After a near-death experience, Batman is visited by Adam Strange, who explains to him that after a freak accident involving the Zeta Beam, Adam was transported to Earth sometime in the future and found Batman's obituary. However, as Adam grabbed for the newspaper, he was transported back to modern-day Rann, only taking part of the obituary with him, so that the year of Batman's death is unknown. This information causes the Caped Crusader to become paranoid of his coming demise, and he leaves Earth with Adam Strange in the middle of solving a crime involving a contracting scheme and contractor Mike Morrison. However, when viewing Gotham City via a machine on Rann, Batman observes Alfred being taken hostage by the mob over gambling debts.