Azrael Vol. 2

This volume is the second in the Azrael series, picking up from DC's 2009 event Battle for the Cowl. After Final Crisis, Batman Bruce Wayne is presumed dead, Gotham City loses its guardian beneath the cape, and organized crime seizes the opportunity to revive itself while members of the Bat Family argue over who should inherit Batman's mantle. Azrael's storyline unfolds against this backdrop: Michael Lane was once hypnotized and brainwashed by Doctor Hurt into believing he was Batman, enforcing the law on the streets with extreme violence; after breaking free of the conditioning, he is lost over who he really is. The Order of Purity, which shares origins with the Order of St. Dumas but has taken a different path, finds him and deems him the new candidate for Azrael, granting him the Sword of St. Dumas and the armor. From then on, this new Azrael must choose between religious fanaticism, violent impulses, and true heroic conviction, while joining the Bat Family in facing the chaos brought by Gotham's power vacuum. As the second volume in the series, it continues Michael Lane's transformation from a manipulated pawn into a vigilante beneath the cape, and his relationship of both cooperation and estrangement with other members of the Bat Family (Nightwing Dick Grayson, Robin, Batgirl, and others).