Batman #427 – “A Death in the Family Chapter 3” – Jim Starlin/Jim Aparo/Mike DeCarlo
If you’re wondering what happened to Chapter 2, it was last issue; these issues are double-sized and DC published a couple extra issues of most titles (labelled Winter and Holiday) at the end of 1988. Speaking of last issue, we saw Jason (Robin) Todd figure out that the woman he’d thought was his other was actually his stepmom. He narrowed his biological mother down to three possible candidates: Sharmin Rosen, Shiva Woosan, and Sheila Haywood, all of whom were overseas. Jason headed to Lebanon to find Rosen and by one of those astonishing
coincidences that only happen in comics, Batman ended up there too, looking for the Joker (who had stolen a cruise missile to sell to terrorists). After foiling Joker’s plans and determining that Rosen wasn’t Jason’s real mom, they headed for Beirut to look for Shiva Woosan. They find out that she was grabbed off the street not long ago, so Batman does his usual intimidation thing and finds out she was taken to a terrorist camp in the Bekaa Valley. Batman and Robin take out a couple of perimeter guards, donning their clothes so they can get into the camp. Meanwhile, Joker has headed to Ethiopia to look 
up an old friend. In another amazing coincidence, she just happens to be Sheila Haywood, candidate number three for Jason’s bio-mom. Sheila is in Ethiopia working with famine relief efforts, but she apparently used to perform “illegal operations on teenage girls”, which I assume is a euphemism for abortions. After taking a couple of swipes at Reaganomics (and capitalism in general) Joker blackmails Sheila into helping him hijack a convoy of drugs meant to help the locals. In the terrorist camp, Batman and Robin make their way through the place, taking out guards methodically and looking for Shiva Woosan. Batman thinks things are going a little too smoothly and
he’s right … turns out Shiva’s not a kidnapping victim, she’s there to train the terrorists in combat. Yup, this is Lady Shiva, who will become a pretty prominent villain in years to come (and who Batman has actually met before in Detective Comics Annual #1, which I’ll be reviewing with the rest of the 1988 Annuals after I finish the regular issues). Shiva takes Robin down with a drugged dart and challenges Batman. She’s a tough opponent and Batman needs a distraction from a groggy Robin to beat her in the end. After blowing up 
her supply of explosives, they ask her if she’s ever had a baby and she says she’s had dozens all over the world. Batman uses truth serum and she admits she’s never had a baby (which turns out to be untrue, since she’s Cassandra Cain’s mother, but I guess that character hadn’t been introduced yet). They leave her tied up (knowing she’ll escape quickly) and head for Ethiopia to find Sheila Haywood. They find her and it turns out she is Jason’s mom. She tells him he had to leave Gotham because an operation she was assisting on got botched (yeah, definitely an abortion) and went to England to start over, but Jason’s father met someone else and married her. Sheila figured they’d be
better parents to Jason than she would, so she let them raise him. Jason is thrilled to know his real mother, but she says she has camp business to take care of. Jason is outside helping unload relief trucks when he sees Joker heading into Sheila’s tent. He eavesdrops and finds out about the blackmail, stealing a motorbike and tailing Joker and Sheila to the warehouse where the drugs are stored. Joker steals the drugs, replacing them with canisters of his deadly laughing gas. Jason realizes he needs Batman’s help and goes back to camp to get him. By the time they return, the relief convoy has 
already loaded Joker’s deadly cargo (thinking it’s the medicine they’re supposed to be transporting) and Batman points out that they have to stop the convoy before anyone opens any of the cargo. Luckily, Batman has a Whirly-Bat in the back of his Land Rover (never leave home without it!) and flies after the convoy, making Jason promise to wait for him to return before tackling Joker. Naturally, Jason goes ahead and tells his mother he knows about Joker’s scheme and reveals to her that he’s Robin. Sheila takes him inside the warehouse, claiming Joker is long gone, but that’s a lie … Joker is still there with his thugs. Turns out Sheila’s not such a straight arrow after all (I knew it as soon as they showed her smoking … that’s always the sign of a
criminal); she’s been embezzling money from the medical funds and can’t afford to have anyone start investigating things. She watches with very little emotion as Joker and his men pound Robin, Joker wailing on him with a crowbar. Batman stops the convoy and warns them about their deadly cargo, so they unload it. He takes one of the trucks and heads back to the warehouse, feeling like something’s wrong. Joker decides he’d better not leave a witness to his pounding of Robin, so he ties Sheila up and sets a bomb before leaving. (Sheila’s sense of betrayal is ironic.) But Robin’s not dead yet (though he’s close) and recovers enough to untie Sheila so she can get out. Her motherly instincts finally kick in and she tries to bring Robin to safety too, but Joker locked the door, so they can’t get out. The bomb goes off just as Batman arrives, blowing the warehouse apart.
