BATMAN #359

"HUNT"
Writer Gerry Conway | Artists: Dan Jurgens & Dick Giordano
Letterer: Ben Oda | Colorist: Adrienne Roy | Editor: Len Wein

The Plot: Batman invades the Gotham Tobbacconists' club and questions its head, Filbert Hughes III, regarding Killer Croc. Meanwhile, Croc has summoned all of Gotham's gang bosses to his hideout at the zoo, where he announces his intention to take control of the mobs. But the men are unimpressed, telling Croc that they still follow orders from the incarcerated Tony Falco. Batman drops off Hughes and his bodyguards with Commissioner Gordon, while Croc sneaks into Gotham Jail and murders Falco. Guards spot Croc and try to stop him, and the alarm is raised. Batman responds and battles Croc, but is again defeated by him.

The following night, at the Sloan Circus, Trina and Joe Todd spot Croc's associate, Slick, pocketing extorted protection money. When Slick leaves, the Todds follow -- but Slick realizes they are after him. Meanwhile, Batman meets with Commissioner Gordon, who fills him in on Croc's history. Elsewhere, Dick Grayson arrives at the circus, but is informed by Jason Todd and Waldo the Clown that Jason's parents left in pursuit of Slick. Panicked, Dick leaves. At that moment, the Todds follow Slick into the zoo and to the reptile house, where they find Croc and a roomful of mobsters waiting for them. Croc declares that he will show them what fate he has in store for Batman.

Continuity Notes: I still think Curt Swan accidentally looked at reference Rupert Thorne when drawing Filbert Hughes, because the resemblance is uncanny. And now Dan Jurgens is following Swan's model, so the Thorne Clone lives on!

Early in the issue, Croc believes he killed Batman in DETECTIVE COMICS 525, which to my eye didn't come across at all in that issue. Leter, there's reference to DETECTIVE 524 when Batman recalls Croc letting him get away from the Squid, and to BATMAN 358 as the Masked Manhunter wonders why he "let" Croc escape during their first fight -- which, again, does not seem to fit the story as published. When Batman and Croc tussled in issue 358, Croc eluded him by jumping over a wall into the river -- and the very next issue, DETECTIVE 525, showed Batman searching for Croc. Now, what does happen at that point is that Batman fails to notice Croc lurking in a tunnel and watching him, then realizes later that he was there. So yes, maybe there is something going on with Batman's subconscious here, but it did not happen in BATMAN 358 and it didn't involve him letting Croc escape from a fight.

Speaking of that which lurks in the Caped Crusader's heart, he has another blowup here, yelling at Robin when the latter suggests maybe they shouldn't be asking the Todds to help them after all -- even though it was Batman who was against the idea initially when Robin brought it up! Dick comments to Alfred that his mentor is changing, and Bruce notices it himself as well, leading him to call Vicki and try to apologize for their fight in DETECTIVE 525.

Commissioner Gordon fills in Batman (and us) on Croc's backstory -- he was born Waylon Jones in the Tampa slums, and was bullied by the other children over his "skin disease" (which somehow also gives him reptilian eyes and facial features), and then:

Lastly, it's not contniuity, but it seems worth mentioning... for some reason, Batman drops Hughes and his bodyguards on the fire escape outside Commissioner Gordon's apartment window in the middle of the night. Like... why not take them to some actual on-duty cops? What's Gordon supposed to do with them in the middle of the night? Call some uniforms to pick them up while he keeps himself awake and sits alone by his windowsill to keep an eye on them?!

My Thoughts: Okay, it's Batman vs. Croc, round... let's see here... three! And they're still not done! The first time they fought, Croc escaped. The second time, Croc was in his element and defeated Batman handily. The third time, they meet on neutral ground at the City Jail and it appears Batman is going to win, until Croc suddenly beats him... again. So my takeaway here is that Croc is Batman's superior in every way, no matter where they fight. Which is fine; it's always more satisfying when a hero triumphs over a seemingly unbeatable foe. But do we really need three overly repetitive fights to make the point? Batman has literally fought Croc three nights in a row at this point! It's kinda weird.

In other news -- and I hope I'm not spoiling anything here, but I imagine anyone reading these posts is probably aware of where their story is going -- this issue is the final time we'll see Trina and Joe Todd alive. Which, given their fate next issue, I'm glad of. I don't need to see what's going to happen to them actually happen. But regardless, I've known they were going to die since they first appeared, which has given these issues a bit of added dread that I'm not certain I would've felt if I was ignorant of their demise. Which makes me wonder if fans at the time knew where this was going. Like, was the fan press aware that Jason was the next Robin, and that his parents were therefore likely goners? Were there interviews with Gerry Conway, Marv Wolfman, Len Wein, Dick Giordano, or whoever else leading up to it?

I guess what I'm wondering is, were people reading this the same way I do, with this permeating sense of melancholy as you realize these happy, friendly, eager-to-help people are living on borrowed time? Joe and Trina have barely had any page-time since Conway introduced them, yet they come across as so nice and so loving that I'm kind of mad knowing that they were created solely to be gruesomely murdered by Croc (more on that next issue).

But it is what it is, I suppose. Apparently Batman needs a young Robin to keep him from going totally off the deep end (or at least that seems to be where Conway is going with the sudden, abrupt darkening of our hero's personality). But in a weird way, I almost wish the Todds were faceless ciphers like Dick Grayson's parents, or even that they were jerks. It's hard to read about characters presented as good, decent people when you know they're doomed.

But then, I suppose if I'm having such strong emotional reactions to the impending fate of a pair of characters I've known for maybe ten pages total over about five issues, it means Conway is doing his job very well!