But I don't get Deathstroke's ongoing popularity either, especially when he's in books like this: from 2010, Titans: Villains for Hire Special #1, "The Best Laid Plans" Written by Eric Wallace, art by Fabrizio Fiorentino; Mike Mayhew; Sergio Arino; Walden Wong.
This is shorter and slightly less blatent in trying to tug on the heartstrings, but otherwise it reads just like Countdown to Infinite Crisis: despite a valiant struggle, a hero gets got, just to show the bad guys are hardcore. In flashbacks we see Deathstroke gathering his little team, largely by telling them whatever they needed to hear: for example, he promises Cheshire to solve her problems and help her restore her tarnished rep. Together, they gang up on the Ryan Choi Atom; hired by his foe Dwarfstar. Ryan puts up a good fight, before Deathstroke kills him, then delivers his corpse in a matchbox. (Who has matchboxes anymore?)
In their headquarters, complete with meeting table (and curiously, an extra empty seat) Deathstroke tells them they were Titans now, but the name choice wasn't business, it was personal.
Weirdly, for a 2010 comic that was bagged and boarded, this was in not especially great shape when I bought it. I can only assume an Atom fan threw it on the ground more than once. I do believe Dwarfstar would get his in Secret Six #28, but Deathstroke remains bulletproof, which just stumps me. Sorry to end the week on a sour note, but we may be looking at another Deathstroke book later.
Could've done with some credits, but we'll trust the GCD: 1971, Ghostly Tales #85, featuring "The 9th Life" Written by Joe Gill, art by Steve Ditko; "Hide and E-Eeek!" also by Gill and Ditko; and "Gypsy's Revenge!" Written by Gill or Pat Boyette, art by Pat Boyette. (The table of contents lists them in a different order!)
"The 9th Life" is a good one, in a Twilight Zone vein: young misanthrope Michael Hoyt hates his life, hates the world, hates about everything; but does show kindness to a scared cat shooed out of a tenement. In what could be a dream, Michael is visited by the cat in the form of a pretty witch, Felicia. She offers to help him find a better life, and what could be better than living in pre-Revolution America? Just about everything, if you're interested in not getting hung for shooting your mouth off...
That's a bust, so Felicia helps him escape, to about a hundred years after that. Good times...unless you catch about anything, in the days before penicillin. Michael is starting to realize there are risks in any era, and returns to his own time to try and improve it, or at least accept the things he can't change. But, he does get introduced to a familiar girl at a party, so maybe his future is looking up.
"Hide and E-Eeek!" is odd to me, if only because the book's host, Mr. Dedd, intervenes: you never saw the Crypt-Keeper or the Old Witch do that, did you? Wearing a human face resembling the Spectre's Jim Corrigan, Dedd attends a party where bitter old creep Mr. Spite has made most of the guests disappear. Feeling his family had wrecked his life, Spite was using mysticism or hypnosis or something to kill all his relatives before he died, forcing them to dig their own graves in his basement. Dedd puts a stop to that, leaving the guests befuddled as to why they were all digging...
"Gypsy's Revenge!" reminded me of Doctor Doom, a little: evil Lord Malko, um, lords it over the countryside, but seemingly allows an aggrieved gypsy to kidnap his son and raise him. Is he just lazy, or have a longer game in mind? The boy Esau seems to excel in the mystic arts, but is he a willing participant or a pawn? I feel like a couple pages were out of order in my copy, so I'm not quite sure either.
If it was left to me, Wong would be getting all the MCU cameos left behind with Stan Lee's passing: every movie or show, he's up to some crazy thing, with no explanation or follow-up. Wong's performing an exorcism in a NYC bodega; Wong's having a deadly game of rock-paper-scissors with a Skrull on top of the Sydney Opera House; Wong's in a deeply competitive pie-eating contest in Nebraska...just complete nonsense played deadly serious. (This is possibly-kinda inspired or swiped from a bit in Scud the Disposable Assassin #13, where the U.S. Marshal-types that have been tracking Scud have to explain why they haven't found him yet.)
