You Taste Like Chicken
We open this time with two dumbass guards not paying attention to the monitors while joking to each other like idiots. (Why is it that every single prison mall or office building in all of fiction has these two exact guards working for them?) White gets knocked out and dragged off by the disguised Jane Doe before returning to his cell. Then we get what may be the funniest bit of dialogue in this entire mini series. Dr. Arkham is laying awake in bed. The narrative captions read, and I quote: I haven't had a full night's sleep in years. Always some idiot on the phone with some new problem. "Doctor Arkham, Scarecrow's trying to hang himself!" "Junkyard Dog flushed something, now all the toilets are broken!" "The Joker got hold of the cleaning supplies. He's going to kill us all!" (I love that one) It's always something. But tonight nothing, Quiet as the grave. This can't be good. The good Doctor then proceeds to grab a loaded shotgun and heads down to Arkham before all hell breaks loose. Back to Arkham, we see that all hell has in fact broken loose. A prison riot has broken out and Cash starts busting some heads and spits out one liners like he's Samuel Jackson. Amidst the chaos, Joker and Two-Face escape, and, because he's bored, Joker decides to kill everyone whose name is a palindrome. Cash starts running after one inmate in particular, not yet knowing who it is. He's ready to skin the bastard with his hook when he stops in his tracks with fear and the inmate he was after is revealed to be Killer Croc. Then we flashback to the past where Cash is trying to ask Doctor Carver out. He has the balls to give a psychotic, murderous cult leader the middle finger but he's a total wuss with the ladies, who woulda thunk. During a touching conversation between the two, Killer Croc rampages through the halls and bites Cash's hand off. Lamenting his situation he broods at his house watching TV and drinking cheap booze. Doc Arkham calls to give him an ultimatum. Sit there and be a cripple or return to the job where it's socially acceptable to cripple others. We see Cash returning to work and to being a badass but we clearly see he still fears Croc. Back in the present, Croc remarks that cash tastes like chicken. Given Cash's ethnicity that statement may or may not be racist but I guess I'll let it slide. Doc Arkham shows up, armed to the teeth, and tranq's Croc right in neck and then gasses the place. Back with Jason Blood and Harvey Bullock, Blood recalls that the murders he's investigating are linked to ancient demons who he banished centuries ago. And so we end with the revelation that the afformentioned demons, called the Skarva, are underneath Arkham.
What Works:
I'm going to take a few minutes to talk about the cover. This cover is essentially the same as the cover for Aquaman #2. If you'll recall, I hated that cover. The thing is, I actually really like this cover. It's that sort of FREAKY FISH FACE!! cover from Aquman done right. Crocs Face is obscured in shadow and very blurry. The only thing that's clear is his eyes, which actually have someone reacting to him in them instead of Aquaman from the previous cover. This is probably the funniest issue of the series so far. Dr. Arkham is great and seeing an old man take out a giant lizard man with a tranq gun is awesome. Cash's backstory is nicely done. There's a Captain Hook/Crocodile relationship going on between Cash and Croc and it works.
What Doesn't:
Not enough of our central character but I suppose that was ultimately necessary to fit all of this backstory.
Overall
5/5
Didn't I tell you this would get good.