DETECTIVE COMICS #519

"...LIKE A DREADNOUGHT IN THE SKY!"
Plot Gerry Conway | Script: Paul Kupperberg
Pencils: Don Newton | Inks: John Calnan
Letterer: Ben Oda | Colorist: Adrienne Roy | Editor: Len Wein

The Plot: Batman is in Washington, D.C. on a top from the Navy, and watches from atop the Washington Monument as a zeppelin enters D.C. airspace, broadcasting a ransom demand from Colonel Blimp -- ten million dollars for the submarine and warship he has captured, along with their crews. Batman hitches a ride aboard the ship, but finds a detonation device inside. He exits quickly, just before the hydrogen-powered blimp explodes and crashes.

Later, at the Batcave, the Batcomputer has pinpointed the likely location of the captured Naval craft, in the arctic. Batman dispatches Robin in the Batplane to investigate, while Batman drives the Batmobile to New Jersey on a hunch. Sure enough, he finds Blimp's hangar in the woods and sneaks inside, where he learns that the Department of the Navy has agreed to Blimp's demand. Meanwhile, Robin arrives in the arctic and finds the captured ship and sub, landlocked on the ice. He asks the battleship's crew to get the guns in working order, and soon afterward, a zeppelin dispatched by Blimp arrives. Its crew disembarks and is captured by the sailors, while Robin boards the airship and contacts Blimp, telling him his scheme is blown.

Batman takes that cue to show himself. He knocks out Blimp's men and confronts the villain, who gets off a single shot before Batman knocks him out and takes him into custody.

Continuity Notes: Believe it or not, there are none! This issue is wall-to-wall Batman vs. Blimp, with nary a single check-in on the supporting cast or any other storylines.

That said, there are a couple items of note: one, as noted above, we have a new Batmobile in action, just an issue after the previous one exploded. And two, Colonel Blimp rants his backstory to Batman just before his capture: he wants revenge on the United States Navy because his father worked on the navy's "zeppelin program" in the fifites, but when the Navy pulled the plug on the project, Blimp's father became despondent and killed himself.

My Thoughts: I feel like I may have said it once before about another issue, but if I did, this one supplants that prior occasion: this is, to date, the most inconseqential issue in Gerry Conway's run (not counting the very earliest installments before he began his sub-plots in earnest). Which isn't to say it's a bad story. It hangs on some questionable leaps (the Batcomputer can somehow pinpoint the one place on Earth where Blimp would've hidden the captured ships? Batman, having apparenlty investigated numerous blimp hangars since last issue, just happens to find the right one -- near where he was tracking Blimp last issue! -- right when Robin finds those ships?), but it's still kind of a fun little tale. It just feels unsubstantive with no looks at Vicki, Gordon, Thorne, etc.

But, all that aside, this is a beautiful-looking installment as usual. Don Newton and Gene Colan are the unsung heroes of this Conway run (to the extent any comic book artist can be considered unsung, which I suppose is a questionable premise on its face). Even when Conway's stories are a little underwhelming, the artwork is always top notch. And this issue gives us a spectacular couple of opening pages, as Batman lurks atop the Washington Monument, waiting for Blimp to appear. It's really quite breathtaking!

Next week, the Joker's back -- and he's bringing Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez with him!