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SEDUCTION OF THE GUN -- TRANSCRIPT |
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Writer -- John Ostrander Seduction of the Gun -- Graphic Novel [Transcribed from the comic book by Tara Carreon, The Ralph Nader Library Librarian]
BATMAN -- SEDUCTION OF THE GUN BY JOHN OSTRANDER & VINCE GIARRANO IN MEMORY OF SEDUCTION OF THE GUN GOTHAM CITY. THE TRAINYARD OF THE OLD GOTHAM AND CENTRAL RAILROAD. Writer -- John
Ostrander BATMAN: SEDUCTION OF THE GUN 1. February, 1992. Published by DC Comics, 1325 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10019. Copyright © 1992 DC Comics Inc. All Rights Reserved. All characters featured in this issue, the distinctive likenesses thereof, and all related indicia are trademarks of DC Comics. The stories, characters and incidents mentioned in this magazine are entirely fictional. For advertising space contact: Tom Ballou, (212) 636-5520. Printed on recyclable paper. Printed in Canada. DC Comics. A division of Warner Bros. -- A Time Warner Entertainment Company DINGANE: Stupid Stuck-up white people ...! CHAKA: Chill out, Dingane. Don't you start no static. TONY: Chaka! What's up, homey? CHAKA: Tony, my brother. We down if you down. RAFE: Stupid group of monkeys. I down for you, all right. TONY: Shut up, man. This is major business. We gotta, Duke. Check it out! Sweet, huh? You always wantin' some of them attack-80s. We also got a shabang converts the 'tacks to full automatic. Got two or three of them streetsweepers too, man. Yo, we got a deal, right? CHAKA: If y'all people is down with the program, then we are. Rafe? RAFE: This stuff is hyps, Tony. Real tasty. We can even cut it a little more, ain't nobody gonna know about it. TONY: Then I guess we got us a deal. Lissen, Chaka -- we got to be scopin' the bat-guy with the signal and all? CHAKA: Don't worry. I got your back. My people are already scopin'. Besides, that signal is what is calling him downtown. Best time to deal is when they got the bat-thing on. BATMAN: Go. COMMISSIONER GORDON: All units -- Go! Wheeeoooeeeoooeeeoooeeeoooeeeoooeeeoooeee CHAKA: Damn, man. RAFE: Tony! We been set up. BLAM Head Lube And Oil Change, $39.99 Drain your brainpan and fill 'er up with Mystic Quest,™ the world's first role-playing game especially designed for the entry-level player. It's got easy-to-read icons. Constantly changing 16-bit characters. And lots of heady combat to keep your synapses greased and firing. Pick up the game before January 31, and we'll throw in a free strategy book. All for just $39.00. Mystic Quest. It's a game anybody can dip into. TONY: Rafe! You retard! Why you gotta waste him?! BLAM BLAM BLAM CHAKA: Yo, let's be out. CETEWAYO: B-b-but wh-what about them g-guns?! SLAM MPANDE: No time, Fang. Stay in the car. SKRRRRRRR GANG GUY: They took out Rafe and Tony! The bastards! GANG GUY: Who we shoot? The cops or the blacks? GANG GUY: Shoot 'em all, man! Shoot 'em all! BRAAAAAAP BLAM BLAM BLAMBLAMBLAM BRAAAAP GANG GUY: C'mon, you mothers! All of you! I take you all down with me! YAAAAA! SPAKK BRAAAAAAP VIP VIP VIP VIP VIP SKRASSH WHAMMM DUKE: NZN! NZN! Zealots rule! BRRAAPP KRAKK BLAM BRAAP BOAAAAARRRRR BLAMM BRAAAP BLAM BLAM KRASHH VRUUUMMMM DINGANE: Ah ha ha ha ha! CHAKA: Well done! My homeys. Good steering, Mpande. MPANDE: Ain't out of it yet! Look at the rim, man. CHAKA: BATMAN! BRAAAP KRAKK WOK DINGANE: He hangin' out on the roof! Bat-freak on the -- Uhhg! Batfreak! YAHHHH BRAAAAAAAAP VIT VIT VIT VIT SUPER NINTENDO ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM SONY IMAGESOFT CHUCK ROCKS YOUR SUPER NES! He's fat, he stinks and he's one of the best-loved characters ever to climb his way out of the primordial slime and onto your video screen. In this rockin' new 16-bit adventure for your Super NES, you'll join Chuck Rock on his belly-bashing, odor-kicking, rock-tossing mission to rescue his wife Ophelia from arch-rival Gary Gritter. You and Chuck, who's equipped with a pea-sized brain and nuclear body odor, have to crush some pretty strange characters, like the wild and wooly mammoth, one mean triceratops and a saber-toothed tiger who's permanently hot under the collar. Together, you and the Chuckster swim through swamps, travel up volcanoes and shiver your way through the ice age -- all in the name of love! Nineteen levels set in five prehistoric worlds. Eye-popping graphics and very cool animation. If you wanna rock, you gotta get Chuck Rock. BRAAAAAAP VRUMM CHAKA: Good job, Duke. MPANDE: All them cars is smoked. We gonna hafta pick up somethin' else. DINGANE: Wrong! First we gotta do the batfreak! CHAKA: Wrong! Someone else been rakin' us out. First, we find out who. Then we house some more guns. Then we bust the batfreak. And then we own Gotham. COMMISSIONER GORDON: Attack-90 semi-automatic from Mayarm Industries. 