One, Barbara Gordon is NOT his last descendant. The Commish did have a son:
James Gordon, Jr. We just never see him, that's all.

Mercutio, repeat this mantra to yourself.

'He's working with the animated series.'

In the animated series, as far as I've seen, Barbara is Gordo's
daughter and there is no Jamse Jr.  In the comics, yes, in the
animated series no.

Okay?

Two: Barbara Gordon is not, strictly speaking, his descendant at all. She is
his niece, whom he adopted when she was very, very young.

See above point.

Three: This sort of thing isn't the Jokers style. I mean, where's the humor in
it? The Joker does, after all, consider himself to be a comedian, and all his
personal (i:e not for money) plans are ALWAYS funny, in his own sick, sick,
hideously wrong way. The Joker fish? Funny. The opera gag? Funny. The
harpooned cop? EXTREMELY funny, albeit improvised. But this? Not so much.

I'll admit you're right here.

Wasn't quite happy with it myself.  Tell you what, you tell me
what kind of scheme the Joker can do that'll have the same end
results (babs, Linna, & wounded batsy fleeing the scene)?
Any ideas will be taken seriously.

Also, this quite simply isn't grand enough for the Joker's takedown of Batman.
He could always, in the past, have had his goons beat Batman into submission,
or shot him himself, or something: he's had numerous oppurtunities to take him
down the easy, brute force way. But he doesn't WANT to win that way; it's too
pedestrian for him. He himself has said that wants to take Batman down in a
grand scheme worthy of the Dark Knight, so that Batman can bow to his superior
comedic genius right before he perishes. This, quite simply, isn't nearly what
he would have in mind. I can see him taking Bar hostage (he's done it before)
but he'd put her to better use than THIS.

Taken down?  Well, I think I didn't emphasise this particular point...
This bit wasn't aimed at taking Batsy down.  It was just aimed at rubbing
it in on Bats that Mr. J can do what he wants.  It is IC for the Joker
to want to humiliate Batman instead of go for the kill.  In fact, 
humiliating him is often a goal.

//I've got Priss, but... you're not going to believe this.//

"What?"

//I'm... I think I'm in the Batjet.//

Just out of curiosity, where'd you get Batjet from? I've never heard it
reffered to that way in BTAS (where it's always Batwing) or in the comics
(which had Bat-Plane in the 40's, 50's, and 60's and then switched to Batwing
in the 70's) but it's gotta come form somewhere, or you wouldn't have used it.

You're in a fast flying object with Batman in it.  The media
hasn't given it a name.  You're talking to your friend, trying
to tell her where you are.  Now... are you gonna give it
a nifty name like 'Batwing' even though you've never heard the
term?  Fumbling for a description, Batjet seems like a more 
natural thing for Linna to say.

Finally, he lifted the helm away from his face.

Barbara gasped.

 
Damn you and your cliffhangers ^_^....... but I see two possibilities here.

One, which I HIGHLY doubt, is that he's done the Mr. Freeze thing, and there's
nothing left but a head attached to the suit with some electrodes.

Wrong.

Two, which is what I'm banking on, at least until you reveal all the
answers....... I don't think this is Batman at all. I think this is Boomer-
Batman, Bruce Wayne's mind transferred into a robotic body, either using one
of Karl Rossums replicants or your standard boomer. Yeah, I know, it's way out
there, but stranger things have happened in your stories, so this is my
theory.

Wrong, but it's nice to know you recall Rossum's work.

All in all, despite my criticisms, a fine piece of work. I like seeing it set
in Gotham, and for a guy who relentlessly claims to hate battle scenes, you've
done well with all of them, especially with the Joker, who must be quite
difficult to do battle choreography for seeing as how he's always been a wimp
before this. And kudos again for bringing back Mackie.

Mackie will be essential in fitting in the missing pieces on a
certain mystery.

My question is, where is Sylia, and when is she going to show up in that
kickass colormorphed red-and-black hardsuit you have her wearing in your
fanart? 'Cause that thing looks like it can do some serious damage.

She'll wear it when she gets back to MegaTokyo.

-rod m