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Let's grab a comic I don't think I've read out of the pile: from 1984, Marvel Team-Up #139, "Everybody Loves Somebody Sometime!" Written by Cary Burkett, pencils by Brian Postman, inks by Mike Esposito.
I could've sworn the Dreadnought robot had even more little spikes on it...Spidey swings past the robot on a rooftop, while he's on his way to a photo assignment for the Bugle, which of course is then stormed by the Dreadnought, who moves toward a young starlet, Julie. Changing back quickly, Spidey saves the girl in dramatic fashion, only to get his web cut and the girl abducted, but he does tag it with a spider-tracer. Which he has to follow via his detector, since his spider-sense was out, courtesy the Hobgoblin around Amazing #250.
Meanwhile, Nick Fury and Dum-Dum Dugan are met by their old friend and former Howling Commando Dean Martin Dino Manelli, who needs their help. The Mafia Maggia had been leaning on him, then kidnapped his girl, Julie--wait, Dino would'a been around at least his mid-sixties then; she was like a third his age! Nick says kidnapping is more up the FBI's alley, maybe he should try there; and Dino storms out. Dum-Dum knows Nick's not going to stop there; but he wanted to take that one alone, and knew Dino would have been too emotional. (And likely too old and too drunk!) He plants a fancy mike outside a known Maggia contact's window, and waits to get word.
Peter not only didn't get pictures of Julie's kidnapping, every other paper in town got pictures of Spidey getting clowned. Worse, while his spider-sense was still intermittent, he kept getting massive alarms for seemingly no reason, like something big was going to happen.
But, when the tracer pings again, Spidey follows it; as Nick finds out Julie was being kept on a yacht. Nick not only ends up fighting the Dreadnaught, he keeps fighting it even when Spidey shows up, telling him to rescue Julie. And both fail! Nick gets shocked out, while Julie cracks a bottle over Spidey's head when his back was turned. Nick and Spidey are trussed up, in time for Julie to tell them everything before Dino is also captured: she had been paid to get close to Dino, then bankrupt him. But, with Dino there as well, the Maggia boss opts to kill her too. Dino throws himself in front of the Dreadnaught's shot and is winged, but the distraction gives Spidey the chance to break out. Nick gives Spidey the collar from his S.H.I.E.L.D. uniform, which had hidden explosives in it, and they use it to blow the robot's head up. (Nick's a cool customer, to walk around with explosives in his collar!)
Dino survives, and tells Julie he did it because he really did love her. Well, the age difference might be less by the time she gets outta jail. Meanwhile, Spidey realizes the Dreadnaught's robot...robotness, had been jamming the spider-tracer; he didn't get a signal again until it was powered down.
This would have been going into Team-Up's last year, and while I'm not sure it was very often essential reading, it's still missed, isn't it? There was a place for it, that seems empty now.
We've seen Ultraa on the blog a couple times, but this is definitely a comedown from the 200th issue. (By the way, does anyone else do this, go through the boxes at the comic shop and get frustrated when they have #199 then #201, even if they're the one that bought #200 already?) From 1982, Justice League of America #201, "A Hero For All Seasons" Written by Gerry Conway, pencils by Don Heck, inks by Bob Smith.
I don't think I've ever read anything about anyone ever having a good time in Atlantic City: I've never been, but is it just depressing? This fellow is, anyway: two-time loser Joe Perry, who found an alien "wishing machine" some years back; ended up fighting the JLA on Hawkman's first case with the team, and got sent up the river for robbing a bank. Out on parole, Joe was still kicking himself for his missed opportunity, when he notices the prodigious strength of a janitor...you'd think he would notice Ultraa was also like nine feet tall, since I think he was in his previous appearances?
Green Arrow had returned to the JLA, and was kicking himself for doing so: it's pretty obvious Black Canary was like 90% of why, the other 10% being the usual rants about rich people, helping the man on the street, etc. When the team gets sent the video of Ultraa and Joe rather brazenly robbing a bank, Flash runs to get Hawkman: not only because he had worked the case with Joe, but because Hawkgirl was currently MIA, which maybe puts this around World's Finest #275 or so? He's not doing well on his own, but still suits up. Black Canary recounts Ultraa's semi-tragic story to the Atom: Ultraa had an origin not unlike Superman's, and had been the first super-powered person on Earth-Prime. But, it was believed his presence would lead to more super-powered villains and heroes, an inevitable escalation that Ultraa immigrates to Earth-1 to avoid bringing upon his adopted home.
