World's Finest Comics #12

October 27, 1943

"Alfred Gets His Man"

I mentioned in my last post how much I am loving Alfred being utilized more in the stories and here we go with them hearing my praise as we get a story called, "Alfred Gets His Man".

The story starts with Alfred finishing up a shopping trip when his rationing stamps fly away from him. He walks toward the waterfront area and overhears two gangsters talking about paying up $10,000 for something to do with Batman. He thinks it has something to do with extortion. Alfred heads off to warn his employers.

When he returns home, Alfred finds the two have gone deep sea fishing. He decides to follow up on the case by donning a disguise and taking Batman's belt radio. At the waterfront, Alfred confronts the two ordering them to turn and head to the police station. Of course, they don't comply and instead knock him out.

When he comes around, he finds himself tied up and learned that the money was not extortion, but payment for smuggled diamonds. They leave Alfred behind with a block of dry ice. As it evaporates, it takes the oxygen from the room which will suffocate him. He manages to get free by breaking the chair he's tied to and then proceeds to work out getting free from the room. He isn't able to and he's finding it harder to breathe. He doesn't realize it, but the radio he took with him is operating and sending out a signal which Dick picks up as he and Bruce are on their boat. They can't talk back to him, but they try to follow the signal.

They follow it to a barge where they see a blackened porthole with an image of the bat snatched into it. They sneak about the barge, but are spotted by the gang and attacked.

And then, in what is one of the coolest moments in comics (at least I think so) we have the gang bring the captured Dynamic Duo into the room on the barge and find Alfred gone. But he's not. He remembered his science classes and how carbon dioxide is heavier and so he basically hung himself from the rafters in the room, allowing him to breathe. He surprises the gang by swinging down on to them.

They get rid of the three by throwing a switch and opening a trap door that sends them into the ocean. The barge moves off as Alfred, who cannot swim, struggles to free Batman and Robin from their bonds. He does and thanks to the radio that is still on the barge, they are able to follow and round up the gang. The ending is particularly cute as Alfred is referred to as a "mysterious sleuth" who aided Batman in rounding up the smugglers.

This is an absolute charming story and it's a nice setup for the soon to be short Alfred stories we'll be seeing in The Batman comics. So what's next? We're back to the newspapers and the next comic stories, Citizens!