her mistake and alerts Leatherwing with a cannon shot. As the two ships battle, Leatherwing and the Laughing Man fight. Leatherwing gains the upper hand, but the Laughing Man has a trick up his sleeve; his sword dissimulates a pistol, which he fires into Robin, who jumps in front of Leatherwing. Fueled by rage, Leatherwing kills his adversary by impaling him to his ship's mast with his cutlass and defeats the opposing ship. He then orders the ship to be plundered and scuttled, and gives the Laughing Man's crewmen the choice of whether to join him or sink with the ship. Thanks to Leatherwing's skill at surgery, Robin makes a full recovery, and Felina and Leatherwing become a couple, pillaging and robbing ships all over the seven seas. The final image seen is of the Laughing Man's corpse under the sea, still impaled to his ship's mast. Connections This alternate version of Batman differs from the original in a number of ways and contains references to various works of fiction: Though most incarnations of Batman refuse to kill, this one only wants to spill the least amount of blood possible. In this story, Batman is British, and Alfred is Italian. In regular continuity, Batman is American and Alfred is British. Traditionally, Batman refuses to use guns because his parents were murdered with a firearm. In this tale, Leatherwing's parents were murdered at sword-point, but he has no problem with using a sword. Batman's ship, the Flying Fox is a reference to Zorro, who, in regular continuity, was a major influence in Bruce Wayne's choice to become a superhero. Zorro's name means 'fox' in Spanish and a flying fox is a kind of bat. Also in regular continuity, there is a Golden Age hero called the Flying Fox who essentially replaced the Golden Age Batman. A sequel, also written by Chuck Dixon, was published in The Batman Chronicles #11 (winter 1998) and called "The Bride of Leatherwing". The story is done in prose with illustrations, and features Capitana Felina as the main character and a new enemy, Admiral Cobblepot (the Penguin). According to the Absolute Crisis on Infinite Earths hardcover book, the alternate Earth that this story takes place in was originally known as Earth-494. In Final Crisis Secret Files and Origins #1, it was revealed that on the Nazi-dominated Earth-10, a member of Overman's Justice League is Leatherwing, an alternate