There's a new madman in Gotham City by the name of Nicodemus, kidnapping corrupt city officials and burning them to death; Commissioner Akins calls Batman in when another two councillors go missing. Meanwhile, Alfred is worried about Batman, and particularly his journals - some of them really don't seem to have been written by him. Batman catches up with Nicodemus while he is terrorising Jack McKenna, and although he saves him from asphyxiation, and the other councillor - Thomas Hart - is rescued, McKenna dies of a heart attack. Nicodemus then makes an announcement to the city that he intends to burn it all down, burned from the Earth to eradicate its evil.