Random Happenstance

So I'm writing this post even though I already scheduled the post for the next issue (or rather, appearance) to run when I get back from vacation; and I was going to schedule this for my next vacation: I've been at my current job slightly longer than I've been at this blog, so I've got a solid amount of vacation time every year. And I'm looking at this comic because I randomly found it while I was looking for something else, because apparently I'm not organized enough to have a big goddamn box of comics labeled "BATMAN" on it. So let's check out, from 1983, Batman #360, "When Slays the Savage Skull..." Written by Doug Moench, pencils by Don Newton, inks by Pablo Marcos and Ron Randall, cover by Ed Hannigan and Dick Giordano; and I don't know if somebody told them Batman would be fighting giant naked purple skeletons this month or what happened there.

Instead, this issue a hooded cop-killer attacks a third officer, but is interrupted by a passing car before he can finish him off. Batman is called away from acrobatic training with Jason Todd, who still bursts into tears at the memory of his dead parents, but still wants to go with Bats, who has to shut him down. Questioning the wounded officer, Batman asks if the cop had any warning before the attack, which prompts him to remember, oh yeah, the guy screamed "Justice must die" before stabbing him. Maybe that's not as memorable as getting stabbed, I guess.

While another cop is getting stabbed to death, Gordon calls Batman with another clue, a threat delivered to the police station from "SS." Batman wonders if that refers to Nazis, which is sadly still topical today; then goes to question the last cop to work with the slain officers, Jack Crane. Batman nearly blows it off, but a cop had mentioned he was "retired," very much with the quotes there. Bats finds Crane's place unlocked and open--really for real this time, usually that would be a lie--and the place spray-painted with "The Savage Skull will slay," and the photos of his targets: the dead cops, and then Jim Gordon! Fairly straightforward, until the Skull arrives, with a skinless head!

The Skull escapes after a brief tussle, and Batman goes to Gordon for the story: Crane had been an ambitious, and over-zealous (read: brutal) officer, who had been horribly burned while shooting an arsonist. Alleged arsonist: Crane's story never lined up with the ballistics, and while he claimed he saw a gas can it was never found. Discharged from the force, Crane was now completely disgruntled and on the spree, smashing into Gordon's own home! Gordon seems ill, not his usual self, but Batman gets the fight outside, which ends with Crane diving at Batman and going over the side of the pier. His head hits the side and he sinks like a stone, and Batman suggests to Gordon they'll have to drag the river, but the Skull was fine. His next appearance is seemingly moments later, although it also seemed to imply he had been living under the docks for a while. Well, either way. And Gordon's problems with his health and the mayor would continue to build; here the mayor as much as tells him if he's not healthy he'd be out of a job!

This issue features a few things that would become expressly forbidden later, like Batman out during the day or talking to regular cops. He also gets distracted and hungry, like a regular person; you won't see that anymore...