They tell us that while history doesn’t repeat, it certainly rhymes. Batman: One Dark Knight #1 (by Jock and Clem Robins) gives us a prime example of that when it comes to law enforcement overreach and the belief that you can treat prisoners like commodities.
It’s similar to a lesson Warden Gregory Wolfe learned brutally in the pages of Flash: Iron Heights. The new warden at Iron Heights, Central City’s most notorious prison, Wolfe, decided that Flash’s Rogues had had it too easy for too long. He was the new proverbial sheriff in town, and he planned to make an impact. Every prisoner in Iron Heights would feel the harsh hand of the State under his watch. Wolfe made it clear that, in his mind, once a criminal, always a criminal.
Therefore, punishment was the only reasonable course of action. For all superpowered villains, masks as the guards called them, that meant staying in individual cells in the “Pipeline.” For some, like Weather Wizard, it also meant painful muscle cramps courtesy of Wolfe’s metahuman abilities and copious bruises courtesy of the batons of Iron Heights’s guards. For others, the punishments were worse. Much worse.
One of those especially disadvantaged prisoners was Neil Borman, Fallout. Somehow, he survived when an accident sent him and the rest of his masonry team tumbling into a nuclear reactor. He didn’t emerge unchanged, though. Instead, the accident changed him into a walking atomic fuel cell. Unfortunately, he realized that he accidentally killed his wife and child with radiation poisoning too late. Heartbroken, he turned himself in immediately.
Unfortunately, Iron Heights opted not to follow the recommended protocol for his incarceration. Instead of a state of art cell that would protect others and spare his pain, Wolfe and Heights turned Fallout into a battery. For who knows how long, Wolfe used the poor man to power Iron Heights, not caring about the pain it caused Borman or the risk to others. Predictably, Fallout escaped while Wolfe attempted to hide his malicious activities from Flash and others.
Without proper restraints, Fallout could’ve hurt or killed many. If he decided to do more than walk to his family’s gravesite, Central City could have had a living nuclear disaster spreading death with every step. Thankfully, Wally West convinced Fallout to return, and STAR Labs provided him with a place to live that kept his comfortable and safely powered Iron Heights.
Now, in Gotham City, Blackgate Prison seems poised to make the same mistake. Like Wolfe, Head of the Prison Bureau Rita Vasquez has a decidedly different view of appropriate incarceration than many in power. In her case, however, she has no intention of hiding what she’s doing in dark sub-basements while feigning innocence in front of the suits and superheroes. Instead, she wants everyone to see what she’s doing.
To that end, she has GCPD moving a high-profile criminal, the supervillain E.M.P., from Arkham to Blackgate via street transport. While the convoy moves through the heart of the City, Vasquez also announces the plan to the press. Therefore, everyone knows where it is and where it is going. Everyone, including a crew of reckless criminals looking to get revenge on E.M.P.
If they don’t get him, sitting in the basement of Blackgate is a generator. One built specifically to feed off his electromagnetic powers. Without him, the machine won’t work, reveals the Blackgate team. More accurately, the device will destroy itself, burning out without E.M.P. to feed on. If one can’t see Iron Heights’s failures echoing in this situation, well, perhaps one can relate to Vasquez.
Once again, an overzealous law enforcement officer values punishment over rehabilitation. Once more, they build a plan to power a prison around exploiting a human being. Once more, said superpowered human being has escaped because of hubris and their powers threaten the entire city. Perhaps they were wrong. Maybe history does just straight-up repeat.