DETECTIVE COMICS #510

"HEAD-HUNT BY A MAD HATTER!"
Writer Gerry Conway | Artists: Gene Colan & Klaus Janson
Letterer: Ben Oda | Colorist: Klaus Janson | Editor: Dick Giordano

The Plot: Batman watches a mayoral debate between Hamilton Hill and Arthur Reeves, then stops a robbery. Meanwhile, Lucius Fox is working late at Wayne Enterprises when the company computer goes haywire and knocks him out, and he is subsequently kidnapped by the Mad Hatter. The next morning Bruce Wayne takes a call from Commissioner Gordon, informing him of the incident. Bruce meets the commissioner in the Wayne offices, where his secretary presents him with a business card from Head Hunters, Inc., which she found on her desk. At Gordon's order, Bruce calls the number. The Mad Hatter answers and tells Bruce he will return Lucius for two million dollars.

Gordon orders Bruce to pay the ransom so the police can track it. But before doing so, Bruce does some investigating of a component which was added to his company computer. Afterward, Bruce pays the ransom and when the Hatter confirms it has been done, he drains all of Lucius's business knowledge with a special computer, then perpares to erase the executive's memory -- but Batman appears, having traced the electronic component to the Hatter's hideout. Batman takes out the Hatter's goons, then volunteers to take Lucius's place in his machine. The Hatter agrees, but his device fails to erase Batman's memory. Later, as the police take the Hatter and his men away, Batman explains that he wore a special rubberized headpiece under his cowl, which prevented his brain from being drained.

BATMAN #343

"A DAGGER SO DEADLY..."
Writer Gerry Conway | Artist: Gene Colan | Embellisher: Klaus Janson
Letterer: John Costanza | Colorist: Adrienne Roy | Editor: Dick Giordano

The Plot: Batman ends a fruitless search for Man-Bat near Wayne Manor, and drives back to Gotham City. Inside city limits, he spots a knife-thrower on a motorcycle who takes out a semi-truck with a well-placed dagger. Batman drives after the villain, who calls himself Dagger, but another hurled knife takes the Batmobile out of commission and Batman is forced to drive it off Gotham bridge to prevent it from exploding near civilians.

The next day, Dagger continues his spree, attacking a jewelry shop to extort protection money. He eludes the police and escapes. That night, Batman dives for the crashed Batmobile and retrieves Dagger's knife, which leads him to the weapon's manufacturer: the Rennington Steel company in New York. Batman speaks with Mister Rennington, who leaves him momentarily and then returns in the costume of Dagger. Rennington attacks Batman, but the Caped Crusader proves more than his match, using a dummy to distract Dagger and then knocking him out with a massive novelty dagger. Batman turns Dagger over to the police and then drives back to Gotham.

Continuity Notes: Narration states that Batman has been searching for Man-Bat for a week, with a footnote pointing to the prior issue for their last encounter. However Batman also thinks to himself that he traveled to Egypt during that week (footnoted to DETECTIVE COMICS #508), and wonders if the trail went cold because of that little side-quest.

DETECTIVE COMICS #509

"NINE LIVES HAS THE CAT..."
Writer Gerry Conway | Artists: Don Newton & Dan Adkins
Letterer: Ben Oda | Colorist: Adrienne Roy | Editor: Dick Giordano

The Plot: Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle wrap up a date, after which Selina is ambushed in her apartment by Cat-Man, who kidnaps her. Later that night, Alfred awakens Bruce to inform him that an alarm has been triggered at the Wayne Research Institute. Bruce changes to Batman and heads out to investigate. At the Institute, he is attacked and knocked out by Cat-Man. When Batman awakens, he finds himself tied down on the beach, where Cat-Man gloats that he will soon be drowned by the morning tide. Cat-Man departs and tide comes in, but Batman manages to free himself.

Batman finds Cat-Man's boat docked nearby, and climbs aboard to listen in as Cat-Man reveals to Selina that ever since she took a scrap of his magical costume, he has had a disfigurement on his face that will not heal. Batman enters the cabin and renews his fight with Cat-Man. The duel carries both out onto the deck, where Cat-Man plunges into the water and, unable to swim, screams for help. The next morning, Bruce bids Selina farewell as she departs Gotham via train to sort out her life.

