Day of the Dark Knight! - Recap

Batman is summoned to Oa, headquarters of the Green Lantern Corps, to help Guy Gardner with cleanup duty. Batman knows from experience that Guy sometimes needs… supervision. Sure enough, Guy makes fun of one small alien prisoner and dumps coffee on him. Too late Batman tries to warn him that the alien’s race grows to giant size when they get wet. The giant-sized alien goes on a rampage, smashing aside the Green Lanterns that try to stop it. Batman distracts it long enough for Guy to recover consciousness and delay it with a series of power ring objects. The alien finally grabs Guy and starts to beat him, and Batman attaches a dehydration device on it. It reverts to its normal size and Batman tells Guy to get to work cleaning up.



Back on Earth, Batman responds to a prison break. Green Arrow shows up and the two heroes quickly end up competing against each other to see how many prisoners they can recapture. Finally they end up with a tie and one elderly prisoner left. However, the prisoner shields himself with a spell and then teleports all of three of them back through time to his own era: medieval England. The prisoner explains that he’s Merlin and he traveled into the future to seek help. Merlin’s former student Morgaine le Fay led an assault on Camelot and defeated King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table, then transformed them into stone statues. Only Excalibur can defeat her, but only a truly worthy hero can draw it from the sword. Merlin traveled into the future and narrowed the choice down to Batman or Green Arrow. As they proceed to the tower containing Excalibur, Morgaine monitors them by spell. She summons one of her warriors, Jason Blood, and invokes the ritual that transforms him into the Demon, Etrigan.



Merlin and the two heroes travel through the forest and Merlin comes to believe that Batman is the destined hero. Green Arrow begs to differ. The Demon ambushes them with a squad of monsters, attacking Batman personally. Merlin conjures a sword and shield for Batman who knocks the Demon back. Batman goes to help Green Arrow while Merlin combats his former servant Etrigan. The Demon teleports behind Merlin and stuns him, then goes after the heroes by throwing a large boulder at them. They open fire and force him to teleport back to Camelot. Morgaine berates her newly-captured servant for his failure and decides to take care of the matter herself.



The heroes finally arrive at a lake where the tower that contains Excalibur stands. By now Merlin is thoroughly sick of the two heroes arguing over who is worthy. The wizard sends Batman on to the tower but Green Arrow goes after him. However, two enormous ogres that Merlin forgot to mention emerge from the waters. Green Arrow and Batman quickly subdue them and a set of stone columns emerge from the water and lead to the tower. Morgaine arrives with the Demon but Merlin warns her that her magic can’t stop the destined hero. Morgaine laughs and casts a spell taking mental control of Batman and cloaking him in magical armor and weaponry. She sends him to get Excalibur for her.



Merlin tries to hold off the Demon while conjuring a sword for Green Arrow. The Emerald Archer goes after Batman and stops him at the entrance. The two fight but Batman gets the upper hand and knocks Green Arrow off a cliff. Below, the Demon stuns Merlin and moves in for the kill. Green Arrow tries to get through to Batman who starts to throw off the mind control. However, Morgaine teleports behind him and reminds him of her orders. He knocks Green Arrow off the ledge where he plummets toward the waters below. Merlin tries to transform Etrigan back to Jason Blood but the Demon covers the wizard’s mouth. Merlin manages to cast one final spell, sending it into Batman.



Batman and Morgaine enter the tower and Batman approaches the sword… then turns and attacks Morgaine. Merlin and the transformed Demon, restored to his human form of Jason Blood, arrive. Morgaine turns into a dragon to fight them and Batman tries to remove Excalibur from the stone, only to discover it’s stuck fast. Morgaine knocks Batman away and Jason Blood transforms back into the Demon. The trio briefly drives her off but she smashes the tower down around them. Merlin lowers them to safety and protects them from the debris, but Morgaine breathes mystic flames transforming first Etrigan and then Merlin into stone statues. Finally only Batman is left… but Green Arrow arrives and stuns her with an explosive arrow. He tries to pull Excalibur from the stone but is unable to move it. Batman realizes that together the two of them are worthy. Combining forces, they pull the sword free and Green Arrow fires it like an arrow into Morgaine’s chest. She disappears in a blast of light, her transformation spell disrupted.



Merlin apologizes to Green Arrow and the Demon departs in a burst of hellfire. Merlin assures the two heroes that King Arthur will want to knight them, but grows irritated as they argue about who was the more worthy one. He hastily sends them back to the prison in their own time. They agree that they’re still tied on villains and settle for a draw… until they get word of a bank robbery in Star City and decide to race.

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