[1] The first story arc by Andy Diggle and Whilce Portacio features Batman, roughly a year after he started fighting crime, in his first encounter with Superman's nemesis Lex Luthor.

The next day, Bruce Wayne and Lex Luthor are competing for a military contract concerning a stealth interceptor robot and the O.G.R.E.

Meanwhile, a man in a bar named Jack tells the waitress, Leeny, that he is so good at his job that it no longer excites him.

Back at the Batcave, Bruce postulates that Jack will seek medical attention and begins to search for underground surgeons.

A goon tries to shoot Jack, but the bullet hits a massive container of anti-psychotics above them, flooding the vat.

Jack emerges from the water with white skin, red lips and green hair and his brown suit dyed purple.

Jack – now calling himself "the Joker" – begins terrorizing Gotham, but instead of stopping him, Batman chooses to stay by Lorna's side.

After ending the relationship, he makes a financial donation to help complete Arkham Asylum, where the Joker is imprisoned.

Batman investigates a string of murders, where all the victims are policemen attending an annual law enforcement convention in Gotham.

He suspects that the Wrath, who he thought was dead, has returned after five years, and that he is continuing his vendetta against law enforcement and Commissioner Gordon.

He and Nightwing later find out from her and from Gordon's secret police files that it was the Wrath's sidekick, Elliot Caldwell, who has donned his mentor's costume and is behind the killings.

The new Wrath is overwhelmed by the amount of teamwork and trust the heroes have, not having the same partnership with his cruel mentor, and is defeated and sent to Blackgate Penitentiary.

The first time Batman puts the Joker in jail, but that does not stop him from continuing his killing spree while in custody.

Written by Nunzio DeFilippis and Christina Weir with art by José Luis García-López and Kevin Nowlan.

However, the perpetrator this time is not the Riddler, but King Tut, a character created for the late 60s Batman TV series, making his first appearance in comic book continuity.

He then discover that the culprit is Theodore Gainor, a rogue member of the Blackhawks who has somehow remained young through World War II and now is planning a full scale aerial assault on the United States.

When a strangely supernatural creature begins to kill in Gotham, Batman tries to fight something that he even cannot touch, especially after the monster says he knows about his parents' deaths.

Professor Herbert Combs is early released from Arkham Asylum, which prompts Batman to follow him into a museum.

This leads the Caped Crusader again to cross paths with Marius Dimeter, as the duo fight an undead army summoned by Combs.