GA knocks out Joe by shooting a concussion arrow into his apartment--that's a little excessive, Ollie. But Ultraa punches Superman out of the building, and three Leaguers with him: while Supes saves them, Ultraa starts tearing up a casino with the usual giant props. Superman throws him like a Yahtzee roll with giant dice; but Ultraa then knocks out Hawkman, Superman, and the Flash in no time; before collapsing in despair. That wasn't what he wanted, at all: Ultraa had just wanted a friend, and had been betrayed. In the end, Joe was facing another stiff sentence, while on probation, Ultraa moves to Australia: he had been raised by the Aboriginal Australians of Earth-Prime, and finds a second home there. Which he probably should've in the first place, instead of doing dishes in Atlantic City.
This one has a little more characterization than usual, but it needs it, since the League doesn't accomplish much?
Fifty-cents for an Alan Davis cover? OK! But the interior wasn't bad either. From 2001, JSA #20, "Injustice Be Done, conclusion: Godspeed" Written by David Goyer and Geoff Johns, pencils by Stephen Sadowski, inks by Michael Bair.
This felt a lot like the conclusion of a Morrison/Porter JLA serial; as the Spectre has just gotten reduced to a giant hooded skeleton by the King of Tears, an extradimensional entity currently powering Johnny Sorrow. I had to double-check, but Sorrow was a new villain with an old-school feel that made him perfect for the JSA. While the Spectre recovers (and I believe he was Hal Jordan at the time, based on Canary thinking he sounded familiar) he can't do anything to the King of Tears, as it was soulless and conscience-free. Black Adam thinks they're sunk then, but Hawkgirl challenges him by calling him Teth-Adam. Rookie Stargirl has noticed Kendra acting weirder and weirder, as she seems to be increasingly remembering past lives stuff.
While the captured, and tortured, Sand distracts Johnny Sorrow; Mr. Terrific has a plan: have Jay run the speed of light and punch stuff. Jay's not that fast, but what if he stole Black Adam's speed of Heru? Great, but then Jay would get sucked into the speed force; but what if he used the link to Black Adam to find his way back? Seems a lot of if's, but bad stuff was happening, so no choice. Jay says goodbye to his wife Joan, who seems to have a picture of a child they lost.
Dr. Mid-Nite distracts Sorrow at the crucial moment, with a video capture of Sorrow's "fatal countenance," and Jay punches the King of Tears out of this plane of existance, snapping reality back to normal. While the Spectre visits, and saves, the injured Alan Scott; Jay begins to decelerate, then trips running across water, and wakes up in a desert...in ancient Egypt, with Nabu and Teth-Adam wondering what's up with him! Some years back, we saw the Legion's Ultra Boy in the same boat, zapped by the "chronal howitzer" into the past. The Fantastic Four and West Coast Avengers are probably punching Rama-Tut nearby, too...and probably Hawkman, since this had been building up to his return, teased in the next issue box.
Also this issue: an ad for Playstation 1-era game Incredible Crisis, a memorably weird sounding game that may have been weirder than I would've guessed. Featuring music from Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra, which sounds great!
1. I haven't done one of these in like a year and a half, and thought it would be something I could knock out while I watched a movie! Yeah, no such luck, since I was watching One Cut of the Dead, which I had been wanting to see for some time and was surprisingly unspoiled on, which means I probably didn't even watch that trailer I just linked to. Spoiler alert, then? Go in as cold as you possibly can. I've wanted to try out Shudder for some time now and never have, because I'm a cheap bastard I don't want to get sucked into paying for multiple streaming services at the same time. But, I found a somewhat alarming amount of their DVD's at the Dollar (and a quarter) Store: so far I've watched (Satanic) Panic, Prevenge, the Barge People, Yummy, and the Night Shifter. Out of that lot, I think I liked Prevenge the best; although gory cheapie the Barge People has its moments if you remember other crap horror like Humanoids from the Deep. One Cut is a solid letter grade better than the rest, but I still have Tigers Are Not Afraid and a couple others to watch.