9 millimeter with 32 round capacity. Easily convertible to full automatic. Mayarm even boasts it "resists fingerprints." I hate this gun. Retails at $250 but you can get it cheaper if you know where to go. I've had more cops killed with this gun this year ... They make them here in Gotham, you know. Even though you can't buy them in the city. Can buy them in a lot of the suburbs, though I've tried telling the suburban townships but they keep seeing it as a "Gotham problem." They refuse to understand how the white gangs in their townships trade the guns for drugs which ARE their problem. It's all related. BATMAN: Gangs have always had guns COMMISSIONER GORDON: Not like these. And I don't remember them being this young, this violent. The absolute worst of them has to be the NZN -- The New Zealot Nation -- and their leader, Chaka Zulu. Started out as a street gang. None of them can be much over twenty. He started out as Lionel Allen. His father ran off when he was born. His mother had a series of boyfriends. The last one used to beat both her and the boy. When Lionel was eight, he found the man's gun and killed him with it. He was an abused child, no doubt about it, but I talked with the officer who arrested the kid. Lionel set the guy up, and he got off. Lionel learned early the power that came with a gun. And he's used it ever since. The lessons you learn early are the ones that stay with you the longest. Let's go back and have another conversation with your informant -- Lasker. He knows more than he's telling. LASKER: He ran out on us? Why'd you let him? How could you do that?! He's gonna find out it was me that told you! Chaka isn't dumb! COMMISSIONER GORDON: Neither are we, Freddie. You've been holding out on us. LASKER: Holding out? Why? What? Why would I hold out on you guys? BATMAN: Because that's what you always do, Lasker. You hold something back, playing an angle. When the PSDS nailed you on stock manipulation, you gave up your buddies who were in on the scam with you. You didn't tell them about the cocaine you dealt on the side -- cocaine Chaka supplied. LASKER: What can I say? I was losing everything -- my money, my house, my life! That was hard. I don't wanna get in drug charges, too, and Chaka thought I was being stand-up. That means something to him. I knew he'd take care of me. BATMAN: So -- what do you do for Chaka Zulu, Lasker? LASKER: Some of the gangs were gettin' guns by using other people. People who bought for them. Gees, crack-heads and single mothers -- everybody who needs a little loot. I'm a "straw man" -- in every way of the word. COMMISSIONER GORDON: And these kids tonight were rivals! You used us to get rid of your competition but didn't tell us about all the escape points, did you, Lasker?! Cops were killed tonight, Lasker, and that makes you an accessory to murder! LASKER: No! I talked to you. It's not my problem. I want to be out on this crap. BATMAN: Easy, Commissioner. Lasker's going to help us some more. Chaka still has his drugs and will still want his guns. He'll turn to Freddie the dreamer here to get them. And Freddie will help us get up a deal to nail Chaka once and for all. LASKER: No! I don't do that, man! Chaka gonna find out! He'll kill me! And my daughter, too. You don't know that man. I can't do it! I'm not strong enough! COMMISSIONER GORDON: He's right, you know. He'll crack under the pressure and blow it. BATMAN: There may be a way. If we can come up with a reasonable facsimile. Listen to me, Lasker. You're going to ell me everything about how you'd make this sort of deal -- everything. No angles. If you leave anything out, I'll sense it, and I'll be very angry, understand? LASKER: Yes. COMMISSIONER GORDON: Sun's coming up. LASKER: That's all, man. I'm telling you. That's all I know! BATMAN: It's enough. Keep him hidden for a few days, Commissioner. LASKER: HOLD UP, MAN! My daughter, Louisa! She's a student at Jackson Middle School! What're we gonna do about her?! COMMISSIONER GORDON: What are we going to do? We can't leave her unprotected but if she disappears, Chaka may find out about it and your cover will be in danger. BATMAN: Robin will watch the girl. We'll create a cover for him if the school authorities will cooperate. We'll take care of your daughter, Lasker. LASKER: That's cool. You think I could give her a call? Just so that she don't worry about me or nothing. BATMAN: All right. But make it quick and no games. LOUISA: But I don't understand, daddy. What's going on this trip? Why can't I know how long you gonna be gone? LASKER: Because I don't know, baby. This crap came up like the drop of a dime. Wait up? Do you remember that bit of insurance that I have safed? LOUISA: Yes. LASKER: You go and get it and keep it with you all the time. LOUISA: I know. LASKER: Good girl. You'll be okay. I'll see you in a few days, okay? Love you. CLIK LOUISA: Oh, daddy ...! LATER THAT DAY IN THE PROJECTS ... MPANDE: His landlady says she ain't seen the dreamer the past coupla days. CHAKA: What's up with his daughter? MPANDE: She there. She chillin' at the Jack today according to what our people be sayin'. CHAKA: Bet! Lasker ain't gonna jett on his daughter. MPANDE: I still say Lasker the one busted us out last night, Chaka. WORLD WITHOUT A SUPERMAN! THE LEGEND CONTINUES JUSTICE LEAGUE AMERICA #70 ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN #498 ACTION COMICS #685 SUPERMAN: THE MAN OF STEEL #20 SUPERMAN #76 ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN #499 ACTION COMICS #686 SUPERMAN: THE MAN OF STEEL #21 SUPERMAN #77 FUNERAL FOR A FRIEND CHAKA: Chill, Mpande. Lasker just boated something dolo. The man ain't got enough heart to pass the whole posse. MPANDE: