Batman: The Ultimate Evil
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Batman: The Ultimate Evil (1995) is a novel by Andrew Vachss. (The novel was also adapted into a two-volume graphic novel, released by DC Comics in 1995).
In the novel, Vachss delves into the motivations of the comic book hero Batman. Other sources have related that the parents of young Bruce Wayne (who was to become the Batman) had been killed by a criminal; in Batman: The Ultimate Evil, Vachss reveals that the Batman's mother was a social worker investigating a group of predatory pedophiles in Gotham City. With little help from the police, she was getting close to having enough evidence to stop them when nameless assassins shot her and her husband. Years later, the Batman finds the same gang running sex-tourism charter trips to Thailand. As Bruce Wayne, he signs on as a charter trip client; once in Thailand, Batman swings into action, with local help.
The novel was released during the period of the Don't! Buy! Thai! boycott. This grassroots campaign encouraged people to boycott all products of Thailand until the Thai government effectively addressed the rampant trade in prostituted children — or sex slaves — that has been present in that country for years and caters to prosperous foreign tourists. One result of this trade is that many poor children become HIV-positive; eventually, most develop AIDS. An appendix to the novel discusses the sex trade, the foreign firms that profit from it, and the Don't! Buy! Thai! boycott.
