"From the ashes of the Warsaw Ghetto to the back alleys of Gotham City... The Tatterdemalion of the oppressed rises again..."

Rory Regan father is killed by extortionist/drug dealers who also attempt to kill Rory himself. While Rory recovers the criminals take over his father's pawn shop the Rags and Tatters and use it as a front to sell drugs.

Later, before Rory is fully recovered and still haunted by nightmares of the word Emet and a merged war world of Gotham and Viet Nam, he goes back to the Rags and Tatters to take back what is his. While trying to sneak in he comes across a box of rags just outside of the shop. When he opens it the individual rags form a suit and he is not longer scared. He is the Ragman.

Layout

The layout of this comic is fairly unique in that each page is nine panels. The only exception are the last two pages that are just one large full page image of Rory's transformation into the Ragman.