| Synopsis | - In the harbor outside of Blüdhaven, a pirate smuggling immigrants discovers his cargo dead and rotting, victims of the 'Mugre', a supposed mythical disease. Fearing the spread of the disease and to hide the evidence of the rotted bodies, the smuggler, named Pepe, torches the boat. In Gotham, the funeral for entrepreneur turned gang leader Capo Siegel is being held. Among the patrons are “Matches Malone” and Gavin King, both of whom meet up with singer L’Shea, Siegel’s widow, following the internment. Malone gives L’Shea a suitcase full of money and the singer in turn supplies lists of her husband’s “friends and associates” as well as contracts, titles, and leases. L’Shea says with the money she is leaving Gotham for good and asks “Malone” to pass along her thanks to Batman. In Bludhaven, Catalina Flores, a.k.a. the Tarantula, learns from an old woman what was truly aboard the smuggling ship that burned up in ‘Haven’s harbor, refugees from Santa Prisca in which the old lady’s son was one. Back in Gotham, Batman engineers a situation that allows Orpheus to take over the street gangs of the Hill, and lead them into more noble, less criminal pursuits. Also in the Hill, several workers from a sanitation plant are found dead, also victims of the ‘Mugre’. Tarantula, after capturing and questioning Pepe, encounters a being seemingly composed of sentient cockroaches. Following the lead given to her by the smuggler, Tarantula goes to the sanitation plant in Gotham, where she encounters Batman. They are interrupted by the three men who have come to burn the plant down and end the threat of the ‘Mugre’.
|
