Batman #394 – “At the Heart of Stone” – Doug Moench/Paul Gulacy
This one starts with Batman having a nightmare of getting beheaded by an animated statue. Last issue, a former KGB agent gone rogue (Dark Rider) stole some plutonium and hid it inside a bronze statue of a Cossack horseman. Dark Rider eluded capture in Europe and is now heading for Gotham with the plutonium. Obviously that’s weighing on Batman’s mind. He goes to see Katia, the hot Russian spy he teamed up with last issue. (Any resemblance to a Bond movie was intentional, I’m sure.) Katia and Batman head to the docks to intercept the ship bringing in the statue, but the
captain tells them Dark Rider already left on the launch, so he probably slipped through the police net and landed. We see Dark Rider not far down the waterfront, loading the statue into a truck and stashing it in a warehouse. At the police station, Katia is talking about torture to get info from the ship captain, but Batman won’t let her do that. So she hints that the captain could be taken back to the Soviet Union, where he’d be treated more harshly. That gets him talking and he admits he helped load the statue on the launch, but says Dark Rider isn’t planning to build a bomb … he’s going to dump the plutonium in Gotham’s water supply. Batman asks Commissioner Gordon to wait a half hour before warning the city about the water and Gordon reluctantly agrees. Batman, 
Robin, and Katia head to the main water plant and start fighting Dark Rider’s guards. He hears the commotion and opens the statue to get the plutonium. Katia gets inside and is jumped by Dark Rider, whose body is covered in liquid plutonium. They fight and Dark Rider gets the advantage. When Batman and Robin get inside, Katia warns them Dark Rider will try to jump into the reservoir, polluting the water with the plutonium on his body. The Dynamic Duo haul him back just as he’s trying to jump in and the cops show up to arrest him (although the plutonium will kill him anyway). Katia admits that Westerners aren’t as bad as Russian propaganda says, but has no intention of switching sides; once she’s decontaminated, she’s heading home.
Detective #561 – “Flying Hi” – Doug Moench/Gene Colan/Bob Smith, Ricardo Villagran
This one starts with Jason (Robin) Todd in school, noticing the newest student (Rena) is a total babe. Jason is stunned when she passes him a note asking if he wants to get high later. In the Batcave that night, Jason asks Bruce (Batman) Wayne about drugs and Batman gives him a variation on the standard lecture, this one focused on how drugs make you lose control, both physically and mentally. Jason meets with Rena and puts the charm on her, getting her to admit she’s never actually tried drugs but is willing to do whatever it takes to fit in at a new school (because her dad’s job has her moving every few years). Jason almost convinces her, but when the stoner kids show up (led my a burnout named Shane), Rena can’t resist
the pressure and heads off with them. Jason changes to Robin and follows. Across town, Batman has figured out who’s supplying dope to the school and takes him down. Shane and friends head to a pharmacy that doesn’t have a burglar alarm, but when they break in to steal some pills, Rena takes off. Robin tackles the thieves but Shane takes off with the pills. He finds Rena, but she’s turned off by his thievery and leaves. Robin tracks Shane down and gives him a good scare. In school the next day, Rena thinks Jason ratted to the cops and that’s why Robin showed up, but she’s actually cool with that and it looks like she and Jason might have something going.
Green Arrow – “In the Grip of Steelclaw” – Joey Cavalieri/Jerome K. Moore/Dell Barras
This one starts with Black Canary pounding some thugs to get info on the local heroin trade. She learns that a new villain named Steelclaw has taken over half the heroin racket but wants more. She goes to the abandoned building where Steelclaw meets his underlings and eavesdrops. Steelclaw asks one thug about incoming heroin shipments and finds out a real estate mogul named Costa is bringing in a lot of heroin. Zoning laws won’t let Costa build anything but residential properties on his land, so he figures he can build low-income housing, flood the neighbourhoods with heroin, and point out how he should’ve been allowed to build commercial properties all along. The mayor is powerless, since Costa has threatened to grab his son (who Steelclaw seems to be familiar with) if the mayor tries to do anything. Black Canary makes some noise as she’s sneaking away and Steelclaw doesn’t believe she’s there to join his gang, so he gasses her. Across town, Green Arrow
rescues three kids from a falling elevator on a construction site. The Angel rip-off named Champion shows up and tells Green Arrow he’s the real hero … he grabbed an experimental antenna off the elevator and will get some big bucks from the insurance company. Champion admits he didn’t even consider saving the kids since there was no money in it. Green Arrow gets pissed off, but his efforts to provoke Champion don’t work and he decides to find out more about him. In the park, a guy named James impresses onlookers by winning three simultaneous chess matches. One woman is very impressed and gives James her card, telling him to call when he wants to use his talents to make some money.
