Batman Confidential #31 - DC

The thing I like about this series is that any given story could have taken place during any given era of Batman's lengthy history. They're stories that apparently we've never heard about. As I'm reading them, I'm usually trying to figure out what was going on in his world at the time. That's just how my mind works. Anyways, this story is about a mutant, apparently, from Russia. He starts out as a kid, I would think rather normally . . he's got a coach and dreams of being an Olympic athlete. But . . someone has other plans for him. They know he's special, and . . they know he has the potential to be a weapon. That's what it always comes down to. Certain people will always either try to make money off of something, or try to figure out a way to use it to hurt others. So I would guess he's probably about 5 to 8 in the beginning of the story. Then we jump ahead 12 years. We're in Russia after it's broken up, and now the country is split up into factions. And, it seems, each faction has it's own crime-family and kingpin. These kingpins are the people that really run this country. Well . . that is, except for their Tsar. He's the actual leader. But, it's a fluid position as any one of the kingpins, at any time, would take actions to occupy that role themselves. So, he has to have a deterrent. That's where this child comes in. We don't know much about him right now. We've only seen him in the shadows. But he appears to be massive, covered with hair, glowing red eyes, and . . if anyone happens to see him, they know they're not long for this Earth. Now we have the development of the Russians trying to start up their business ventures in Gotham. The Tsar, Boris Stavrogin, is trying to strike a deal with the Gotham Underworld. They have a nuclear weapon. They want to move it into Gotham and hold the city hostage. The issue ends with Batman talking to the Tsar, after he beats up one of his hired-hands and takes his cell from him. It's a tense conversation, and both of them have made their intentions clear. Apparently Batman is on his way to Russia. As always, Peter Milligan writes a very tense and interesting story. I'm sure this one will be very intricate, as it will be spread out over the next 4 issues. It actually reminds me of the Denny O'Neil / Paul Gulacy stories of the mid 80's. Anyways, Andy Clarke does the art, and it looks fantastic. I'm not sure what the cover has to do with anything, but . . it's cool looking.