Batman: Contagion is a Batman Bat Family Crossover released by DC Comics in 1996.
Gotham City has been in a bit of a upheaval since Bane's release of Arkham's inmates and the appearance of the armored Batman. As the original Batman attempts to fix things from that time, a new threat has arrived - Jean-Paul Valley, the former armored Batman, warns Batman that someone has been infected by a genetically-modified supervirus created by the Order of St. Dumas and is on a beeline for Gotham itself. When Batman and Robin fail to find and isolate the man, it becomes a race against time to save the city against a virus that could spell the end of Gotham and possibly the world.
Contagion ran through Batman: Shadow of the Bat #48-49, Detective Comics #695-696, Azrael #15-16, Robin #27-28, Catwoman #31-32 and Batman #529 with The Batman Chronicles #4 being a collection of side stories set between parts 8 and 9. The story kicks off a line of events that continues with Batman: Legacy, Batman: Cataclysm and ending with Batman: No Man's Land.
Tropes featured in this storyline:
- All for Nothing: A bulk of the story has some of the Bat-Family trying to hunt down survivors of the plague from Greenland. The first is killed by St. Dumas assassins, the second killed himself believing himself invincible, but Catwoman is able to rescue the third and get her back to Gotham, only to learn that the three survivors only lived because they had a natural immunity to the plague, which made them useless. Azrael and his allies are able to find a cure through some documents they saved, but as Legacy reveals, even that was fleeting.
- Apocalyptic Log: One chapter around the middle is narrated by Gotham's best-selling novelist, trapped among dozens of other elite infectees inside the Babylon Towers condo. Subverted when Poison Ivy is sent in with a cure... and then Double Subverted when it turns out the cure is a dud, and the author despairingly tries to pray to God before dying.
- Awesome, but Impractical: Upon finding the cure, Azrael decides the best thing to do is... charge through barricades and knock through everything in his path to get the cure to the right people. His friends just use a fax machine, though it's noted that when Jean-Paul dons the Azrael gear, his mind goes back to the Avenging Angel way of thinking, so modern solutions don't come to mind for him.
- Badass Bookworm: Kendall Stuart, The Immune, is a geologist with the appearance of a seasoned woodsman. His diary reveals that he spent several days holding a hardened Triad enforcer at gunpoint during an earlier outbreak of the eponymous disease due to fearing that the man was infected and would spread the virus if he left before quarantine units arrived.
- Black Comedy: While taking Poison Ivy out of the Babylon Towers with Comissioner Gordon in tow, Gordon sees the dead members ot the elite lying around on the floor and remarks that "[It's] a glimpse of the pit", to which Batman retorts which one of the two is Dante or Virgil. Gordon complains that Batman is making classical references at such a desperate time.
- Call-Back: When Nightwing rushes Robin into the Batcave, saying he has been infected with the Clench. Alfred, as stoic as always, tells Nightwing to bring the medical equipment they have stashed from when they ministered to Bruce after Bane broke his back during the Knightfall storyline.
- Dirty Cop: Andrew Howe, the new Acting Commissioner of the Gotham City Police Department after outgoing Mayor Krol booted both James and Sarah Gordon prior to the event. He proves to be corrupt and very inefficient and is booted from his position at the end.
- The Elites Jump Ship: Peter Maris tells the other residents of Babylon Towers to dismiss the personnel and to isolate themselves in their complex, thinking that this would save them from the Clench Virus. However, by doing so they spread the plague through Gotham.
- Godzilla Threshold: Early in the story, Tim considers working with Catwoman to be this while Batman considers recruiting Azrael, after everything he did prior, to be this. Later on, Bruce turns to Poison Ivy for help in stopping the virus.
- The Hedonist: Before Poison Ivy arrives with the cure Batman manufactured to test it, the rich start to indulge in orgies to spend their last moments in pleasure.
- He's Back!: James Gordon gets two of these:
- The first is when he teams up with Batman. Having dealt with the Jean-Paul Valley Batman and watching his Sanity Slippage, watching two Batmen duke it out, Nightwing stepping into the role, and now a Batman in a darker outfit, he couldn't trust any of the Bats anymore. When he teams up with Batman, he realizes that this guy is Batman and trusts him once more.
