While Batman battles his inner demons, Vandal Savage is getting closer to seizing control of Gotham City

gamesradar.com:

One of the more fun threads that has been woven throughout the current run of Batman has been the return of Vandal Savage. While the Caped Crusader has had his hands full dealing with threats as varied as Failsafe, the Joker, Insomnia (remember him?) and Catwoman, Savage has been making big swings.

First he bought Wayne Manor out from under the increasingly cash-strapped Bruce, then he tried to bring immortality to the people of Gotham (well, some of them at least) in the Gotham War. He was defeated at the last second, but like many a rich idiot before him, Savage has only fallen upwards. 

In Batman #140 we find out what the DC universe's foremost former caveman did next...

While most of Batman #140 concerns itself with Bruce fighting the Joker in the real world while simultaneously battling an army of different multiversal versions of his Zur-En-Arrh persona in his mind, the backup story, 'The Savage Garden of Gotham - Part Two' is focused entirely on Vandal as he begins to rise through the ranks of Gotham's ultra-wealthy elite.

In the first part of the story, we saw Vandal pledge to become the ruler of the city. He's not quite there yet, but this second episode - written by core Batman writer Chip Zdarsky and drawn by Mike Hawthorne - sees him charm several of the city's billionaires, first with words and then by breaking the neck of one of his former henchmen right in front of them.

It's clear from their reactions that while the city's ruling class are shocked by Vandal's show of force, they're also more than willing to go along with it. As he intuits a few pages earlier, these people are moral black holes. "Their hands are all soft, yet they're killers... uncaring rulers with deadly whims." And in the wake of Selina