February 14 finds Jim Gordon and Harvey Dent on the doorstep of Wayne Manor. They want to speak to Bruce about the connection they have recently discovered between the Waynes and the Falcones, and even though Bruce is not at home Alfred lets them in. When Harvey tactlessly presses Alfred for information about Bruce's father, Alfred warns the two that, it being Valentine's Day, Bruce might be out for quite some time and perhaps they might spend their time with their wives instead.
Meanwhile Batman has confronted Carmine at Alberto's grave, asking the Roman if his son's life was an equal trade-off for his life of crime. Carmine is ready to shoot Batman for his insults, when Catwoman appears and yanks the gun from his hand with her whip. Batman chases Catwoman down to find out why she interfered and to warn her to stop getting involved.
Later Bruce Wayne meets Selina Kyle at the opera, where they are approached by a female peddler trying to sell Bruce a rose. Selina pays, and the peddler rakes the thorn against Bruce's finger, drawing blood. The peddler slyly smiles as she walks away, her thin green lips a sharp contrast to her pale white cheeks.
At Maroni's restaurant, Vernon and Sal are discussing what Vernon has learned as a plant in the DA's office. Sal hands a stack of money to Vernon, who then reveals that Maroni has been targeted as the key to bringing down the entire Falcone organization. Outside several of Maroni's guards, hired to keep the restaurant secure after the Joker's attack on Christmas, are warming up in a car when Holiday arrives, opening fire on the guards and then blowing up the car. Maroni rushes outside to find Holiday's clue, a heart-shaped box of candy, and vows revenge.
Jim Gordon comes home and gives his wife the same box of candy, kissing her as she rocks Jim Jr. to sleep. Harvey in turn comes home to join Gilda in bed. And Bruce returns to Wayne Manor, sniffing the rose he earlier received and too preoccupied to answer Alfred's questions about his evening. Bruce heads straight out to the veranda, as if sleepwalking, to meet there the peddler who gave him the rose: Poison Ivy.
Annotations/Analysis
Cover--Possibly my favorite cover of all thirteen issues. So much is going on here. First of all, you have Batman getting scratched by a black cat, symbolizing how he gets "scratched" by both Selina and bad luck in this issue. Then you have the ivy encircling him, showing how Bruce gets wrapped up in Ivy's influence. And the whole thing is in a heart with rose-shaped lattice around it, keeping it in touch with the Valentine's Day theme if the issue while also foreshadowing what role a rose will play in the story. Love this cover.
Page 1--Alfred's got his work cut out for him if there are always bats flying aroud the manor, as we see in the upper right corner of this page. All that guano must stain the rugs something horrible!
Page 2 and 3--Harvey's hostility here might be simply due to the fact that he suspects Bruce isn't as goody-goody as he seems, or it just might be pure jealousy. Bruce has got a nice house and (at least Harvey thinks) doesn't worry himself with Gotham's affairs too much. Meanwhile Harvey, as he takes care of what needs to be done (as he said to Bruce in issue one) gets his house blown up. Sour grapes?
Page 4, panel one--Alfred apparently has led them into another room to wait on Bruce The large antechamber on the last two pages had the same picture of Thomas and Martha hanging above a fireplace, but there the fire was roaring. In this room there is no fire, a grate is in front of the fireplace, and the two chairs and ottoman that were in front of the fireplace are gone. Plus, in this room there are bookshelves to the left of the fireplace and a grandfather clock (THE clock that leads to the Batcave possibly) stands directly to the right.
Page 5--Check out Alberto's tombstone in panel two. We learn from it that Alberto was born on Feb. 14, Valentine's Day (which he'll tell us late in issue thirteen). That's why Carmine is visiting the grave even though he died a month ago. (My question is: technically shouldn't it say that he died on Dec. 31, not Jan. 1?)
Page 6--
Batman's cape stretches to impossible lengths here so it can fully encircle and thus trap Carmine. This isn't a beef, though; I like the effect it gives, along with the fact that it looks like Batman is stepping out of the darkness of his cape. Note that parts of his body aren't visible. It gives him an inhuman quality as he asks the Roman this very human question, "Was your son's death worth it?"
