[4] Anarky works in seclusion to further his goal of achieving a utopian society, briefly hiring Legs and other homeless men to monitor Batman's movements.

[1] Grant's primary concerns centered on his belief that Anarky's role as a non-superpowered teenager was not capable of competing for reader attention when DC Comics already had a similar series in Robin.

[9][10] Scheduled for a release date of November 1998, the premiere issue was rescheduled for March 1999,[11] to coincide with the creation of a trade paperback, Batman: Anarky, to help promote the new series.

Due to increasing time constraints for the approaching millennium, it prevented Grant from exploring potential plots involving the Y2K bug he discussed with Breyfogle.

One of the earliest of these editorial mandates was that Grant was ordered to completely rewrite the first three-issue story line,[13] and remove Anarky from Gotham City in the first issue.

[8] These constant impositions on the part of editors nearly drove Grant to quit the series, but he continued the project for Breyfogle's benefit: "I was all for walking away, but artist Norm had a mortgage and family, and basically needed the work".

But I became a minor hero in many Latin countries, like Argentina and Mexico, where readers had been subjected to tyranny and fascism and knew precisely what I was writing about".

[8] Breyfogle expressed an interest using the relationship as a source for internal conflict in the character: "...I figured that because Anarky represents the epitome of reason, one of the biggest crises he could face would be to discover that his father was the exact opposite: a raving lunatic!

According to Grant: Denny only let me write that story under protest, he was totally opposed to Joker being Anarky’s father and said under no circumstances would DC allow that ...

Further, Grant and Breyfogle later speculated that, as Dennis O'Neil has retired from DC Comics, and the final editorial decision currently belongs to Dan DiDio, it is no longer possible to be sure whether a rebuttal will ever be published.

Convinced by Norm Breyfogle to continue the series, he chafed under what he felt were excessive demands made by editors for specific plot changes, such as "toning down" Anarky's philosophy and including cameos for Superman, the Haunted Tank, and the Justice League.

As one of many refugees who escaped from No Man's Land, he relocated to a new base of operations beneath the Washington Monument:[14] ...during the (No Man's Land) story line, when Gotham was devastated by an earthquake, for reasons which I could not make rational or logical in the story, Batman sought out Anarky and told him he had to leave the city or Batman would come down on him like two tons of concrete.

That’s what happens when you let editorial assistants come up with story ideas rather than the guy who’s getting paid to do the writing.Grant considered abandoning the project, but continued it for Breyfogle's sake, as the illustrator was still struggling for employment.

[22] These were intended to include an encounter with Superman, a story arch set in East Timor, and a confrontation with Capital Eagle, a new antagonist for Anarky that had been created by Grant and introduced earlier that year.

[23] Despite poor sales in the U.S., Grant noted that it was popular among philosophy students and sold well in Latin American countries, particularly Mexico and Argentina, perhaps owing to a history of political repression in the region.

Originally a suggestion by Norm Breyfogle,[8] the idea was advanced by Alan Grant as an attempt to solidify Anarky's role as a part of the Batman mythos.

Grant and Breyfogle later speculated that with Dennis O'Neil's retirement, and with the final editorial decision now belonging to Dan DiDio, it is no longer possible to be sure whether a rebuttal will ever be published.

He then referenced the final issue of Anarky, and quoted an unnamed senior DC Comics official who he claimed had told him: "'Anarky will never be the Joker's son.

[27] The story describes that Lonnie Machin narrowly survived an explosion which faked his death in Batman: Shadow of the Bat #40 - 41 (July - August 1995).

With financial independence and technical genius, Anarky invents his new ally, MAX, an artificially intelligent computer, and uses his teleportation device and wealth to reestablish a secret base below the Washington Monument.

He then begins a war against supervillains and the United States Government, while simultaneously searching for his parents, who disappeared in the aftermath of the Cataclysm story arc.

During research, Anarky mathematically predicts the eventual appearance of an "Aberration", an anomaly of physics that will destroy the planet, and steals a Green Lantern power ring to combat it.

[37] The international terrorist's goal is to launch missiles against the factories from Israel, releasing clouds of deadly bacteria and sparking a war in the Middle East, the result of which would be a death toll in the millions.

The threat Anarky represents to the men attending is discussed, and it is decided that Mr. Staines, a mysterious figure employed by the federal government, would be charged with the task of neutralizing him.

[38] A tie-in to the Day of Judgment crossover event, Anarky encounters The Haunted Tank and teams up with its crew to defeat an army of zombies rising from Arlington National Cemetery.

[39] Taking place after the No Man's Land story arc, Lonnie Machin decides to finally confront his supposed biological parents to uncover the truth of his lineage.

He first meets with his alleged biological mother, Greta Mitchell, but finds that she is mentally unbalanced, due to the side effects of Joker venom she was exposed to years earlier.

[47] In an interview, Alan Grant explained that in the original script, these monologues were titled "The History of Consciousness part 1 through 4", and that Norm Breyfogle designed the illustrations so that a single quarter of a Circle-A would act as a backdrop to each, which when placed together created a complete poster image.