IMPOSTORAMA, the Batman edition: Tommy Carma
(These scans, from Batman #403, are taken from that same Picsaweb account I linked to in a recent post)
Okay, so obviously, he wasn’t the REAL Batman, but he sure thought he was! The blond character is Tommy Carma, a former supercop who used to also be a Batman superfan (to the point of naming his own daughter Robin) until his family was killed by the mob. As you can imagine, he then became a sort of insanely delusional Bat-Punisher, killing criminals while firmly believing that he was the one true Batman. He’s eventually taken down by Batman, and that seemed to be the end of it.
So why, then, did this delusional sequence at Arkham Asylum happen at the very beginning of the following issue? Because apparently, sending a guy who thought he’s Batman to the real Arkham Asylum was not such a hot idea:
Yes, surrealname, that will be us someday.
Chris Sims wrote about the Carma saga (if a two-parter can be called a saga), if you’d like the full rundown. It might just be my favorite of Max Allan Collins’ Batman stories, and Carma is a character I’d like to see revisited.
Maybe he could go after an Impostor Two-Face or two? Hell, have him be manipulated by Hugo Strange, and then maybe we could have an entire clash of Impostors! You could use the fake Jokers from Marv Wolfman’s post-Death in the Family story, and David Hine’s recent one! The Catwoman wannabe from Hugo’s own story in Gotham Knights by Devin Grayson! And... um... who else is there? John Astin as Impostor Riddler!
As far as Impostor Bat-Clash stories go, it certainly sounds like a much better idea than this all-too-real video game which is actually being released:
Click to viewGood god, it’s like Frank Miller’s Mutants versus the Jokerz through a Kick-Ass filter. How in god’s name did this get greenlit? And more importantly, are those two gangs your only options?