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.

BATMAN #335

"ASHES TO ASHES!"
Writer: Marv Wolfman | Artists: Irv Novick & Frank McLaughlin
Colorist: Adrienne Roy | Letterer: Ben Oda | Editor: Paul Levitz

"The Lazarus Affair" -- and our overall look at Batman in the Seventies -- concludes with the May, 1981 issue of BATMAN. On Infinity Island, the Caped Crusader is offered a chance to join Ra's al Ghul, and -- after weighing the options -- he agrees.

But of course, Batman is bluffing. The funny thing is that everyone goes along with this in their own ways, but they all know it's a sham. Ra's al Ghul welcomes Batman into the family and sends him off with Talia for a tour of the island, then confides in his chief scientist that he knows Batman's agreement is insincere. Robin puts on a show of feeling betrayed, but secretly receives hand signals from Batman that let him know the Dark Knight is simply buying time. Even King Farady, who throws a punch at Batman over his betrayal, does it for show, as he also catches the hand signals, and even though he doesn't know what they mean, he understands this is a ruse.

So surely Batman, the world's greatest detective, must realize that no one believes him. Yet for whatever reason, everybody plays along... until they decided they're finished. For al Ghul, it happens when Talia escorts Batman into a room containing the Lazarus Pit. He decides at this point to go beat Batman up and turn him into a mutate. For Robin, Faraday, and Catwoman, it happens after they've been escorted back to the slave mines. Robin randomly decides that Batman needs them, so the group breaks free -- again -- and returns to the dome -- again -- to help Batman. From a story perspective, none of this seems to make any sense. We could've jumped straight from the opening page to al Ghul knocking Batman out and his friends fighting on his behalf -- but Wolfman needs to squeeze in some exposition, so he uses Batman's transparent ploy to work it in.

THE NEW TEEN TITANS #6 & #7

"LAST KILL!" | "ASSAULT ON TITANS' TOWER"
Co-Creators: Marv Wolfman & George Pérez
Inkers: Pablo Marcos (issue 6) & Romeo Tanghal (issue 7)
Colorists: Jerry Serpe (issue 6) & John Drake (issue 7)
Letterer: John Costanza | Editor: Len Wein

The Plot: Trigon returns to his dimension with Raven. Upon their arrival, Trigon executes a young girl for calling him a monster, then destroys a world with which he is at war.

Meanwhile, the Titans convince Raven's mother, Arella, to lead them to Trigon's dimension. There, the group goes in search of Raven but finds Trigon instead. He easily defeats the Titans, but Arella escapes and rescues Raven. While Trigon fights Arella, Raven frees the Titans. The entire group then combines their powers to defeat Trigon, banishing him to a nether-realm between dimensions. But Arella sacrifices herself to live forever in that realm as well, keeping Trigon trapped there.

My Thoughts: As can be gleaned from the above synopsis, this is another issue featuring characters getting shuffled around in all different directions for little real purpose. Maybe I harp on this too much, but it's just such a weird storytelling mechanism that I feel it's worth noting.

Otherwise, this is a decent conclusion to the Trigon saga, complete with an X-MEN-esque denouement which features all the Titans (save Changeling, who is involved in his own side skirmish) combining their powers to stop Trigon. Arella's fate is easy to predict, given the big to-do made of her leaving Azarath, but it nonetheless adds some nice emotional impact to the finale.