Abattoir (comics)

Abattoir
File:Abattoir.JPG
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics
First appearance	Detective Comics #625 (January 1991)
In-story information
Alter ego	Arnold Etchinson

Abattoir is the alias of Arnold Etchison, a fictional character in the DC Comics universe. He first appeared in Detective Comics #625 (January 1991).

Fictional Character Biography

A serial killer who was convinced that his family was evil, Arnold Etchison believed that he absorbed something of their life force when he killed them. He was apprehended and incarcerated in Arkham Asylum. He escaped several times and was usually recaptured by the Batman; the last time he escaped was when Bane set all the inmates free in the Knightfall storyline, and he went on to kill several more members of his family.

Eventually he was tracked down by Jean Paul Valley, who was acting as Batman at the time. Valley chased him into a refinery and nearly knocked him into a vat of molten metal. Abbatoir was hanging from a plank above it, but Valley allowed him to fall to his death, to Robin's horror. Since Abattoir was holding an innocent man inside a secret, hidden torture chamber at an unknown location, Valley indirectly condemned that prisoner to death.

Abattoir returned as a ghost (during a brief period of increased supernatural activity, worldwide), to torment the original Batman (Bruce Wayne) using Valley's Batman-armor, but Batman proved much less susceptible to psychological assault than his substitute. Batman tricked Abbatoir's ghost into abandoning the armor and his mission. (The ghost was attempting to cause his last remaining blood relative, a pregnant cousin, to miscarry and then he would possess the infant.)

Appearances

• Detective Comics #625 (January 1991): "Abattoir"
• Batman #505 (March 1994): "Blood Kin"
• Batman: Shadow of the Bat #27 (May 1994): "Creatures of Clay: Child's Clay"
• Batman #508 (June 1994): "Mortal Remains"

External link

• DC Database Project: Abattoir