A Place at the Table

Speaking of interesting pictures, have you seen this scene from a forthcoming issue of 52?I'm not sure who the shtarker is killing everyone at the table, but if I had to guess I'd say it's "the new Blockbuster."

In addition to the random ganglords around the table, I see:

The Mad Mod (quite dead), Magpie and the Ventroliquist (who, as we already know, die after 52). and the corpse of Kite-Man (a.k.a., Charles Brown).

Oh, and that other gentleman, with the hair? Recognize him? You should.

It's the Squid.

In the March 1983 issue of Detective (No. 524), an unprepossessing Gotham ganglord known as "the Squid" squares off against Batman. Impossibly, the not particularly impressive Squid manages to kill Batman and is proclaimed king of the underworld as a result.

As it turns out, the story is a Gotham redux of the famous Civil War tale, "Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge", by Ambrose Bierce. In fact, the Squid has just been fatally shot, and is only imagining his triumph over Batman in his last moment of life.

The story was very loosed reinterpreted as the "Man Who Killed Batman" story on BTAS, with Matt Frewer as "Sid the Squid".

Anyway, I haven't seen the real Squid in 23 years now, but I remember him well. And that's him at that table in 52, Week 25, Page 3.



P.S. I guess a lot people haven't read or don't remember Tec 524, even though, for a reason I haven't mentioned, it's pretty much the basis for everything that's happened in the Batman mythos since then. Do you know what that reason is...?