| Unofficial Gotham By Gaslight Index |
GOTHAM BY GASLIGHT
Cover Date: 1989
Cover Price: $3.95
Cover Credits:
Art: Mike Mignola (signed) & P. Craig Russell
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Credits:
| Story | Brian Augustyn |
| Pencils | Mike Mignola |
| Inks | P. Craig Russell |
| Lettering | John Workman |
| Colors | David Hornung |
| Editing | Mark Waid |
Feature Character(s):
- Bat-Man (Bruce Wayne of Earth-1889; appears next in Batman: Master of the Future)
Supporting Character(s):
- Thomas Wayne (of Earth-1889; dies in flashback)
- Martha Wayne (of Earth-1889; dies in flashback)
- James Gordon (of Earth-1889; police inspector in Gotham City; first appearance, next in Batman: Master of the Future)
- Alfred Pennyworth (of Earth-1889; butler and confidant of Bruce Wayne; first appearance, next in Batman: Master of the Future)
Villain(s):
- Joseph Chill (of Earth-1889; in flashback)
- Jack the Ripper (of Earth-1889; Jacob Packer; dies)
- Merry Widower (Joker of Earth-1889; a killer of ten women he had wed; behind the scenes; seen on a sketch only)
- Jenk, Briscoe, Kelsey and two other crooks (would-be-payroll robbers; among the first criminals captured by the Bat-Man)
- a night watchman of the Gotham Railroad Company
Other Character(s):
- Sigmund Freud (of Earth-1889; a renowned psychiatrist and good friend of Sherlock Holmes)
- Sherlock Holmes (of Earth-1889; a friend of Sigmund Freud and teacher to Bruce Wayne; behind the scenes; mentioned only)
- Sir William Gull (of Earth-1889)
- Duke of Clarence (of Earth-1889)
- Inspector Duchene (of the French Surete; a friend of James Gordon and teacher to Bruce Wayne; behind the scenes, mentioned only)
- several Gotham prostitutes (of which five are murdered by Jack the Ripper)
- Gwendolyn Hervey (Bruce Wayne´s date at Leland Manor)
- Tolliver (Police Commissioner of Gotham City; first appearance, next in Batman: Master of the Future)
- policemen of Gotham City
- Harvey Dent (District Attorney of Gotham City)
- Blackwell (warden at Arkham Asylum)
Location(s):
- Earth-1889 (see Comments):
Comment(s):
- The story is preceded by a one-page text introduction, titled "From Hell" and written in-universe style by Robert Bloch (1917-1994). Bloch wrote written several stories about Jack the Ripper, including the 1984 novel, Night of the Ripper.
- While all characters of this (unofficial) first Elseworlds tale appear here for the first time, some re-appear in the sequel, Batman: Master of the Future.
- The setting of this tale was first designated as Earth-1889 in Absolute Crisis on Infinite Earths. That Earth later serves as the model for Earth-19 of the 52 Multiverse.
Synopsis: - It is a familiar scenario: a horse carriage driving through the moonlit night with a couple and their young son on board, a brigand waiting in the road, the anger of the husband, the shots, the deaths, the fear of the boy who is about to die next but for the bats distracting and terrifying the killer …
- … all too familiar to Bruce Wayne, telling, in late April of 1889, this recurring dream of actualevents transpiring fifteen years before to renowned Vienna psychiatrist Sigmund Freud. Bruce has been studying under him and the London detective Sherlock Holmes and, on May 2, embarks ship to return to Gotham City after five years abroad. On board, he meets Jacob Packer (or Uncle Jake, as he calls him), an old friend of the family. The well-to-do lawyer and solicitor of the Wayne family fortune is also travelling back to Gotham City after spending several years in Europe. Also among the passengers are Sir William Gull and the Duke of Clarence; rumor has it, that they are travelling to the States to let a scandal back in England die down. After a pleasant journey, on May 23, the ship anchors at Gotham Harbour where Bruce is welcomed by Alfred, the family butler. At Wayne Manor, his costume is still waiting for the young driven man.
- The next day, Bruce visits police inspector James Gordon who had given him referrals for several people in Europe involved in law enforcement. Gordon tells him about the growing evil in the growing city of Gotham. While the city gets larger the evil gets stranger: Gordon cites the case of a merry widower who poisoned rich old ladies with strychnine after wedding them. When the police caught them he tried to kill himself with his own poison, but it just paralyzed his face into a permanent grin …
- At night, a stranger is prowling through Gotham’s West End getting angry at the women's laughter he even hears when there is silence. He will put an end to it – again.