Whatever you say. CHAKA: I say so. I'm the man, Dukes. BASKETBALL PLAYERS: Yeah, man. DINGANE: Go to hell, man. BLAM BLAM BLAM MPANDE: Man, why you always got to be doing things like that?! DINGANE: The shoes, man. The way he beat me -- gotta be the shoes. MPANDE: It ain't the shoes, it was just you! He just kicked your butt. This keeps up, nobody gonna give us any game. DINGANE: Then I play you a little one-to-one and, you know what? I bet you end up giving me your shoes just like him. CHAKA: Cut it out. Anybody pull a piece on a brother, I pull out mine. The NZN is livin' large because we is a family. The moment we split up, we die. Tell everybody. I want to see Freddie the dreamer soon as he falls. CETEWAYO: That was cold, man. DINGANE: Thank you, man. ELSEWHERE ... FUSCO: Go, go, go! JULES: Damn, Fusco -- I'm too old for this crap! You gonna get me killed and I ain't never gonna see my pension! BLAM BLAM VIP VIP VIP JULES: Fusco, you crazy son-of-a--! BLAM BLAM FUSCO: Woo Woo Woo! BLAM BLAM HUDSON: Hey, Fusco and Jules are moving targets and harder to hit! The bad guys are all stationary! It's not unreasonable, Ives! IVES: Totally unrealistic. Hudson, all the terminal velocity films are unbelievable ...! KEVIN: This is waay cool! DRAKE: "Gun man," "Gun man: battle plans", "Gun man: heavy armament" -- what's the difference between all these? KEVIN: You're kidding me, right, Drake? "Gun man" is the original series. This is one of the spin-offs. This is the mini-series. And then, of course, you got your annuals, your prestige one-shots, your hardcovers, plus trade paperbacks. DRAKE: Uh, right. Thanks, Kevin. HUDSON: I think the terminal velocity movies are perfectly reasonable! IVES: Hudson, get real. They stretch incredulity to the point of imbecility. Come back to the real world. You remember -- classes, no dates, jerks like Karl bullying you ... HUDSON: I got something for the real world -- and for Karl. Whattaya think? I borrowed it from my dad. Cool, huh? KEVIN: Wow! IVES: Hudman, are you out of what passes for your mind?! DRAKE: C'mon. KEVIN: Hey! Chill, Drake! DRAKE: Out. HUDSON: I'm not going to shoot the creep! I'm just going to threaten him a little. Make him leave us alone! KEVIN: What about my comics?! DRAKE: Later. Out, now. HUDSON: For crying out loud, Tim! It's not even loaded! I took out all the bullets! Look! BLAM ALFRED: I've informed the boy's mother, sir. She said she would take care of it. TIM: I feel like a rat. Hudson's not going to talk to me for a long time. BATMAN: You did the right thing, Tim. Not the easy thing, but the right one. Your friend Hudson would've stayed out and played with the gun. Your friend Ives would have stayed and argued with Hudson, tried to take it from him. Either scenario might have resulted in the gun going off and maybe someone getting killed. If a friend brings out a gun, you don't argue, you don't talk. You leave and tell an adult and let them handle it. ALFRED: I understand that guns have become the second leading cause of death among older teenage boys of all races in America. There are also studies indicating that guns are the weapons of choice among teenage suicides, and that a suicide attempt using a gun is more likely to be successful. TIM: Hudson's not like that. I mean, he can be a little goofy but he's basically okay. It's just that ... I don't know ... every time you see a gun in the movies or TV or in a comic book, it seems so easy, so clean, so neat -- so cool. You lift it, you pull the trigger, the bad guy goes down. But you don't use one, Bruce. BATMAN: No. I learned at an early age what guns could do. I was younger than you, Tim, when the gunman killed my parents. He used a .45 automatic. Hollow point, small entry wounds about two inches in diameter, left breast. There was a small amount of burning, less than a millimeter, at the wound entrance. The bullet in both cases struck the left lung and then the heart through the right ventricle. Ruptured the superior vena cava and the aorta. The bullets struck back left ribs and flattened out, breaking the ribs in both cases, as the bullets changed trajectory, causing further interior damage. There were no exit wounds. I remember a lot of blood. The hearts continued pumping for a bit. They say I was sprayed with my parents' blood quite a bit. I don't really remember. But I'm well aware of just what guns do. A HERO BECOMES A VILLAIN. A SOLDIER BECOMES A STATESMAN. A BOY BECOMES A MAN. THE IMPACT UNIVERSE HAS CHANGED FOREVER. CRUCIBLE AUGUSTYN / WAID / QUESADA / WOJTKIEWICZ / PALMIOTTI THE ALL-NEW IMPACT COMICS FORGED IN THE CRUCIBLE. 