Batman #393 – “The Dark Rider” – Doug Moench/Paul Gulacy
This story reunites Doug Moench with Paul Gulacy; the team did some classic stories together at Marvel in the 70s and it’s great to see them collaborating again (especially since I love Gulacy’s art). Gulacy has a very cinematic style and this tale plays out like a movie (a James Bond movie to be specific). It starts with Commissioner Gordon telling Batman the CIA needs a favour from him. They want Batman to meet an informer named Vorlooper in Venice. Batman agrees and Vorlooper tells him about a terrorist called the Dark Rider who’s smuggling something inside a statue. Thanks to Vorlooper’s info, Batman
gets on Dark Rider’s trail and follows him to a warehouse where he’s almost skewered by a bayonet (a Russian bayonet). Batman finds Vorlooper near death in the warehouse, but he gasps out something about an auction in Bonn. Batman sees Dark Rider zoom away on a boat, popping pills and yelling something about the Apocalypse. Gordon’s CIA contacts give Batman the info on the auction and he shows up just as the statue (a Pre-Revolutionary Russian piece called the Dark Rider) is on the block. Batman outbids everyone, but the auctioneer (a Russian woman) withdraws the statue to keep Batman from getting it. He surprises her in her car later and she tells him the statue is 
being taken back to a Moscow museum. But when Batman gets to Moscow, he’s jumped by a bunch of armed men. He assumes the auctioneer set him up, but she shows up with a submachine gun to save his ass (looking much more glamorous than she did at the auction). As they take off, she says her name is Katia and she’s a deep-cover Russian agent. Katia admits she did set him up but had a change of heart, thinking he might be useful in finding the statue (and if they were working together, he couldn’t get in her way). Katia tells Batman the statue was to be sold off to raise money but someone stole it; Dark Rider (another Russian agent) was sent to retrieve it but ended up stealing it and now the government wants it back. Katia figures Dark Rider is the one who
stole it in the first place and apparently had some work done to it; the statue has been split apart, lined with lead, and put back together. Batman and Katia both conclude that Dark Rider put plutonium inside the statue to smuggle, but they aren’t sure where or for what purpose. We see Dark Rider with a bunch of Middle Eastern terrorists, for whom he was supposed to steal the plutonium. But Dark Rider is nuts and wants to nuke an American city to start World War III. After he kills their leader, the terrorists agree to help Dark Rider in his crazy plan. Katia tells Batman the auction was meant to flush out Dark Rider’s confederate, the high bidder before Batman showed up. This guy is 
very mysterious, has money to burn, and owns residences all over the world. They head to Switzerland, where the KGB has recently spotted him. Katia splits with Batman, saying he’s too conspicuous, but gives him the location of the mysterious guy’s chalet. Batman breaks in and runs into the guy from the auction, carrying a gun. He turns out to be CIA and they fake a fight, since Dark Rider’s people are probably watching. The CIA tells Batman the statue is safe, then guy pretends to shoot him and toss his body over a cliff. Later, Batman tells Katia the CIA have recovered the plutonium-filled statue, so it doesn’t matter that Dark Rider wasn’t caught. But when they find the CIA agent dead, Katia says Dark Rider has the statue (and the plutonium), so they’ll have to go to America to stop him.
Noticeable Things:
- I’m pretty sure Vorlooper is drawn to look like a famous actor
(something Gulacy was famous for), but I can’t quite place him; it’s not David Niven, and I don’t think it’s Peter Ustinov, but he definitely looks familiar. If anyone knows who it’s supposed to be, let me know in the comments. (Katia looks vaguely familiar too, but maybe she just fits the usual Bond-girl formula.)
Detective # 560 – “The Batman Nobody Knows” – Doug Moench/Gene Colan/Bob Smith
This story is about Batman trying to make peace between Robin and Catwoman. Since his parents were killed, Jason (Robin) Todd has come to depend on Batman, to see him as a father figure. Now that Batman is in love with Catwoman, Jason feels threatened, thinking she’ll take some of Bruce’s love from him. Batman knows first-hand how losing your parents can turn you hard, making you withdraw and lose trust, and he doesn’t want that to happen to Jason. So he sets things up so Jason and Catwoman are forced to work together and waits to see if they can. Throughout the story, Batman compares himself to a spider weaving a web, instead of the usual bat. Batman gets Robin to go out
on patrol alone and leaves Catwoman a note, so the two of them end up answering the Bat-Signal together. Bullock is there and Batman has already warned him to make sure the animosity between Robin and Catwoman doesn’t get too heated. Most of the static comes from Robin, since he’s a kid; not only does he resent Catwoman’s relationship with Batman, he can’t help comparing her to Nocturna, who he’d come to see as a surrogate mother. Bullock tells them about a gang of punks robbing stores across the bay, so they head over on Catwoman’s new motorbike. On the way, Catwoman assures him she has no intention of trying to take Nocturna’s place, but Robin isn’t really buying it. 
When they fight the robbers, Robin uses Batman’s old trick of freaking them out with superstition; since some of them used to work for Nocturna, he tells them Nocturna was reincarnated as Catwoman, which scares them enough that they’re easy to take down. Afterwards, Catwoman again tells Robin she won’t try to take Nocturna’s place and that he should keep his feelings for them separate, but he ends up crying in her arms. Batman figures he’s laid a good foundation for the three of them to work together in the future.
