Thanksgiving night finds Batman and Jim Gordon interrogating a thug named Mickey Sullivan who, together with his small "Irish gang," were directly responsible for the bomb that blew up Harvey Dent's home on Halloween. Batman and Jim hope that in his confession Mickey will implicate the Roman, and he does admit to his own involvement, recounting his attempt to escape partially in flashback. He admits to making the bomb and details his flight from Batman into the Gotham City sewers where he and Batman both encountered Solomon Grundy and barely escaped with their lives. But Mickey denies even knowing the Roman and Batman and Jim are left to ponder Mickey's fianl comment to them, that Harvey killed Johnny Viti, as he is led away by a guard. While the two of them are discussing Mickey's motivations for confessing and not implicating the Roman, an action Batman attributes to his fear of the Roman, the lights mysteriously go out as Mickey is being led to his cell, but they snap back on a moment later.
At the same time Carmine Falcone and his son Alberto are busy preparing Thanksgiving dinner when Carla Viti bursts into the kitchen. She angrily accuses Carmine of inaction in his pursuit of her son Johnny's killers. Carmine tells her that the matter is being handled, but Carla remains unconvinced. And all the while, Alberto looks on as the two argue.
Back in the cell Mickey briefly discusses the plan of action with his fellow gang members. Each of the four other "Irish gang" members in turn confesses to his part of the bombing but none implicate the Roman. Batman and Jim pull Mickey back out of the cell, and it is revealed that the light flicker during his earlier transport was intended to hide the fact that a switch had been made. An imposter replaced Mickey in a botched attempt to trick the other gang members into revealing something that might implicate the Roman. The imposter was in fact Harvey Dent himself. Both he and Gilda survived the explosion on Halloween, but Gilda is hospitalized due to her injuries. Harvey suggests letting the gang go and spreading rumors that they were set free because they gave out incriminating evidence against the Roman, but Jim insists he charge them with attempted murder.
The gang makes bail in under sixty minutes. Harvey leaves to sit by Gilda's bedside in the hospital. Jim goes home to find a cold dinner awaiting him. Batman drops a plate of food off in the sewer for Solomon Grundy, in apology for earlier causing him injury.
And while feasting on a turkey dinner in their hotel room at the Astoria, the "Irish gang" is met by an unknown assailant who kills them all.
Annotations/Analysis
Cover--The bottom of the tablecloth is torn in the shape pf a bat.
Page 1--This opening page shows Bats at is least human, all cowl and eyes without a trace of his face. This effect was probably done on purpose by Bruce in an attempt to intimidate Mickey.
Page 2-3, panel 1--
Jim and Bats are playing good cop/bad cop here. Notice the effect of Batman in the shadows, and Jim in the light offering to help Mickey out.
Notice the wedding ring on Jim's left hand.
Currently there is NOT a pencil can on the desk. There's a lamp and an "inbox" on the left and a phone on the right.
Mickey's prisoner number is 9312482.
Page 2-3, panel 2--Willie Two Times is named after a character in the gangster film Goodfellas. ("I'm gonna go get the papers, get the papers.")
Page 4--Bats' dialogue about the nail indicates actual forensic evidence was collected and sought out dealing with the bombing.
Page 5--Reverse view of the desk in the top panels, the lamp shining in Mickey's arms. Note Bats' and Jim's arm positions and the lack of a pencil can.
Page 8--
"...trying to hide from one demon only to find another." This dialogue denotes Bats' true feelings about Solomon Grundy, that he is a beast of some sort. Bats treats him as such until the very end of the issue, when he finally gets a heart and treats Solly like a human being.
Solomon Grundy takes his name from an old nursery rhyme, the opening line of which ("solomn grundy... born on a monday") account for almost all of the sounds Solly makes. In issue twelve Harvey recites the entire rhyme to Solly in an effort to calm him down.
Page 11, panel 3--What exactly is this thing that Bats uses to stun Solly?
Page 12, panel 5--Here the metal grating hanging above the tunnel entrance strongly resemble teeth, adding more of an uninviting edge to the idea of following Solly.
Page 13, panel 1--Same arm positions, but... ta da! A pencil can appears next to the lamp! It's magic!
Page 13, panel 5-6--The reaction of Jim and Bats to Mickey's accusation that Harvey killed Johnny Viti shows that they might secretly harbor such doubts themselves. Batman continues to look angry and inhuman, while good cop Jim has to turn away ad look out the window rather than face the accusation.
