Batman Vol 1 #619 - CGC SS 9.0 - Signed by Jim Lee - Batman Family Gatefold Cover

"HUSH" Part Twelve: The end

Batman cradles the dead body of Harold, his former aide. Hush is standing over them, his guns still smoldering. Batman still has no idea who Hush truly is. He launches into him with a flurry of blows, but Hush keeps a safe distance from him. Hush finally reveals himself to be Tommy Elliot. Batman had believed that the Joker had previously killed Tommy, but that turned out to merely be Clayface in disguise. As Hush, Tommy wants revenge on the Wayne family. Dr. Thomas Wayne had saved the life of his mother after a staged car accident. Elliot wanted his parents to die so that he could collect the inheritance. Jim Gordon and Harvey Dent arrive to give Batman back-up. Harvey shoots Hush two times in the chest, and Hush falls backwards into the bay. Gordon is forced to arrest Dent.

Over the next two weeks, Batman systematically figures out Elliot's plan from the beginning. As he explains to Superman, Elliot had been planning the attacks for over a year, and had the chips Harold placed in the Batcomputer leave subliminal messages showing Thomas Elliot's image, which is why Batman thought of him after the Batline was cut. Superman has already done several sweeps of the river, but never found Elliot's body. Knowing that his enemy was Elliot, Batman deduces that he placed some sort of tracker on his head during the surgery, and asks Superman to burn it out with his heat vision. Reluctantly, Superman complies.

Although Elliot seems to be gone, Batman still has to figure out who the true mastermind of this entire affair is. Who told Elliot that Batman was secretly Bruce Wayne? The trail leads Batman to Arkham Asylum. He finds that it has been the Riddler pulling the strings the whole time. The Riddler had been dying of terminal cancer and had used one of the Lazarus Pits to save his life. In his temporary insanity caused by the pit, Riddler realized that Bruce Wayne was Batman. Healed from the illness, he decided that he wanted to make it big in Gotham. He was tired of being just another crook with a gimmick. So he hooked up with Thomas Elliot (whom he met while researching his illness) and the two decided to play the ultimate riddle against Batman using all of Gotham's super-villains as pawns. Riddler also tells Batman that he created the character Hush; Elliot's identity under the bandages. Batman, however, pulls a trump card on the Riddler: his obsession with riddles will prevent him from revealing Batman's identity, and Batman warns him that if he tries something like this again, he'll turn him over to Ra's al Ghul. Batman also asks the location of Jason's body, but the Riddler doesn't really know it, which angers the dark knight, causing him to punch Riddler and knocking him out.

After conferring with the Riddler, Batman buries Harold on a hill near Wayne Manor, having forgiven his betrayal, where he meets up with Catwoman. Catwoman tries to comfort Batman, but he has still too many doubts about his trust in other people. She approaches him, expecting to kiss him and mutters the word "hush", which makes Batman lose control and faith in her. Batman thinks that she might have been part of it all and he grabs her arms with excessive strength. Catwoman steps back and realizes that their relationship is over and before leaving him alone, she tells him that someday he must learn to trust people for who they are. Batman thinks of her last message, but in the end he stays near Harold's tombstone.