Batman: Cataclysm is a Batman Bat Family Crossover released in 1998 by DC Comics.
A quiet night in Gotham City and things seem to be normal. However, various bats fleeing their caves catches a seismologist and she tries to warn someone of something big happening. That "something big"? A 7.6-level earthquake. In an instant, Gotham City is ravaged and virtually nothing is spared - the police headquarters, Blackgate Penitentiary, Arkham Asylum... even Wayne Manor and the Batcave. As Gotham is brought to its knees once more, Batman and the rest of Gotham's protectors must rise to the occasion to save their city and its people... if it can.
Cataclysm is the start of a massive storyline leading into Batman: No Man's Land. It is separated into two storylines: the main Cataclysm storyline, which details the first hours of the earthquake, and Aftershock, which details the aftermath and our heroes seeking to clean up everything. The storyline is used as inspiration for the final season of Gotham.
Cataclysm ran through Azrael #40, Batman #553-559, The Batman Chronicles #12 and 14, Batman: Shadow of the Bat #73-79, Catwoman #56-57, Detective Comics #719-722 and 724-726, Nightwing #19-20, Robin #52-54, and with . The story continues a line of events that started with Batman: Contagion and Batman: Legacy, and ending with Batman: No Man's Land.
Tropes Featured in this Storyline:
- The Bad Guy Wins: In a story in The Batman Chronicles #12, Ra's al Ghul, who's still smarting over his loss in Batman: Legacy, muses that this is the end result of the Gotham earthquake - Gotham's gone, Batman has no mission anymore, he should come work for him now.
- Big Bad: The real villain of this story ends up being Mother Nature, who just deals Gotham a very poor hand.
- Big Bad Wannabe: The mysterious Quakemaster, who claims to be behind the earthquake. It's actually the Ventriloquist using a new puppet.
- Big "NO!": Bruce shouts this upon seeing Gotham's state, not realizing how bad things were.
- Boom, Headshot!: Bock shoots the Scarface puppet in the head to stop the Ventriloquist.
- The Bus Came Back: The first Clayface, Basil Karlo, makes his grand return in Shadow of the Bat #75 after disappearing nearly a decade earlier.
- Crazy-Prepared: Many Wayne-owned buildings were built to withstand 8.5-level earthquakes. When a number of higher ups complained to Lucius Fox over the cost, he fired them. Sadly, this didn't include Wayne Manor nor the Batcave as Bruce was scared of the contractors discovering the cave and his identity.
- Dare to Be Badass: With the police in a panic and no sign of Commissioner Gordon, Barbara gets their attention and tells them that while no one would fault them for making sure their families are safe, they're needed here and now and they should try and focus on other people.
- Evolving Credits: The left hand side of the cover features a section of Gotham that falls apart and collapses as the story continues until it's a smoking heap of rubble.
- From Bad to Worse: Gotham's destruction. A city as corrupt as Gotham was already going to be below code, but the damage done after two pandemics and being built on top of bedrock meant that Gotham was on a ticking time bomb.
- Heroic BSoD: The sheer scope of death and destruction heavily rattles everyone. Catwoman breaks down into tears after having a little girl die in her arms, Huntress readily reverts back to her '90s Anti-Hero personality and even Batman's steely grim face falters into a sad frown.
- How We Got Here: The first eight issues details where various characters were when the earthquake struck.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Numerous instances:
- In the Blackgate: Isle of Men one-shot, a land bridge of sorts forms due to the earthquake, allowing a number of inmates to escape into Gotham, though some do not escape as an aftershock covers it back up and sweeps them away.
- Once things settle, many citizens choose to abandon ship and leave Gotham for safer pastures.
- Spotting the Thread: In trying to figure out who the mysterious Quakemaster is and where he is, three different people realize certain aspects: Tim realizes the villain decides to choose words that are synonymous with words that start with "B", Barbara and Bock realize he mislabeled a location and Motonya and Bullock discover two mooks who worked for him were cellmates with another familiar face. Earlier, Batman realizes that the Quakemaster is a fraud as he's using a theory that was proven false.
- Trash the Set: Probably the most iconic usage of this trope in comics, eclipsing the destruction of Metropolis in The Fall of Metropolis.
