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Detective Comics #86


February 25, 1944

"Danger Strikes Three"


Pre-read - With a title like this, there are two ways to think this story will play out. Perhaps this is a baseball story of some kind. Or perhaps the three are our three heroes on the cover, which includes Alfred. You know me, I'm happy to see him, but I find this concerted effort on the part of the writing team to make him as integral to the Batman family as possible very interesting.


The story opens with Dick walking home from school. I prefer this and find it more plausible than Bruce and Dick always seeming to be out and about when a crime occurs. Of course, a crime does occur as he finds a gang stealing from a fur store. He has no time to call in backup as he makes the change and attacks. The leader of the gang is Gentleman Jim (no relation to the ghost, but wouldn't that be something?).


He falls quickly and is taken away in the truck transporting the furs. A policeman sees him and shortly after the news is reported on the radio, which Alfred hears. He can't reach Bruce who is out fishing, so he takes it upon himself to go to Robin's rescue. Alfred questions the guard and then finds the oil trail left from an open can Robin spills in the back of the truck.

Unfortunately, Alfred is also captured by the gang when he finds their hideout. They leave him behind with Robin while they keep an appointment at the harbor that includes taking a speedboat that topples Bruce who is having no luck with his fishing. He sees the boat dock alongside a freighter with Tommy guns on deck.

He makes the change to Batman and attacks, but is shot and captured. They bring him back along with their piracy gains to their hideout to eliminate all three. Batman only had a scalp wound, but he is tied up with the others and left behind with a time bomb. Batman gets hold of Alfred's magnifying lens and uses it to burn his ropes.

Once freed, he then uses chemicals from his utility belt (remember the utility belt? Seems like ages since he's pulled things from it.) to craft a key from a spare one. With that, they get clear of the building before it blows. Before Jim left, he boasted that they had been successful on land and sea and only had the air to conquer. Batman learns of a shipment of diamonds that are coming in by plane.

He meets the plane with the Batplane, flying just below it and pushing it out of the way of a cable net that came into view, carried by balloons. Batman brings the plane down safely and then pursues Jim's plane. He leaps on the back and guides the rudder, making Jim think he's losing control.

The plane lands and Batman jumps on them with Robin and Alfred coming in to finish it all up. And the ending really shows how this is no longer a comic about a brooding orphan with a heart filled with vengeance. He has a family now in Alfred and Dick. I really liked it.


Next up, we're looking at the Joker's first appearance in the newspaper strip, Citizens!





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