- When the office of the Gotham Railroad Company is robbed a bat-like figure makes short work of the villains, frees the watchman and disappears into the night.
- On July 6, the creature thwarts a dock robbery. On July 19, it is dubbed the Bat-Man by the Gotham City Gazette – the very same day the body of a young woman brutally slain is found. But when two more women are found murdered the newspapers start to speculate whether the Bat-Man might be the killer.
- At a party at Leland Manor, Bruce and his date Gwendolyn Hervey meet with Gordon and Commissioner Tolliver, a boisterous official already claiming victory for the forces of good: His men will capture the Bat-man who killed all those women. Bruce takes his leave without a good-bye. That night, the killer murders his fourth victim. At last, the police acknowledges a possible connection to last year´s Ripper slayings in London.
- On September 2, Gordon intends to visit Bruce Wayne, however, Alfred informs him that the master is away. That night, the killer claims his fifth victim, the Bat-Man arrives too late at the crime scene, and Inspector Gordon receives the first postcard from the killer – signed Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper.
- Then Tolliver comes gloating to Gordon´s office. He wants him to come along to Wayne Manor. A search uncovers a pair of bloody gloves and a surgical knife. Wayne is arrested.
- On October 9, the trial of Bruce Wayne begins. District Attorney Harvey Dent acts for the prosecution, Jacob Packer for the defence. Several „witnesses“ are being called, one of whom claims to have seen Wayne running from the scene of a murder. Tolliver presents the police´s case – Wayne has been in London at the time of the Ripper murders, cannot account for his nights, and may have medical raining on account that his late father has been a surgeon.
- On October 17, Bruce Wayne is sentenced to hang and transported to Arkham Asylum to await execution. Later, James Gordon who regards Bruce as innocent hands Wayne the police files on the slayings.
- On the streets, the killer tells himself to wait …
- Wayne pours over the collected evidence, at first to no avail. On October 26, Jake Packer informs him that his appeal has been denied. The execution has been set for October 31.
- On October 30, Wayne is almost in despair. Then he notices an old daguerreotype which shows his father and his colleagues during the Civil War. The symbol on their regimental flag matches the one on the surgical knife used for the killings. And then he recognizes the face of the man beside his father.
- That night, Alfred visits Wayne and switches places with him. The Bat-Man sets out to find the madman.
- The killer has refrained from silencing the laughter for so long, but since Wayne will swing at dawn he needs wait no longer. He has cornered a young woman, prepares to slice her open – then he is being confronted with the Bat-Man and flees. In panic, he bolts though the streets, drooling in fear, the dreaded figure always in pursuit. When the Bat-Man tries to capture him he gets clubbed with a two-by-four. Bloodied, he rises, sees the killer hijack a carriage and follows him on horseback unbtil they reach Gotham’s graveyard where the Bat-Man collars the killer near the family grave of the Waynes – Jacob Packer who tells him that he did the deeds onl to silence the laughter of Martha Wayne.
- Packer tells the Bat-Man how he met and assisted a doctor named Thomas Wayne during the war. Later, Wayne tried to introduce the farm-born Packer to the high society of Gotham and paid his way through medical school. After Packer flunked out, Wayne got him into law school which he graduated albeit at the bottom of the class. Wayne made him the family solicitor. Then Packer met Martha and confessed his love to her, but she was in love with Thomas Wayne and told him so. Since then, Packer has been hearing their laughter – Martha´s, Thomas’, even that of young Bruce. Packer could not bear it, even hired a man to kill her, bt the kid got way that night. But he has fixed him good before he can start laughing, too.
- Then, the Bat-Man unmasks, and Parker collapses and begs to kill him.
- Gordon arrives with several policemen in tow. The Bat-man offers him the true killer. Parker confesses to the Gotham killings, the slayings at Whitechapel and two more murders in Paris, no one ever connected. Gordon wants to arrest them both, but Packer draws a knife and slices at the Bat-Man. He is shot dead by Gordon. The wounded Bat-Man takes his leave. Bruce Wayne will be released, and Gotham now has its own guardian angel. It is going to need him.