American Comics: Opening Guidance Batman

February 23, 1987, Chicago, night.

In the Chicago Grand Theater, Miss Tina, who ended the gorgeous and lively dance, gently stroked her fur shawl, and she held the driver's hand and got into a luxury car. When she returned to her luxury apartment , a handsome man with blue eyes wrapped his arms around the young lady's waist, and Tina said, "Our dance has just begun, right? Mr. Bruce?"

The moonlight from the window came in, the beautiful blue eyes were shrouded in the shadow of the eyebrows, the handsome profile fascinated Tina, and the man turned, it was Bruce Wayne.

On an ordinary afternoon on February 20, 1987, Schiller woke up on the bed in Falcone Manor. He did not forget that he rested in the guest room of the Godfather Manor before crossing over to Marvel.

The mornings in Gotham are never sunny, but early mornings always bring Schiller a special inspiration. When they had breakfast with Falcone and his son, the professor got some inspiration again and quickly perfected it in his mind. .

"What do you think of Gotham's future?" Schiller asked Falcone.

Falcone shook his head and said: "If you had asked me this question 40 years ago, I would have told you that the city was not saved, but now I want to say that this city does not need anyone to save him, he is It will continue to be like this..."

"Do you think Gotham needs a new order?"

"A lot of people have asked me this question, but all I can say is that any effort to make this city better ends up in vain, no matter how impassioned it begins, it ends up in nothingness."

"why is that?"

"You asked the key, but I don't know the answer."

The godfather lit the cigar, and the smoke drifted away slowly. He said, "In the past 40 years, it's not that I haven't seen a steadfast revolutionary, or I haven't seen a savior whose moral realm is like a saint. There are so many people in this world. There are many people, no shortage of one or two good people or heroes, determined to save the city."

"They came to Gotham with that thought in mind, and you have to admit, even if you knew they weren't going to make it, you were still blown away by that determination."

"Maybe you think it's ridiculous, but I have been changed by these people, and many people may think, if this is the case, how can I become the godfather of Gotham? How can I become the biggest gangster in this gangster city ?"

"But it's because I've seen these, and I've experienced that era first-hand, that I know that good people can't save Gotham, and neither can heroes."

"So now, where have these people gone?"

"Most of them died, and they escaped here with their lives. Those who don't belong to Gotham will eventually leave Gotham. If there is any left, then he must be someone who originally belonged to Gotham."

"Is there such a person? Where is he?"

The godfather seemed to be lost in recollection, and after a while, he drew a cross on his chest and said, "I swore to the Lord to keep this secret for him."

He didn't give Schiller a clear answer, but Schiller already knew who he was referring to.

The next day, Bruce was called into the office by Schiller, and Schiller almost never called him over, so Bruce was curious about what happened to Schiller.

They sat down on either side of the desk, as they had first met, and Schiller asked him:

"Have you ever thought about saving the city for a second?"

"Of course I..."

"I mean, after you have a very clear understanding of what the city is about."

Bruce opened his mouth, Schiller took off his glasses, and he looked straight at Bruce and said, "I think you should have seen the essence of this city that doesn't need to be saved, and can't be saved at all."

"So, are you trying to persuade me to stop doing this? Stop being Batman?"

"Of course not, I don't care if you do Batman or not, I just want to know if you really want to save Gotham?"

"Is there any difference between the two?"

"Are you sure you did Batman to save Gotham?"

Bruce was silent.

"I'll change the question. If there is a possibility of bringing a new order to Gotham now, would you like to put some effort into it?"

"Although I have this guess now, I am still not sure, what is the essence of this city? Why did it become like this? Can it really not be saved?"

"Falcone once told me that there are many people who have tried to save the city, but they have not been successful, most of them are buried here, but some people have stayed, integrated here, become A part of Gotham."

"Who is he?"

"The only priest in Gotham Cathedral, I think you can go meet him and come back to give me the answer."

Bruce shook his head, he felt that Schiller was a little inexplicable.

But he's actually also interested in Gotham's past, and the city has too many mysteries for him to explore.

At first his purpose was simple, he wanted to avenge all the criminals, but when he learned a part of Gotham, he felt that he should save the city too, but when he learned more Gotham, he felt The city doesn't need to be saved.

And now, having learned Gotham all over again, he found that the city seemed impossible to save.

As Schiller said, Gotham is like a book that can never be read. There are endless puzzles here. Every time you read it, you will have new insights.

When Bruce came to Gotham Cathedral, the priest warmly received him. The old priest seemed to be over seventy years old. To be honest, there are few ordinary people in Gotham who can live to such an old age.

No one in Gotham can teach children to help old people cross the street because no one teaches children and no old people.

