Damn, Snyder and Tynion really hit the gas in this issue!
To start, we get two major revelations. First, we learn that Dr. Falsario did in fact hypnotize Gordon into seeing the gun. Finally! Honestly, I thought that we were going to have to wait until issue #51 to discover why Gordon saw the perp with a gun. Moreover, Seeley sets up this revelation beautifully. Rather than it coming from Falsario in some sort of confession, it comes from Jason and Kate realizing that Babs is mind-controlled to see them as Joker and her brother, respectively. They put two and two together, and Kate chases after Falsario while Jason holds off Babs. Seeley also does an amazing job showing a moment of actual warmth between Babs and Jason after Jason uses her photographic memory to remind her of the day that they first met and enable her to shake off the programming. Jason's continued estrangement from the Bat-family is one of my greatest pet peeves, so I was, needless to say, thrilled with this part.
Second, we learn that the disappearance that Bard, Batman, and Croc are investigating is tied to the goings-on under Arkham Asylum. I was a little less thrilled with this part. The problem is that Batman exposits that Batwing and Jim Corrigan have told him that the activity under Arkham involves extra-dimensional aliens traveling through an "inter-reality" doorway. Last I checked, Batwing and Corrigan were fighting Deacon Blackfire. He definitely didn't seem alien-y to me. To make matters more confusing, something involving souls is actually involved, since the Ten-Eyed Man (whoever he is) is sacrificing the missing girl to, well, demons (I think).
The good news is that I was more or less happy with this issue, despite my confusion over the events under Arkham. The bad news is that, man, we probably need to start wrapping up some threads here. I didn't even get to mention Red Robin agreeing to train Harper Row or Gordon having to save some guards during a prison riot. Although I'm pretty sure that we haven't gotten confirmation about aliens under Arkham, it is starting to get hard to keep all the plots straight. Moreover, between the revelations in "Batman" #34 that haven't happened here yet and this alien issue, we just keep hearing about events that we're not actually seeing.
*** (three of five stars)
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