BATMAN #358

"DON'T MESS WITH KILLER CROC!"
Writer Gerry Conway | Artists: Curt Swan & Rodin Rodriguez
Letterer: Ben Oda | Colorist: Adrienne Roy | Editor: Len Wein

The Plot: Killer Croc busts into the Gotham Tobbaconists' Club and demands to be recognized as the new gang leader of Gotham City. Meanwhile, Batman and Commissioner Gordon observe the Squid's autopsy and Batman traces the bullet used in the mobster's assassination to a unique experimental rifle, only two of which still exist, both in Gotham. Batman visits an underworld gunsmith named Specs, who uses one of the rifles in an attempt to kill the Caped Crusader -- but Batman evades him and captures Specs, taking him to the Batcave. There, Batman and Robin interrogate Specs and get the name of the other rifle's owner: Croc.

Later, the men of the Tobbacconists' Club order Croc to steal an experimental Air Force computer from S.T.A.R. Labs in order to test his skill. Meanwhile, Batman scours the city in search of Croc. At S.T.A.R., Croc infiltrates the facility, takes out several scientists and Air Force soldiers, and absconds with the computer. Elsewhere, Batman beats up a street gang and learns that Croc lives in a section of Gotham called Hell's Point.

Croc delivers the computer to the Tobbacconists, who give their blessing for him to operate in Gotham on a "provisional basis." Later, Croc returns home to find Batman lurking in his apartment. Infuriated that Batman would invade his home, Croc blows the place up and makes his escape into a nearby river.

Continuity Notes: This issue takes place in a little over twenty-four hours, with captions letting readers know exactly when each scene takes place. The first scene is set at 8:54 PM, and the final scene of that first night is set at 10:02 PM. We then pick up the following night at 9:38 PM, and the story ends at approximately 11:25 PM.

More Gotham geography: The Point is "Gotham City's very own version of the South Bronx, a hundred acres of burned-out buildings and rubble-strewn lots," and Hell's Point is "at the far northern tip of Gotham City, where two fierce rivers converge for a joint rush south to the sea." We're also told that "No one lives in Hell's Point anymore. Even the rats have moved away." I have to say, I really like the "world-building" Gerry Conway has done with Gotham during his run, even if he is basically making it into a super-obvious analogue for New York City.

We're informed that Batman told Commissioner Gordon they needed to find the mystery rifle "this morning" in DETECTIVE #524. The issue is also footnoted when Batman recalls being watched by a trench-coated figure he now realizes to be Croc as he escaped the Squid's aquarium hideout.

I suspect Curt Swan must have looked at some recent back issues for reference on the Tobbacconists' Club and its members, and wound up inadvertently drawing the lead man in this issue to resemble Rupert Thorne. I mean, maybe I'm totally wrong, but aside from the color of his hair, this guy looks exactly like Thorne to me:

Speaking of the Club, it's confirmed here that Thorne was not the only bad apple among its members. Per Croc, the establishment is "a front operation for the richest and most powerful crooks on the East Coast."

Bruce and Dick discuss the fact that Trina Todd now knows Batman's secret identity, and Dick relays the fact that after Trina figured it out, she deduced that Dick is Robin, and then confided in him that a man fitting Croc's trenchcoat-clad description is attemtping to shake down the circus for protection money.

My Thoughts: Aaand here we go again. As much as I love Bronze Age Batman, nobody could figure out what to do during this era with his relationship to Robin. The Bronze Age approximately began with Dick Grayson going off to college, where he starred in backup features in the Batman books, while the Caped Crusader fought crime solo for over a decade. The pair teamed up a few times a year; however -- at least as we saw in the Denny O'Neil-scripted stories we looked at a few years back -- Robin was frequently kidnapped or sidelined on those occasions, forcing Batman to inevitably finish the mission alone.

By the late seventies, Dick dropped out of college, creating a somewhat long-running sub-plot where there was friction between the Dynamic Duo. But eventually they patched it up. When Gerry Conway's run began, Dick went out to "find" himself and returned with new confidence and felt that he had finally emerged from Batman's shadow. Yet even so, even as he moved Dick back into Wayne Manor, Conway also frequently sidelined Robin, or used him only as Dick Grayson for sub-plot purposes. And now, in recent issues, we've been told -- but never shown until now -- that Bruce and Dick are drifting apart. Finally, this issue cements that by showing us that Bruce trusts no one, apparently not even his closest friends, if his thoughts are to believed, while Dick retains his faith in humanity.

The problem is, we've seen this all before. Every few years, it's time to inject some friction into the Batman and Robin partnership. This time, I suppose, the friction serves a purpose. In less than a year, Dick will ditch his Robin costume and take on the identity of Nightwing instead. And I think that's my real problem here: much as I love the Marv Wolfman/George Pérez NEW TEEN TITANS, it feels as if its very existence is regularly used to drive an unnecessary wedge between Batman and Robin. Like, I get that Wolfman wants Dick Grayson as "his" character since Robin is a founding Titan, while Conway wants him since he's been Batman's partner for nearly fifty years at this point. But does that real-world tug-of-war truly require the characters to live constantly in never-ending unresolved tension? Can't they still be best friends on the page? More importantly, can't Robin exist in two books at once, just as Batman appears both in his solo titles and in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA?

I guess the point is that I just want Batman and Robin to be happy when they hang out together, and not constantly sniping or having inner thoughts that betrey the fact that they're not as close as they used to be or that Robin is insecure or whatever else. And whenever I feel that way, my go-to solution is to jump back to DETECTIVE COMICS #474, where Steve Englehart laid out the definitive blueprint for how Batman and college-age Robin should interact, but which no one else has ever bothered to follow for some inexplicable reason.

(I know I said I was going to talk about Croc this week, but don't worry -- he's the main antagonist for all of Conway's remaining three issues, so we'll get to him eventually!)