Overview: She can run from it all she wants and keep trying to fill in the blanks with familiar faces but the truth remains; Violet doesn’t belong in this reality and unless she finds a purpose here she’ll fade right out of existence.
Synopsis (spoilers ahead): Try as she may to gain a sure footing in Gotham AD there is a simple truth that Violet can’t shake. This is not where she belongs. She continues fighting old enemies she’s never met, defending old friends she doesn’t know. Here, there are only scraps of a life another version of her never got to live and she’s not sure that will be enough. Unless she can carve out a piece of this world to call her own, there will always be a Gotham-shaped hole in the Gotham she patrols. And that doesn’t leave much of anything at all.
Nevertheless, things seem to be coming to a head.
The Collective continues to try and gain intel on all of their enemies. That includes “The White Witch” and the Bat-Cult that has sprung up around the city. But while evidence mounts about Mother Panic and her continued displays of brutal originality, Lord Robin’s Bat Cult is a stain on the Collective’s villainous iron grip of the city. While neither opponent can remain in the way of the Collective, it is Lord Robin who stands most firmly in their way, an affront to the exhibitionism that is the hallmark of the Collective.
Meanwhile Mother Panic and Fennec Fox head back to Catwoman’s stomping grounds in the park, despite the fact they’ve been warned not to return. But encountering Harley again buys them a bit of goodwill and she takes them to speak with Selina, who begins to put some of the puzzle pieces together. According to her, the so-called Cult of the Bat has been stealing children for some time, including the mock-Joker Violet encountered earlier (who definitely was NOT Duke Thomas). Danny was apparently one of Selina’s protégés but Jason Todd transformed him into a pawn of the Bat Cult. Selina confirms that Jason Todd was a former Robin in Gotham AD as well, but something changed him either before Batman disappeared, or because he disappeared. Either way, he has been transformed and now he personifies the violence and mayhem he was able to keep at bay as Robin. Selina is able to figure out who Violet is under her costume, but she isn’t aware that she isn’t the Violet of this reality.
Unfortunately their parlay seems to come apart once Violet oversteps her bounds. Selina doesn’t agree that her rescue of Harley was credit enough for an automatic favor, and instead suggests that Violet and Fennec Fox help her take down the Cult of the Bat. Violet disagrees and makes a tactical error, revealing that she knew the identity of Batman. Selina, shocked at the revelation, dismisses the would-be heroes. Fennec Fox is salty, having looked forward to joining Selina and her crew in taking down the Cult of the Bat. But Violet doesn’t want to hear it at all and storms off in a fit of rage. True to form Violet is uninterested in fighting other people’s fights. Fennec Fox quips that it’s almost like she isn’t a real hero at all. For the first time, this gives her pause. Even though Violet has never claimed to be any such thing, she can’t help wondering why the insult stings so much. But rather than face up to her feelings, she falls back on her tried and true solution, throws on a cute black dress, and hits the town. But it isn’t enough and no matter how hard she dances, no matter how much she drinks, she can’t shake the sound of Fennec Fox’s voice in her head.
Meanwhile, the city braces for all-out war as three separate factions prepare to engage each other: The Collective, Selina and the Park exiles and Lord Robin’s Cult of the Bat. But Violet continues to run away from her problems. In the face of destruction, she keeps partying the night away, insisting that it isn’t her fight or her problem.
In the end, it is the voice of her mother that is finally able to get through to her. And even though it isn’t her real mother, she finally puts aside the trivialities and comes to her senses. Her mother verbalizes it perfectly and afterward, she understands that she can’t exist across two realities. Living fully in this Gotham is better than longing half-heartedly for the other.
Diving into the fray, Fennec Fox quickly exclaims, “I knew you were a real hero!” And indeed as Mother Panic joins the battle her efforts seem to turn the tide. Violet immediately knocks the Collective out of the fight and Harley and Selina quickly overpower what remains of Lord Robin’s troops. Offering the remaining soldiers a way forward with them rather than against them, Selina turns the hearts and minds on the battlefield to her cause. Lord Robin, having failed to appear in the battle, quietly slinks away.
Afterward, Harley finds the body of the Joker, who has been strung up as a warning from Lord Robin. As Selina finds her, she murmurs, “He deserved better.” But Selina puts her hand on her shoulder and replies, “No, he didn’t.”
Selina and Violet reconvene and Selina offers up the intel about the Collective’s prisoners as promised. And instead of trying to find additional information about how to get herself and Fennec Fox back to the original Gotham reality, she moves forward in this one whole-heartedly. She understands now that if she doesn’t act with true resolve in this reality that she might as well not exist in either.
And just as she’s about to break into the Collective’s Arkham base again, Lord Robin get the drop on her…. TO BE CONTINUED!
Analysis: This is one of those issues where all the jigsaw pieces finally start falling into place and it’s about time. The Milk Wars crossover event in the Young Animal line was an interesting way to spice things up, but Mother Panic, in particular, has had a tough time picking up the threads since then. As readers, we are aware that Violet and her sidekick have moved to an alternate Gotham ten years in the future, but as far as we can tell Violet doesn’t know the details of that change yet. Up until now we’ve seen many of the familiar Gotham faces make appearances but it hasn’t been clear what role those characters will play. There is still a long way to go before an endgame is revealed, but in this issue, we finally get some of these characters to come face to face and create some change.
Still, it is unclear what the endgame is for Violet and Fennec Fox in this reality and as we near the six-issue “trade” mark (which also happen to be the end of the series), this series is still struggling to show us a plan. The change, in reality, perhaps designed to shake up a stagnation in the first Mother Panic series, has pushed things too far in some respects and we’ve been left with a group of characters that feel as adrift as Violet appears when turning her back on her problems and turning to alcohol and partying.
But the cliffhanger ending, with Lord Robin intervening before Violet enters The Collective does leave us some hope. Until now we’ve been presented with these familiar Gotham citizens often in roles that are very different from the one they played in the original reality. With Jason Todd and Violet now literally face to face we can expect to find out more about how Lord Robin came to power and maybe even learn what happened to Batman here.
But whatever the motivation, Mother Panic needs to shed some light on what these characters are up to sooner than later. Gotham is a big place and there was room for Violet in the main reality. Moving her to this altered Gotham theoretically gives more room to play with characters and make sweeping changes without affecting Gotham prime, but unless we get a clear picture of what those changes are soon, they will cease to seem relevant here or in any other reality. Thankfully, there’s every reason to expect that the next issue will deliver the injection needed to pull things together. Finally discovering how Jason Todd became one of the key underworld figures of this Gotham reality should prove highly entertaining.
Final Thoughts: Mother Panic has been an interesting romp through a Gotham that we’ve rarely had the chance to see. But a meandering stroll down sunny streets as started to feel like the frantic stampede of a tourist who suddenly realizes they’re lost. The next issue needs to right the ship or things are in danger of really falling apart.
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