Personally, I'm thinking Sexton=Doctor Hurt.
He's hiding in plain sight and it would explain why he knows so much about the Black Glove and why he's investigating the group's murders. Also, the plotline about the possible embezzlement going on at Wayne Enterprises as far as it being something Hurt set up as a failsafe scheme to ruin Bruce and possibly bring him "out of hiding".
As for the Penitent, I'm thinking it would be the Joker, if he's gone sane in the wake of Batman's death.
I think Sexton is the Writer, back from the dead, finally.
I hate to agree with Baker, but I think it's Hurt too. He's gone into hiding to escape whoever's offing his group and is setting up Dick, only for Bruce to burst in and save him at the last minute. It would be a little too obvious to be Bruce Wayne, but then after Black Glove... Who knows!
But...wasn't it revealed that Penitente is Hurt? I thought there was a panel showing him, wearing Thomas Wayne's bat-mask and whipping himself, with a big "W" carved into his back. It kinda fits in with his being an evil Wayne -- during the day Bruce Wayne runs a giant legitimate enterprise while Hurt runs a giant Mexican drug cartel.
That said, I'm realizing that Joker doesn't work insofar as Sexton has had a career as a crime novelist. Joker's the least likely to have penned some "In Cold Blood" types of work in his spare time at Arkham.
Dave
Yeah, that was a preview panel on B&R #1's last page (Hurt, with costume holding a key).
But "Penitant" has yet to be seen on-panel. Just his/her voice on the phone.
That said; another interesting scenerio: what if John Meyhew is Sexton? He wrote a movie script (The Black Glove) and had his face removed and lost a wife. Hurt could have been posing as Meyhew at the end of the Club of Heroes arc/had someone dressed up as Meyhew, which would have let him fool Batman (or could have literally changed shape INTO Meyhew if Hurt indeed something non-human).
Meyhew could have wrote his crime books under an alias and is now wearing the mask he wears to cover up his hideously disfigured, skinned face.
Oh buggery, I'm going to have to re-read the whole bastard thing from the start now.
"What if John Meyhew is Sexton? He wrote a movie script (The Black Glove) and had his face removed and lost a wife. Hurt could have been posing as Meyhew at the end of the Club of Heroes arc/had someone dressed up as Meyhew, which would have let him fool Batman (or could have literally changed shape INTO Meyhew if Hurt indeed something non-human).
Meyhew could have wrote his crime books under an alias and is now wearing the mask he wears to cover up his hideously disfigured, skinned face."
This sounds very probable.
I -think- you're incorrect -- I believe there were 1-2 panels showing Penitente from behind in #6 as he was talking on the phone to Sexton.
Dave
I should say that only thing that made noise in my brain was the discovery of a secret area in Wayne Manor, the same manor that was destroyed in the earthquake and rebuild almost from scratch... but that's continuity silly.
I do wonder why Bruce didn't just left a "Hey guys, I am stuck in xxxx, ask the Flash to pick me up" note.
"Don't forget the milk"
Well, shit, would *you* want to hurry back to the current DCU?
<<I do wonder why Bruce didn't just left a "Hey guys, I am stuck in xxxx, ask the Flash to pick me up" note.>>
It's worrying that when someone posts something like that about Batman, I begin to sound like a fundamentalist Christian. "It's not for you to question Him, how could you possibly understand?"
eoin
This is Batman, God of Overpreparation. I could see him leaving emergency caches in sealed containers concealed all throughout history.
"Stranded in ancient Babylon. Hnh. Plan 27/B"
Maybe he's realized he has to covertly help all the other superheroes that have been sent back in time before he can return. "Have to stop Hawkman being killed in ancient Egypt. Then stop Flash discovering Americas too soon. Then I can go back to Gotham."
Also, if the fireplace or whatever in Gotham mansion was well built and fancy maybe it could have survived an earthquake or whatever and been reused. Or Batman just rebuilt the mansion with heirlooms ("Bruce Wayne purchases rare and expensive fire poker, chamber pots.") and he's gone and left messages on things he know he'll buy.
It's worse than that, no?
Like if you buy the theory that he's responsible for all the people the Joker has murdered by refusing to kill him, this would take things to a whole new level.
Batstradamus should at the very least be warning Gotham about the Earthquake and the Plague, not to mention the 97 DCU cities that have been blowed up.
Well, he made sure all Wayne Enterprise buildings were quake-proof despite their being no real history of quakes - maybe he did let himself know?
And, we have to draw the line somewhere, he's fucking Batman, you know? He's not gonna have worked out how to stop Krypton from exploding or anything. He fights crime, he's not God.
Also, can we just pretend that the rest of the DCU doesn't exist for this story? I mean, can we just pretend that in general, actually...
"And, we have to draw the line somewhere, he's fucking Batman, you know?"
Heretic!
I think the upcoming story, at the very least, should have elements of Bruce versus the notion that you can't change history and of fate/the timeline violently beating the shit out of you if you try and change the past.
Or at the very least, a Booster Gold tie-in that has Rip Hunter threatening to murder Bruce's loved ones in the future if he tries to alter the timeline for the better. Which would give us a nice way to end Booster Gold, as far as the last issue of the series involving Batman (after returning to the present) making his very first priority back being to storm Rip Hunter's lair outside of time and space, to free Booster from his evil son.
Joe, they've already debunked "Batman always wins" via the establishment that Batman is Hal Jordan's bitch, the same way that Superman is Batman's bitch.
*shakes head*
Yet again, another failure to understand the "Batman Always Wins" rule.
Solidified Time, or whatever they called it in Booster Gold that made it impossible for Booster to stop the Joker from crippling Babs Gordon. There are some aspects of DCU history that can't ever be changed. It seems Hitler is one of those.
And seeing what happened to Booster as a result of his attempts to save Barbara from the Joker's gun...I wonder what that put into Bruce's mind besides enhanced respect for Booster.
Of course, Rip Hunter is a lying liar who lies. So "solid time" may not exist so much as "Joker beat the shit out of Booster because Booster fought Joker on a day when Joker was particularring evil-evil and in no mood to fool around with him.
But since Batman Always Wins he would know whether Rip Hunter was lying about solidified time. Since we know Batman didn't stop Hitler, we can safely assume that Rip Hunter was not lying in that instance and solidified time does, in fact, exist.
Unless Batman has a reason to keep Hitler alive. There's always the chance that Adolf is integral to one of Batman's plans. Whatever the explanation, Hitler still exists because of Batman, not despite him.
It is not ours to question Batman.
It's not even like he has to kill Hitler. If he's going to be around since Caveman time, Batman can just travel to Austria and be a postive male influence in young Adolph's life. Hitler could be Proto-Robin.
"Hitler the Boy Wonder" has a certain ring to it. I bet he'd look good in those elf boots.
I'm Jewish, and I have to say that that is so wrong it's right.
This is what I'm saying.
I have a little bit of Jewish in me and a little bit of German. So part of me can enjoy the black humor while the other part of me is trying to forget I ever came up with it.