Jonathan choked again and froze where he stood. The environment he was in told him Batman was stating the truth, but he still had another vision in his mind—his original plan.
Gotham's villains all shared a trait. Especially the highly intelligent criminals led by Joker, Scarecrow, Two-Face, and Riddler: they were exceptionally good at creating no-win dilemmas to break Batman's armor.
Put simply, it was the trolley problem. Choose one or two? The rich or the poor? Men or women? The old or the young?
Of course, such questions had no right answer. No matter which option he chose, it would be wrong—or rather, no matter what Batman chose, these villains would have their own twisted logic to point out his mistake.
That was why many comic readers felt Batman always seemed somewhat powerless when faced with such choices, and his solutions were often a little rough. In truth, Batman had long known it was a trap from beginning to end. Whichever option he chose, it meant nothing.
This was merely a one-sided interrogation, not a confrontation, and this time, that was Jonathan's plan as well.
He knew Batman would certainly discover that someone had poisoned Gotham's drinking water. And with Batman's methods, he would eventually trace it back to Jonathan's residence. So Jonathan waited here for him, waiting to begin this grand feast of interrogation.
Back then, the missing-persons case in Morsen District had shown the fledgling Batman the cruelty and utter inhumanity of those serial killers. Jonathan knew it must have left an extremely deep impression on him, so his first step was to provoke Batman's nerves and plunge him into anger.
If it had been the old Batman, hearing Jonathan's shameless, smug, self-congratulatory words would certainly have made him angry. Even if he did not show it