Batman: War Games #1
In "War Games Prelude: No Help," Ed Brubaker and Paul Gulacy deliver a tense, grounded start to the larger conflict, as Selina Kyle arrives at a blood-soaked gang meeting only to confront Mr. Freeze in a brutal standoff. The story unfolds with sharp precision, spotlighting Selina’s instincts and a chilling twist involving Spoiler’s secret mission—her attempt to prove herself by executing a Batman contingency plan, unaware that one of its architects was none other than Batman himself, under the alias Matches Malone. James Jean’s striking cover captures the issue’s noir edge, while the interior art by Gulacy and Palmiotti brings a gritty realism to the East End’s escalating violence.
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A gang war has escalated quickly and has reached the east end. Selina learns that a meeting between two gangs is a set-up; she arrives to find all members killed by Mr. Freeze. She stops Freeze, but is distracted when she spots Spoiler on a nearby rooftop. Spoiler explains that after Batman fired her from being Robin, she decided to prove her worth by implementing a Batman contingency plan to take over the gangs. But the plan failed because "Matches" Malone was a key player in it, and Stephanie hid her actions from Batman; not realizing that Matches was one of Batman's aliases.
Plot details indexed by the Grand Comics Database (CC BY-SA).