Batman #10 - Story 4

February 11, 1942

"The Sheriff of Ghost Town"

This is an interesting one to finish up the fourth issue. Basically, a prospector, Cactus Tom, and his young ward stop in a ghost town to rest and decide to settle there. The ghost town becomes a magnet for others to join them and shortly, a community is developed. They name the town Sunshine City and all seems well until a gang led by Frogel come to town and wreck havoc as they try to take it over.

The young ward rides off to the nearby city and tells his story to the newspapers, hoping it will get the attention of Batman. It does and Batman arrives in time to save the kid from an attack by Frogel's men. The town puts Batman up for Sheriff. Frogel decides to run against him, but his dirty tricks don't work as well as Penguin's do in the Batman 66 episode. He is elected as Sheriff. He names Robin as his deputy.

Some time passes (how much, we don't know) and the city becomes peaceful. Frogel's men have run off and Frogel himself has appeared to settle as a businessman in the town. A nearby city offers a loan of $40,000 for Sunshine City to develop better roads and install electricity. The money is to be delivered by stagecoach.

This is perfect for Frogel and his men who hijack it as Robin and Cactus Tom escort the coach. Tom is killed and Robin is captured. The town is worked up and want to end Frogel once and for all. There is a final confrontation with Batman and Frogel in Frogel's saloon with Batman victorious. A statue to Tom is erected as Batman and Robin fly home.

I'm not a big fan of when Batman mixes with the west, but I get why it was done back then. It appealed to a certain audience who may not have been big Batman or even superhero fans by drawing them in with the Western theme,

And we move on from here to the next issue of World's Finest. Stay tuned, Citizens!