The Next Batman: Second Son #5 focuses on Luke Fox’s mission as Batwing to save his sister, but it ironically unearths Gotham’s most twisted army.
WARNING: The following contains spoilers for The Next Batman: Second Son #5, by John Ridley, Travel Foreman, Deron Bennett and Rex Lokus, on sale now.
As much as The Next Batman: Second Son is about Jace “Tim” Fox and Lucius Fox’s fraying relationship, it’s more than just what put the former on the path to becoming the new Dark Knight in Future State. In the digital series, we’re so far gleaned key insight into the family turmoil, why they wanted to turn on masks and how Luke began to slip away from the Batwing persona.
Interestingly, Luke’s turn might be delayed for a bit in the current arc. And in Second Son #5, Luke tries to find a cure for his poisoned sister, Tamara, when he encounters Gotham’s most twisted army and realizes it’s not something he prepared for in his vigilante career.
This legion belongs to none other than Ratcatcher, someone who has deep history with Luke’s family. Created by Alan Grant, John Wagner, and Norm Breyfogle and first appearing in 1988’s Detective Comics #585, Otis Flannegan has been revamped as a mind-control villain. While he can use his powers to make rats do his bidding, Luke sees he’s got a new crew and it’s one that’s going to be difficult to fight against.
Luke uncovers the sinister secret as he tries to find a cure for Tamara, knowing that Otis might have it. That’s because Otis was the one who poisoned her when he took Tam and her younger sister, Tiffany, hostage years ago. It was part of his vision of chaos for the city’s elites. While it seemed like Tam recovered when the Foxes eventually got her back, she’s relapsed after the poison attack on Arkham, leaving Luke trying to get Otis to fix what he broke.
However, after beating up thugs on the street and tracking down Otis’ warehouse, the villain reveals he has a new kind of “vermin,” a fighting force that’s hungry, well-armed and tired of being neglected. It’s an army of teens and children wielding crowbars that leaves Luke petrified.
It’s clear Otis has been working in impoverished areas, but we don’t know if he’s controlling them with chemicals, or if they came to his side through buy-into his warped viewpoints. After all, these at-risk individuals can easily be turned into terrorists if they see this as a chance at freedom and striking back at society.
As exposed in “Joker War” and seen by Jason Todd when he stayed in the Hill recently, Gotham has never taken care of its less fortunate well. The rich always forget about these youths, and it now seems like Otis is playing Pied Piper and has them marching to his tune. It leaves Batwing in a tough spot as taking on this kind of army isn’t something he trained for, making it unclear how far he’ll go to save his sister.
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