Random Happenstance

This wasn't my favorite, but I recall this as a stretch of issues I kind of liked, even though it isn't a run as such: from 1991, Detective Comics #634, "The Third Man" Written by Kelley Puckett, art by Luke McDonnell.

I don't recall why, but I think Detective was mostly single-issue stories that year. Milligan and Aparo's "The Hungry Grass!" was only a few issues prior. This month, two old-lady amateur detectives, the Biddees, stumble across a dead man in a subway station and start working the case. Batman is less than enthusiastic about amateur help, citing multiple cases ruined by their interference. He leaves them handcuffed in a records office: they were breaking in, but so was he, and I don't think Batman was duly deputized or anything at this point. I'm not sure how I feel about them, really: they are pretty disparaging of the cops, which, honestly, they might have a point there. Not unlike Spider-Man, I'm sure they'd have a podcast: that true-crime stuff is all the rage. The Biddees later get captured by the boss, who nearly let them go, assuming them to be harmless old ladies, until a goon points out they were packing a laundry list full of heat.

Old lady detectives were well out of season by this issue--on TV, anyway. Probably tons of mystery novels, but not something I would've expected in a Batman comic. Puckett would have a great run on the Batman Adventures, while McDonnell is best known for Suicide Squad.