BATMAN #338

"THIS SPORTING DEATH!"
Script: Gerry Conway | Plot Assist: Roy Thomas
Artists: Irv Novick & Frank McLaughlin
Letters: John Costanza | Colos: Adrienne Roy | Editor: Dick Giordano

The Plot: Late at night on the field of Gotham Stadium, a man in sports gear kills a sportswriter named Hank Klugmann. Later, Commissioner Gordon calls Batman to assist with the investigation, which is the latest in a series of sports-related murders. The next morning, Bruce Wayne inspects the field in the daylight, but finds no leads. Later that night, the Batman stakes out a Sunday Night Hockey game. The mysterious "Sportsman" skates onto the ice and blows up star player Pierre Foote with an exploding basketball. Batman chases the Sportsman out of the arena, but the villain escapes by throwing a razor-edged tennis raquet at the Caped Crusader.

The next day, Bruce Wayne visits Gotham's Sports World Mall, looking for leads on the raquet. As he asks a saleswoman about it, a shop buyer named Martin Mantle makes a break for it. Bruce follows, but loses Mantle. He changes to Batman and finds the Sportsman terrorizing the mall patrons. Batman falls into a pitching machine's net, and elicits a confession from the Sportsman -- he was an unathletic child, and his father, a sports physician, concocted a formula to make an athlete of anyone. He injected young Mantle with the formula, and the boy grew up to become a sports star, dominating every school and collegiate sport in which he participated. But eventually he learned that the formula in his veins was killing him, and he became the Sportsman to take revenge on all the sporting world.

Batman then triggers the pitching machine, which launches a ball at Mantle. Briefly stunned, the Sportsman is easily dispatched by Batman and arrested by the police.

BATMAN #337

"WHERE WALKS A SNOWMAN"
Script Gerry Conway | Plot Assist: Roy Thomas
Pencils: Jose Garcia-Lopez | Inks: Steve Mitchell
Letters: John Costanza | Colors: Adrienne Roy | Editor: Dick Giordano

The Plot: Batman arrives at a sporting good store to help the police apprehend a hoodlum holed up inside. When Batman enters the store, he finds the crook babbling about his friend Jackie. Batman captures the criminal, but also finds Jackie -- frozen solid. Soon, in Commissioner Gordon's office, Batman and Gordon go over the crook's statement: he and Jackie had broken into the store, but Jackie was attacked by a man of snow. Batman leaves police headquarters and returns to Bruce Wayne's penthouse, where a party is in full swing. Among the guests is renowned skiier Klaus Kristin, who arrived while Batman was out, and who Bruce now observes has wet shoes.

The next day, the Snowman breaks into a jewelry store while Batman investigates Kristin's hotel room nearby. He finds and pockets a diary, then leaves when he hears an alarm from the store. But the Snowman has escaped before Batman arrives. Later, Batman and Alfred go through the diary, written by Kristin'a mother, Katrina, in the fifties. It details how she was hiking with friends in the Himalayas and got separated from them. A man found her and took care of her in a cave, and in the darkness they succumbed to their passion together. But the next morning, Katrina saw the man's face by the light of the fire -- he was a yeti. When she was found later on, Katrina was completely insane.

Having deduced Kristin's next destination, Bruce Wayne travels to Austria. He plants the diary in Kristin's room with a note requesting a meeting that night on Summit Peak. When midnight comes, the Snowman attacks Batman on the peak, explaining during their fight that he robs in order to finance his globe-trotting ski trips, since he must remain in the cold whenever he can. Then the brief fight ends, when Batman blinds the Snowman with a flare, and the creature slips and falls off the mountain to his apparent death.

DETECTIVE COMICS #504

"THE JOKER'S RUMPUS ROOM REVENGE!"
Writer Gerry Conway | Artists: Don Newton & Dan Adkins
Letterer: John Costanza | Colorist: Adrienne Roy | Editor: Paul Levitz

The Plot: A shadowy figure arrives in Gotham City and visits the shop of a toymaker named Papetto, who has built some special toys for him. The figure kills Papetto and takes the toys. Later, Batman arrives to find Commissioner Gordon and several detectives combing the shop. Papetto's corpse lays on the floor with the Joker's calling card attached. Just then, City Councilman Arthur Reeves arrives with a news crew, but Batman and the commissioner pay him no heed. Batman grabs some mud from a footprint on the floor and departs. The next day, Bruce Wayne attends the grand opening of a high-end department store. The Joker appears and gases the patrons, but Bruce changes to Batman and goes after Joker. However the Clown Prince of Crime escapes, leaving his boot behind.

Back at the Batcave, after inspecting the boot and the mud, Batman determines that the Joker is hiding out at a ice cream factory in nearby Malcolmville. After seeing a news broadcast about the Joker having struck again, Batman departs for the factory. There, he knocks out some goons and makes it inside, to find the Joker waiting. Joker traps Batman in his "rumpus room", filled with toys -- all of which are programmed to kill. Joker closes the rumpus room door and waits until he hears no more sound. Then he opens it up to find Batman waiting. The Caped Crusader traps Joker in a mound of ice cream, then explains that he used the toys against each other until they were disabled.

Continuity Notes: As described above, mayoral candidate Arthur Reeves puts in another appearance, demanding to know why Batman is assisting the police. Prior to this scene, on the story's splash page, we see a Reeves billboard, showing that he is running on an anti-vigilante platform.

DETECTIVE COMICS #503

"THE 6 DAYS OF THE SCARECROW"
Writer Gerry Conway | Artists: Don Newton & Dan Adkins
Letterer: Ben Oda | Colorist: Adrienne Roy | Editor: Paul Levitz

The Plot: On Sunday night, while stopping a crook from robbing a pawnshop, Batman is hit by a dart from a nearby rooftop. The next day, Bruce Wayne finds people reacting to him with unexpected fear. On Tuesday, a group of gangsters from Gotham City meets with the Scarecrow on a farm some miles from Gotham. Scarecrow explains that he has developed a chemical that gives anyone injected with it an aura of fear. That night, Batman stops a robbery at a roller rink, but the patrons run from him. Realizing something is wrong, Bruce Wayne calls in sick on Wednesday morning. Meanwhile, Alfred, also terrified of Bruce, calls Dick Grayson for help. Dick enlists Batgirl as well, but before the two can begin to help Batman, they respond to a police call at a nearby mall, where Scarecrow is leading a gang of men in terrorizing the patrons. Scarecrow and his gang escape.

Later that night, Robin and Batgirl analyze a gas pellet left by the Scarecrow, and figure out who manufactured it. Batgirl heads to the manufacturer's office and questions the company president, while Robin finds a corn husk on the rooftop from which Batman was darted. Combining their leads, the young crimefighters head for a farm in Hudson County, where they are captured by the Scarecrow. Batman waits a full day for a report from them, but receives nothing -- so on Thursday night, he heads to the farm as well. He rescues his young partners just before Scarecrow doses them with his fear formula, but in the ensuing fight, Scarecrow himelf is injected. Friday finds Batman, Robin, and Batgirl visiting Arkham Asylum, where the doctor in charge tells them that the Scarecrow is now terrified of everything -- even himself.