THE COSMIC MENACE GOTHAM WASN’T READY FOR (aka: Bruce Wayne develops stress wrinkles in real time)
Lucian “Lux” Marrow has way too many titles and absolutely zero survival instinct for anyone around him:
Harbinger of the Lost
Echo of Unraveled Sanity
Warden of the Inevitable
Reborn Soul of Toppled Kingdoms and Slaughtered Tyrants
And for Gotham’s collective blood pressure, he finally decides to use them.
After Lady Gotham drops yet another stack of “usual massacre nonsense” reports—Clown murders again, rogue destroys half a block again—Lux just. Snaps. Or reverse-snaps. Double-snaps. Reality-snaps? No one knows what his baseline even is.
Point is: He decides to actually avenge the lost.
Which, in Lux-speak, translates to:
Eliminate. Every. Major. Rogue. Personally.
And he does it like he’s speedrunning a villain genocide route.
The Bats notice IMMEDIATELY.
The Problem™?
There is zero evidence.
Lux appears at every crime scene but:
No weapon
No fingerprints
No DNA
Cameras? Toast.
Witnesses? Snoozing.
Lux himself? Looks like he walked out of a celestial fashion ad with “ethereal blood-resistant footwear”
They even tried turning him in to Gordon—Lux just walked out on bail with a 🙂 like the most smug cosmic cat.
Batman is losing the remainder of his sanity. The rest of the Batfam? Unbothered. Rowan (Jason equivalent)? Has a crush the size of Crime Alley and is actively rooting for him.
Worst part?
Lux knows. He knows exactly how badly this drives Batman up the wall. And he escalates the bit like it’s performance art.
Scene of the Year
Batman: You just killed Scarecrow.
Lux — standing in a puddle of fresh, unmistakably villain blood: “No I didn’t.”
Batman: You’re literally STANDING in his blood.
Lux: “Prove I didn’t mistake this puddle for cherry punch.”
Batman: WHY would you stand in punch—?!
Lux: “Why are you policing my hobbies, cryptid?”
Rowan, from the shadows: “He’s kinda right.”