Batman #423 – “You Shoulda Seen Him” – Jim Starlin/Dave Cockrum/Mike DeCarlo
This is an interesting little character study of Batman seen through the eyes of some cops who run into him over the course of one eventful night. The first cop (Bart) tells how he was trying to talk a junkie out of jumping off a bridge when Batman showed up. The junkie jumped, but Batman was rigged to a safety harness and swung down to catch the kid, giving him a lecture on making the most of his life afterwards. Bart figures Batman might’ve actually gotten through to the kid. Another cop (Greg) tells how some crackheads tried to rob a deli and ended
up taking hostages (including an old lady who looks a lot like Aunt May!) Batman showed up and pounded the shit out of the robbers before they could hurt anyone. Greg was impressed, saying Batman’s as tough as nails and as cold as ice. But another cop (Kirby Jackson) joins the conversation and tells how he was chasing a couple of young kids when Batman showed up to give him a hand. The boy got really aggressive, but Batman talked to him and found out the kids’ parents had died and they were going to be sent to foster care. They didn’t want to be separated, so they took off and have been living in a crate under a 
bridge. Jackson tells the other cops that he saw a tear roll down Batman’s cheek before the Caped Crusader took the kids, saying he’d get his friend Bruce Wayne to figure out a way to get the kids back to their aunt in North Carolina. After Jackson leaves, Greg tells Bart the story was bullshit, since he can’t believe Batman is the crying type. But we see that the kids are sleeping at Wayne Manor while Bruce locates their aunt and Alfred points out that Bruce is letting Batman’s softer side show through. Bruce agrees, but says no one but Alfred would ever notice.
Detective #590 – “An American Batman in London” – Alan Grant, John Wagner/Norm Breyfogle
This one starts with Batman foiling the robbery of a jewellery store. Unfortunately while he’s busy with that, some Middle Eastern terrorists are shooting up a Vietnam veterans’ club not far away. Batman is pissed off when he finds out about the shooting, especially since the terrorists all took cyanide. He learns their leader (Abu Hassan, from the fictional country of Syraq) is behind the massacre, but Hassan has diplomatic immunity … plus he was already on a plane to London when the shooting happened. (I
don’t think diplomatic immunity works that way, but whatever.) Batman decides to pursue Hassan to London; I get the feeling this story was a way for British writer Alan Grant to set a story in his home country. It just happens to be Guy Fawkes’ Day in England, which means everyone is lighting bonfires and setting off fireworks to commemorate the aborted bombing of Parliament in 1605. Batman sneaks into the Syraqui Embassy and finds Hassan, who has something big planned in London for tonight. Batman beats the shit out of him and we get Hassan’s side of things, where he talks about how America and Britain have ruined so many Third-World countries with their power politics and aggressive economic plans, not to mention propping up 
right-wing dictators who exploit and kill their own people. (All that is true, but it doesn’t justify terrorism.) Hassan tells Batman he’s sent a team to blow up Parliament, assuming that any warning would be taken as a joke on Guy Fawkes’ Night. A guard attacks Batman and Hassan ends up getting knocked out the window to his death. Batman steals a car and heads for Parliament, where Hassan’s men have already arrived. As they attempt to shoot their way into the Parliament Building, Batman runs the car right into them and causes an explosion (since one of the terrorists was wired to a suicide bomb). Afterwards, Batman ponders Hassan’s accusations, though he doesn’t seem all that broken up about the terrorists he killed.
Green Arrow #8 – “The Powderhorn Trail” – Mike Grell/Paris Cullins/Gary Martin, Dick Giordano
Last issue, Green Arrow headed up to Alaska to trace the drug connection of the Chinese tongs in Seattle. He stumbled onto a hot car ring when he found Dinah’s stolen vehicle on the ferry, with a trunk full of white powder. Turns out it isn’t coke of heroin, but Green Arrow’s not sure what it is, so he takes a sample and hides in the trunk. The car thief drives to a chop shop where a bunch of other cars are being transformed. (Dinah’s car is painted a nice piss-yellow colour.) Arrow follows the thief, who takes the
white powder to a casino where a mob boss mentions a guy named Quinn dropping it off at a stopover in Nome tomorrow. Green Arrow goes to the cops and when they analyze the powder, they call in guys from Customs and from Natural Resources. Arrow and the Feds raid the chop shop, but find only low-level hoods, although they do tip the Seattle cops to the other end of the stolen-car ring (like the car wash guy who stole Dinah’s car). The Feds are intrigued by the Tong connection, pointing out that the Tong took over the car theft ring to use it as a pipeline for their powder smuggling, but now the trail’s gone cold. 
Arrow mentions the guy named Quinn going to Nome and the cops say they’ll be on the lookout. Later, Arrow goes to see the start of the Iditarod sled-dog race and notices one of the racers is named Quinn. He realizes Quinn is dropping off the powder during the race, a perfect setup since the race takes place across country, meaning all the cops’ roadblocks will be useless. Arrow alerts the Feds and they’re waiting when Quinn makes the drop. They arrest Quinn and a tong leader named Wang, who has been smuggling powdered rhino horn (the white powder) to his casinos and whorehouses all down the West Coast. The Feds take off with the perps and Green Arrow decides to drive Quinn’s
dogsled team back along the Iditarod Trail. I mentioned the decompression element last issue and it’s even more prevalent here, with a lot of the story told through the art with no dialogue in the panels.