of a Serpent-XI class daemonic entity, which would result in [INTERDICTED] leading to the potential destruction of an Imperial World, or [INDICIUM PURGED]. The following interrogation was recorded by an optical Servo Skull.

+++Interrogation XII-I+++

Subject: OTD – XII

Interrogators: Inquisitor A█████, Telepath Deetris Arbolo

[Inquisitor A█████ and Deetris approach the holding chamber. They are flanked by Inquisitor A█████’s security detail, five Tempestus Scions on each side, for a total of ten. Deetris reaches out and places her palm on the stasis tank holding OTD – XII. There is a silence for two minutes, before Deetris’ head is seen jerking back. The popping of bones can be heard as her spine bends backwards, before she freezes, and her eyes open. They are entirely black, similar to OTD – XII. Deetris’ face becomes a smile as she rights herself]

Inq. A: It looks like you’re ready to talk, warp-spawn.

OTD – XII: It’s something for me to do. Keeping me in this can of jelly doesn’t make for good entertainment.

Inq. A: These wards keep you in this can, and the Truesilver sarcophagus ensures that you can never leave even if you did wake up. You should be grateful I allowed for the lowering of your cocktail dosage so we could have this little chat. But enough of your condition. When you’re slain in battle, your spirit is freed from its vessel, is it not? Why did you not return to the Warp? Why did you immediately possess another vessel after being slain?

OTD – XII: Wreaking havoc is just that fun!

Inq. A: I wonder if you’d jib at my questions if I adjusted your cocktail? I know how I can paralyze you, but keep you conscious. And then, I will keep you in this can for three centuries, and forget about you. And you’ll find, daemon, that time moves far slower in our reality.

[Deetris’ face falls. She has an expression of mild agitation.]

OTD – XII: What, then, wretch? What do you want from me? Tell me what you want to hear, so I can tell you, and have you out of my face!

Inq. A: Why do you transfer from victim to victim instead of returning to the warp?

OTD – XII: ████████████. A daemon of ████████. They did this to me. They cursed me.

Inq. A: Did you just give me a daemon’s true name? Is it the way of daemons to betray their kin so flippantly?

OTD – XII: Apparently, yes! Seeing as how the tentacled son of a whore did the same to me, first! The delightful children of ████████. Typical.

Inq. A: What is this daemon, exactly? And what did they do to you?

OTD – XII: ████████████ is a ████ ██ ██████, a greater daemon of ████████. It was during one of those wonderful events on Cadia. One of the earlier ones. He always talked about his precious plans, and always acted like it was him and ████████ that wrote the book of fate. Like everything we did was at his bidding. So, during an attack on what you call Kasyr Valan, I stepped on one of his little pets. I looked right at him as I twisted my foot and felt their bones crack under my heel, and the Warp pull him in. It turns out, that little thing was a ██████ belonging to ████████████. He was not amused. [INDICIUM PURGED] he started letting out this chant in his arcane tongue, and I felt the warp itself turn on me! Helpless, I couldn’t stop him before he drove his spear through my chest, and blackness washed over me. When I awoke, I was in the frail shell of a human. One of your soldiers.

Inq. A: And thus began your curse.

OTD – XII: I was enraged! Do you know what it’s like, for someone of my power to be confined to the shell of one of you ants!? So, I did the only thing I could think of doing. I ran towards the nearest human and killed it. Then another. Even in my diminished strength, the vessel was augmented by my power somewhat. It took a while to destroy it. Then, a firing line formed and opened up. Death.

Inq. A: Or so you thought.

OTD – XII: Or so I thought. I awoke again, this time, some man in a prison. Apparently I had interrupted something. Everyone in the cafeteria was staring at me, terrified. I looked at my vessel, and it had changed a little, and It felt just slightly less confining. So, I repeated my course of action. I killed everyone in that cafeteria. Then, and only then, did those burly men with shotguns come and finish me.

Inq. A: That massacre was here, in this sector. On Striss. It’s remembered as the Nightmare of Tower 8.

[Deetris’ body laughs]

OTD – XII: My! That was a while ago too! You remember it?

Inq. A: The Ordo Tartarus doesn’t fire and forget, as other Inquisitors do. Everything of note to us is put to paper and data.

OTD – XII: Wise. I’m a little impressed even. So, then you knew exactly what was happening when I came back for round 4, as you would say.

Inq. A: It was a church you appeared in. One of the Choir girls. You [INDICIUM PURGED]. We had to purge any survivors we couldn’t wipe with Amnecium.

[Deetris’ body sighs and nods wistfully]

OTD – XII: I never thought I could have so much fun in a vessel. I’ve been around for many millennia, but that memory isn’t going anywhere.

[Inquisitor A█████ stares. Her expression is unchanging, and Deetris’ body starts to chuckle. Her chuckle gradually turns to a cackling laugh.]

Inq. A: Deetris, I’ve heard enough. I’m stopping this. Now.

OTD – XII: Oh, but just a little longer, Inquisitor! I don’t want to hang my flesh phone up just yet. There were other parts of that story I never got to tell you!

Inq. A: Deetris! End the séance!

OTD – XII: [INDICIUM PURGED]

[Inquisitor A█████ flinches. Before OTD – XII could finish its tale, Inquisitor A█████ draws her shock maul and strikes Deetris across the face. Deetris falls unconscious, but her body continues to jolt with electricity. Inquisitor A█████ stands silently for 6 seconds.]

Inq. A: Interrogation’s over… I said it’s over! Get some men and pick Deetris up off the floor and take her to Medicae! I wa-

[The recording cuts out]

Addendum XII-I: All parties present for Interrogation, with the exception of Inquisitor A█████, are subjected to Amnecium therapy. Deetris regains consciousness, but the sudden ending of the séance irreparably damaged her psyche. Inquisitor A█████ had her sent to Terra on the Blackship Scale of Anubis for purification.

#warhammer 40000 #scp foundation #scp #daemons #inquisition #slaanesh #tzeentch #fanfic #Ordo Tartarus Datatomes

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