Superman's mind plays out a nightmare scenario in which the Man of Steel is unable to save those he loves. The Joker and Luthor battle their inner-most fears of mediocrity and failure where everyone laughs at the wrong joke and Luthor is stuck in the body of Jimmy Olsen! But naturally it's the Dark Knight's vision that's the most powerful and haunting of all. Trapped in an alternate reality scenario in which his parents lived to old age, Bruce watches in horror as his faithful butler Alfred guns down his family before forcing Bruce to pull the trigger on his own father! The shock is so great in fact that it shakes Bruce's consciousness out of submission and his finely honed mental acumen allows him to wake himself up.

Opening his eyes he finds himself and the others lying in open graves somewhere in the countryside. He angrily stalks the Scarecrow, ready to punish him for his transgressions but the Man of Steel steps in and convinces him that the best punishment would be to let the professor stew in his own nightmares for awhile. And as Batman and Superman prepare to round up the Joker and Luthor to turn them over to authorities, Jonathan Crane begins to succumb to his own toxins.