YMMV / Batman: Holy Terror

• Complete Monster: Dr. Saul Erdel, the head scientist of Star Chamber, is an amoral mad scientist studying the “para-gene” for the purposes of the theocratic state. To activate the gene after witnessing its effects in the former scientist Barry Allen, Erdel has dozens of people with the gene kidnapped and experimented on, resulting in all of his subjects afflicted with varying states of trauma, insanity, Body Horror, and mental and physical deformation—including a three-year-old he induced rapid aging in to the point of eventual death and a merman he forcefully mated with another mermaid, leading to the mermaid's death in childbirth and the resulting children all being born as agony-stricken mutations. Disintegrating even his favorite project Barry once he rebels, Erdel's most powerful specimen is an alien he calls the Green Man, whom he raised under experimentation and eventually killed via exposure to Kryptonite once he grows too strong, showing Batman the Green Man's body with the sole purpose of breaking his hope with a proud smile on his face the whole while.
• Fanfic Fuel:
  • Many fans like to speculate about what happens once Batman begins his war against the Commonwealth at the end of the book.
  • The meta-human guinea pigs from Erdel's lab (both the shellshocked canon characters and Barry’s Blessed with Suck four fellow speedsters) and both the past hardships they endured together and the survivors’ potential role in Bruce’s campaign inspire particular interest.
• Harsher in Hindsight: Batman explicitly compares his campaign against the Commonwealth to a jihad. Even more so when you take into account that Holy Terror was originally going to be a Batman story.
• One-Scene Wonder: Star Chamber prisoners and guinea pigs Terry (a Fearless Fool speedster who temporarily dematerializes himself during an escape attempt), Corinne (whose thoughts travel at superhuman speed while her body can only move at normal speed) and Arthur (a water-breather who was forced to mate with a mermaid who then died in childbirth) only appear in four, one and three panels respectively and do nothing to majorly alter the story. However, the backstory-rich tragedy of what they have gone through at the hands of the Commonwealth and sense of desperation or despair in their countenances make them very memorable characters.