The rose laid at the graveside has always reminded me of the scene in the Batman movie where Michael Keaton leaves roses in Crime Alley. It humanizes the Roman a great deal and makes me feel sorry for him that this monster Batman is terrorizing him.
"Touchable." Another movie memory pops up, this time of poor Charles Martin Smith getting shot at pint blank range in an elevator by Billy Drago. He was an innocent character, much like Alberto was (or so we're led to believe) and this word again is designed to raise our sympathy at his plight. (Jeph's playing with us big time here!)
Page 10--The scratch Catwoman gives him here is the same cut Selina sees on Bruce's lip on the next page.
Page 11--
The shot of Selina and Bruce holding hands warmly in the first panel is a great juxtaposition with the tight grip Batman had on Catwoman's hand in the last panel of the previous page.
Also there in the first panel you'll notice that though Batman had stubble to beat the band on the last page, apparently Bruce used the Waynetech product Stubble-B-Gone in between pages.
Panel two shows us that they're going to the opera, since they meet in front of a building labeled Opera.
Also in panel two you can see Ivy milling about in the background, her distinctive hair bundled tightly here (and in the fourth panel, and on the next page's first panel) behind her back.
Page 13--Even though Vernon starts out in panel one with all the money in his hand, Sal only lets him get one bundle before he provides some meaningful info, as we can see by the way Sal places his hand on top of the bundles in the second panel. (As for the info itself, we see Vernon receive this information until the next issue when he eavesdrops on Jim and Harvy talking about Bruce on St. Patrick's Day. At this point we can only assume that Vernon has talked to Harvey about Sal at some point off-panel.)
Page 14--None of these four mooks are one of the guys (Angel or Curly) that carried Toots to the trunk on Christmas. BUT both of those guys end up listed in the coroner's files in issue ten as Holiday victims. So when did they die? during the St. Patrick's Day hit?
Page 15--In case you care, the license plate of the car that explodes in these pages is JKX126.
Page 17--The layout of Maroni's is slightly different here than on Christmas Eve. In issue 3 on page eight we get our first glimpse of Sal's restaurant. It appears as if the place only has one window in panel one, page eight of issue 3, but since we see it with two windows here (page 14, panel one) I can only assume that the second window to the left in panel one of page eight of issue three is also part of Maroni's. BUT on page 17 of this issue, panel two we only see one window and then a brick wall with the booths up against it, whereas in issue three, panel two of page eight the booths are clearly against the back wall (which we know from the angle of the shadow of the window) and the wall has wood paneling. Also behind Maroni in issue three is a wall covered with pictures (see panel four of page nine of that issue), while none of the booths on this page have anything like that. My theory is that Maroni's has a non-smoking section which we see in this issue, and a smoking section which was closed up for the night on Christmas Eve so that Maroni and Toots can eat.
Confused? Me too. What it boils down to is this: I'm trying to explain the difference in layout of Maroni's restaurant in issue three (pages 8 and 9) and here. Essentially my explanation is that there's two parts to the restaurant and in each issue we see another part. (A map would make this so much easier. I'm going to have to draw one and scan it.) For now, let's move on. My head's starting to hurt.
Page 17, panel 5--"I'll give you war." Maroni seems to be screaming this comment more at Falcone than Holiday, which shows that he thinks Carmine is backing the murders. This panel sets up the discussion Harvey and Jim have in the next issue about the war that has erupted between the two families.
Page 19--
The similarity of the candy box Harvey gives Gilda here to Holiday's clue is just a red herring. jim's was similar too and he's not a suspect... or IS HE????
Note that both Gilda and Harvey are wearing their wedding rings in panel two.
February 14 finds Jim Gordon and Harvey Dent on the doorstep of Wayne Manor. They want to speak to Bruce about the connection they have recently discovered between the Waynes and the Falcones, and even though Bruce is not at home Alfred lets them in. When Harvey tactlessly presses Alfred for information about Bruce's father, Alfred warns the two that, it being Valentine's Day, Bruce might be out for quite some time and perhaps they might spend their time with their wives instead.
