Fight Choreography (solution)

by Patrick Blindauer and Francis Heaney

The 10 answers to the cryptic clues are as follows:

1. RAIN BOY [RA(I)NBO + Y (BARON anag.)]
2. BOND [BLOND - L]
3. LUNA [LUNges + A]
4. RED [first letters]
5. PAPPIES [PAP + PIES]
6. HAN [NAH rev.]
7. LOSE [haLO SEquel]
8. WAR [aWARd]
9. BALE [ABLE anag.]
10. MORSE [MORoSE]

The ten images represent these words and phrases:

LOVE SHACK
SLUSH PUPPIES
URUK-HAI
BAR-KAYS
ROCK BAND
RAINBOW SWASH
LIP BALM
LANA LANG
BUNK BED
MOUSE PAD

Each cryptic answer is one letter off from one of the words of one image. The letters that have been changed in going from the image to the answer words spell the first half of the final message: YOUR ANSWER:

RAIN BOY / RAINBOW (Y)
BOND / BAND (O)
LUNA / LANA (U)
RED / BED (R)
PAPPIES / PUPPIES (A)
HAN / HAI (N)
LOSE / LOVE (S)
WAR / BAR (W)
BALE / BALM (E)
MORSE / MOUSE (R)

The leftover words from the image representations (ordered by the clues which they match) are:

SWASH
ROCK
LANG
BUNK
SLUSH
URUK
SHACK
KAYS
LIP
PAD

These words are all one letter off from sound effects in Batman fight scenes. A list of all such sound effects can be found online or mirrored locally. The letters that change in going from the image to the sound effect spell the second half of the final message, which reads in full: YOUR ANSWER IS BOOKWORM.

SWASH / SWISH (I)
ROCK / SOCK (S)
LANG / BANG (B)
BUNK / BONK (O)
SLUSH / SLOSH (O)
URUK / URKK (K)
SHACK / WHACK (W)
KAYS / KAYO (O)
LIP / RIP (R)
PAD / PAM (M)