Green Arrow – “Me, a Bad Guy?” – Joey Cavalieri/Jerome K. Moore/Del Barras
This is basically a series of vignettes about stuff going on in star City. A new “hero” called Champion shows up, but he’s for hire and won’t help people without being paid. Kinda sounds like Booster Gold, though he looks more like Marvel’s Angel (which makes sense, since Angel was in a group called the Champions). Black Canary is dissatisfied with her role as a crimefighter and wants to go back to her old way of operating, pretending to be a criminal to get info on the bad guys before they commit crimes, instead of trying to clean up the mess afterwards. Green Arrow tells her that’s too dangerous, plus everyone
already knows Black Canary as a hero, plus he’s afraid if she associates with criminals some of their crap will rub off on her. Canary also finds out that the rent on her flower shop is being tripled. Down by the docks, some criminals are discussing how to divide up a recent drug shipment when a dude named Steelclaw shows up and demands a piece of the action, threatening to waste them if he doesn’t get it. All this stuff seems like it might be setting up the Long Bow Hunters mini-series (and subsequent ongoing Green Arrow comic) where Arrow and Canary move to Seattle and things get much darker in tone.
Batman & the Outsiders #31 – “Pawn of the World Below” – Mike W. Barr/Alan Davis
Last issue, the Outsiders found themselves in Abyssia, an underground kingdom that’s split into two factions, led by brother and sister Mardo and Tamira. The Abyssians royal line is linked to Halley’s Comet and with the comet’s return in 1986, Mardo and Tamira both want to get their hands on the last of the royal line … who turned out to be mousy bank teller Emily Briggs. Tamira has enthralled Halo, Geo-Force, and Metamorpho, forcing them to fight for her and they’ve captured Batman, Katana, and Mardo, as well as Emily. Tamira forces Emily into an
energy bubble that draws power from the comet, transforming Emily into a taller, hotter version of herself and imbuing her with power. Tamira gave Emily an “obedience potion” last issue to insure her loyalty, but Mardo had already programmed Emily to be loyal to him. By saying a code-word (Looker, which Emily has certainly become), Mardo forces Emily to blast Tamira with her eye beams and to free him. Mardo now has control of the enthralled Outsiders and uses them to keep the others in line. Emily uses her powers to kill Tamira (on Mardo’s orders) and take everyone up to the 
surface, where Mardo reveals his big plan. He wants Emily to use her powers to slam Halley’s Comet into the Earth, killing off everyone and leaving it open for the Abyssians to take over. Emily obeys, being under Mardo’s power completely … at least until Katana reminds her of her husband Greg, who loved her before she was hot. Mardo tries to demonstrate his power over Emily by crushing her wedding ring, but that pisses her off and she breaks free of his control and blasts him. She frees the Outsiders and they pound Mardo’s men, with Katana wasting Mardo herself. The comet is returned to its proper trajectory and
the Abyssians ask Emily to stay and be their queen. She prefers to go home to Greg, even though her transformation can’t be reversed. The Abyssians swear to eliminate the class system that caused all the strife in the first place and the Outsiders leave, with Batman and Katana arguing over what broke Mardo’s hold on Emily … conflicting orders or true love. When Emily gets home, she invites Greg to a hotel to see her new look and despite his shock, they soon get down to some serious banging.
Outsiders #5 – “A Christmas Carol 1985” – Mike W. Barr/Jim Aparo
The title pretty much gives this one away; it’s another version of Dickens’s A Christmas Carol. This time, Ebenezer Scrooge is called Eben Mudge and had a business partner named Morley forty years ago. Mudge and Morley were accountants who refused to work for the mob, but after Morley died Mudge compromised his principles and agreed to be a mob accountant. Now a mobster named Sinclair is preparing to retire and move overseas, so the Outsiders want to get evidence of his criminal activities before he’s out of reach. Mudge is Sinclair’s accountant,
so they figure he’ll have the evidence they need and Black Lightning has an idea how to get it. The story plays out like the book (or movies),; Mudge has a nephew (Dan) who kinda likes him even though he knows he’s on the wrong side of the law, and Dan has a wife named Janice. Mudge hates Christmas (because that’s the day Morley died) and freaks out when Dan mentions it. The Outsiders use trickery to act out the familiar story, drugging Mudge’s drink and using Looker’s illusion powers to convince him he’s seen Morley’s ghost. Halo is the Ghost of Christmas Past (who shows Mudge the woman he let get away), Metamorpho plays the Ghost of Christmas Present (who shows Mudge Dan and Janice, who feel sorry for Mudge being so alone), and Black Lightning is 
the Ghost of Christmas Future (who shows Mudge a violent death). The ruse works and Looker pulls all the details of Sinclair’s tax fraud from Mudge’s mind. But it ends up working better than they thought; Mudge wakes up and decides to call the cops to confess everything. Meanwhile, Sinclair hasn’t been able to get in touch with Mudge and when one of his spies tells him about Mudge’s sudden attack of conscience, Sinclair heads over with some goons to shut him up. The Outsiders pound the mobsters and Sinclair ends up going to prison. Mudge makes peace with Dan and Janice and celebrates Christmas with them.