99¢ FIRST ISSUE "Guns don't kill people," some will tell you. "People kill people." But I knew my father and I later met the man who killed him and I'll tell you something. He never would have been able to kill my father WITHOUT a gun. TIM: I'm sorry, Bruce. I didn't mean to dredge up ... BATMAN: Don't worry about it. It sneaks up on me, too, sometimes. Besides, there's work for both of us. I'm going to be going undercover on a gun deal as a guy named Freddie Lasker. DINGANE: Yo! Lasker! Get your raggedy butt over here! Chaka been looking for you! LASKER: Wh-why? I ain't done nothin' ...! DINGANE: Ain't what you done, man. It's what you GOING to do. You still got those connections down in Virginia? LASKER: Y-yes ... DINGANE: Chaka wants your butt down there and hook us up with some guns. LASKER: Yeah, man. BATMAN: Tim, while I'm pretending to be Lasker, I need you to be watching over Lasker's daughter, a tenth grader named Louisa. Goes to Andrew Jackson High over by the projects. TIM: The Jack? Whoa -- that place is tough! BATMAN: There's worse, and the teachers and most of the students over there are trying to break the cycle of poverty. We're going to call you in sick for a few days at Gotham Heights. Gordon has set up an identity for you at Jackson. Watch out for the girl during the day. Look in on her as Robin at night. TIM: Sounds cool. What's my cover? BATMAN: Todd Richards. You're a transfer student from Chicago. Keep your wits about you, Tim. If everything goes well from my end this should be over in a few days. But life around the Jack is cheap. WHUMP TIM: Excuse me? Is there a problem here? GUY: You was in my way. You want to wrap it up, man? DWAYNE: C'mon, Herb. Walk away. Just turn and walk away with me. TIM: Huh? Whattaya talking about? My name's not "Herb." What's this all about? DWAYNE: This about you being dead or not. Man has a smoker in his pocket -- a gun. You Dolo, right? On your own? So you walk away 'less you got a prop. TIM: "Prop"? Just transferred in. DWAYNE: Protection. You ain't from here, are you? Yeah, well ... they gonna transfer you out again in a box 'less you learn fast just how we do it at the Jack. Name's Dwayne, anyway. TOUGH GUY: Yo, man! You keep walking away, we keep bothering you. We got beef now and it gonna get settle sooner or later! You hear me, man? TOUGH GUY: Cold, man. You cold! ELSEWHERE: LASKER: Uh huh. Uh huh. Uh huh. Got it. It's a deal. I've talked with my people down in Virginia. It's set. All attack-90s and they'll do the conversions to full automatic. CHAKA: Uh-huh. Good. Good. Now get in the ride. COMMISSIONER GORDON: That was Batman. They've made contact. Supposedly, this call was the deal. Now we get Lasker here out of sight in the hotel room for a few days while I arrange for the actual guns. LASKER: Why not just use the guns I set up for him to buy down in Virginia Beach? COMMISSIONER GORDON: Because I suspect the local and state police down there will want to keep the guns and drugs as evidence. LASKER: Aw, Nooo, man! You're turning over my contacts to the locals?! That's not right, man! How am I supposed to make a living after this is all over?! COMMISSIONER GORDON: My only concern is to make sure you're alive when this is all over. Get Mr. Lasker to the apartment and keep him out of sight. I've got to go appeal to the civic conscience of Gotham's leading gunmaker. COP: I don't know why bail was set for Mr. James Thurlow here, counselor. ANANZE: Ananze! My Zulu name is Ananze, the Spider! I ain't leaving here until he calls me Ananze! COP: Look, you're involved in a shooting where a cop got killed. ANANZE: Straw man? COP: If it was up to me, you'd never see the light of day again ... but the judge, in his infinite wisdom, has set your bail, so get outta here! Say, just how much did Chaka Zulu pay for this judge? COUNSELOR: What is it? ANANZE: Something funny. Why the straw man hustling around with the police? I gonna follow. Then I gonna tell Chaka where they go. LASKER: So I drive down, make the deal, drive back with the guns. What then? Where do I take them? CHAKA: You don't. You call the number on this card and we come get them. Ten guns you keep for your own self. MPANDE: I don't like that, man, him going down all alone and making this deal. What if he takes the drugs or the guns and run off? CHAKA: That's what I like about you, Mpande. You don't trust nobody. A white man driving a rental car not gonna attract attention. A black man in that car gonna get noticed and you don't want no cops sniffing around. And Freddie here won't do nothin' stupid. Not so long as we know where his daughter is. Cetewayo, I want you to go back to school. Go to the Jack, keep an eye on our friend Freddie's daughter. If he freaks up, you smoke her. CETEWAYO: I can do that, Chaka. CHAKA: That's easy, man. LASKER: A-anything you say, Chaka CHAKA: Drive carefully, Freddie. I know you my main man. LASKER: And you be careful, Tim. MAYALL ARMAMENTS -- MAYARM. THE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT, CHARLES MAYALL. MAYALL: So, Commissioner, you'd like the loan of some cases of our Am Attack-80s, to help break up a gang. Well, that's a little difficult, given the demand for these items ... but we'll do it. Mayarm prides itself on assisting the police wherever and however we can. COMMISSIONER GORDON: Then you'll stop the production of the Attack-90's as well, Mr. Mayall? MAYALL: Heh. Call me Charles. No. The Am Attack-90 is our best seller, Commissioner. It's the fastest growing handgun in America -- perhaps the world. Which is unusual, given the state of the industry today. In my business, the gun business, we have an unusual problem: we make things too well. Our market is oversold with product. Guns wear out only over a long period. Guns that were previously owned usually work just as well and cost less. It's part of the reason Colt is in Chapter Eleven. And we're nowhere near as big. The