Page 14--
Panel 1--Check out the layout of the desk now. Clearly a pencil can there that wasn't there before.
Jim's wedding ring disappears in this scene. Its absence can be noted in the first and fifth panels.
Mickey's silhouette in Gordon's door in panel one is the same as in the hall in panel two. But after the lights blink out in panel three and come back on in panel four, there is clearly a difference. Mickey's taller all of a sudden and the guards have definitely switched, from a stocky one to a taller, thinner one.
Page 15, panel two--Carmine and Alberto are clearly quite a bit more chummy here than in issue one, perhaps because they believe they are alone and can let their guard down.
Page 15, last panel--If you look at the blocking of the next-to-last panel, then look at the reflection in Alberto's glasses in the last one, you can see it's backwards. The reflection of Carmine should be on the right, and Carla should be on the left.
Page 17--
Is there significance to the Irish gang's prisoner numbers? Probably not, but I woulda thought they'd be sequential. But maybe they were all brought in at different times.
Here are those numbers, by the way.
Jimmy Slick=BK3907090
Dapper Kevin=63580726
Willie Two Times=8904895
Donny Boy=BK4059869
Jimmy Slick claims in panel one to have driven the getaway car, and he clearly was, as you can see if you compare his profile here with that of the driver seen in the last panel of page 47 in issue one
I have no idea how Gilda and Harvey survived the explosion. Nor do I know how Gilda ended up more injured than Harv, who was the one opening the package when it blew up.
Page 19, panel two--Gilda is clearly hooked up to monitors here that would go off if she were to no longer be attached to them, like if she were to leave the hospital to kill the Irish gang.
Page 19, panel three--Talk about continuity. The Gordons' dining room table shown here is the same as in Year One issue two, panel three of page five.
Page 21--Bats is swinging by the Astoria Towers Hotel, where the Irish gang are having dinner. The hotel's sign was seen in the Batman-Catwoman chase in issue one.
Page 22--
The room number for the Irish gang is 2402, which is the number of Janice Porter's room in the hotel Exeter in issue 2 of DV.
The angle of the killing is a little odd, but it still works. The killer clearly enter from the side as shown by the way they all turn in panel three. Holiday guns them down, and then we switch to front view for page 23. Holiday walked aorund them to put the gun and cornucopia on the table, and Willie's fall to the floor is a little awkward. His hand maybe should be on the side, not in front.
Notice how quick Holiday takes them out. He is able to kill them all before any of them draw their guns, including Mickey and Dapper Kevin who have their hands on their guns in panel three. It would take a trained killer to pull that off, not just some housewife who read case files and is also injured to boot.
Even if she could've gotten up from her bed, how would Gilda have known where the Irish gang were hiding out? (Alberto could have been told by his dad, the founder of the flippin' feast.)
And how did Gilda file down the serial number if they had no house? Harvay and Gilda are homeless at this point (thus making them without a workbench too).
The Irish gang as victims of Alberto as Holiday makes sense if you think about it. Alberto will later kill the Gotham City Coroner simply because of what he knows. It doesn't matter if he was going to tell someone or not. He could have, so why take the chance? It's easier to just kill him. Same thing is true with the Irish gang. They didn't betray Carmine... yet... but there was always the possibility that one of them could admit that the Roman was involved. Better safe than sorry. They have to die.
The Irish gang as victims of gilda as Holiday also makes sense. They blew up her house and almost killed her. It's revenge. Also, dealing with them took Harvey away from her all Thanksgiving day. They had to die. (But I don't think she did it, 'cause how could she have?)
Thanksgiving night finds Batman and Jim Gordon interrogating a thug named Mickey Sullivan who, together with his small "Irish gang," were directly responsible for the bomb that blew up Harvey Dent's home on Halloween. Batman and Jim hope that in his confession Mickey will implicate the Roman, and he does admit to his own involvement, recounting his attempt to escape partially in flashback. He admits to making the bomb and details his flight from Batman into the Gotham City sewers where he and Batman both encountered Solomon Grundy and barely escaped with their lives. But Mickey denies even knowing the Roman and Batman and Jim are left to ponder Mickey's fianl comment to them, that Harvey killed Johnny Viti, as he is led away by a guard. While the two of them are discussing Mickey's motivations for confessing and not implicating the Roman, an action Batman attributes to his fear of the Roman, the lights mysteriously go out as Mickey is being led to his cell, but they snap back on a moment later.
