DETECTIVE COMICS #501 & #502

"THE MAN WHO KILLED MLLE. MARIE! | "WHO SHOT MLLE. MARIE?"
Writer Gerry Conway | Artists: Don Newton & Dan Adkins
Letterer: Ben Oda | Colorist: Adrienne Roy | Editor: Paul Levitz

The Plot: (Issue 501) Batman watches from hiding as Alfred and Lucius Fox board a flight to France, then recalls earlier in the day, when first Alfred, then Lucius, each recieved a mysterious telegram from Paris. Bruce then found that Alfred had packed up and left the Wayne penthouse, leaving the telegram behind. Bruce buys his way aboard the plane and shortly after landing, stops a man from shooting at Alfred or Lucius. He changes to Batman and trails the man to an office, where the would-be assassin is berated by another man for failing to kill "the traitor."

Batman takes out both men and turns them over to the local police, speaking with an Inspector Dupre and showing him the telegram, which summoned both Alfred and Lucius to France and instructed them to contact Julia if they wanted "justice for Mademoiselle Marie." The inspector tells Batman the story of Marie, a famous French resistance fighter during World War II, and explains that she knew both Alfred and Lucius at various points during the war, and that she was apparently murdered near its end. He also reveals that Julia is rumored to be Marie's daughter. Batman next confronts Alfred and Lucius at their hotel, but the metting is interrupted by Julia and some henchmen. When Julia tries to shoot Batman, the Darknight Detective moves to stop her -- but he himself is stopped by Alfred, who clobbers him with a fireplace poker. But Julia turns on her savior, accusing him of killing her mother, Mademoiselle Marie.

(Issue 502) Batman is held by Julia and her men in a barn on the French countryside. As he watches, Julia declares that Alfred killed her mother, and she has convened a court of Marie's resistance peers, including Lucius, to observe his execution. But Batman convinces the group that Alfred deserves a trial, and Lucius volunteers to defend him. A witness, a young girl whose grandmother knew Marie, says that Marie was indeed shot in the final days of the war, but her grandmother and her sister, Gizelle, nursed her back to health, and during that time, Marie gave birth to Julia. Then one day, Marie left, and soon afterward a body was discovered in the St. Joan River. Julia was raised by Jaques Remarque, a friend of her mother's, and he recently told her the truth, as he knew it, of Marie's demise.

Batman, having surreptitiously freed himself, asks Julia for twelve hours to find proof of Alfred's innocence, then he leaves. He visits Inspector Dupre again for information on the body recovered from the river, then goes in search of either of the elderly women who found Marie. He eventually locates Gizelle in the hospital and speaks with her about a French collaborator named Roget, who Gizelle believes killed Marie. Gizelle saved the bullet the women removed from Marie, and Batman heads to her house for it. But he finds Dupre already there. Dupre attacks but Batman defeats him, having deduced that Dupre is actually Roget with extensive plastic surgery.

Batman brings Dupre back to the barn and provides his gun and bullet as proof. Later, at the airport, Batman and Lucius watch from a distance as Alfred speaks with Jaques Remarque about Julia and Marie. Alfred is Julia's father, though he has hidden that fact from her his entire life, and he implores Jaques to continue to keep his secret. Then Alfred and Lucius board their plane to fly home.

DETECTIVE COMICS #498 & #499

"NIGHT OF THE SAVAGE | ALLIES IN THE SHADOWS"
Writer Gerry Conway | Artists: Don Newton & Dan Adkins
Letterer: Ben Oda | Colorist: Adrienne Roy | Editor: Paul Levitz

The Plot: (Issue 498) The brute called Blockbuster emerges from Gotham Bay and makes his way ashore. Meanwhile, Batman and the police search the bay for Blockbuster, but find no sign of his body. Blockbuster makes his way to Bleak Rock, a mining town in West Virginia, where he saves a local worker, Willie Macon, from the henchman of a corrupt union boss named Dooley. Macon invites Blockbuster into his home to live with his family.

Months later, Batman suspects Blockbuster is still alive, staging a series of "smash and grab" robberies. The Darknight Detective heads out to stop one such robbery in progress, but finds he is mistaken -- the perpetrator is an ex circus strongman named Ajax. But after defeating Ajax, Batman catches sight of a news report from Bleak Rock, where he sees Blockbuster alive. Batman heads for Bleak Rock and learns Blockbuster has been working with the miners. He enters the mine, but is observed by Dooley. Believing Batman is here to investigate him, Dooley has his men knock Batman out and throw him down into the mine, where he is found by Blockbuster.

(Issue 499) Blockbuster prepares to kill Batman, but is interrupted when Dooley has the mine caved in. While the locals try to dig their friends free, Batman comes to and finds Macon injured and trapped under a beam. Blockbuster helps him lift the beam, but Batman realizes Macon must be taken up to safety immediately. Meanwhile, Dooley and his henchmen discuss the situation at Dooley's office, where Macon's daughter is spying on them. The men find and grab her. Back in the mine, Batman blows a path upward with plastic explosive, then begins climbing, with Blockbuster right behind. They emerge on the surface and get Macon and the remaining miners free.