solution? Make a new product and create a market for it. It's a high-tech age, so we made our guns more high-tech. Guns are seductive so we made ours sexy. We make modifications every few years, add a gimmick, and try to get people to trade up. Isn't that what the automotive industry does, or the computer industry? Isn't that what America's all about? Know what the fastest-growing segment of the gun-owning population is? Women. So we created this model specifically to address their needs -- lighter, not as bulky, and pretty. We're experimenting with titanium parts for lighter, smaller guns, experimenting with different colors, holsters for handbags, and the such. Women are going to be very big for us. VERY big. COMMISSIONER GORDON: Bigger than the gang market, Mr. Mayall? MAYALL: We don't market to gangs, Commissioner Gordon. COMMISSIONER GORDON: No? Is that why you boast that your guns have a special finish that is "resistant to fingerprints"? MAYALL: You misinterpret the intent of our ad, Commissioner. Body oils are corrosive and can mar the finish. We're only saying that's not a problem on our guns. Actually, you can get a latent print of some kind off most of our guns. COMMISSIONER GORDON: That's not what the advertisement implies and you know it! Last year, over half the crimes committed in Gotham with assault weapons were with the Am Attack-80! MAYALL: Criminals are NOT our target audience, although I'll admit I ENJOY the media attention we get. Why not? I can't afford big advertisements. Every time one of these stories go out my sales go up and that's what I'm interested in, what my stockholders are interested in -- sales going up. Under the circumstances, I take it you are morally opposed to using my guns in this gang deal? COMMISSIONER GORDON: No. I can't afford to be. MAYALL: We're pragmatic men, Commissioner. Both of us. I'm not a villain, Commissioner. This is a gun society. There is a demand that I supply. People want it. To paraphrase a competitor -- God created man but guns made them all equal. COMMISSIONER GORDON: Really? And I thought it was the Constitution that did that. 1972 ... THE GOOD TIMES ARE JUST BEGINNING GREEN ARROW THE WONDER YEAR A FOUR-PART MINISERIES BY MIKE GRELL and GRAY MORROW ® TM DC Comics © 1992 All Rights Reserved. THE HEADQUARTERS OF THE NEW ZEALOT NATION -- DINGANE: This mother's crazy! He was
talking to Lasker when he was in the police station! CHAKA: You take us there. You lyin', you dyin'. You right, you're part of the Council. And both Laskers are gonna die, word to the mother! Mpande, break out the street-sweepers. And get word to Cetewayo. If the straw man is playing a game with us, he's to put Freddie's daughter down. "THE CHOICE TODAY IS NOT BETWEEN VIOLENCE AND NONVIOLENCE, IT IS EITHER NONVIOLENCE OR NONEXISTENCE" -- Martin Luther King. LASKER: Look, sometimes, what I do, it gets a little -- hectic! This is your insurance, Louisa. If or when I tell you to, then you've got to carry the piece with you, understand, Louisa? Carry it with you and if anyone, ANYONE, gets near you, you pull it out and start shooting. LOUISA: Oh, daddy -- I couldn't! LASKER: You HAVE TO! People may try to get at me through you! These people can get at you anywhere -- on the street, in school, in a store! Do exactly what I say! Your life -- and maybe mine -- will depend on it! STUDENT: What the hell you lookin' at, Herb? STUDENT: He's looking at the girl, man. I think he's got oochie-coochie feelings. KALIFA: What if he is? You hesh up and leave him be! TIM/TODD: Naw, she just reminded me of someone at my old school. Listen, why do you keep calling me "Herb" when you know my name's "Todd"? STUDENT: We all "Herbs" at this table, Todd. None of us here are packing a burner so we all considered Herbs. Someone to be pushed around. TIM/TODD: C'mon! Not everyone else at the Jack can be carrying a gun. KALIFA: Maybe not everyone but most. Ninety out of a hundred, am I right? TIM/TODD: Ninety percent? STUDENT: Oh yeah. My little brother say they all over the grade school now, too. Next shootout you hear about probably be in sixth, seventh grade. Yo, man. You want the rest of these chips? TIM/TODD: I don't think I'm hungry. You guys are playing me, right? STUDENT: Guns ain't no joke, man. I was on the football team and I was DAMN good. I was looking to get a scholarship to some college somewhere 'cause I damn sure can't afford it myself. And if I don't get a college degree I ain't ever getting out of the projects! So I was playing some basketball, right? And this member of the NZN Posse, he gets beef with me and shoots me in the back. Now I don't know WHAT the hell I'm gonna do. Kalifa was gonna be a ballet dancer until she got caught in a drive-by shootout. Got shot in the leg pretty bad. KALIFA: The muscles healed up but -- it's just never the same. There was bone damage. I can't get on point no more. I'm never going to dance professionally now. STUDENT: They shot twice at Lin last week. Enrique transferred into the Jack because some guys at his old school was messin' with him and were gonna smoke him. LIN: What can I say? They think I'm KOREAN! No good if they shoot you in the head, man! STUDENT: Hey, I'm NATURALLY thick in the head, man! TIM/TODD: But how do they get the guns in? 