Batman & the Outsiders #32 – “A New War’s Winning” – Mike W. Barr/Alan Davis
This one starts in Markovia, with the new Queen (Ilona) being kidnapped by the Masters of Disaster. The kidnapping is only part of the trouble Markovia is in for, as tanks roll across the border. A reporter who was interviewing Ilona right before the kidnapping gets away to raise the alarm. A couple days later, Matches Malone (who’s really Batman in disguise) and his bodyguard (Geo-Force in disguise) show up at a mob meeting held by Morgan Jones. Jones stole some blood plasma
from a hospital and plans to ransom it back. Batman signals the Outsiders, who bust in and pound all the mobsters. We learn that the team came here right after returning from Abyssia last issue, so they haven’t had the chance to talk to anyone. But once Morgan’s men are rounded up, Geo-Force breaks radio silence and learns about the invasion of Markovia from Dr. Jace. Turns out Batman knew about it but kept his mouth shut because he ants the Outsiders to help in his crusade against crime instead of running off to every international 
crisis that comes along. The Outsiders aren’t happy with Batman’s lies (or the way he pushes them constantly) and he decides to dissolve the team. Halo suggests they stick together as a team but without Batman, and the others agree. Batman takes off (saying “soldiers come and go but my war never ends”, which sounds more like a Punisher line) and the Outsiders agree to go to Markovia with Geo-Force. Speaking of Markovia, we see who’s behind the invasion … Baron Bedlam, whose coup attempt first brought the Outsiders together.
“Looker’s Body: An Owner’s Manual” – Mike W. Barr/Alan Davis
This is a back-up story showing what Emily Briggs has been up to since
getting a magical makeover last issue (as well as super-powers) and becoming Looker. Emily (who now prefers the name Lia) takes her husband Greg out shopping to various fancy stores. She uses her good looks to get preferential treatment in stores, restaurants, and everywhere else, reveling in no longer being unattractive. She also goes back to the bank where she use to work to show off her new hotness before telling everybody to go to hell. Lia is loving every minute of her new life, but Greg doesn’t look quite so happy; I assume Lia’s new confidence (which is kinda teetering over into arrogance) is what’s bothering him. We’ll see more of that in future issues.
Outsiders #6 – “Nothing Can Stop the Duke of Oil” – Mike W. Barr/Jim Aparo
This one starts with Brion (Geo-Force) Markov and Dr. Helga Jace waiting at the airport to meet Earl (Duke) Dukeston. Duke is some kind of oil magnate who’s interested in alternate energy sources and since the Outsiders’ headquarters is an old oil-drilling platform that’s supposedly been converted to a test site for alternate energy, the American government has asked Brion to let Duke look around. Brion can’t refuse without making the government suspicious, but Jace isn’t happy about having a stranger poking around the Outsiders’ secret headquarters. She’s changed the blueprints to hide the secret parts of the
rig (although we get an unexpurgated version) and promises to keep a close eye on Duke while he’s there. Across town, Tatsu (Katana) Yamashiro is worried that Gaby (Halo) Doe’s been hiding something, so when she finds an address in Gaby’s room she goes to check it out. It turns out to be a restaurant where Gaby’s working as a car-hop. Tatsu tells 
her she wasn’t serious about Gaby getting a job, but Gaby says she wants to earn some money of her own. Elsewhere, Lia Briggs is working too, as a model. We see some creepy dude taking the soda can she was drinking so he can lift her fingerprints. Meanwhile, Jefferson (Black Lightning) Pierce, Rex (Metamorpho) Mason, and Rex’s new bride Sapphire are hanging out down on the boardwalk. But Jefferson gets a nasty surprise when he sees his ex-wife Lynn (with whom he was hoping to reconcile) getting cozy with Edward Bentama. On the oil rig, Duke is impressed by the scientific advances being made (extracting oil from tar sands, getting gold from seawater), but it turns out Jace was right about him; he reports back to someone about what he’s found. When his
transmission is detected, Brion goes to check it out, but finds Duke to be stronger than he looks …and apparently not surprise that Brion is really Geo-Force. When knockout gas fails to work on Duke, Geo-Force tells Jace to call in the rest of the Outsiders. They head for their headquarters, where Duke has proven much stronger than he looks, beating the shit out of Geo-Force. He floods the corridor with oil and ignites it to keep the Outsiders back and goes after Dr. Jace. When she throws acid in his face, we see why Duke is so strong … he’s actually a robot.
Noticeable Things:
- There’s a goofy back-up story by Barr and Jim Engel that’s a take-off
on the famous poem Casey at the Bat, with the Outsiders playing against Kobra and his minions and the stands populated by various DC characters. The story follows the poem pretty closely, except everyone is actually happy when Geo-Force strikes out at the end because Kobra’s last pitch was a bomb that would’ve blown everyone to hell if Geo-Force had connected.
