Re: Batman/Maria/Superman
He thought about it. "Eighty sounds right," he said slowly. There were so many factors involved, it was difficult to say.
"You know as well as I do that Kal didn't act with the intention to kill," he said severely. "As I said - Kal's heat vision is tied into his autonomic nervous system, which is responsible for digestion, salivation, arousal, the moistening of the eyes, and so on. He can control it, the way he can control what and how much he hears, but there are times when his heat vision... expresses itself in ways completely controlled by his autonomic nervous system. Kal didn't fire because he was trying to protect himself - he told you himself, he wasn't thinking about it; he fired by reflex in response to autonomic stimulus."
It could be the death of Superman that made Luthor give Joker the kryptonite. That would certainly be in keeping with his history. Batman nodded. "That's likely, yes," he said. "Luthor would be very happy with that, and it would cause me great pain - except he didn't get enough kryptonite to kill Kal. Why not? Why go through all the trouble with the Fear Gas and the Joker Toxin? Why kidnap Mrs. Lane-Kent if he were just going to kill him? Why torture him, first? True, Joker thrives on that sort of torment, but still, there's something missing."
Batman leaned against the work surface, a frown on his face. "The kryptonite is painful enough; he could have tortured Kal for hours with just that. He would have had to get the Fear Gas from Crane. And there's something else. Catwoman came to me the other day; she spoke with Joker's girlfriend, Harley Quinn. Apparently, Joker sent Harley away with the Riddler, just before this occurred."
Not sure how much Hill knew about rogues gallery politics in Gotham, but assuming it wasn't much, he explained. "Nigma - Riddler - has wanted Harley for years, but no one messes with the Joker. He knows this, of course, so for Joker to virtually give Harley to Nigma implies he was paying him for something; probably to get her out of the way while he pulled this off.
"Harley can't keep a secret and he doesn't actually love her enough to send her away if he really intended to die, or was just pulling off a simple job," he said. "As soon as she heard he was dead, Harley left Nigma and came right back to Gotham, which I'm sure Joker would count on. Catwoman talked her into going back to Arkham where we can keep an eye on her, and if Joker goes looking for her there, we can keep an eye out for him, too."