Batman: Hush - Plot

Plot

Batman is rescuing a boy kidnapped by Killer Croc, whereupon Catwoman steals the ransom money. As Batman swings through Gotham City in pursuit of her, his rope is cut and he falls to the ground, fracturing his skull. He is nearly killed by a group of criminals but saved by Huntress. His butler, Alfred Pennyworth, follows his instructions to summon Bruce Wayne's childhood friend, Thomas Elliot, now a renowned brain surgeon. Batman recovers, and discovers that Poison Ivy had used Catwoman to steal the ransom and has taken it from her. Batman rescues Catwoman, and a tenuous romance blooms between them. He eventually decides to trust Catwoman and reveals his identity to her. He tries to interrogate Killer Croc but he escapes Arkham, however Batman tracks him down but he is captured before Batman can fully interrogate him.

The pair track Poison Ivy to Metropolis, where they find that Ivy has also taken control of Superman. By using a kryptonite ring that Superman entrusted to him, Batman stalls him while Catwoman lets Lois Lane fall from the Daily Planet building. Superman comes to his senses and saves Lois, and together the heroes capture Ivy.

Later, in Gotham City, Bruce Wayne, Selina Kyle, and Dr. Elliot are attending the opera Pagliacci, when Harley Quinn tries to rob the theater. In the ensuing struggle, Dr. Elliot is killed, and it appears that the Joker shot him. Enraged by seeing this, Batman tries to kill the Joker with his fists, even rendering Catwoman unconscious to prevent her stopping him, but former police commissioner James Gordon appears and dissuades him from doing so, though he wounds Batman with a bullet. Dick Grayson returns to Gotham City for Elliot's funeral. Batman tells him of his suspicions that some mastermind is behind all his enemies behaving so out of character. Behind the scenes, a man with a bandaged face appears at all of the crime sites and seems to be orchestrating the plot. He comes to be referred to as Hush.

After foiling an armored car robbery by the Riddler, Nightwing and Batman discover evidence that Ra's al Ghul is also involved in what Batman has come to think of as a grand plot. Batman kidnaps Talia and leaves Catwoman to guard her while he seeks out Ra's, who tells Batman that someone from his past has used one of the Lazarus Pits. Catwoman is overpowered by Lady Shiva who has been sent to rescue Talia, but Talia knocks Shiva out and helps Catwoman recover from the attack, meeting Batman and telling him what happened. Returning to Gotham, Batman finds the Huntress and Catwoman fighting and is able to have Huntress knocked out. He encounters Scarecrow but overpowers him in a graveyard. He discovers that the current Robin, Tim Drake, has been captured by the former second Robin, Jason Todd, who had previously perished during the events of Batman: A Death in the Family. While fighting Jason, however, it is apparent that Clayface is mimicking the identity of Jason.

Batman then finds a device planted in his computer, which led him to seek his old friend (and trusted mechanic) Harold. He has a late-night meeting with Harold, who has been missing since the times of No Man's Land. Harold admits that someone had treated his disfigured condition in exchange for planting that device, but he is shot and killed by Hush before he can name the mastermind. Thomas Elliot is discovered to be the trigger-man, and the face behind the bandages of the mastermind (it is later implied that Clayface had been mimicking Elliot when he appeared to be killed). Elliot held a grudge against the Wayne family since Batman's father, Dr. Thomas Wayne, had saved the life of Elliot's mother after a motor vehicle accident; Elliot had sabotaged his parents' vehicle in order to gain their inheritance, and considered Bruce's father as the one who did not allow his plan to be completed. In the ensuing confrontation, Elliot is shot by the reborn Harvey Dent and plummets into the water, with Batman never having a chance to unmask him (it is only assumed it is Thomas Elliot). His body is unable to be recovered.

In an epilogue to his face-off with Elliot, Batman discovers that the true mastermind behind the conspiracy is the Riddler. He had used a Lazarus Pit to cure himself of cancer, and during his time in the pit, deduced Batman's identity as Bruce Wayne. Having first approached Thomas Elliot with a cure for his mother's cancer (the Lazarus Pit), the Riddler had instead allied with Elliot against Bruce Wayne. Riddler is also the only villain who Batman did not believe acted in an unusual way during the entire saga; the robbery Batman foiled was fairly typical of Riddler at the time. The Riddler also tells him that he and Elliot referred to the plot as the "Hush" plot. Batman convinces the Riddler not to reveal his true identity to anyone else, because a riddle which everyone knows the answer to would be worthless, and even if he does, the revelation would give Ra's al Ghul a vital clue that Riddler is the one who used his Lazarus Pit, making Ra's send his League of Assassins after him.

Another mystery begins troubling the Dark Knight. Even though the man he fought at the graveyard was revealed to be Clayface, Jason Todd's remains are still missing from his grave. The Riddler even taunts Batman of his greatest failure to save Jason's life, and refuses to tell him where Jason's body is, prompting Batman to punch out the Riddler.

In the final scene Batman and Catwoman meet. He continues to mistrust her and cannot be sure that she is not more aware of the plot than she admits. While trying to console him, Catwoman inadvertently tells him to "hush" seconds before trying to kiss him, provoking a fierce reaction from Batman that compels her to end the relationship. Before leaving, she says that she does not care if their relationship started out as a "spell". It works because of who they are, and someday he will learn to trust that. Batman thinks that it may "someday" be possible.