Continuity Notes: Bruce and Selina discuss their adventure in Egypt with the so-called Pharaoh, with a footnote pointing readers to last issue. Two pages later, Batman and Commissioner Gordon check on Doctor Thirteen in the hospital, and another footnote directs readers to BATMAN issues 341 and 342 for his story. Batman is gratified to realize that Thirteen has no recollection of what happened to him in Wayne Manor that night, meaning the secret of the Batcave is preserved.

DETECTIVE COMICS #508

"SECRET OF THE SPHINX SINISTER!"
Writer Gerry Conway | Artists: Don Newton & Dan Adkins
Letterer: Ben Oda | Colorist: Adrienne Roy | Editor: Dick Giordano

The Plot: Batman enters Selina Kyle's apartment to find it ransacked, and Selina missing. The Darknight Detective brings Selina's cats back to the Batcave, along with a clue that leads him to believe the erstwhile Catwoman was kidnapped by a mummy. Bruce Wayne heads to the Gotham Metropolitan Museum to meet with his friend, Egyptology expert Gregory Griffin -- but Griffin is missing as well, his office in disarray. Bruce and Griffin's assistant, Donaldson, find a secreat passage to an Egyptian-style chamber, where a photo of Selina is hung above an altar. Donaldson translates some hieroglyphics which indicate Griffin believes Selina to be the reincarnation of Kara, Queen of the Sphinx.

Bruce heads to Giza, Egypt, where he confirms that Griffin and Selina recently entered the country. He heads into the desert and stakes out the Sphinx as Batman -- but when he's attacked by a group of jackals, Batman enters the Sphinx and finds Griffin in a burial chamber, now calling himself Khafre, Lord of the Nile. Batman surrenders to Griffin, who reveals his plan to send himself and Selina -- and now Batman as well -- into a deep, deathlike sleep from which they may never emerge. But Batman frees himself and rescues Selina. When Griffin chases them outside, he is attacked by the jackals. The next day, Bruce and Selina meet with an Egyptian policeman, who has found no sign of Griffin other than some scraps of his clothing on the desert sand.

BATMAN #342

"REQUIEM FOR A HERO"
Writer Gerry Conway | Artists: Irv Novick & Frank McLaughlin
Letterer: Shelly Leferman | Colorist: Adrienne Roy | Editor: Dick Giordano

The Plot: In the Batcave beneath Wayne Manor, Doctor Thirteen finds Man-Bat attacking Batman. Thirteen tries to help, allowing Batman to get free and zap Man-Bat with Thirteen's sonar gun. Man-Bat escapes, and Batman emerges onto the Wayne grounds with an injured Thirteen. At the hospital, Batman and Commissioner Gordon are told that Thirteen will survive.

The next day, Bruce Wayne visits the apartment of Kirk and Francine Langstrom and their daughter, Rebecca, in Gotham's Crime Alley neighborhood. Francine explains that Kirk has been consumed by his Man-Bat persona thanks to his hatred of Batman. That night, Batman goes out in search of Man-Bat. He enters the extended network of caverns beneath the Wayne grounds, and eventually finds his quarry. Batman and Man-Bat fight, and Batman slips an antidote into Man-Bat's mouth -- but it fails to change him back to Kirk Langstrom. Instead, Man-Bat kicks Batman away and flies off, leaving the Caped Crusader behind, vowing to find a new cure for his one-time friend.

Continuity Notes: Commissioner Gordon loses his temper with Batman at the hospital, then reveals why: he received a threatning note in the morning's mail.