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Box 1404, Ocean City, NJ 08226 discount COMICS. Advance Order new comics, cards, books, specialties, at up to 40% Off from Free Monthly catalogs. Over 1700 items. No minimum order. Call or Write: (608) 764-8410, P.O. Box 112, Cottage Grove, WI 53527 DAVE'S COMICS. EXCITEMENT FOR THE EYE. Dave's Comics, 7019 Three Chopt Rd.*, Richmond, VA 23226, dept. D* (804) 282-1211 MISSED AN ISSUE: We have the HOTTEST Comics at the COOLEST prices!!! Batman! Superman! Star Trek! Flash! Legion! and lots more! Find out what your comics are REALLY worth -- Send $1.00 for full catalog TODAY! Most orders processed in one day!!! If you like the cartoon, you'll love the comic book. THE BATMAN ADVENTURES. DC. Buy it -- he's watching you. ® DC Comics Inc. © 1992 All Rights Reserved. STUDENT: Man, how have you lived so long? Those metal detectors are a JOKE! They use them the same day every week! That day you either leave your burner at home or have a friend pass it to you through the washroom window! STUDENT: Guns have changed everything, man. Usta be, you have an argument with your buddy, maybe you fight, use your fists, that's the end of it. You friends again. Now it's "you messing wiff my girl?" BOOM. "You dropping dimes on me?" BOOM "You walkin' th' wrong side of th' street, gonna hafta make an EXAMPLE of you" and BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM. For anythin', for nothin'. KALIFA: My older sister had this beautiful baby girl, you know? Last New Year's Eve, some fool shoot off his gun in the air at midnight, up in the air. One of them bullets ricochet, kill the baby in its bed while they sleep. I ain't lying. My sister just sits home most days and cries all day. LIN: Someone mad at you, if they can't find you, they'll go after your sister, your brother, whoever they can get. When you angry, around here you have to take it out on SOMEONE, even if they ain't the one you mad at. It's like no one is innocent. STUDENT: Sometimes it's easier to get guns around here than it is to get a bottle of milk, man. Whatever you want -- AK, Attack-80, Uzi, whatever -- I know where you can get it, no questions asked. If it's got a body on it, you can get it cheaper. I know guys lend me their pieces if I really need one! KALIFA: I saw a man on the TV, from the suburbs, you know? He say he didn't want no gun control. He say guns was his constitutional right. He say he like to go shooting targets or plinking beercans on the weekend. He didn't see no reason he should give that up! Can you believe that?! STUDENT: Man, I'm SICK of that stuff! We got us Beirut in the city and nothin' can be done because some fat white bastard wants to play with his guns on a weekend! No offense, Todd. TIM/TODD: That's cool, man. STUDENT: None of us here asking for much -- a chance for an education, to better ourselves, to get ourselves out of the ghetto. Just a little of that life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness we keep hearing about! But it does something to your soul when you not even sure you gonna be alive at the end of the day! All the violence, man -- if it don't kill you, it kills your DREAMS. Then you might as well be dead. KALIFA: They ask the man on the TV about all the guns and shootings down in the projects. Know what his solution was? He said EVERYONE in the ghetto should be given a gun. Then we all could defend ourselves and everyone would KNOW we could defend ourselves and so no one would bother each other. STUDENT: His solution was MORE guns?! KALIFA: Uh-huh. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA STUDENT: Man, is this a SICK world or what? TIM/TODD: It's a pretty sick world, all right. Sick and twisted. A BEACH NEAR VIRGINIA BEACH, VIRGINIA ... LASKER: We got a deal? GANG MEMBER: Damn Skippy. GANG MEMBER: You know, Fred, I like you BETTER since you lost your ol' job. You never did cut me on any of them fancy deals then. But you're making me a rich man with deals like these! GANG MEMBER: You want to check the guns? LASKER: No need. I TRUST you boys. Like you said, you like these deals and if you stiff me on one, there won't be another. WUMP GANG MEMBERS: Y'all come back again, hear? LASKER: Here's the guns. I left the men still on the beach. COP: Thanks. We'll take it from here. Buying and selling guns may not BE illegal in these parts, but buying and selling cocaine sure as hell is. GOTHAM CITY, TWELVE HOURS LATER. COMMISSIONER GORDON: You got up here, fast. BATMAN: Drove straight through. I've already contacted Chaka Zulu. I'm to meet them in the Old Gotham and Central railyards at the Roundhouse. Be ready to move on my signal. Any word from Robin? COMMISSIONER GORDON: Last message he left said all was quiet. The team watching over Lasker is late reporting in, though. I've sent some others over to check. Want to wait until we hear from them? BATMAN: No. The sooner this gang is put down, the better. COMMISSIONER GORDON: Good Luck, Batman. You're very INTENSE, old friend. This one is really EATING at you, isn't it? Be careful it doesn't eat you alive, Batman. JACKSON HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS: And then he said that they had done it but she said, "Uh-uh, no way." Can't. Working tonight until eleven. You