Batman #401 – “A Bird in the Hand” – Barbara J. Randall/Trevor von Eeden
This is definitely a post-Crisis story, and the first Batman comic for the last few years that wasn’t written by Doug Moench. The villain in this one is Magpie, a new character introduced in John Byrne’s Man of Steel mini-series, and supposedly the first villain Batman and Superman fought together as a team. There’s also a tie-in to the ongoing Legends limited series, with G. Gordon Godfrey appearing here. Anyway, this one starts with a woman named Sondra Van Decar who gets her throat cut by blades hidden in her necklace … actually, a replica of her
necklace that was switched with the real one. That’s Magpie’s usual M.O., but Commissioner Gordon can’t figure out why she’d steal this particular necklace, since it isn’t worth all that much. Batman informs him that this necklace (along with a couple others that have been stolen under similar circumstances) contains a gem named after a bird, so that’s the common thread. Batman suggests setting a trap for Magpie, using Bruce Wayne’s jewelry collection as bait. Bruce throws a party loaded with undercover cops, including one named Roberta Valle, who’s going to pose as Bruce’s date and wear a gem called the 
Falcon’s Eye to lure Magpie into showing up. Another uninvited guest shows up, G. Gordon Godfrey, and starts spewing his usual crap about super-heroes being bad for society. (This ties into the Legends mini-series, where Godfrey is actually the New God Glorious Godfrey trying to turn humans against super-heroes to pave the way for a takeover by Darkseid.) Godfrey spills a drink on Roberta while ranting and a waitress takes her to the bathroom to clean up. The waitress turns out to be Magpie and replaces the Falcon’s Eye with a necklace that gives off a lethal gas. Roberta stumbles out of the bathroom choking on the gas, which breaks up the party pretty quickly. Bruce changes to Batman and saves Roberta by charging through all the
party guests, which Godfrey tries to take advantage of to make Batman look bad. Batman and Robin spot a catering truck leaving and figure it’s Magpie taking off, so they follow her back to her hideout. They end up fighting a couple of her thugs in the room where she keeps all her stolen jewels and Magpie tries to take off. Robin almost catches her, but when her shirt gets torn off, he’s too embarrassed at the sight of her tits to make the capture. Magpie seals the room behind an unbreakable plastic barrier and turns on a laser grid death-trap. (I’m not sure why she’d have that set up in her jewel 
storage room, but whatever.) As the lasers get lower, Magpie prepares to flee, but she drops her latest acquisition under a cupboard and her compulsion about jewelry won’t allow her to get away without it. Batman uses mirrors and some of the gems from Magpie’s loot collection to redirect the lasers at the barrier, weakening it enough so Robin can bust through and shut off the lasers. Magpie finally retrieves the jewelry from under the cupboard, but the delay allows Batman to catch up to her. He distracts her with a gem from her collection, causing her to break down and surrender without a fight.
Detective #568 – “Eyrie” – Joey Cavalieri/Klaus Janson
This one starts with an anti-superhero rally at Gotham University. I’m not sure if the guy speaking is meant to be G. Gordon Godfrey, but he looks nothing like the way he was depicted in the above story. The rally is interrupted by some students being chased by a giant peregrine falcon. (Supposedly, it’s twice the size of a regular falcon, but it looks a hell of a lot bigger than that.) Batman tethers the giant bird to a flagpole and heads to the Natural Science Building to see what’s up. Naturally, Penguin is behind this caper, stealing the genetically-engineered giant falcons (one of which accidentally escaped), all the data about them,
and the scientist who bred them (Dr. Baird). Batman pounds Penguin’s men, but is forced to let Penguin get away when he threatens to kill Baird. Later, Batman researches falcons in the Batcave and makes recordings of their cries. Penguin’s hideout is in a skyscraper that’s partially under construction. He wants the Arab sheik who funded the giant falcon research to pay ransom for the birds, but hasn’t heard back yet. Batman’s research leads him to Penguins hideout, but he falls for a Penguin dummy and ends up attacked by two of the giant falcons. He uses a recorded danger cry to keep the birds away 
from him, so Penguin sends his men out to get Batman’s recorder. While Penguin is distracted, Bard gets loose and sticks a lure he used to train the falcons into Penguin’s back pocket before grabbing the data disks and alerting Batman to his plan. Batman frees the falcons, who turn to attack Penguin. Batman takes Penguin’s men down and nets the birds before they rip Penguin to pieces. Penguin tries to escape, but Batman has another net trap set up to ensnare him. The issue ends with another nod to Legends, and Bruce tells Jason that the help Batman got from Baird proves one part of Godfrey’s theory is true … the common man is capable of fighting evil, with or without help from super-heroes.
Outsiders #13 – “Marooned” – Mike W. Barr/Jim Aparo
Last issue, the plane taking the Outsiders home from Mozambia was blasted by Bad Samaritan and crashed into the Indian Ocean. The Outsiders survived, but are stuck on a tiny island in the middle of the ocean and don’t know how to get off. As this story starts, we see that Metamorpho and Geo-Force both tried to (respectively) swim and fly for help, but their powers weren’t up to it and they almost killed themselves trying. After being rescued by Halo and Looker, Metamorpho and Geo-Force report that they couldn’t find any signs of life anywhere
near the island, not even a passing ship. The situation is making the Outsiders tense and they’re taking it out on each other, sniping and getting mad over small things. Geo-Force resigns as their leader, saying he’s made for fighting not thinking. The others think Black Lightning would make a good leader, but he’s not really interested. Later, Katana tries to comfort Halo, but they end up arguing and when Looker intervenes, Halo gets mad at her, reminding her how cozy she was with Bentama last issue. Looker ends up on the beach, feeling 
like shit. Geo-Force comes out to talk to her and tells her he understands that she had to play up to Bentama to help everyone escape. They talk about the people they left behind in America (and it looks like Looker isn’t ready to lose her husband just yet) and the situation being what it is … they end up banging. Black Lightning and his ex-wife Lynn seem to be heading in the same direction, but before they can get down to it, Halo flies up into the sky and lights up one of her auras trying to act as a beacon to attract attention. She almost burns out her ;powers and Geo-Force has to catch her to keep her from splattering on the ground. But her near miss gives Black Lightning an idea and the others decide to give it a
shot. He figures if Geo-Force can fly straight up and get high enough above the atmosphere (taking Metamorpho along to provide oxygen), the Earth will rotate out from under them so when they come straight back down, they’ll be many miles west of where they started. The plan works and they come down near the coast, directing a Mozambian Navy ship to the island to rescue their teammates. On the way back to Mozambia, Katana tells Halo about the letter she received a few issues back; yes, the worst is about to happen … Halo needs braces! There are three short back-up stories in this issue: the first (by Barr and Bingham) showcases Geo-Force and explains his powers; the second (by Barr, Ditko, and Ordway) has Black lightning stopping some punks from robbing a store; and the third is a goofy one-pager (by Barr and Colon) about Metamorpho and Sapphire shopping for baby stuff (at a hardware store).