Detective #594 – “Ecstasy” – Alan Grant, John Wagner/Norm Breyfogle
Yeah, the title refers to the rug Ecstasy, although I don’t think it had hit its height in popularity as a club drug yet. This one starts with a guy named Ed Hallen driving his Porsche through one of Gotham’s slummier neighbourhoods. Ed hears a voice inside his head telling him to eliminate some punks on the corner because they’re probably just dope addicts anyway. Batman shows up to stop Ed from running the punks down and Ed claims he lost control of the car during a sneezing fit. He gives the punks his Porsche by way of
compensation, which Batman thinks is strange. He’s distracted when a private eye named Joe Potato shows up and tries o stop the Porsche with a gun. Batman takes Potato down, but the voice inside Ed’s head tells him to blow up the Porsche with the bomb he planted their earlier. Ed takes off and Potato tells Batman that he got an anonymous call at home saying Ed Hallen has three bombs he intends to use against the drug trade. Potato found $10,000 (with the bills cut in half) in his mailbox, so he came out to stop Ed. Batman leaves Potato to deal with the cops and goes out to find Ed, who’s currently 
tossing a bomb into the club owned by Ventriloquist. The club’s empty since Ventriloquist is in prison, but Batman isn’t sure where Ed will strike next. He has Alfred use the Bat-Computer to find out where Ed works, which is in the Financial District (because Ed’s a day-trader). Batman heads over there and Potato sees him and decides to follow. Ed goes up to see his colleagues, one of whom apparently gave him the Ecstasy on a night on the town. Ed took a double dose and lost it (which explains the voice in his head), so now he wants to take down the dealer and the rest of his colleagues. Batman busts in, followed by Potato, and Ed pulls out the last bomb. Turns out Ed is
the one who called Potato (when the voice in his head was on a bathroom break or something) because he can’t stand listening to the voice anymore. He starts freaking out and Batman knocks him into the walk-in safe, yelling for Potato to close the door. The bomb goes off, killing Ed, but everyone else is fine. Batman exposes the dealer who gave Ed the Ecstasy and turns him over to the cops, Potato’s not happy about losing out on Ten G’s, but he and Batman part ways with mutual respect for each other.
Green Arrow #12 – “Here There Be Dragons 4” – Mike Grell/Ed Hannigan/Dick Giordano, Frank McLaughlin
Oliver (Green Arrow) Queen and Shado bury Shado’s friend Alvaro, who died helping them fight off the yakuza last issue. The yakuza want Shado because she killed their oyabun, but also because she has a map leading to gold buried in the Philippines during World War Two. Oliver came to Hawaii to get the map from Shado, since Greg Osborne (the crooked CIA agent) blackmailed him into it. Osborne claims he wants to turn the treasure over to the current Philippines government to stabilize their economy, but Oliver
is understandably skeptical. Ollie and Shado take off on a boat but have to stop in Honolulu for supplies. Shado kills a yakuza thug in an alley and Oliver says he’s willing to stand with her against them. They decide to lead the yakuza to a warehouse where they can lay an ambush (and no innocent people can be hurt). The yakuza take the bait and Green Arrow plays decoy while Shado takes them out one by one with her bow and arrows. They realize the yakuza have been tracking them electronically, following a bug in Green Arrow’s quiver. The last yakuza thug pulls the pin on a grenade, blowing the warehouse (which 
is full of diesel fuel) to hell. Oliver and Shado get out just in time and Osborne shows up to ask about the map. Oliver tells Osborne that Shado died in the explosion and gives him a hand-draw map, which Osborne knows isn’t the original. Turns out Alvaro was the real “map”, the last surviving person involved in hiding the gold. Alvaro hated Marcos, so he kept quiet until Aquino took over, then came forward. But the yakuza grabbed him and tortured him to find the gold. He gave them only one location at a time (knowing they’d kill him after they had all the gold), until Shado got him away from them. Oliver says Shado drew the map based on things Alvaro told her. Oliver also speculates on who might’ve
put the tracer on him, and why they’d send the yakuza after him. He concludes that Osborne’s operation isn’t officially sanctioned. Osborne admits he has a partner who really wants the gold for himself and when they thought Oliver was dead, he brought in the yakuza to help get Shado, promising them a share of the gold. Oliver quickly realizes the silent partner is Ferdinand Marcos, trying to get back into power in the Philippines, but when Osborne orders his thug to shoot Oliver, he gets an arrow through him. Obviously, Oliver was lying about Shado being dead and he also called the FBI, who show up to arrest Osborne. The other yakuza thug takes off with the map and Osborne figures everything 
will work out, since he knows too many dirty secrets to be sent to prison. Oliver realizes that and tells Osborne he put the tracer in the map case, so the fleeing thug is leading the FBI back to the yakuza hideout, where the agents will mention how cooperative Osborne was in helping find them. Oliver reminds Osborne that the yakuza have long memories and never forget a betrayal, so he might be safer in prison. Later, Oliver and Shado say goodbye (and from the conversation, I’d say they definitely banged), with Shado moving on to stay ahead of any other yakuza who might come after her, and Oliver returning home to Dinah.