are SO immature! It was so dope, man. And then he just walks away. I'll believe in a Batman when I see a Batman. CETEWAYO: Chaka tell me do you, girl. Figure now's as good a time as any. STUDENT: What you got in this damn bag, Todd? It feels like another whole set of clothes! KALIFA: Well, you looking at the girl all the damn time! Why not go up and say hello? TIM/TODD: It's my gym clothes. I can't go talk with her. I'm too shy. EEEUUUUHH! TIM/TODD: Okay, okay. I'll say hello. But if I'm shot down, it's all YOUR fault! STUDENT: You shy some cards in your deck, boy. Just DO it! TOUGH GUY: Yo! Herb! Tole you we was gonna keep bothering witchod. DWAYNE: Hey, man! Leave the li'l guy alone! TOUGH GUY: Mind yo' own damn business! BLAM BLAM CETEWAYO: Chaka Zulu say you die, bitch. BLAM KRAK WOKK WHAM COP: Okay, boy. Ease off. The guy's down. That's enough. TIM/TODD: It's too much --! COP: Wait! Wait! THE GOTHAM AND CENTRAL RAILYARD DUNFEY: Dunfey to Commissioner Gordon! Over! COMMISSIONER GORDON: Gordon here. What is it, Dunfey? you may think it's not your problem ... MAN, IT'S HOT OUT HERE! WISH I HAD SOMETHING TO DRINK! HERE, JACK! WANT SOME OF MY SODA? GROSS! I'M NOT DRINKING AFTER YOU, MAN! DON'T YOU KNOW? THAT'S HOW YOU GET AIDS! OH? IS THAT SO? HERE ARE SOME FAST FACTS: YOU CAN'T CATCH AIDS FROM DRINKING AFTER SOMEBODY -- OR FROM ANY KIND OF CASUAL PHYSICAL CONTACT. FLASH! IT WAS JUST A JOKE, MAN ... WELL -- "JOKES" LIKE THAT ARE NEVER FUNNY! THEY MAKE PEOPLE AFRAID OF AIDS -- AND PREJUDICED AGAINST THOSE WHO HAVE IT! AIDS IS A SCARY THING -- BUT THE ONLY WAY TO OVERCOME OUR FEAR IS TO LEARN THE TRUTH ABOUT IT! BE CAREFUL -- BUT BE INFORMED! AND SAVE ME A SIP OF THAT SODA! JACK WAS RIGHT ABOUT ONE THING -- IT IS HOT OUT HERE! think again. PROTECT YOURSELF. KNOW THE FACTS. CALL THE NATIONAL AIDS HOTLINE 1 (800) 342-AIDS. (212) 807-6655 (OMHC/NEW YORK). (213) 922-2437 (AIDS PROJECT FOR LOS ANGELES). PRESENTED AS A PUBLIC SERVICE BY DC COMICS DUNFEY: Commissioner, I'm over at the Ritz. I found out why Lasker's team didn't report in. They've been hit, Commissioner. It looks like shotgun shells. My guess is a street-sweeper. Everyone here is claiming they didn't hear anything! My guess is the killers pretty clearly threatened all of them. COMMISSIONER GORDON: Damn! The NZN found out! Batman's walking straight into a trap! All units! GO GO GO! BATMAN: Well, Chaka, I did it. Got the guns, just like you asked. CHAKA: Did you? Well, good. Because I got your reward right here. We followed the REAL Lasker. He's dead. Now you gonna be dead, too. Smoke him. TEK FWOMP MPANDE: Where'd he go? hack! Can't see a DAMN thing! CHAKA: Shoot where he was last! KAFF! BRAAAP BRAAAAAAAP BLAM CETEWAYO: What should I do with my gun? Should get rid of it. Could just throw it away. Maybe I could sell it to somebody else. What would Dingane do? What would Chaka do? TODD/TIM: Proud of yourself? CETEWAYO: Who you? What you want with me? TODD/TIM: I settle for you standing trial and doing time for that girl you just killed. CETEWAYO: I kill you, too. GAAAAAH! THAK KRAKK CETEWAYO: I sorry, man! I din't know she was your girl! Don't hit me no more! TODD/TIM: She wasn't my girl. She wasn't anything to me. CETEWAYO: Then why you DOING this, man? TODD/TIM: Because she had a life and she deserved to live!" FAP CETEWAYO: Freakin' batfreak! YAAAAAAAH! BLAM BLAM BRAAAAP DC COMICS ARE AVAILABLE THROUGH SUBSCRIPTION! 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YES! I want to subscribe to the following titles: 1. 2. 3. NAME. ADDRESS. CITY. STATE. ZIP. YEAR OF BIRTH. Enclosed is a check or money order for $___ for ___ title(s). (Canada: Please add $8.00 for each title delivered for shipping and GST (GST#RT25921072). Foreign: Please add $12.00 for each title delivered.) Please make check or money order payable (in U.S. funds only) to: DC Comics, Mail coupon (or copy) to: DC Comics Subscriptions, P.O. Box 0528, Dept. D-21, Baldwin, NY 11510. Offer expires March 31, 1993. Please allow 10-12 weeks for delivery. All subscriptions begin with the next available issue. CHAKA: Spread out, move towards the doors. Get 'em open and air the place out. Then we hunt the Bat! Kill the Batfreak! Kill the Batfreak! YAAAAH! BLAM BLAM DUKE: Dingane? What for you shoot me, man? FWUMP YAAAAAAA CHAKA: Dingane? BATMAN: Dingane's finished. The other one is dead. You're all that's left, Chaka Zulu. CHAKA: YAAAAA! BRAAAAP CHAKA: ... Jammed ... CHAK BATMAN: Now YOU'RE finished, Chaka Zulu. KRAK CHAKA: Don't fooL yourself, Batfreak. If it ain't me out there, it'll be someone else. One way or another, I be back. BATMAN: So will I. A FEW DAYS LATER PRIEST: Dwayne was a FIGHTER, my friends. He never gave way to despair. And he wouldn't want us to do so. TODD/TIM: I messed up. I didn't protect the girl. ALFRED: You did all you could, Master Tim. TIM: My best didn't matter. Maybe my best DOESN'T matter. Kids are just going to keep getting killed like Dwayne did. Like Louisa did. So many guns, so much anger out there. How do you stop it? BATMAN: It will end when we DECIDE that it ends. When we decide, all of us, that we've had enough, when we decide we won't buy the LIES -- that guns will make us SAFE, that guns will make us STRONG, that guns make us FREE. It will end when we decide that we don't want guns in our houses, in our neighborhoods, in our schools -- in our hands. It will end when we decide to get rid of the guns we have and not get more. No law passed can change the human heart or open up a mind that is closed. We must give up the guns in our hearts and minds first. It will end when we no longer let ourselves be seduced by the gun -- and not before. GANG MEMBER: 'Eyyy, bad boy! Got what you need right here, man. You put this in your pocket, you don' need to be afraid of NOBODY. This make you feel like a man! 