BATMAN #341

It was a dark and stormy night. A perfect night for...
"THE GHOST OF WAYNE MANSION"
Writer Gerry Conway | Artists: Irv Novick & Frank McLaughlin
Letterer: Ben Oda | Colorist: Adrienne Roy | Editor: Dick Giordano

The Plot: On a dark and stormy night, three kids race out of Wayne Manor, screaming about a ghost, and are found by a passing Gotham policeman. The next morning, Commissioner Gordon asks Bruce Wayne for permission to search the mansion, but Bruce -- worried Gordon might find the old Batcave -- refuses, so Gordon leaves to get permission from the house's cartetakers at the Gotham Historical Society instead. Later, Batman examines real-time footage of the manor on his computer, and finds that the secret entrance to the Batcave behind a grandfather clock is ajar. Batman races to the house to stop Gordon's search.

Meanwhile, Gordon enters the house with Miss Crum of the Historical Society, and with Doctor Terry Thirteen, a paranormal investigator who specializes in debunking ghosts. Gordon tells Thirteen that the night before, his officer saw the same "ghost" the kids saw. Meanwhile, Batman enters the mansion as well. He secretly sabotages Doctor Thirteen's "sonar gun", but when the "ghost" swoops past overhead, he follows it. After losing the ghost, Batman shows himself and asks Gordon for time to search the mansion alone. Gordon agrees, and leaves the house with Crum and Thirteen -- but Thirteen immediately slips back inside. Batman enters the Batcave to find that the "ghost" is actually Man-Bat -- and then the creature quickly subdues him. Meanwhile, Thirteen discovers the Batcave entrance and descends the stairs, to find Man-Bat holding the unconscious Batman.

Continuity Notes: Lots of them this issue! But we'll start with a sub-plot scene, where the mystery man who was released from Arkham Asylum in DETECTIVE COMICS #507 visits the Gotham Tobacconists Club, a group of the city's most powerful political movers and shakers. The man immediately blackmails the club members into backing him, and they declare that he is still the "boss" of Gotham City. The man then says that he is barred from running for office due to his time in Arkham, but that he has one of the mayoral candidates in his pocket and he wants to ensure that candidate is elected. (You probably realize who this guy is by now, but since the story hasn't revealed it yet, neither will I!)

BATMAN #340

"A MAN CALLED MOLE!"
Writers: Gerry Conway & Roy Thomas | Inker: Adrian Gonzales
Letterer: Ben Oda | Colorist: Adrienne Roy | Editor: Dick Giordano
take great pleasure in introducing Gene Colan, Penciler

The Plot: At night in Gotham, a stockbroker named William Elder is killed by a creature from underground. The next morning, Batman investigates the body with Commissioner Gordon. The next night, a psychiatrist, Doctor Kurtzman, is killed in the same way. But this time, Batman is on patrol and reaches the doctor's office. He enters a hole left by Kurtzman's assailant, and battles a monster calling himself the Mole underground. But the Mole, who seems to know Batman, escapes. Later, Batman recalls fighting a tunnel-digging hoodlum called the Mole, and calls Gotham State Prison to check on him. The warden says that the Mole's parole was recently denied by a board consisting of Elder, Kurtzman, and chemical mogul Sandra Clarke.

Bruce Wayne brings Sandra to Wayne Manor to keep her safe from the Mole, but he also plants a story in the newspaper indicating that she will be staying there to recuperate from an illness. That night, the Mole tunnels into the Batcave and makes his way to the manor, where he attacks Sandra and brings her underground. There, he tells her that after his parole was denied, he tunneled out of prison, but was soaked by tainted sewage and mutated into a monster. Batman arrives and defeats the Mole, who falls into an underground river, seemingly killed. Batman takes Sandra to safety and then goes to bed.

Continuity Notes: Gene Colan joins BATMAN as the new regular penciler, a role he will maintain for a number of years -- though he will hop titles to do so, becoming the DETECTIVE COMICS penciler after a few issues. But on that series, he will outlast Gerry Conway's tenure on the title and continue to draw it under the next writer, Doug Moench, right up until the CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS reboot in 1986! What I repeat now is hearsay, but I believe I recall that Colan, a longtime Marvel stalwart and favorite of Stan Lee's, was dismissed from the House of Ideas in the early eighties by editor-in-chief Jim Shooter, for "cutting corners" on his assignments.