- At the end of the story, newly-elected Mayor Grange orders Gordon to return to duty as Commissioner. Bullock and Montoya are happy to have him back.
- Hope Spot: As mentioned above, all three of the plague survivors in Greenland turn out to be dead ends. Poison Ivy manufactures an additional one by claiming she can kiss immunity to the desperate billionaires stuck inside Babylon Towers. Anyone even remotely familiar with her powers can guess how that goes.
- Kill It with Fire: Near the end of the storyline, a mob with torches and pitchforks walks towards the Babylon Towers complex to burn it down, since they know the plague started there. They throw their torches at the building and it burns down.
- Laser-Guided Karma: At the start of the story, Mayor Krol fires Sarah Essen and appoints the incompetent Andrew Howe as commissioner to get back at Gotham for voting him out of office, which impedes the efforts to bring order to Gotham when the Clench hit the city, as well as try to downplay the crisis. The governor, already fed up with Krol before the story, overrides Krol's efforts by sending in the National Guard and, in the finale, swears Marion Grange ahead of schedule, who then informs Krol of this as she kicks him out of the mayor's office and fires Howe so she can reinstate Jim Gordon.
- Mayor Pain: The last of Krol's petty and incompetent antics during his tenure as Gotham's mayor. After losing his reelection bid, he demotes Sarah Essen and appoints Andrew Howe as police commissioner to get back at Gotham for his loss, along with trying to downplay the Clench crisis. This is partly why the police opt to take orders from a still off-the-force Jim Gordon — and why the governor sends in the National Guard and later opts to just go ahead and swear in Marion Grange, the woman Krol lost to, early after the crisis is resolved.
- Morality Pet: During the final mopping up, Catwoman is awestruck to see Robin on the streets fighting against the rioting mobs, despite having nearly died from the Clench. This inspires her to pitch in.
- No Longer with Us: In the final part, Nightwing returns to the Batcave intending on giving Tim the cure, only to be told by Alfred it wouldn't do him any good. Dick is devastated until Alfred tells him that Tim already got the antidote. Dick's relieved, though a little miffed at Alfred's joke.
- Not So Stoic: Alfred continues to minister to Tim as he is dying of the Clench. Tim says Alfred has always been "a rock" that he and Bruce rely on. Alfred agrees with this and encourages Tim to try to sleep - then turns away so Tim can't see him shedding tears.
- Patient Zero: After Azrael alerts Batman an infectee is coming to Gotham, it's shown that a wealthy man named Peter Maris, who lives in the Babylon Towers complex with members of the Gotham elite, unknowingly brings the virus to the city.
- The Plague: The Ebola Gulf A Virus, also known as "The Clench" and "The Apocalypse Virus", a mutated strand of the Ebola virus created by the Order of St. Dumas, it mutates those infected into monstrous beings, eyes bleeding blood. Tim is infected during the event.
- Quarantine Failure: Batman is contacted by Azrael that a carrier of the Ebola Gulf-A virus escaped culling from the Order of St. Dumas and is making his way to Gotham. Batman and Robin attempt to find him only to fail when the man is able to hide in a ritzy hotel. Furthermore, his exposure to other people in his race to reach this supposed haven allows Gotham itself to fall victim to the virus.
- Shout-Out: To The Masque of the Red Death. The Gothamite elite barricades themselves in a posh condo called Babylon Towers in a vain attempt to survive the spread of the virus among the populace. However, one of the members of the elite begins to show symptoms, and infects the others.
- Tears of Blood: Victims of the plague start to bleed from their eyes.
- Renee Montoya sees something on the eyes of her then boyfriend, Johnny, and notices it's blood. He is later found dead in his apartment.
- When Tim Drake begins to show symptoms, blood starts to run down his faces from his eyes.
- What Did You Expect When You Named It ____?: Babylon Towers, a self-contained housing complex for Gotham's ultra-wealthy, shares its name with a city mentioned in the Book of Revelations in connection with the Apocalypse.
