DETECTIVE COMICS #513

"...IS BETTER THAN NONE!"
Writer Gerry Conway | Artists: Don Newton & Frank Chiaramonte
Letterer: Ben Oda | Colorist: Adrienne Roy | Editor: Dick Giordano

The Plot: Batman has been missing for a week, and Robin and Alfred are concerned. Unknown to them, the Caped Crusader is prisoner of Two-Face, who has been flipping his coin every day, hoping it will let him execute Batman. But so far, the hero has been saved by each flip. After his daily coin toss, Two-Face assembles his gang and takes them out to raid the Duo Records office building, leaving his girlfriend Margo behind to watch Batman. Soon, Robin hears a police band call about the attack on the record company and arrives to stop it. As he fights Two-Face, the villain reveals that he has Batman prisoner. This sends Robin into a rage, and he takes out all of Two-Face's men.

But the villain escapes back to his halfway house hideout, where he flips his coin again. The scarred side comes up and Two-Face prepares to excute Batman, but the Masked Manhunter breaks a pipe in his cell, filling the chamber with steam. When Batman emerges from the haze, his face is half-scarred by the steam, like Two-Face. Two-Face flips out and releases Batman, who promptly knocks him out. Robin and the police arrive at the halfway house as Batman emerges. He removes the "scarring" from his face, explainng that he meleted a food service tray and used it to create a scarred appearance to trick Two-Face. With the criminals all rounded up, the Dynamic Duo head home.

BATMAN #346

"HALF A HERO..."
Writer Gerry Conway | Artists: Don Newton & Frank Chiaramonte
Letterer: Ben Oda | Colorist: Adrienne Roy | Editor: Dick Giordano

The Plot: Two-Face stages an escape from Arkham Asylum with the use of a hypnotic coin. Batman and Commissioner Gordon investigate the scene, then return to Gotham City. The next night, Bruce Wayne is out on a date with Vicki Vale when he realizes that Two-Face had applied for early parole at a halfway house. Bruce changes to Batman and investigates the house, where he makes his way through an army of goons and a few deathtraps, eventually coming face-to-faces with Two-Face. But when Batman tries to arrest the villain, he unmasks himself as a woman named Margo; Two-Face's girlfriend. Two-Face seals the duo behind glass and floods the room with nerve gas. Margo is unharmed thanks to special filters, but Batman passes out.

Continuity Notes: That's not all! The summary above is quite thin, because this issue is crawling with soap opera:

Batman gives Commissioner Gordon a ride back to Gotham, and during their drive, the commissioner comments that he may well accede to newly-elected Mayor Hill's demand for his resignation. After he gets home, Gordon finds his concerned daughter, Barbara, visiting and fixing dinner. In the issue's final scene, the following night, Gordon turns in his badge and gun to Hill -- and after he leaves, Rupert Thorne shows himself and introduces Hill to his new police commissioner, Mister Pauling.

DETECTIVE COMICS #512

"THE FATAL PRESCRIPTION OF DOCTOR DEATH!"
Writer Gerry Conway | Artists: Don Newton & Dan Adkins
Letterer: John Costanza | Colorist: Adrienne Roy | Editor: Dick Giordano

The Plot: Doctor Death reveals to Batman that everyone in Gotham was dosed with his dust, and that the city must pay him one billion dollars for the antitode. He then departs, leaving Batman and the unconscious Robin hanging by their wrists from the bridge. Later, Mayor Hill takes a call from Doctor Death and refuses to negotiate with him. At dawn, following three hours of hanging, Batman takes a desperate chance and manages to free both himself and Robin. He then spends the day at the overwhelmed Gotham General hospital by Robin's bedside and helping doctors in their search for an antidote. Elsewhere, a Gotham SWAT team reaches Relief Island, but finds Doctor Death is gone. Batman then heads to the estate of Death's alter ego, Doctor Karl Hellfern, and finds the doctor there. Death sprays Batman with a concentrated dose of his dust, then attempts escape, but Batman takes down his helicopter and captures the doctor.

Death himself is dosed with the dust, and Batman takes him to the hospital. The next morning, the city is sprayed with the antidote to Death's formula, saving the lives of everyone in Gotham.

Continuity Notes: Vicki Vale develops her photos from the party in the prior issue of BATMAN, and finds that Dala's image is curiously blurred beside a perfectly in-focus Dick Grayson.

BATMAN #345

"CALLING DOCTOR DEATH"
Writer Gerry Conway | Artists: Gene Colan & Klaus Janson
Letterer: Ben Oda | Colorist: Adrienne Roy | Editor: Dick Giordano

The Plot: In a location unknown, a stoolpigeon named Keswick is brought before a mystery man in a wheelchair. The man chastizes Keswick for attempting to betry him to the police, then sprays Keswick with some dust. Later, Batman arrives at the Gotham waterfront, where Commissioner Gordon presides over the recovery of Keswick's body. Batman requests the autopsy, and then departs to rejoin a party in progress downtown as Bruce Wayne. There, he notes several revelers engaged with a wheelchair-bound man named Doctor Karl Hellfern. Meanwhile, Dick Grayson exits the party with his date, Dala, and they spot a cloud of dust raining down on Gotham. Dick is struck on the hand by some of the dust. Later, Bruce joins Robin in the Batcave, where the Teen Wonder is analyzing the dust. The Batcomputer comes up with a prognosis of death for anyone sprinkled with it.

Elsewhere, Commissioner Gordon meets with Gotham's new mayor, Hamilton Hill. As Gordon expected, Hill demands Gordon's resignation and gives him twenty-four hours to comply before he will proceed with an impeachment effort. Later, Gordon meets with Batman and Robin, revealing that Keswick died of an extreme allergic reaction to the same dust which hit Robin and countless other Gothamites. The Dynamic Duo go in search of Keswick's killer, and are referred by a stoolpigeon to Gotham's long-abandoned Relief Island. The heroes take the Batboat to the island and are ambushed upon arrival by a group of martial artists. Robin, weakened by his reaction to the dust, is knocked out. And when Batman is distracted by his partner's defeat, he too is beaten. Batman awakens later, hanging with Robin from a bridge passing over the island. Below, Doctor Hellfern -- a.k.a. Doctor Death -- gloats over his prisoners.

Continuity Notes: Batman notes in the opening pages that Gordon is distracted, and chalks it up (correctly, as we see a couple pages later) to the commissioner's problems with Mayor Hill. A footnote informs readers that Hill was elected "Last month" in the prior issues of BATMAN and DETECTIVE COMICS.