"The End" Week: Batman and Robin Adventures #25!

I had this, but picked up a binged-up copy from the quarter bin. It's the NFL AFC Championship game on as I write this; but I was surprised to realize this was the last issue of this series! From 1997, Batman and Robin Adventures #25, "Demon in the Sky" Written by Ty Templeton, pencils by Bo Hampton, inks by Rich Burchett and Terry Beatty.

Batman is flying home from a successful mission in Santa Prisca--which may have involved a regime change and burning the local cash crop, but we'll have to let that go. Spotting something on the radar, Bats calls Dick in the Batcave to hack into air traffic control for a look; but the bogey later comes to a dead stop from Mach 2! Dick figures it has to be a weather inversion. It's not.

Even convinced he was hallucinating, Batman still sets the Batwing on autopilot as he's abducted into a flying saucer. Paralyzed by a strange light, he is greeted not by the traditional grays, but by Ra's al Ghul! Said grays had attempted to take Ra's, who had been able to muster enough willpower to fight off the paralyzing light, then Ra's had accidentally killed them. He was able to puzzle out the tech, since it seemed to work like a Green Lantern ring, by strength of will; which is probably something you shouldn't mention to Batman. Ra's just keeps talking and somewhat uncharacteristically starts a forest fire demonstrating the saucer's power. Batman is able to break free, but isn't able to outfight Ra's, who throws him out at "sixteen, maybe eighteen thousand feet." How could Batman possibly survive? It's a cool as hell sequence over six pages, where every move seems to bring him from the frying pan to the fire--literally the fire, the one Ra's started earlier!

Dick and Alfred recover the injured Batman and return him to Wayne Manor, where they are visited by Men in Black! They're less personable and more quirky that the movie types; but they tell "Mr. Wayne" Ra's is going to be in Nevada, and they give Dick an unusual crystal. Bruce assumes they worked for Ra's and were setting a trap, but takes the bait. Finding Ra's and the saucer, the rest is wrapped up fairly quickly, even if Batman seems unconvinced aliens were involved. Total Scully.

We've seen some of the other B:TAS comic last issues: this would've been after Batman Adventures #36, and the Lost Years mini was next, followed by Batman: Gotham Adventures and Batman Adventures.