2. If I'm lucky, tomorrow I should do something I probably should've done two years ago, and buy a new bike: I think my old one would take enough time and effort to get going now that buying a new one might be cheaper. Eh, maybe not, but definitely faster. I should make a note to take the old one to the shop mid-November and tell them to finish it when they finish it...I had a job some years back where, weather permitting, I would bike to work, about twenty miles round trip. Sure I was gone for an extra couple hours a day, but I was in such better shape! Largely because if I'm on my bike I'm not cramming Doritos down my piehole...Just kidding. Bike Doritos are extra-delicious.
3. I didn't mention it, because of the paranoid notion I would be looted to the bare walls if I did, but I was on vacation last week. My folks and the Youngest and I went to Disneyland for a day, which was fun; but next time I'll have to see if we can get to wherever the hell they keep the Marvel stuff...is that in the California Adventure section? I don't know. I didn't pick anything up, though: I didn't want to drop thirty bucks for a Greedo figure; and was kind of running for rides and didn't take the time to shop. The new app replacing FastPass or whatever worked about half the time; so it saved me a wait a few times but I did spend an hour in line for Space Mountain...which I still love. The Star Wars Resistance one broke while we were in line, though!
4. I wanted to see the Marvel end of the Disney stuff since I wanted to see if they were giving Moon Knight a push--hey, it's him or Morbius, man. There's a shot from the premiere of Oscar Isaac meeting a "mini-Moon Knight" and...you know he cut a guy's face off once, right? Yeah, I don't think the Disney+ is going to go there; which shouldn't disappoint me but does a little? I did really like the first episode, though; although the current Moon Knight book is also killing it.
5. Here's where I tried to go back to something I liked on Twitter but can't remember what I was looking for...maybe it'll come back to me.
6. I thought I'd mentioned this one here before, but maybe that was Twitter: Basehead's "Not Over You," which was on the soundtrack to a 90's movie called Floundering. I know I've seen it, and I had the soundtrack somewhere: can't remember a thing about the movie, couldn't find the CD, and their album Play with Toys wasn't on iTunes, either! Hadda buy it from eBay, which was probably cheaper, but still. I've been listening to that and Pet Sounds lately, and the throughline would be both albums seem to feature artists that are kind of going through some things and trying to articulate it to friends who don't seem to get it, and maybe put a lot of work into their album for not the immediate response they expected. Hmm.
7. Everything Everywhere All at Once isn't currently playing locally, which is pissing me off no end, since I could probably walk into Morbius right now. Ah, Morbius might be catching a bit of flack because of Jared Leto, who no one seems to particularly like but inexplicably still seems to get a lot of work. I always thought Goran Visnjic from ER would've been a good Morbius: would've nailed the accent I imagine him with, easy. Anyway, I don't have high expectations for Morbius but it's probably watchable crap. Maybe. I did see the Batman last week, and that was way better than I thought it was going to be! It feels weird to have a new Bat-flick out and virtually no interest in action figures for it: I've bought a Hot Wheels Batmobile, and that was about it. No Marvel Legends movie Morbius, either? Huh.
8. Alright, speaking of Legends, I have a bunch pre-ordered--Bonebreaker and the Controller--but after getting Quasar, it feels like I don't have any I was really waiting for bad. Rrr, something I keep thinking about doing but haven't yet is set up a whiteboard for whatever crap I have coming. I just preordered a Stacy Keibler WWE figure, even though I don't know her or watch wrestling, but she looks like a great administrative assistant-type. That Rowdy Roddy Piper from They Live should maybe be next week--that one's gone in and out of stock, and good luck finding him on a shelf. I have three unrelated figures coming from Amazon...good grief, in May? That feels like a hundred years away. Maybe I shouldn't have completely lowballed the shipping...But, it's three figures that were all dirt cheap for a brief moment--well, it's more like three characters and a vehicle. Hopefully they're all reasonably in-scale with each other...
