Gotham: Red City (Fan-Fiction)

Can Batman and Robin save the fiber of populated Gotham City in modern-day America?

I couldn't retire from short-story exploration without an ode to my love of my favorite comic book characters, DC's Batman (Bruce Wayne) and Robin (Dick Grayson).

Cheers,

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Before Bruce Wayne inherited his murdered wealthy father's lucrative estate and company (Wayne Industries), he was traveling around Europe trying to find himself while experimenting with alternative lifestyles. Bruce graduated from Princeton University (Ivy League) with-honors and then began traveling around the world before deciding to don the mantle of the Wayne fortune in the brooding Gotham City. Bruce decided to live in Amsterdam (Netherlands) for a short time where he experimented with opium-hallucination fueled Hindu meditation and became a masked bank-robber, stealing from the proverbial rich and giving to the poor. However, Bruce realized this was not his destiny, so he left Europe and returned to America and started undoing the strange consciousness he bred in his mind while dabbling in the dark side of the psyche.

Bruce met an idealistic young Gotham City rookie-cop named Dick Grayson and the two became fast-friends. They went to Gotham events and pubs together, and Bruce told Dick about his ventures in Europe and how he was seeking to really find himself while donning the executive mantle of Wayne Industries. Bruce Wayne was doing surprisingly well as the head of the Wayne empire, and Dick suggested he try to explore modern urban philosopher-writers (e.g., Upton Sinclair, Charles Dickens, Jack Kerouac) in adopting a satisfying consciousness regarding civilization-imagination. Bruce and Dick talked a lot about how to make the crime-ridden Gotham City a better place, and ultimately, the two pensive American men decided to become masked vigilantes named Batman and Robin. As Batman and Robin, Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson could prowl the city streets of Gotham at night, looking for ways to make the modern American city less like a cauldron and more like a paradise!

JOKER AND HARLEY QUINN: This diabolical boyfriend-girlfriend are Batman and Robin's worst enemies. Joker was once an 'average' mobster who was disfigured in a chemical accident which snapped his already dark mind! He met a criminal psychologist named Dr. Harleen Quinzel and seduced her into the dark side, where he now lived mentally. Joker and Harley Quinn represent why Batman and Robin try to use modern crime-fighting idealism to make the American city more safe and secure for everyday Christians and pedestrians! Joker and Harley Quinn destroy stores, plant bombs in cop-cars, murder prostitutes and politicians, and use axes to decapitate homeless vagrants during the Christmas season. This duo of anti-romantic hellraisers remind Batman and Robin that crime is more unholy than it may seem in modern-day America.

SCARECROW: This failed scientist put on a hideous scarecrow costume and decided to pursue a life of toxic poison. Scarecrow invests time trying to find new and creative ways to poison Gotham City's water reservoir/supply. Scarecrow has tried to poison Gotham's water with a deadly hallucinogen, a laughter-inducing potion, and even a seizure-inducing perfume. Scarecrow is a real maniac, and Batman and Robin have to stay on their toes to ensure the vulnerable people of Gotham that evil will not reign even in times of manmade modern problems such as industrialization-related eco-pollution. Scarecrow is to Gotham what Jack the Ripper was to London in the 1800s.

POISON IVY: Pamela Isely was a promising botanist working for the Gotham Greenhouse until she decided that manmade vices prompted a more sinister and subversive form of passion. Pamela transformed into the red-haired and green-toned Poison Ivy. She seduced men into her Venus fly-trap filled lair in the sewers of Gotham and gives them a strange potion-drink that causes these men to hallucinate and imagine that she's some kind of mystical demon-deity or dark goddess. She then demands these sex-slave men realize she's a siren of lust and commands them to murder prominent women in Gotham as payment for her sensual pleasures. Poison Ivy wants the women in Gotham to resemble fallen plants.

RA'S: This fascist schemer tries to create terrible urban political schemes to undermine basic democratic idealism. Ra's is from Algeria and insists that America's brand of Christian democracy is too naïve and idealistic. Batman and Robin have to make sure that Gotham City does not become a hell-hole of subversive political fanaticism and must investigate what Ra's is planning during important Gotham City political events such as the symbolic annual summer charity outdoor concert benefitting the city's homeless ethnic minorities! Batman and Robin liken Ra's to Adolf Hitler, the maniacal leader of the Nazi Holocaust, and always look for ways to restore democracy wherever Ra's touches the city's political brain with his terrorist saber.

BATMAN: Gotham seethes with contemplation.

ROBIN: Evil seems so real.
BATMAN: We fight evil by meditating on inner-strength.

ROBIN: Maybe we're crusaders tackling pure insanity!
BATMAN: Our experiences represent America's challenge of creating havens.

ROBIN: Can the American city ever be a haven?
BATMAN: As long as corruption lingers in the soul, we have to deal with human evils.
ROBIN: I wonder if Poison Ivy is a real 'muse' of the Devil, creating lust and panic.
BATMAN: All the Gotham villains are hellraisers, and we have to subdue the vices of the flesh!
ROBIN: Gotham is like one giant red city of fury and turbulence.
BATMAN: We protect Americans from the presence of dragons.

ROBIN: It's tempting to explore martial law.
BATMAN: Without democracy, there can never be true solemnity.
ROBIN: True; our task is to make Gotham a place of real journalism.

Can Batman and Robin save the heart of Gotham City? Will humanity rise above the follies of insanity? Only Batman and Robin can challenge the likes of the Joker and Harley Quinn and make the modern American city a place of industry and creative heroism. To combat evil, Batman and Robin envision Gotham to be a place of substantial moonlight enlightenment. Only then can journalists report on the progress of the great city in becoming an actual haven for tough-minded Americans.

TO BE CONTINUED...

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