Solving Murders on Two Planets

 

cover art by Jim Aparo

I was getting ready to write this review when I thought that it might be fun to have a three-week series--reviews of Batman stories from the Golden Age, Silver Age and Bronze Age. I could do the same with Superman.

But, heck, I've already written the Batman Bronze Age review! Well, the obvious solution to this is to do the Batman reviews in reserve chronological order. I'll leave it to future historians to decide whether this was a wise move.

In The Brave and the Bold #181 (April 1980), writer Gerry Conway and artist Jim Aparo manage to pull off a team-up story in which the two superheroes involved never actually meet. 

This actually isn't the only example of this. I'm pretty sure there's at least one World's Finest in which Batman and Superman avert a crisis without ever being in the same place. But I can't for the life of me remember which story that was. There may be other examples I'm not thinking of.  I recognize this to be a Level 7 Nerd Failure and will report myself to the authorities and spend time in the Agony Chamber as soon as I'm done writing this post.

Anyway, Batman is on the way to see Commissioner Gordon (in regards to a serial killer case) when he's hit by a Zeta Beam. He's transported to the planet Rann while Adam Strange appears in his place.

This was done on purpose. On Rann, Adam Strange has been framed for murder. Rann and his wife Alanna have decided that Batman is needed to prove Adam's innocence.

The story shifts back and forth between Rann and Earth--where Adam gets involved in catching the Gotham City killer. This is done very effectively and used to build suspense in both storylines, but I'll handle them one-by-one in my review.

On Rann, Alanna fills Batman in on what's going on. Adam was tricked into a locked room and there is camera footage of him apparently commiting the murder, though the image of his face in the footage is not clear. Before Batman can decide on his next move, an obnoxious local cop bursts in to arrest everyone for being accessories. Batman, of course, gets away.

He later breaks into the police records room and sees the footage. He notices something off about the partial image of the man who is supposed to be Adam. That man is pale, while Adam and Alanna had just returned from vacation with deep tans. 

The obnoxious cop bursts in on him, but one clue leads to another and Batman is able to prove Adam's innocence in front of Rann's robot judges, demonstrating that the real killer is the cop, whose motive was xenophobia against aliens.

Back on Earth, Adam Strange realizes he's obligated to fill in for Batman on the serial killer case. He goes to Gordon, who has heard enough weird stuff in his career to accept Adam's story. He lets Adam examine the murder victims and the superhero notices each of them has a fresh tattoo.

Adam finds out a new tattoo parlor opened not long before the killings started. He stakes the place out and is soon able to nab the tattoo artist before the guy can knife his next victims.

The two switch back just as the two cases are resolved, though that does mean that Batman finds himself hanging in midair over the water holding a serial killer. But he's Batman--that's not really a problem for him.

This really is a fun story that plays effectively off Batman's skill as a detective. Neither case is that hard to solve. In Batman's case, his intervention is probably needed because the cop in charge was the actually killer. In Adam Strange's case, you can argue that the cops should have noticed the tattoos on the victims without Adam's help. But what the hey--Conway and Aparo had only 17 pages to tell what is essentially two different stories, so the mysteries needed to be pretty basic. And that's a nitpick anyways. It doesn't effect the quality of the story. It's still fun.

Next week, we jump back to the Silver Age to watch Batman and Robin battle a giant monster.