9. Do I have to have an opinion about the slap? Ugh. I'm also not thrilled about hearing Louis CK's name again: I didn't listen to him before, and don't care to now. All that bitching about 'cancel culture' and it's like a goddamn zombie that won't stay dead. Up next, the new Fantastic Beasts film is looking like it's going to tank or underperform, and Rowling will blame it on transgendered people, and that'll be a fun week of discourse. Just...just let them be, is that so hard? God. Trans rights are human rights, abortion is health care, and Republicans are garbage. The latter is a broad generalization--I know it's not 100% true...isn't it? Republicans, Christians, and increasingly Americans are falling into the same boat: so many of them are aggressively, unrelentingly, terrible, that any good points any of them might have ever had are far overshadowed.
10. Shoot, I missed an episode of the new MST3K while I was out, but they haven't released the full season yet. If I set up that whiteboard, I need to add crap I backed on Kickstarter to it. I backed that Mike Mignola documentary at a higher level than I remembered, which reminds me I might need a new Blu-Ray player; the Blu seems to have gone outta mine...There should still be time to back Alter Ego, a graphic novel that looked great and had a great hook: "By day, the streets are protected by Whiz-Bang, a grinning, gregarious defender of goodness. By night, the City of Angels is defended by an entirely different kind of hero: The Black Dog appears in a cloud of smoke, a mysterious vigilante determined to strike fear in cowardly criminals. And unbeknownst to the mayor, the police force, the entire city…these radically different heroes share an incredible secret: They are the same man." Sounds neat, although it'll be a bit from backing until when it shows up. Hence I should set up the whiteboard...I have another of Karl Kesel's Impossible Jones coming, and have to check if I missed the latest of Ron Randall's Trekker or if I'm caught up. I thought some creators were going to give up on Kickstarter since I think they wanted to pivot to...ugh...NFT's or blockchain or some stupid thing; but so far none of that seems to have happened yet.
Ugh, the pink fill! It was absolutely killing me today. I hadda go back, overlay balloons over the ones I had done before, then fill those! I knocked those out while watching Hell is For Heroes, a middling war flick with Steve McQueen, James Coburn, and the debut of...Bob Newhart? The latter being what got me to watch it; he's a bit of comic relief but not in a completely silly way.
I think Kurt read comics, at least what he happened to come across as a kid, based on a couple lines from his first mini-series, where a dejected and lost Nightcrawler tries both "Kltpzxym" and "Relwarcthgin" to see if that would get him home. Of course we know Gwen read so many comics, but I don't think she was strictly a Marvel Zombie-type, was she? I reckon she read DC and other books, maybe even--gasp!--non-superhero, indie stuff! Some may disagree with me on that one; I don't know if the canon backs me up.
Oh, before I forget, again, Gwen is referencing the old Marvels Comics from--good god, 2000? And I just aged into dust...for anyone not older than dirt, that event was a peek at the in-universe comics of the Marvel universe. We've seen the Fantastic Four one here; it's super-fun and what would be considered 'accurate' since the FF are relatively open; while the Spider-Man book paints the wall-crawler as a monstrous menace. The X-Men book is from Mark Millar, and I think it's supposed to be horrible racist propaganda but I'm not sure it reads that much differently than Millar's usual work. Short answer, Gwen would definitely want better comics.
I had never read it before, but it came up last month, so of course I found a copy while I was on vacation! From 1992, Hammerlocke #1, "Now These Her Princes" Written and co-plotted by Tom Joyner, pencils by Chris Sprouse, inks and co-plotted by K.S. Wilson. That's an unusual divide, usually the penciler is most likely the co-plotter...!
Because I--cue monocle drop--am not classically trained, I had to look up the title; as it's not a Spin Doctors reference, it's from Shakespeare's King John. This was a fairly hard sci-fi book, with a couple super-powered types; although the titular Locke would not consider himself as such. He was an engineer of earth's first space bridge, a massive "glorified elevator" but one that solved a number of problems while causing others politically. We hear more about him this issue than see him, as he had been killed during the Starbridge's building in an accident! Too valuable to lose, he had been kept alive with cybernetics: at a glance, Locke appears to be an armored type reminiscent of a knight, but I wonder if he wasn't just a head kept alive by a robot body. Locke was returning after several years away, where his estranged wife had been managing the Starbridge's administration. But while a longtime rival plots to gain political control of the bridge, Locke's daughter is kidnapped by mercenaries, despite the efforts of super-powered operatives.
