Film 1: Businessmen Roman Sionis and Roland Dagget own competing companies, and are working with the mob to sabotage each others' businesses. Sionis, who disguises himself as the
Black Mask, has better mob connections (including an illegal weapons dealer at Oswald Copplepot's Iceberg Lounge) but Dagget has a secret weapon: Matt Hagan, who Dagget is feeding a special Clayface substance to allow him to change his facial appearance at will. Sionis discovers this, destroys the plant making the substance, and causes Hagan to overdose on it, saturating him in it, turning him into
Clayface. But in the chaos there is an accident - some of the substance strikes Sionis in the face, permanently sealing his mask to his flesh and making his mask move with his expressions. Both criminals slowly fall into insanity due to this event, igniting a volatile gang war with Gotham caught in the middle.
Film 2: Gotham is under attack. Multiple fires have been started by the pyromaniac terrorist
Firefly. After several fires nearly spiral out of control, a private business takes Dr. Victor Fries off of his cyrogenic research to develop a new fire control suit with a special Freeze Gun. Victor develops it and it exceeds their expectations - they want him to develop more for military use. When he refuses, they hire the mob to trash his lab and destroy his work. A lab explosion turns him into the vengeful
Mr. Freeze. Now Freeze teams up with Firefly to wreak havok on all of Gotham.
Film 3: Jervis Tetch, aka the
Mad Hatter, develops a special mind control drug known as Wonderland and uses it in conjunction with subliminal messages to begin to manipulate the wealthy and powerful in Gotham to his will. Obsessed with a young girl named Alice, he kidnaps her and keeps her in a constant drugged state so that she will love him. Tetch teams up with Edward Nigma, the
Riddler, who masterminds a plan through which they can slowly take control of Gotham. But Alice is from Selina Kyle's neighborhood, and is a young girl who Selina has looked after for years - so Selina becomes
Catwoman and searches for the Hatter. When the Wonderland serum is spread throughout Gotham, turning it into a madhouse, Batman must decipher the Riddler's continuous riddles and survive his traps in order to secure an antidote and save the city.
Film 4: The
Scarecrow attempts to cause widespread fear throughout Gotham, but is foiled repeatedly by Batman. Crane wants Batman to know fear. He allies with
Hugo Strange, who has discovered Batman's true identity as Bruce Wayne. Discovering the truth to Batman's tragic past, Crane and Strange send genetically altered "Monster Men" to capture Batman and lock him in an abandoned wing of Arkham. Locked in as well are three families, each with two parents and a small child, caught in a death trap - the idea is that each child will have to witness his parent's murder, and Batman will not arrive in time to stop it. Batman must think through the fear toxin, escape Strange's monster men, and save each family in time (which, of course, he will. He's Batman
). In the end, Scarecrow is made insane by his own fear toxin, forgetting Batman's identity because he is so fearfully fixed on the Batman persona. Strange will be destroyed by his own monster men.
Themes:
1: Masks / Persona / Identity
2: Vengeance
3: Freedom / Free Will vs. Order / Peace
4: Courage in the face of Tragedy