But Dooley has arrived to observe the whole thing, and Macon's daughter is with him. When she cries out for help, Batman and Blockbuster team up to rescue her and take down Dooley and his men. Batman departs Bleak Rock, leaving Blockbuster behind to live in peace.

DETECTIVE COMICS #497

"BAD NIGHT IN BAJA"
Writer Gerry Conway | Artists: Don Newton & Dan Adkins
Colorist: Adrienne Roy | Letterer: Ben Oda | Editor: Paul Levitz

The Plot: At a ramshackle hotel bar on a dark and stormy night in Baja California, several men go about their evening's business, including the establishment's owner, who plans to burn the place down for insurance money. Suddenly, an injured man staggers in. He drops a briefcase and goes for the telephone. The man is Bruce Wayne, and he calls his butler, Alfred, for help.

Flashbacks explain how Bruce wound up in this situation: the Batman was called to Baja by the FBI for help in catching "The Squid", a mobster from Gotham who is in town to meet a buyer for some top-secret defense documents. Bruce and Alfred checked into their hotel, then Batman confronted the Squid and his men at their estate. Batman procured the documents, but was shot in the process. He escaped and changed to Bruce Wayne in order to travel anonymously.

Now, the hotel barkeep finds the documents in the briefcase and stashes them. Meanwhile, a newlywed couple arges in one of the small hotel's dingy rooms. The wife leaves and finds Bruce, helping him to safety outside just as the Squid and his men show up. Bruce changes back to Batman and, with help from the barkeep's can of gasoline hidden behind the bar, rigs an explosion to blow up the villains' car before they can escape. The police arrive and arrest the Squid and his men, and Batman and Alfred go on their way.

BATMAN RETURNS

Back in 2019, for the bulk of the year, I took a "curated" look at BATMAN IN THE SEVENTIES, by means of several major stories available via DC collected editions or digitally. We looked at material from Frank Robbins, Irv Novick, Dennis O'Neil, Neal Adams, Archie Goodwin, Steve Englehart, Marshall Rogers, Don Newton, Len Wein, Jim Aparo, Marv Wolfman, and others. The final issue I looked at was BATMAN #335, the end of Wolfman's brief run on the title, which was actually published in 1981.

Now here we are five years later, and I've got another Batman itch to scratch -- and fortunately, I know exactly how to do it! We're essentially going to pick up where we left off, by way of DC's three-volume TALES OF THE BATMAN: GERRY CONWAY series. This is another one of those runs I've wanted to read for years. Indeed, I've gone so far as to avoid as many spoilers about it as I could, knowing I would someday check it out. All I'm really aware of is that Conway writes both BATMAN and DETECTIVE COMICS almost as one biweekly series, he brings back Englehart & Rogers' corrupt city councilman Rupert Thorne for an extended engagement, and introduces Killer Croc and a new Robin. (Oh, and the stories run contemporaneously with the NEW TEEN TITANS stories I looked at several years ago.)

Conway's run begins on DETECTIVE COMICS with isue 497, cover dated December 0f 1980 -- which places Conway's DETECTIVE alongside Wolfman's BATMAN for several months. Conway then takes over BATMAN as well with the July 1981 issue, 337, just a month after Wolfman jumps ship. Conway's primary collaborators for his time with Batman are pencilers Don Newton and Gene Colan, two artists I'm always happy to see more from.

So next week, we're jumping back over to the DC Universe after spending several solid years with Marvel. As near as I can tell, Conway wrote about fifty issues of BATMAN and DETECTIVE combined, so this will be another year-long project, at a pace of one issue per week, for the most part. So as the old saying goes, be here next week -- same Bat-time, same Bat-... uhh... website!

Available on Amazon:
TALES OF THE BATMAN: GERRY CONWAY vol. 1 | vol. 2 | vol. 3

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

And that's another (calendar) year in the books, folks! It's hard for me to believe, but I'm still going after ten years of this thing! Yes, it's true -- I stopped making blog anniversary posts some time back, but if I hadn't, I would've celebrated a full decade of NOT A HOAX! back in August. I started this site in 2013 as a way to "discuss" comics I was reading, even if it meant hollaring into a void (but thankfully I've had many readers and commenters in all this time, so that hasn't been the case). First it was Marvel's CAPTAIN BRITAIN and EXCALIBUR, then it was IRON MAN by Michelinie, Layton, and Romita Jr., then Spider-Man by Roger Stern, and then on and on and on, running a gamut of creators, publishers, and content.

Now, I hesitate to say at this point that I'm still "going strong" after ten-plus years. There have been points, particularly when my son was a newborn and toddler, where I was barely able to hang on by a thread! And I've long since moved away from more than a single post a week; even when I think I'll be able to manage more, something always happens to prevent it. But I'm okay with that! I'd rather be going one post a week after ten years than not at all.

So as usual for these year-end posts, let's have a quick rundown of what we covered in the past year, as well as the now-annual tradition (down from once a month many years ago) of The Unboxing.

The first part of that is pretty straightforward, of course. It was the Avengers. That's pretty much it. I started reading the Bob Harras/Steve Epting/Tom Palmer run late last year and it carried us through November of this year as well. Then we wrapped things up with James Bond in December, closing a hole which has bothered me for several years, as the Bond newspaper strips were my only cancelled/unfinished series in all this time.