I thought I had read more stuff from Tom Joyner, but aside from that Batman I can't think of anything. I may have been confusing him with Legion of Super Heroes writer Tom McGraw, and confusing Chris Sprouse with...Stuart Immonen? No, Sprouse had done Legion earlier! And sometimes the same issue! Now I'm more confused, since I'm also picturing Jason Pearson's art in the same stretch, and it's all running together. Geez, you'd almost think 1992 was thirty years ago or something...Worse, this has never been collected, and I didn't have any luck on digital either.
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Monday, April 04, 2022
By a very quick count, we've blogged 16 of 175 issues for Marvel Comics Presents: I don't have all of them, I don't want all of them, yet here we are. From 1994, Marvel Comics Presents #162.
The Tigra cover probably sold this one for me, as she begins a four-parter: "Slave of Passion" Written by David DeVreis, pencils by John Czop, inks by Pablo Marcos. (Czop also did the Tigra cover, Mark Pacella and Rey Garcia the Vengeance one.) A very 80's looking Tigra has been getting her head together in Australia, which involves riding a boar, as you do. But a creepy fat sultan sends his Reaver-knockoff looking men in search of "exotic" types for his harem, and they gun down a number of the Aboriginal Australians Tigra had been staying with. A good enough start, although I'm not sure if this is even close to what Australia should look like.
Next, and apparently flipped on the contents pages, the New Warriors in...ugh..."Smells Like Teen Spirit, part 4 of 5: If you can run out of time, can you walk out on the check?" Written by Fabian Nicieza, pencils by Robert Walker, inks by Scott Koblish. I really hate the title structures for this book: Main name, part whatever, chapter name. The chapter names aren't necessary, are they? Dr. Yesterday has brought soldiers from across time to New York City; although the Warriors don't seem to know why yet. Just like the last Warriors book we saw, Turbo and Mike Jeffries are front and center, along with Slapstick and special guest-star the Impossible Man, who seems to be smitten with Turbo. Yesterday reveals himself as a somewhat schlubby looking "chronal research specialist" who was dying of cancer, and decided to take the universe with him. Does that happen in other fields? Literary agent gets terminal disease, they don't try to implode the universe, is all I'm saying.
On the flipside, it's Vengeance vs. a giant spider in the subways, in "Diabolique, part 3 of 4, the Sorceress's Apprentice" Written by Chris Cooper, pencils by Reggie Jones, inks by Fred Harper. The spider is Zoraster, the pet of Diabolique, who doesn't look the part; she looks like a little French girl. But she's got creepy powers and wanted to be the apprentice of the current Sorceress Supreme, Salome! (Which puts this...maybe around Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme #61? Looks like they didn't change the title for that stretch.) Not being the trusting sort, Salome doesn't want an apprentice: either she's too weak to bother with, or strong enough to be a threat later. But, perhaps a test of worthiness: kill Vengeance, since he followed Diabolique there.
Next, the penultimate chapter of Mace, "Origins" Written by Carl Potts, pencils by Barry Crain, inks by Hilary Barta and Philip Moy. There's ninjas, clones, healing factors, the Shadowmasters from that Punisher War Journal spinoff. It's like part 3 of 4 and I have no goddamn idea what's happening.
A slightly older issue from my collection!...'Collection' is a misnomer there, it's an accumulation, if we get right down to it. From 1965, Batman #173, "Secret Identities for Sale!" Written by John Broome, pencils by Sheldon Moldoff, inks by Joe Giella; and "Walk, Batman -- To Your Doom!" Written by John Broome, pencils by Sheldon Moldoff, signed as Bob Kane, inks by Sid Greene.
