Batman: No Man's Land



Event Name: No Man's Land Alternate Names: Batman: No Man's Land

Synopsis
Event Locations: Gotham City; Arkham Asylum First Appearance: First appearance unknown Cast of Characters: Batman, Batgirl (Helena Bertinelli), Batgirl (Cassandra Cain), James Gordon, Joker, Penguin, Superman

Synopsis: No Man's Land was a year-long storyline that ran through all monthly Batman comic book titles in 1999. The main storyline ran through Detective Comics, Batman, Batman: Shadow of the Bat and Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight with other spin-offs serving as tie-ins.

The storyline is divided into several arcs. A part of the story would continue from one Batman title and then to the next Batman title that would come the following week, much the same format used in the Superman comics for that time. Unlike the Superman comics where a creative team is maintained for one monthly title, the same creative team is maintained for the duration of the story arc.

The entire storyline is collected as trade paperbacks in five volumes. They included the No Man's Land one-shot special that started the storyline as well as the #0 issue special that served as prequel. However, Batman: Harley Quinn, a Prestige Format special, is not included in the collections despite being the book that introduces Harley Quinn into the mainstream DC Universe.

A novelization of the storyline was also written by Greg Rucka and released as hardcover in January 2000.

History
Gotham City had suffered the results of a magnitude 7.6 earthquake in an event commonly referred to as the "Cataclysm". With hopes for rehabilitating the broken city, the United States government declared it a No Man's Land, which effectively quarantined the entire island city. Bridges were destroyed, and any other means of entering or leaving was guarded by the U.S. Army. While the JLA did not assist in the quarantine for ethical reasons, they were so occupied keeping outside forces from conquering the city, that the situation inside was left to Batman and his allies; Superman, semi-relatedly, offered his help in the city but Batman refused.

Inside the city, the freed inmates of Arkham Asylum battled for control, as did various gangs. Fighting to reduce the chaos were the members of Gotham's Police Force who chose to stay behind, as well as heroes like Oracle and Huntress, who adopted the Batgirl persona in Batman's absence. As Bruce Wayne, Batman had left the city to try and solve the problem politically, using his name and money to convince the federal government to belay closing off Gotham. Unfortunately, his efforts failed, arguably because he appeared to the government as Bruce Wayne--an air-headed millionaire with little concern for serious issues--of which the No Man's Land was exemplary. Some one-hundred days after the Federal Declaration of the No Man's Land, Bruce returned to Gotham to reclaim the Batman title and his people, many of whom had long since given up on him. Even his former partner, Jim Gordon, believed that Batman had abandoned Gotham to the Arkham escapees. What Batman returned to was a system of anarchy on a grand scale. Since there was no longer anywhere to spend it, money became worthless; people would barter anything from batteries to services to protection for daily necessities. It seemed the only person to have any use for cash was the Penguin, who had nightly events where those few with cash left spent it all on such rare and simple items as an apple. The Penguin, despite his riches and implicit opportunities to flee the city, instead opted to stay. He had his own mysterious leak to the outside and apparently enjoyed taking advantage of the dire situation in Gotham.

With Batman being gone for so long, and his very existence debatable in the Gotham underworld, the Huntress was able to pass herself off as not only Batgirl, but Batman himself, as she faced off against many of Gotham's criminals. Following the example of the gangs in town, she even tagged her territory with the bat symbol. After a confrontation with the Dark Knight, Helena returned to her Huntress identity. The real Batgirl, Cassandra Cain, made important contributions to the effort during this time, as well as starting a lasting friendship with Oracle.

In an effort to redeem herself, the Huntress went to the aid of a church that was open as a hospital and sanctuary to anyone desiring it in Gotham. Having no protection because of their benevelent intentions, the church and its kind staff were sitting ducks. The Huntress' desires to use her expertise to protect them was seen more as an unnecessary and warlike show of force than as help, even when she was trying to halt the Scarecrow's machinations to sabotage the church's efforts. It seemed to the Huntress that no matter what she did, she could never earn the approval of the Batman.

Several members of Batman's Rogue's Gallery were there to help maintain the terror, though even they still had to improvise and had difficulty surviving, as did everyone else. Two-Face became a major warlord, acquiring and losing territory every so often, and caused problems for the police and in a daring move kidnapped Jim Gordon for breaking a previous alliance. The Penguin, as previously mentioned, remained in the city and was approached by Mercy Graves, acting on behalf of Lex Luthor, to begin a rudimentary clean-up of the downtown districts for Luthor's eventual move-in. Poison Ivy took over Robinson Park (though in the series Ivy did not act as a villain; she instead cared for numerous orphans, was nearly killed by Clayface, and in a deal with Batman was left alone in exchange for her providing fresh produce twice a week to the remaining citizens), Mister Zsasz owned his own territory, as did Mister Freeze. Bane, too, was involved indirectly as a strong man for Lex Luthor; he notably destroyed the Hall of Records to fulfill one of Luthor's goals and drastically reduced Two-Face's territory in the process, reducing the former District Attorney's warlordism to insignificance. Despite his status as a super-villain, the Scarecrow was welcomed into a church filled with refugees and manipulated various factions in a plot to send the church's refugees spiralling into fear and despair. The Riddler, strangest of all perhaps, actually fled Gotham and spent the year in quiet insignificance. The Joker made the most of his rare appearances. Near the end of the saga, he lured Sarah Essen, Commissioner Gordon's wife, into a twisted game of cat and mouse. He ended it by fatally shooting her. In an act of rage, Gordon shot the Joker in the knee.

Without the benefit of advanced technology, Oracle used her resources to become a low-tech version of herself. She used paper to document events and the passage of time, operatives and emergency phones (knowing which ones were still in operation) to gather intel, and maps coloured by pencils to keep track of who controlled which portions of the city at a particular time. Her maps were frequently shown in the comics to help the reader follow the progression of territorial disputes (Gotham City maps in current series are based in large part on Oracle's maps from this series). Oracle remained one of the few people in the city with the ability to contact the outside world.

Eventually, thanks in no small part to the financial and political machinations of Lex Luthor--dipping his hands, as ever, in both legitimate and illegal means to achieve his goals--Gotham City was released and rebuilt, and rejoined the United States.

Trivia

 * None

Recommended Readings

 * Batman: No Man's Land; novelization by Greg Rucka

Related Articles

 * Contagion
 * Cataclysm