[The Upper East Side is snapped up before anyone really even knows what happened shortly after
Selina Kyle brings a neighborhood to heel next door. In the aftermath of the earthquake, this sort of shift in the balance isn't exactly unexpected. Things are going to be unstable for a while, and the power vacuums will eventually be filled by the toughest and most audacious.
How did the new guy establish himself? He went directly for the two men who had declared themselves kings of the neighborhood, pulling them from their cushy safehouse stacked with looted goods and dragging them bloodied out into the street. This after tearing though all their goons to get to them single-handed, probably the more impressive feat.
Once out in the street, he did something so unspeakable to the two men that it grows more severe and insane with every retelling. With no news media to verify, the details are mixed. In one version, these jumped up 'kings' were drawn and quartered by brutes pulling chains. In another, they were slowly hung over hours. Who knows, though? It may be that their deaths were clean and direct, just public enough to scare everyone.
Whatever actually happened, people are scared of the new guy. The demonstration was enough to bring the gang that had followed the dead men firmly into line, and to create a small army for the new boss. Fear has since pressganged more men into service.
Under new leadership, much of the looting and violence has slowed to a few isolated spurts. Make no mistake, however, that it is chaos keeping people in line, not order.
The new guy is consolidating his power in the district, and his men are sent out on weird errands. Some clear rubble, some patrol for trouble, and some kill the foolish upstarts who try to stake their claim on a city block and start a fresh republic. The message is clear - get with the program, or die in a highly public fashion.
The strangest thing of all? They say the guy who took the Upper East Side with this garish display of fear and violence was the Joker.
But isn't he supposed to be dead?]