

- Professor Hugo Strange, along with his loyal servant Sanjay are conducting genetic experiments to transform subjects ideal / super human specimens. He hopes to secure more funding at Gotham Science Institute's Charity Ball.
- Normal Madison also attends the Ball. He is Sal Maroni talk about their past "business", but they were interrupted by the arrival of Julie, Norman’s daughter and Bruce’s current girlfriend. Some of Maroni's people notified him that Batman interfered with a recent shipment, and Maroni leaves to deal with that situation.
- Julie and Bruce dance at the party all night then go back to Wayne Manor. Bruce ditches her while she’s sleeping to go do Batman stuff. Alfred drives her home (oof).
- Later in the party, Maroni approaches Strange. Maroni recalled their past business and he offered his help to Strange. The professor couldn't resists and asked for two hundred grand.
- It’s reveals that Strange’s experiments turn his subjects into monsters. He feeds a woman who mocked him at the party to his experiments.


Part One

#1 - Part One



- GCPD investigates the crime scene of a headless woman’s body covered in bite marks, found in the sewer. Batman examines it too.O
- In the meantime, some of Maroni’s men show up at Strange’s lab to remind him about his debt. Strange orders his servant Sanjay to follow them and learn about their hideout.
- Bruce is late for a date with Julie Madison and then cuts the date short to stop a robbery. Julie is suspicious about Bruce’s mysterious activities at night.
- Later, Professor Hugo Strange visits Arkham Asylum to get another "test subject".
- After having analyzed the hair from the dead woman's hand, Batman concludes it was human hair but it was oddly thick for human hair.
- Madison calls Maroni to ask him some money, as he did in the past. Maroni agreed and welcomed Madison back into the line of corruption.
- Batman goes out to back to the crime scene and follows further into the sewers. He find scraps of biohazard bags. Batman decides to look into Maroni's illegal activities.
- Sanjay arrives and tells Strange about Maroni's hideout. Strange decides that one of his experiments should be enough to handle them. He sets one of his creations to attack Maroni's place. The monster breaks into the house and kills every man in its path.


Part Two

#2 - Part Two



- Batman was examines the massacre at Maroni's cabin hideout. He notices some hairs similar to the ones found on the woman corpse.
- Batman decides to go to Maroni's HQ.
- Hugo Strange was already at Maroni's and he payed Maroni back the money he borrowed. Maroni was impressed but suspicious. Strange doesn’t tell him that it was his own money, taken from the deceased henchmen at the massacre.
- Batman listens to the conversation and notes Strange’s license plate as he leaves.
- Maroni then calls his boss Carmine Falcone, who tells Maroni to get out of town for a while. Batman shows up at Maroni’s in the middle of the night asking for info about the massacre. Maroni answers his questions, then he realizes where Strange’s money came from.
- Back in the Batcave, Bruce discovers car's plate and he finds that it belongs to a man named Hugo strange, a former professor of psychiatry at Gotham State University until he was fired for his unethical experiments with human genetics.
- The next day some of Maroni's henchmen visit Norman Madison to threatened him and his daughter so he would pay up.
- That night, Julie and Bruce went for a walk in the park but Bruce leaves early to follow up on the Strange case.
- Later, that night, Batman goes to Strange's reported address. He sneaks into his lab. Batman attempts to interrogate Strange but it then shot with a poisoned dart by Sanjay and locked in a cell with the now bloodthirsty monsters.


