Story: "The Honored Dead" (30 Pages)

Credits:

Greg Rucka (plot, script)
Shawn Martinbrough (pencils)
Steve Mitchell (inks)
Todd Klein (letters)
Wildstorm FX (colors, color seperations)
Dennis O'Neil (edits)

Feature Character:

Batman

Supporting Characters:

James Gordon
Harvey Bullock (becomes a police detective)
Renée Montoya
Mackenzie Bock
Crispus Allen (first appearance; next in #744)

Villain:

Vasily Kosov (first appearance; head of the Russian mafia in Gotham City)

Other Characters:

Stacy (Gordon's secretary; next in #748)
Lieutenant Jerry Hennelly (first appearance)
Sergeant Jerome Collins (first appearance; a Gotham City police officer; deceased)
Tom Basso (a Gotham city police officer; behind the scenes)

Synopsis:

James Gordon returns to his job as Police Commissioner for the first time since the death of his wife, Sarah Essen. He promotes Harvey Bullock to Lieutenant and puts Mackenzie Bock in charge of the organised crime division.

Two officers have been shot down, caught in the crossfire of a turf war - one of them, who has served with the PD for 17 years, is dead. Both Batman and Gordon are determined to catch the killer, and discover that Vasily Kosov, a russian-born gangster, may have something to do with the hit. Detectives Montoya and Allen manage to extract from Kosov the names and location of the people responsible, and both the PD and Batman move in. Gordon is about to try something suicidally heroic, but is persuaded to do things more sensibly by Batman. The men are captured, and Batman realises that he and Gordon are connected now more than ever through their mutual sense of loss.