'Ey! What you walkin' away for? You NEED this! How you gonna survive on the street? Someone beef you -- gotta have a burner, man. Gonna get plinked otherwise. Don't got the money? That's okay. You go get some and come back. I be right here. BLAMM Seduction of the GUN DC Comics, 1325 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10019 JENETTE KAHN, President & Editor-in-Chief; DICK GIORDANO, VP-Editorial Director, DENNIS O'NEIL, Editor; SCOTT PETERSON, Assistant Editor; JIM CHADWICK, Director-Design Services; JOE ORLANDO, VP-Creative Director; PAUL LEVITZ, Executive VP & Publisher; BRUCE BRISTOW, VP-Sales & Marketing; PATRICK CALDON, VP & Controller; TERRI CUNNINGHAM, Managing Editor; CHANTAL D'AULNIS, VP-Business Affairs; LILLIAN LABERSON, VP-Legal Affairs; BOB ROZAKIS, Production Director On July 31, 1990, I placed a call to Bob Daly, the chairman of Warner Bros. "He's unavailable," said Marisa O'Neil who works for him. "Sandy Reisenbach's son was murdered last night." "What?" I wanted Marisa to repeat it. I was sure I hadn't understood what she said. "Sandy's son was murdered." It was incomprehensible. Sandy Reisenbach, the caring, sensitive man to whom we report. John Reisenbach, his first child, his only son, just 33 years old. He had gone to make a telephone call down the block from his apartment in Greenwich Village, because the phones in his building were out. Standing at the pay phone a little before midnight, John was shot. He wasn't robbed. There was no apparent motive. A random, senseless, unbearable killing. Paul Levitz and I attended the memorial service. It was excruciating. John's friends, so full of life with the future ahead of them, got up to speak and remember him. John had abundant good-nature, they all told us in one way or another, a mischievous sense of humor. He was deeply in love with Vicki, whom he'd married in 1979. He was a wonderful host. Jokes and stores were forever popping out of his mouth. He was head of the advertising department at a television syndication company where he was enormously respected and liked. His possibilities seemed limitless. John loved animals. He and Vicki had a dog, Fang, and had adopted two strays. John loved nature, too. Vicki and he regularly had their friends up to the country where John barbecued and laughed and somehow made everyone feel that these were the best days of their lives. Paul and I left the service with grief so sharp we didn't know where to put it. Talking to one another, we felt the only release for the pain was to channel it into something positive. We resolved to publish a strong comic book story that would indict the proliferation of guns in this country and the ease with which they are used. With the full support of Warner Bros. Studio heads Bob Daly, Terry Sernel and Barry Meyer, the proceeds from Batman: Seduction of the Gun are going to the John A. Reisenbach Foundation for gun-control education activities. We hope with all our hearts, for Sandy's sake as well as for John's, that both the comic and the funds it generates make at least some small difference. Jenette Kahn, November 12, 1992 We would like to acknowledge the young people whose names are listed below. They are all students of St. Angela Hall Academy, in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, and their help with the street language that appears in our story helped make Seduction of the Gun true to what's happening on our streets and in our schools. La Var Cabiness, Jesus Gineste, Shun-Mahn Jarrett, Christopher Smith, Mark Ward, Louis Colon, Clifford Harmon, Kyle Judge, Salema Tyler, Tsahai Weir Special thanks also to Ruthie Thomas PHAR OUT. phalanx SUPER NINTENDO Get fired up for the fastest phaser fight in the universe. You're flying the Phalanx A-144. Blasting beastly Bio-Weapons. And no matter how big the buggers get, they never seem to slow down. We're talking certain doom -- in 3D! So buckleup, bub. It's phar out. KEMCO. Also: Gear up and go for it with TOP GEAR, the #1 Super NES race game, DR. FRANKEN, Kemco's new monster hit for Game Boy. And KA-BLOOEY, the mind blowing puzzle game. CYBERDYNE SYSTEMS 800 SERIES MODEL 101 SYSTEM ACTIVATED 00 PROGRAM OVERRIDE, MISSION DIRECTIVES! MISSION ONE - LA, 2029, DESTROY ENDOSKELETONS AND HKS, DEFEND HUMAN HIDEOUT, PENETRATE SKYNET, ENTER THE FIELD MISSION TWO - TODAY PROTECT JOHN CONNOR, DESTROY CYBERDYNE, TERMINATE MIMETIC POLYALLOY T-1000, PREVENT JUDGMENT DAY WEAPONS - SELECT RAPID FIRE MACHINE GUN, ROCKET LAUNCHER, 10 GAUGE SHOTGUN, M-79 GRENADE LAUNCHER T2: THE ARCADE GAME NOW ON GENESIS! >> RELENTLESS PULSE-POUNDING ACTION OF #1 ARCADE SMASH ... WITH OR WITHOUT THE SEGA MENACER!
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