Part Three

#3 - Part Three



- Batman begins fighting/avoiding the monsters. Strange is impressed.
- Batman is soon finally caught by one of them. They ripped off the Utility Belt and cape is separated from the cowl.
- Batman frees himself and reaches some handcuffs from his utility belt. Batman cuffs a monster to a grate in the floor, and the monster’s strength pulls it free. Batman escapes into the sewers.
- Strange was so amazed by Batman that he decided to use his DNA in his next experiment.
- Batman manages to get home. The next morning, Bruce is awoken by Julie, who sneaked her way into Bruce's bedroom. Julie is shocked by Bruce’s injuries. Bruce explained that he had an accident while playing polo the last night. Julie is still concerned and she tells Bruce that she had noticed scars before and even that she thought some of them were bullet wounds. Bruce tells her that he was a grown man and that he knew how to take care of himself.
- That night, Strange is working with Batman's DNA obtained from the poisoned dart when some of Maroni's henchmen arrive. They destroy Strange's test subjects and warned him to avoid unusual events (e.g. massacres) around the next time of his payment. When they left, Strange commands Sanjay to follow them in order to learn Maroni's secret hideout.
- In the Batcave, Bruce was listening in via a bug he placed in Sanjay's robes, so he knows Maroni is in grave danger.


Part Four

#4 - Part Four



- Commissioner Grogan called Captain Gordon to his office to ask him some questions about Batman. Gordon denied any connection.
- Hugo Strange’s lab burnets down. Likely intentional to hide evidence.
- Batman get a call from Gordon and meets him at GCPD. He updates Gordon about the case.
- Strange is pleased to see that his latest creation, made with Batman’s DNA, is much better than his previous efforts. They head out of town with their monsters.
- Julie Madison was going on to the library when her father, Norman stopped her and told her about his dealings with loan shark Sal Maroni and that she was in grave danger. Norman told her to find a safe place to hide while he solved the problem.
- After Julie was gone, Maroni's men arrived at Norman's place and demand his payment. Norman says he will pay only Maroni in person. They arranged to take Norman to Maroni's secret hideout.
- Julie arrives at Wayne Manor and tells Bruce about her father. Bruce tricks her into drinking a sedative so he can leave at the Batman.
- Strange and Sanjay arrived Maroni’s hideout (an out of town building owned by Falcone) and release their monsters.
- Batman decides to use the new Batmobile and heads to Maroni’s hideout.
- Norman Madison is taken inside Maroni's hideout and led to Sal Maroni. Some loud noises came from the outside. One of Maroni's henchmen bursted in and say their being attacked. Maroni wrongly assumes it was Norman who set him up, and Maroni aims his gun at him.


Part Five

#5 - Part Five



- Maroni is about to shoot Norman Madison in the head when one of his henchmen comes flying through the window, thrown from the first floor by one of Strange’s monsters.
- Batman arrives and captures on of the monsters. Maroni's henchmen seize the chance to kill the trapped monster and it turns out that it was Sanjay's brother. Infuriated, Sanjay starts killing Maroni's henchmen until one of them finally shot Sanjay.
- Strange is left alone and goes to hide until the monsters are finished.
- Maroni escapes using the helicopter at the top of the building.
- In the building, Batman traps two more monsters and finds Norman Madison. Batman asks him about Maroni and finally before leaving, Batman calls him by his name, suggesting he leave as soon as possible. Norman is scared of Batman and the fact that he knew his name.
- The last monster men, the one with Batman's DNA, tries to stop the helicopter from leaving. Batman use a heavy tranquilizer on the monster, then he attacked him, causing the monster to fall to his death.
- Batman forces Maroni to forget about Norman Madison's debt before letting him leave.
- The next day, Julie Madison wakes up in Wayne Manor and Bruce tells her that he had talked to her father and that he would "help" Norman to pay his debts.
- Bruce sees a TV show broadcasting live with Hugo Strange as the guest. Strange is there talking as an expert psychologist on the unstable psyche of the Batman.
- Bruce has no proof to implicate Strange and cannot pursue him as Batman without it looking personal.
- Norman is at his place, watching the TV show, listening to Strange speaking about Batman. Madison is in a broken and paranoid state, believing Batman will come after him for dealing with criminals.


Part Six

#6 - Part Six



Batman and the Monster Men is a six-issue miniseries. It is the first part of the Dark Moon Rising series. It focuses on Batman's first encounter with Hugo Strange.


Batman and the Monster Men (January, 2006 - June, 2006)

Comics