Now there's not even enough respect to be a stooge. It doesn't balance the scales, Fat Man. But it'll do while I come up with more creative tortures. 
Appearing in "Political Suicide"
Featured Characters:
- Dare the Terminator (First appearance; dies)
- Catsai (First appearance)
Supporting Characters:
- Catsai's trained cats (First appearance)
- Jimmy Urich (First appearance)
Antagonists:
- Deadeye (Death)
- Lethal (Death)
- Wired (First appearance; dies)
- Big Question (First appearance)
- Arkham's mental patients (Apparent death)
Other Characters:
- Dr Strangefate (Appears on screen)
- J. Jonah White (Mentioned)
- Ambassador Kyle (Mentioned)
Races and Species:
Locations:
- Earth-9602
- New Gotham City
- Arkham Tower
- Gotham Bugle newspaper
- Washington, D.C. (Mentioned)
- Cairo (Mentioned)
Synopsis for "Political Suicide"
The story opens to Catsai killing Deadeye. The narration explains that he was one of the foes standing between Catsai and Dare the Terminator, and their assassination target Big Question, Mayor of New Gotham City. The two assassins are making their way through the floors of Arkham Tower, a giant skyscraper with the Mayor occupying the top floor. Big Question is observing them through cameras and recites a riddle about how his enemies are digging their own graves.
Dare observes that Deadeye was the 12th mercenary they faced on the way up. She and Catsai are certain that he was not the last one. Then an explosion, which they survive, announces the arrival of their 13th opponent: Lethal. He threatens to skin them. He throws four blades at them, but Dare catches them with ease and throws them back at him. Meanwhile, Catsai's trained cats have moved towards Lethal's feet and he trips on them and falls. Deciding to quit toying with his opponents, Lethal reaches for his shotgun and starts firing. Catsai gracefully dodges the bullets and uses her blade-tipped whip to tie-up Lethal's hands. She then reels in her helpless opponent and Dare delivers a killing blow.
The scene shifts to Big Question. He is watching a broadcast by reporter Jimmy Urich. The report is an editorial about the Mayor, Big Question himself. Urich criticizes the fact that they have a convicted felon in office. He claims that this thing is more suitable for Washington, D.C. than New Gotham. He then reports rumors that the Mayor is a mere puppet and Dr. Strangefate is his puppet-master. The report is accompanied by an image of a puppet-Big Question with his strings pulled by Strangefate. The angry Big Question breaks the screen. He cuts his hand on the glass and starts bleeding.
The scene moves back to the assassins, who are facing a number of unnamed opponents. The narration explains that these are not mercenaries. Arkham Tower was built over the remains of an infamous asylum. The inmates were never relocated to a new facility and were allowed to live in the Tower. It was deemed "politically correct" to let the "psychologically different" interact with society. The only problem is that Arkham's mental patients are not your average lunatics. They are all bloodthirsty sociopaths. They still fare poorly against trained opponents like Catsai and Dare.
After killing the mental patients, Catsai observes that Dare seems a bit too eager to get to Big Question. She questions whether this mission is personal for her partner. This is followed by a flashback to Dare's history with their target. In the flashback, Big Question has captured Dare and prepares her for surgical alterations to her physiology. Back to the present, Dare assures her partner that this is just another job for her.
Their conversation is overheard by their next opponent, Wired. He comments that there is no such thing as just a job in their line of work. One has to be really into it to get the most out of it. He asks them which one wants to die first. Soon enough he is the one to die. The assassins use his thrown corpse to open a metal door. They are finally face-to-face with Big Question.
The villain compliments them on their appearance, noting that their beauty has not been affected by their recent scars and open wounds. Catsai observes that for a man headed for a cold grave, Big Question seems cheerful. He reveals that he is the mysterious person who hired them in the first place. This was all a plan to improve his reputation and make himself seem independent of Dr. Strangefate. He has spread rumors that Strangefate hired Catsai and Dare to kill the Mayor. All the mercenaries they killed on their way up were there to improve the two lady assassins' considerable reputations as fighters. He intends to kill the two women personally, solidifying his reputation as an independent agent and a master fighter. If he fails and dies instead, the death will still be blamed on Strangefate. Also he will be regarded as a man who died fighting and not a magician's pathetic stooge.
After hearing that this is a win-win situation for her enemy, Dare looses her temper and charges forward. She falls right into a trap. A metal door separates her from Catsai and traps her in a one-on-one fight with Big Question. Big Qestion easily outclasses his opponent, successfully facing all her attacks and removing her weapons one by one. Finally he gets a hold of the little horns on Dare's head.
He points out that the surgically added horns were a gift from him, and Dare has failed to thank him for his generosity. Now it is time for him to get the gift back. He uses brute strength to pull out both horns. The horns have left behind gaping wounds on her head, from which a mix of blood, bone, and bodily fluids flow. Soon Dare dies from blood loss and Big Question jokingly asks if he should call for a doctor. He comments that she has all eternity to decide and answer him.
He hears a cat meowing and soon finds out that one of Catsai's trained cats has found its way into his office. The cat has planted explosives and he the villain has no time to prevent them from detonating. He comments that he hates cats. The explosion leaves Big Question's clothes in rags, but he is still standing and seems otherwise unharmed. Catsai enters the room and taunts him. Big Question is no longer cheerful, he is enraged and vows to make his opponent suffer.
The two opponents fight, but Catsai proves a more skilled fighter than her deceased partner. She gets the best of her opponent and points out that she wants to avenge her friend Dare. Big Question is left bleeding on the floor. She has a chance to kill her opponent but decides that death would be too easy a fate for him. She wants him to live and suffer.
Shortly afterwards, Jimmy Urich receives a phone call about an exclusive on the Mayor. He uses a helicopter to reach Arkham Tower and locates Big Question. The villain is hanging upside down from the antennae at the top of the Tower, mostly naked and still bleeding. Jimmy starts taking photos and plans to sell them to J. Jonah White.
The following day, one of Urich's photos makes the front page of the Gotham Bugle and the accompanying article proclaims the Question finished. He is a public laughing stock. Catsai reads her copy of the newspaper and then discards it. She comments that she has taken away Big Question's precious reputation but her revenge is not yet over. She will have time to come up with more "creative tortures" for her foe. She has her cats as her only remaining companions and moves on to her next contract.
Notes
- Published by Amalgam Comics, a joint publication of DC Comics and Marvel Comics.
Trivia
- The Arkham Tower is apparently an Amalgam of Fisk Tower and the Arkham Asylum. The Asylum first appeared in 1974 and is the place where Gotham City's "criminally insane" patients are held. According to the backstory of the Tower given in the issue, the Tower was built as New Gotham's city center. It was built over the remains of an infamous asylum. The inmates of the asylum were never relocated to another facility. The city government deemed it "politically correct" to allow the "psychologically different" to interact with society. So the inmates were allowed to live in the Tower, despite the fact that they were bloodthirsty sociopaths.
- The Arkham Tower derives from Arkham Asylum. The Asylum itself derives from an unnamed asylum in the stories of H. P. Lovecraft. It is the asylum of Lovecraft's fictional city of Arkham, Massachusetts, one of the major settings of the Cthulhu Mythos. The asylym first appeared in 1923 and the city first appeared in 1920.