In front of the pulpit, the priest pulled Bruce's arm with a smile and said, "I've heard of Mr. Wayne's name long ago, of course, I'm sorry I don't have anything better to receive you, after all, this church is too old , as old as I am."

"Look, some of these tables and chairs are about to fall apart. I wonder if there will be any kind and well-intentioned person who can replace the preaching platform for the Lord that doesn't need bricks to support the table legs..."

Bruce was so familiar with this kind of words that he drew a cross on his chest and said, "I don't have mercy on me from the Lord, the Wayne construction team will carry out a complete renovation of the interior of the church, so that His kingdom of God will be Clean as new, everything belongs to the Lord..."

The old priest seemed to be very satisfied with this. When Bruce chatted with him about the past, he didn't mean to hide it, but bluntly stated his experience.

"I come from an ordinary family in the United Kingdom. I served in the church when I was young. In order to allow more people to listen to the Lord's gospel, I came here."

"Originally, I just settled in a small town on the east coast, but I heard that Gotham is not bad, so I came here."

"You may think it's a bit incredible, but in fact, Gotham at that time was really good, because of the existence of the dock, it was quite prosperous, there were a lot of people, and the living conditions were not bad. By the way, the gangsters at that time were in their infancy, with a total of Not many people."

"At that time, there were still some ordinary people with dreams. They wanted to establish order here and grow with the city. Of course, I also thought so at that time."

Then, the voice of the priest began to grow deeper and deeper, echoing in the empty church. The colorful light from the stained glass at the top of the church window was like a tunnel through time and space. The voice of the priest seemed to follow these Tunnel, back to that era.

"At that time, there were a lot of people like this. They were very ambitious. They thought this was a golden coast and a new gold mountain. Although it was a little chaotic at that time, everyone felt that it was just an ordinary pain relief in the urban development stage."

"The young missionary, with a Bible in his arms, set foot on this land with the fleet. This story that came from thousands of miles away is actually not as magnificent as others imagined, but there are still many here. People are interested in me."

"Of course, I am here to spread my beliefs, help everyone as much as possible, and mediate some violent conflicts and disputes between gangsters. Almost everyone is willing to sell me a face."

When Bruce heard this, he was a little impressed by the priest. This old man of the same generation as Falcone seemed to have also occupied a place in the music world.

In this city ruled by gangsters, one can eat indiscriminately, but not speak indiscriminately.

No one would dare to make up such a story, claiming that all gangsters want to sell him a face. As far as Bruce knows, the only one who really has this ability is Falcone. If anyone else dares to brag about it, the first In two days his body will be thrown into the sea.

But the old priest seemed to be saying something trivial, and Bruce could hear the modesty in his tone, he thought, maybe this old man of the same generation as Falcone once had the same prestige as His Excellency the Godfather.

But now they are very different. Falcone has become Gotham's godfather, but the old priest is guarding a dilapidated church and may not have a single believer to pray for a few days.

Bruce has always had a lot of curiosity about the age when it was like a faded photo, just like people always imagine the glory of their fathers.

The story about the dock that Falcone told him once showed the rise of gangsters in that turbulent era.

But now, in this empty cathedral, the old priest revealed to him what seemed to be a different version of the city at that time.

"When I came to the city of Gotham, the war was far from over. Here, isolationism prevailed, but more low-level civilians were afraid of war. They didn't understand how on the far side of the earth, Suddenly it turned into a pot of porridge."

"I started spreading my teachings here, I believe that faith can bring peace to the heart, and I did a good job at first, you know, there were still many British people who didn't evacuate here at that time, and they would invite me to their Manor, listen to my sermons, I spend almost every afternoon like this."

"In the beginning, some little gangsters were just wandering around the pier, and even few of them were able to go to the inner street. At that time, I knew Falcone, but there were no Falcone and Twelve at that time. The family, maybe the whole of Gotham combined, can't find a dozen decent gangsters."

"At that time, it was basically a colonial economy. Because of an accident, I started to deal with gangsters. They saw that I had access to those rich people from the United Kingdom. They hoped that I could be a middleman and strengthen their power for them. "

"I don't want to be involved in these whirlpools, but I have no choice. If I have to, I will choose the most promising one, which is Falcone."

"Later, many people began to find that Gotham was not as good as they thought, and those wealthy people from the United Kingdom began to gradually withdraw from this place and gather in other more prosperous and potential places."

"The main legacy they left to the city is the manor area and this cathedral. Under my lobbying, they collectively funded the establishment of this place, and I became the only priest in this church."

"And after that? What happened after that?"

"When the upper layers that maintain a stable order suddenly leave, those who fill these upper layers become the people with the most bullets in the gun. Falcone and his twelve families are such people, they make trouble for a while, and then took over here."

