Azrael: Agent of the Bat #47 is an issue of the series Azrael: Agent of the Bat (Volume 1) with a cover date of December, 1998.
Synopsis for "...a Man of Wealth and Taste..."
Azrael is in Gotham City and helps Batman to put down some street thugs who were stealing from a hospital. After they finish them, Batman asks a favor of Azrael; to check on senator Halivan in Washington, D.C.
Azrael calls Oracle to find where senator Halivan would be. Oracle informs him that the senator will be at a famous rockstar concert. Oracle fill Azrael with details of this rockstar named Nicholas Scratch and the time and place where his show was scheduled.
Upon arriving at D.C., Jean-Paul finds out that the ticket concerts were sold out a long time ago, so he dresses up as Azrael and tells one of the security guards that he is with the band. The guard wasn't completely sure but he let Azrael in anyway.
Scratch was getting ready for the concert and also he was setting up a death trap to senator Halivan. Before entering the stage, Halivan approached Scratch to greet him and Scratch convinced Halivan to meet some people interested in an arms dealing business at the upper catwalk of the stage. The rock show began and Scratch started to play while Halivan climbed up to the catwalk just to find himslef ambushed by two men with what seemed to be devil masks. Azrael arrived in time to prevent the dressed killers from harming Halivan, just like Batman told him. Halivan descended from the catwalk while Azrael was fighting with them. Halivan was angry at Scratch and demanded some answers from Scratch who in turn told the senator to calm down and to walk with him to his dressing room. When Scratch made sure that they were alone, he attacked the senator and strangled him to death.
Appearing in "...a Man of Wealth and Taste..."
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- Nicholas Scratch (First appearance) (Flashback and main story) (Origin)
Other Characters:
- Esterbrook Halivan (Single appearance; dies)
Locations:
Items:
Vehicles:
Synopsis for "Road to No Man's Land: Wax Man and the Clown"
Main Article: Batman: Shadow of the Bat #80
Jeremiah Arkham wakes up from a nightmare in which he was almost caught by the most dangerous of the asylum inmates. Jeremiah is having troubles with the administration of Arkham Asylum as most of the orderlies haven't showed up for duty and the supplies were running out fast; all because of the earthquake. Arkham learned that the only man in the United States Government interested in saving Gotham was recently killed and he knew that Gotham City was destined to fall, but despite all that he tried to run the Asylum as good as he could.
During breakfast at the dining hall, Joker and Wax Man started to discuss about the spot Wax Man was sitting on. Wax Man called Pinhead and told him to show the Joker who was in charge around and the big Pinhead placed a bowl of breakfast on the Joker's head and after that, the clown walked away laughing in a good mood.
Later, Jeremiah Arkham and Davis, his most faithful orderly, delivered the medication to the inmates, some of which were actually recovering and some of them just stayed the same and others were crazier with each passing day.
When nighttime arrived, the inmates went back to their cells and the lights turned off. Across some of the asylum corridors a dark figure walked through. The inmates went crazy at the sight of the figure because it resembled Batman and all of them started to scream, disturbing Jeremiah Arkham's mind.
Meanwhile, Bruce Wayne was struggling to keep his city alive but he was feeling physically tired and Alfred suggested him that maybe this time, Bruce Wayne can actually help more than Batman by going to the congressional hearings and try to convince them to help Gotham.
The next day, most of the Arkham Asylum staff didn't show up and Jeremiah was really worried. He told David to let the inmates go outside to the gardens after the breakfast. Once outside, Joker told Waylon Jones that Pinhead was mocking him and the two brutes started a fight. The opportunity was seized by Joker to break into the staff's office and switch Killer Croc's medication so that they give him amphetamines instead of sedatives. When the guards finally controlled Croc and Pinhead, they took all the inmates back to their cells. Jeremiah was struggling with the responsiblity and was trying to control his thoughts when someone broke into his office. It was the Joker and told Jeremiah that he had planned some sort of gladiatorial combat in the Asylum.
Appearing in "Road to No Man's Land: Wax Man and the Clown"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- David Thurman (First appearance)
Antagonists:
- Cornelius Stirk
- Killer Croc
- The Joker
- Mister Zsasz
- The Riddler
- Scarecrow
- Voz (Incorrectly named Vox)
- Wax Man (First appearance)
- Pinhead (First appearance)
- Solly Bean (First appearance)
- Two-Face
- Ventriloquist
Other Characters:
- Batman
- Alfred Pennyworth
- Esterbrook Halivan (On a TV or computer screen)
- Nicholas Scratch (On a TV or computer screen)
- Greg Roark (a.k.a. Jigsaw Man)
- Vernon Jamson (First appearance)
Locations:
Items:
Vehicles:
Notes
- This issue is a 2-in-1 flip book and features a second story printed upside-down. The story Wax Man and the Clown is the main story in Shadow of the Bat #80. This title and Shadow #80 share the cover art with certain modifications each one.
- This is the first issue in which the title changes from Azrael to Azrael: Agent of the Bat.
- Both stories continue in their respective titles.
- This issue is reprinted in Batman: Road to No Man's Land Vol. 2.
Trivia
- There are references to Scully and Mulder from the The X-Files and also Jabba the Hutt and Princess Leia from the Star Wars franchise.
- The name of the first story is a reference to the song Sympathy for the Devil.