Batman #435 – “The Last Death of the Batman” – John Byrne/Jim Aparo/Mike DeCarlo
This is the final chapter of the Many Deaths of the Batman storyline. So far, a number of men have turned up dead in Gotham, each of them wearing a Batman costume that was sent to them anonymously. Bruce Wayne received a costume too, but didn’t put it on and thus avoided being dissolved by acid. This issue starts with an apparently unrelated crime, the murder of a hooker named Mary McGinnis. But the cops find a crude bat logo scratched into the carpet beside Mary’s corpse. At Wayne Manor, Bruce is getting anxious because Commissioner Gordon
left a bunch of cops at the Manor to watch over him. Bruce has realized that all the dead men were people he knew, who trained him in various disciplines years ago when he was preparing to become Batman. But he can’t get into the Batcave to narrow down his list of suspects because the cops are lounging around downstairs. At police headquarters, the coroner tells Gordon that the second murder victim (Stone) was probably dead before he blew up on a rooftop. Gordon wonders if the “Batman killings” are a smokescreen and Stone was the real target all along. Across town, a woman named Sally 
drops by her fiancé Jerry’s place and finds him in the basement, messing around with some chemicals. She thinks it’s a harmless hobby, but we see a Batman costume peeking out of a box. At Wayne Manor, Alfred lures the cops to the kitchen with some food so Bruce can get into the Batcave. He knows the names of the other men who trained him and tracks one of them (Koch) down. But when he goes to see Koch, he’s already been killed, run down by a Wayne Enterprises truck. Batman talks to Gordon, telling him about the connection between the dead men who trained him and pointing out that Koch was an expert in toxicology, which points back to the last victim (before Bruce
Wayne), who was poisoned. Batman tells Gordon to have his men watch over other potential victims, while he does the same. Later, the killer shows up to see a snake expert named Shastri, but Shastri turns out to be Batman in disguise. Before he can capture Stone Batman gets electrocuted, but Stone lets it slip that he’s been killing these people to protect his new life. Later, Batman tells Alfred that Stone seems to have figured out his secret identity, but that he must’ve been guessing about some of the others, since he was surprised when Batman (as Shastri) pretended he hadn’t trained any 
Americans in snake lore. At Sally’s place, Jerry (who’s actually Stone) tells her he realized Batman’s identity when he defused a bomb using a technique Stone had only taught one person. He figured there must’ve been others who trained Batman too, and that Batman’s enemies might be able to track them down and kill them …unless he takes them all out first. Jerry leaves to waste someone else and Batman shows up to warn Sally she’d better get out while she can. Jerry goes after his next victim (Campbell) and forces him to don a Batman costume, but the real Batman shows up before Jerry can kill Campbell. Batman tells Jerry how he tracked him down. Mary McGinnis was the
hooker Jerry used to lure his third victim to his death and although she had no idea who Jerry was when he killed her, the bat logo she scratched on the floor made the cops think there was a connection to the fake Batman deaths. Batman examined the scene and found pollen from a rare orchid, tracking down Jerry through his florist shop. Batman turns Jerry over to the cops and goes to tell Sally the truth about her fiancé.
Detective #602 – “Night Moves” – Alan Grant/Norm Breyfogle/Steve Mitchell
Last issue, a guy named Tenzin created a couple of spirits called Tulpas from inside his own psyche, using them to steal money so he could pay off his debt to a loan shark named Kellogg. But the Tulpas failed and Kellogg threatened to kill Tenzin if he didn’t get the money, so Tenzin decided to go further this time, creating a demon to take care of Kellogg and his thugs. This issue starts with Jason Blood (aka Etrigan the Demon) paying chess with his friend Randu. Blood is pissed off because he thought he’d gotten rid of Etrigan, but now the Demon is trapped inside him again. Randu is now blind, but he has a psychic
flash of something bad happening. Jason has no interest in investigating it, though. The psychic flash was caused by Tenzin creating a demon in the shape of Mahakala, the six-armed guardian of the faith. Batman tracked Tenzin’s Tulpa to his general vicinity before Tenzin destroyed the tracer and he sees Kellogg and his men heading to Tenzin’s place. Batman knows Kellogg is a crook and follows him, getting a surprise when he recognizes Tenzin as having the same face as the Tulpa he fought last issue. As Kellogg’s men start pounding Tenzin, Mahakala busts in and cuts one of them down 
with an axe. Batman jumps in to stop the demon, but it’s too strong. One of Kellogg’s men shoots Tenzin and he and Kellogg take off, leaving Batman to try to stop Mahakala. But he’s no match for the demon’s other-wordly power and it knocks him out, going after Kellogg. Tenzin tells Batman he created the demon out of his own hate and anger towards Kellogg, so it won’t stop until Kellogg is dead. As Mahakala stalks Kellogg and his remaining henchman across Gotham, Batman goes to see Jason Blood to ask his help in fighting the Demon. But Blood is tired of supernatural stuff and refuses to help. Randu offers to go with Batman and they head out to find Mahakala.
Kellogg and his thug have found some cops and asked to be arrested, but Mahakala attacks the cops to get to Kellogg. That draws Batman and Randu to the scene. Meanwhile, Blood fights against Etrigan’s influence, not wanting to let the Demon loose … but of course he’ll do just that next issue.