[Recommendation, Mimi reading and chasing books is really easy to use, download it here and you can try it. 】

"I used to be good partners with Falcone because I knew he was different from the other gangsters and he wanted to create a new order here, a violent order, but better than no order at all. "

"I helped him as much as I could, I thought that the gang was just a temporary replacement for the upper-level building blocks that were evacuated, and one day Gotham would get back on track."

"But I didn't expect it to get out of hand, and after Falcone and his gangster family took over the city, it started to become a real crime capital, sprawling out of a dozen gangs, 120 One gang, 1,200 gangs, and in the end, it's a city where everyone is a gangster and a criminal."

"Evil is spreading here, but I can't do anything about it. I know that Falcone may be the same. Many people think that he is the culprit of Gotham's deterioration, but I know very well that this is not the truth."

Finally, the priest looked up and looked around the church. He said: "There are not many buildings left from that era. I thank them for leaving a place like this for me, so that I can have a place to live."

"Then why don't you leave? Even if you can't go back to your hometown, you can at least go to the church in the Metropolis, where there are still quite a few clergymen, and they have a good life."

"You don't understand," said the priest. "I have not only seen how sin is infecting the city bit by bit, but also deeply involved in it."

He drew a cross on his chest, prayed in a low voice, and said, "The biggest thing I've learned in the process is that this city will only accept people who belong here, those who really want to save it. Our heroes will eventually leave because they don't belong here."

"So what is all this about?"

"I don't know, but I always believe that I made the right choice. Falcone is like me. We are the guardians of this city, not the destroyers."

"In your opinion, the godfather may be a winner, he ruled Gotham underground for 40 years, but I know, and Falcone and I both know that we are all just losers, we can only weave in the abyss of sin A precarious order to protect itself."

The priest shook his head and said, "But unfortunately, I'm just an ordinary person, I just lived a little longer than others. What I've learned is not even as good as Falcone, or maybe Falcone doesn't know the real answer. ."

As the sun gradually fell, the shadows of the tables and chairs in the church were dragged longer and longer, and the light from the stained glass began to flow onto Bruce's body.

In the end, the old priest said: "I can only be here and keep a piece of His kingdom, and when I die, this piece of pure land will dissipate, just like countless hopes that once dissipated in Gotham."

"The group of people back then was only me and Falcone. We are all old. Maybe when we all go to see our Lord, the only order left in this city will cease to exist. ."

"Do you think it is possible to establish a new order?"

"There have been countless people who have worked hard for this, but they have all failed. Falcone has succeeded a small part, but it has only been delayed for a while, and perhaps no one can delay it any longer."

Along with the old priest's sighing voice, Bruce fell into contemplation again.

Whenever he heard these historical stories about his hometown, Bruce couldn't be full of nostalgic emotions like a homecoming wanderer.

Because the story of Gotham is absurd and hopeless from beginning to end, everything that happens here has no cause and no result, and even people who lived through that era can't tell.

On this mysterious journey into Gotham's history, the parts of the time machine are always stuck with some foggy fragment, whenever Bruce tries to fix the battered old projector and find out the truth. , there are always various forces stopping him.

Bruce, who walked out of the church, began to think about the question that Schiller asked him. The answer the priest gave him was that there would be no chance of a new order in this city. After the old generation died, it would be completely destroyed. into darkness.

He suddenly came up with a strange metaphor ~www.wuxiamtl.com~ but felt very vivid.

All the sins in Gotham, and all the criminals who live here, are like grains of salt in a salt shaker.

This is a salt shaker that will never be empty. The person holding this salt shaker pours out some crystal grains of salt in a hurry, just like a patient fisherman making his bait.

Bruce, who has just grown up, learned a fact earlier from his professor, from Falcone, and from the old priest.

Gotham will become what it is today. It is not a simple natural evolution. The goal of revenge on criminals he once held may never be completed, and he will never be able to save Gotham completely, because the salt pot above Gotham will not be empty, full of sinful people. The salt grains are crystal clear and come with the wind, like the fine lines of rain that never stop in Gotham City.

But this didn't make Batman feel frustrated, but made him have an ambition earlier.

Batman didn't want to fly around these salt grains that were sprinkled like alms, like a stupid fish spinning around the bait, hoping that the current would flush out some debris to fill its stomach.

What he wanted to do was to flatten the salt shaker directly, or, as he had done to Louis - appear behind him like a bat, casting shadows over the complacent man with the salt shaker. Man, let him tremble with fear of bats.

Then, get this salt shaker, and all the salt grains in there.

If the world is destined to have a salt shaker for all criminals, this salt shaker better belongs to Batman.

Must also belong to Batman.

Chapter 101 The Bat in the Jar