Studio: Madhouse
Director: Jong-Sik Nam, Yoshiaki Kawajiri
Writer: Alan Burnett
Wha’ happen’?
Bruce has a flashback to his parents death in Crime Alley (just in case you were fuzzy on the details). Alfred asks Bruce when he’s getting rid of his bag of sewer guns and expresses surprise that Bruce even wants them in the house given his history with both guns and sewers. Bruce then casually gives the most ludicrously out of character speech in the character’s 84 year history by waxing poetic about the appeal of firearms: “their heft, their sleekness…”
From that, we cut to Floyd Lawton, aka Deadshot, shooting a target from half a city away from a moving Ferris Wheel. Later, Deadshot is called back to Gotham for a new assignment.
On the roof of the GCPD, Crispus Allen tells Batman that the cops have gotten word that Deadshot has been hired to kill Gordon, and Batman tells him that he has evidence that this isn’t Floyd’s first murdercation to Gotham, and that he killed the community activist who died in Field Test.
Batman tails Gordon through the streets of Gotham with Alfred providing surveillance via satellite. Alfred says that the ideal place for Deadshot to snipe Gordon would be from the railway bridge, but that fortunately he doesn’t appear to be on the bridge and, hah, I mean, it’s not like he’d try to shoot Gordon from the roof of a speeding train right?
Lawton takes his shot and Batman…
Batman PUNCHES THE BULLET OUT OF THE AIR.
Shit’s metal as fuck.
Batman and Deadshot battle on the train roof and Deadshot realises that Gordon was just bait and that Batman was his real target all along. They fight, but Batman has already proved that fist beats bullet so he cleans Deadshot’s clock.
Later, in Wayne Manor, Bruce reveals that fighting Deadshot reminded him of the night his parents died (what is a train, if not an alley with wheels?). Bruce expresses doubt as to whether he can ever make a difference but then sees the Bat Signal in the sky and goes to work. It’s probably just some routine bank robbery or something.
How was it?
Okay, apart from that scene this is the strongest short in the anthology so far.
But holy shit, that scene.
Even with Bruce’s caveat that he’d never use one himself, the whole gun speech is just weird. I dunno if you’re aware of this but Batman has traditionally had a somewhat contentious relationship with firearms.
In the first episode of Batman Beyond, Bruce has to resort to using a gun to save his own life. Not even shooting it, just aiming it. And he’s so disgusted with himself that he refuses to every put on the cowl again. And that felt so right.
But, apart from that, this is awesome. The animation is top-tier (Madhouse also did Program, the best animated of the Animatrix shorts) and this is just a great little yarn.
Plus.
He punches a bullet.
What else do I need to say?
unshavedmouse 
Of all the shorts, this one feels most like a proper Batman story, one that could’ve appeared in the Bronze Age. And Batman punching a bullet seems like just the right kind of crazy that a “Bat-God” writer would put into a story.
As for the whole firearm thing, it’s established that Bruce makes sure that his proteges are well versed in guns and how they work so it stands to reason that he’d know all about them too. Waxing poetically about them? Probably not.
But then again, he’s never had a problem fixing gatling guns and cannons to his vehicles to use against robots, parademons and other inhuman monsters. So there’s some touch of hypocrisy there.
Rubber bullets. Honest.
I wasn’t able to find it anywhere, but I distinctly remember a panel from a Batman book where Thomas Wayne is entertaining young Bruce with a clown puppet. And they made the puppet look ridiculously like the Joker just to drive the point home.
So maybe Bruce did like clowns, once. It would be funny if he still does, and just thinks the Joker is a really crappy and unfunny one.
“Live, from Gotham City News! Notorious supercriminal the Joker beaten to death by mob of righteously angry circus clowns tired of being unjustly vilified. Batman quoted as saying “Good for them. The Joker was a insult to the art of clowning.”
Tell me that a Batman ‘66 episode called ‘Clown Bites Joker’ wouldn’t have been a thing of beauty and a joy forever … on second thoughts, don’t even try, an episode where Batman teams up with Good guy clowns to utterly PUNK The Joker* would clearly be proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.
The only thing that could possibly make it better would be if the Head Professor of Gotham’s clown college were played by James Stewart (Who believe it or not had form playing a noble clown).
*That such an episode would be an excellent way of quietly putting across the point that you shouldn’t judge a culture by somebody who has no respect for their values (And I’m not sure there’s a character more flagrantly in breach of the Clown Code than The Joker, even if we include the likes of John Wayne Gacy), no matter how
much of their visual style he may rip off, is a further recommendation.
Batman does find Harley funny and likable enough when she isn’t working for the Joker, for that matter.
In the Justice League cartoon there was also an episode where Deadman takes control of Batman’s body and fires a gun against one of Grodd’s goons. Even though it wasn’t actually Batman who did it, you can tell he was seriously affected by it.