If you read or watch old sci-fi, sometimes it's interesting what they thought was within the realm of possibility. The idea that everyone might eventually have a little filmless camera that they keep with them 24-7, never would've occurred to them; but special film that can shoot through solid objects? Sure, makes sense! As Batman, Robin, and the police raid the hideout of masked crime boss Mr. Incognito...OK, that's a terrible name. The 'Mr.' seems unnecessary. Anyway, a paparazzi reporter sneaks in, to get pictures of Mr. Incognito with a film of his invention that would penetrate his mask. He offers to sell the photo to the mayor, for the bargain price of a million bucks. Cue a lot of hemming and hawing from the mayor: while he seems convinced the picture could be legit, he doesn't have a million just lying around. The reporter gives him a day to come up with the money, and the mayor calls in Batman and Robin, who immediately realize if that film can shoot through Mr. Incognito's mask...
(Bit of water damage there; this copy isn't minty-fresh!) Sure enough, the reporter is on the phone with Mr. Incognito, offering a photo of Batman and Robin's unmasked faces for a million. Which seems like a deal, two for one! It's unclear if the reporter planned on collecting from both Incognito and the city; that seems risky. At his photo shop, the reporter explains the 'science' of his photo, and shows Incognito in a mirror the unmasked Dynamic Duo...dressed in their regular clothes?! Come on. Batman and Robin smash through the requisite skylight, and the reporter goes for a gun, intent on escaping with the cash. Both Incognito and the reporter are beaten, arrested, and given long terms: ten years for the reporter for assault with a deadly weapon. Batman destroys the photo, and figures the bad guys wouldn't have gotten more than a glimpse of them and probably wouldn't recognize them anyway. A more modern story, both those guys would have to be super-dead by the end of it!
Also this issue: a Trix ad! Not my favorite cereal, but give the Rabbit some goddamn Trix already! Ah, that's always bothered me. I don't know if the ads for that are still running, but I also think they used to, every so many years, have an election or other special event and let the Rabbit have a bowl of Trix. Maybe they established that he got too out of hand afterwards: Rabbit destroys a hotel room, crashes a car, burns down a forest while on a feverish Trix binge...
Also also this issue: "Walk, Batman--To Your Doom!" Nice opening image there, although if I hadda draw something that Bob Kane was gonna slap his signature onto, I don't know if I'd go that hard. An open-and-shut case against "Bunky Galliver" goes awry when the jury surprisingly--and inexplicably--finds him not guilty. The district attorney has put together some photos of other juries that also seemed to drop bum verdicts; and Batman notices the same guy, in disguise, was on all those juries! (Anyone willingly taking that much jury duty sounds like a nut, it's gonna be Arkham for them!) The D.A. had also discovered, under the name of Knott the mysterious juror was now running for "governor of Gotham State," and what? Are there extra states in the DC universe, or just didn't want to saddle a real one with Gotham City? Knott is noted as running as an independent so no real party gets thrown under the bus...
Batman and Robin go undercover, with Dick trailing Galliver and Bruce listening to Knott's campaign speeches. Bruce notes Knott didn't seem like a great candidate, yet still feels compelled to vote for him in the election; while Dick overhears Galliver mention a dead millionaire's house, ripe for the looting. They catch Galliver in the act, then look into Knott's work history, namely a year as a lab assistant. Visiting Knott's former place of work, they meet a somewhat doddering scientist who discovered "negative E-rays" that could reverse someone's normal behavior, but he didn't see a use for that and dropped that line of research: I'm kind of picturing Batman pinching the bridge of his nose here. But, Knott had suspected Batman might work it out, and gets the drop on them with his "positive E-ray" device, with which he can issue irresistible commands, like take a walk in the lake!
As they start walking up past their necks, Batman realizes Knott gave him another command earlier, to vote for him, which he wouldn't be able to do if he drowned. By focusing on the first command, Batman is able to last long enough to break the second, and pick up the struggling scientist and Robin to save them. Bats has to lock them up to keep them from walking into the lake again, then finds Knott at another campaign stop and just drops him, since he couldn't risk him issuing another command. Knott had just made a pitch to run for president, then immediately gets cold-cocked by Batman; you can see how that might look bad, but Batman had a good enough reputation that he's able to calm down the crowd, he had a good reason for it. The E-ray treatments are reversed, and Knott wasn't going to be on the ballot so Batman thought he was free of that command; although I wonder if he still wrote him in.
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