Batman #430 – “Fatal Wish” – Jim Starlin/Jim Aparo/Mike DeCarlo
This one starts with a guy named Tim Conrad, who was recently fired from his banking job, climbing onto the roof of the bank building with a rifle. Conrad starts shooting people at random, gunning down civilians left and right. Batman shows up and Commissioner Gordon tells him what’s going on (and asks about Robin, so apparently Gordon doesn’t know Robin is dead). Batman says he’ll distract Conrad so the cops can get a wounded woman to safety. Batman’s plan works and he makes it into the building, heading up
to the roof. Conrad is ready and starts shooting through the door, yelling that he’s tired of the world being against him so he’s going to kill himself, but he’s taking as many people with him as possible because he wishes they were all dead. Conrad’s words trigger a memory in Batman, so we get a flashback story told in parallel with him going down into an office to climb out the window so he can scale the building and take Conrad by surprise. The flashback is of Bruce Wayne’s childhood, when his father Thomas was having financial problems and slapped Bruce when he wanted to play. Thomas felt bad, but 
Bruce was mad and said he wished his father was dead. They made up later, but when Thomas and his wife were killed by a mugger, Bruce felt guilty for what he’d said. Batman gets up to the roof and jumps Conrad, but the memories have distracted him and he has trouble taking the sniper down. When Conrad gets too close to the edge, Batman warns him but Conrad won’t listen and gets shot by a police sniper. Even though Conrad killed five people, Batman still couldn’t bring himself to want Conrad dead, probably because of that residual guilt over his father.
Detective #597 – “Private Viewing” – Alan Grant, John Wagner/Eduardo Barreto/Steve Mitchell
Last issue, Batman found out about a budding “director” (Oscar Lampet) who hired thugs to pound on innocent people while he captured the beatings on film. The films were taken to Oscar’s boss (Milton Sladek), who screens them for rich people who have nothing better to do than watch other people getting the shit kicked out of them. When he found out Batman was sniffing around, Sladek sent his own muscle-man (Tonka) to jump Batman if he interrupted another “performance”. Batman showed up and
Tonka started pounding him, which Oscar is gleefully getting on film. (If you’re wondering what effect the flash of the Gene Bomb explosion had, the answer is none, except the flash distracted Batman enough for Tonka to get the upper hand.) A couple of the kids from the gym funded by Bruce Wayne happen by and try to stop Tonka from pounding Batman. Naturally, they get pounded (and Oscar keeps filming), but Batman manages to rally and puts Tonka’s head into a brick wall. Oscar takes off and Batman’s too injured to follow, but he manages to get a Spider-Tracer … uh, I mean a Bat-Tracer on Oscar’s 
leg. (Seriously, has Batman ever used a tracer like that before? If so, I don’t remember seeing it.) When Batman goes to the hospital to get patched up, the doctor gives him shit for perpetuating the cycle of violence, but Batman says there’d be a lot more victims if it wasn’t for him. He tracks Oscar to Sladek and listens in through the tracer. He considers taking Sladek down, but wants to get the people who pay for his “entertainment” too. Batman does force Oscar to turn himself in, but tells Commissioner Gordon to wait on grabbing Sladek until they can bring in his clients too. Batman interrupts the showing of him getting pounded by Tonka and everyone is arrested. They’re taken to the hospital where Archie Gaines (the innocent victim whose beating brought Batman into this whole mess) is recovering. Batman wants Sladek’s
customers to meet one of the “stars” of the films they’ve been watching so they can see him as a real person, instead of some anonymous character on a screen. Most of them actually do end up feeling guilty after meeting Archie, but Sladek grabs a scalpel and threatens one of the rich women. Archie stabs him in the leg with a pencil, giving Batman a chance to take him down. The hostage thanks Archie and apologizes, but he’s understandably bitter. He does admit that maybe his experience was worth it if it really did change their attitudes. Batman leaves, hoping he’s made a difference, but knowing it’s an uphill fight (as he walks by someone who was shot on a bus by a “Rambo type”).