Batman #420 – “Ten Nights of the Beast Part 4” – Jim Starlin/Jim Aparo/Mike DeCarlo
This one starts with Batman finding the dead body of the underworld engineer who built a weaponized mechanical hand for KGBeast, after he lost one fighting Batman last issue. KGBeast (and his associate Salari) are in town to kill off ten people involved in the Strategic Defense Initiative, hoping to cripple the program. KGBeast has taken out most of his targets, but there’s one big one left … President Reagan. And Reagan is coming to Gotham, so KGBeast will have his chance. Batman
knows KGBeast has an inside man helping him, so when Reagan arrives at the airport, Batman swings down, grabs him, and takes him to his hotel in a helicopter piloted by CIA agent Bundy. FBI agent Parker isn’t happy he was kept out of the loop, but Reagan goes along with Batman’s plans to protect him. Batman tells Commissioner Gordon he knows who the inside man is and wants to lay a trap. Bundy reminds Batman that KGBeast will probably get off with no consequences because of diplomatic immunity, not spending one day 
in jail for all the people he killed. When the time comes to take Reagan to the Convention Center via a chopper on the roof, Salari swoops down on a hang-glider with explosives strapped to him. Robin swings out of nowhere and knocks him off course, so Salari only blows himself up. Turns out the whole thing was a ruse and “Reagan” is really Gordon in disguise. The real President is taken to the Center by van, with one of Parker’s men (MacDonald) in the escort party. Batman knows MacDonald is the mole (thanks to a look at his bank records) and expects him to try some shit. KGBeast pops
out of a sewer grate and shoots the cops in the escort, but Batman gets wounded in the shoulder by MacDonald’s nervous shots … the same shoulder he hurt fighting KGBeast last issue. He does manage to put a dart in KGBeast’s face, though. Bundy and his men show up and Bundy shoots MacDonald, but KGBeast retreats down into the sewers, followed by the wounded Batman. (By the way, the cops were wearing bulletproof vests, so they’re not actually dead.) Batman chases KGBeast through the sewers and ends up fighting him. Batman has the tunnels memorized and set a trap for 
KGBeast, who falls for it, running into a room with no exit. He’s read to fight to the death, but Batman says that wouldn’t prove anything and locks KGBeast in the room, leaving him there. Later, we find out Alfred was playing Reagan in the van convoy and the real President arrived at the front entrance in a limo, fooling everyone. I guess we’re supposed to assume Batman left KGBeast to die, which would seem to violate his oath against killing. But KGBeast returns in future stories, so he either broke loose or someone went down and got him out before he starved to death.
Detective #587 – “Night People” – John Wagner, Alan Grant/Norm Breyfogle
This story presents a number of events happening over the course of one stormy night in Gotham. A murderer named Deke Mitchel escapes prison to go looking for someone named Kadaver. A homeless guy is stabbed to death in a hobo camp. Batman stops a mugging and goes looking for someone named Bannen to scare info out of him about a guy named Woolf, who’s bringing in a big shipment of drugs at the docks. Mitchel is spotted by the cops, who chase him to the docks, but he hides amongst the barrels of hazardous waste outside a chemical warehouse. Batman waits for Woolf’s boat, but when Woolf sees
the cops (who are searching for Mitchel), he tries to take off. Batman jumps onto the boat and pounds Woolf’s men, but Woolf ends up going overboard. Lightning strikes the chemical docks, blowing the barrels to hell and presumably killing Mitchel. The cops call the firefighters in and are startled when Batman shows up with a boat full of cocaine and unconscious thugs. Everyone figures Mitchel is dead, but later we see him rise from the burnt rubble and he now seems to be charged (or supercharged) with electricity from a combination of the chemicals and the lightning. I’m surprised he didn’t just gain super-speed.
Noticeable Things:
- Throughout the story, there’s a DJ on the radio playing various songs that have some thematic relevance to what’s happening. The songs are: Street Fighting Man (Rolling Stones); Self-Control (Laura Branigan); Trash (New York Dolls); A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall (Elevator Death Skull, which isn’t a real band as far as I can tell); My Way (Rappin Nerds, another fake band); Big Trouble (David Johansen); Crazy Nights (Kiss); Electricity (Captain Beefheart).
Green Arrow #5 – “Gauntlet” – Mike Grell/Ed Hannigan/Dick Giordano, Frank McLaughlin
This one starts with Oliver helping in Dinah’s flower shop and giving her assistant (Colin) a hard time. Oliver asks if Dinah wants to go to Alaska to see the Iditarod, but she’s not too interested. A gay couple from the neighbourhood comes in looking for flowers to celebrate seven years together. But when they leave and head through the park, they’re jumped and pounded by some scumbag with a Crescent wrench. The investigating officer talks to Oliver and Dinah and
tells them there’s been a wave of gay-bashing lately, but every description of the attackers differs. The officer says motive is hard to pin down, since it could be jealous lovers, religiously inspired, AIDS-related paranoia, or plain old homophobia. He also mentions how Seattle’s getting more like Los Angeles, with gangs and Neo-Nazis moving in, recruiting teenagers to do their dirty work since they get lighter sentences. The next day, Colin tells Dinah he has to quit working at the flower shop and she sees that he’s had the shit kicked out of 
him. He tells her a gang (the Warhogs) decided to recruit him and ran him through a gauntlet to initiate him into their ranks, whether he wanted in or not. Green Arrow sneaks into the hospital to see the survivor of the gay-bashing, who tells him it was a bunch of punk kids who attacked him and his partner (who died in the attack). Oliver disguises himself and wanders into the park to present a tempting target. It works and he’s jumped by some punks. He fights back and they take off, but he grabs one of them … who turns out to be Colin.