Batman #117

Issue Details

Synopsis

THE MYSTERY OF BATMAN BUS Batman and Robin fail to capture the Red Gloves Gang on a dock as the criminals shove a man they were assaulting into their path. The man, Bennet Carson, is the head of the new citizens' investigating committee probing into the Red Gloves Gang itself. When Carson comes to he claims to have amnesia. All he can remember, he says, is that he was on the Batman Sightseeing Bus and it stopped somewhere important. To try and jog his memory, Batman and Robin board the Batman Bus with him, as the vehicle makes a tour of the sites of some of Batman's and Robin's most famous battles. Though the Red Gloves Gang attempts to kidnap Carson on another stop, nothing seems to restore his memory. Finally, when the tour bus stops at the Antique Fair Grounds near a recent Red Gloves Gang heist, where antique means of land and air transportation are stored Carson appears to regain his memory. He grabs a gun and forces Batman and Robin, bound tightly, into the gondola of a hot air balloon. Carson reveals that he was really the head of the Red Gloves Gang, and that the gang wanted him for his holding out half of their $100,000 of the recent heist. Carson further reveals that he intended to flee to Mexico with the funds from the robbery. The villain sets the balloon aloft, but Batman uses one of the sandbag hooks on the ring of the gondola to pry loose his ropes and brings the balloon safely back to Earth. Shortly afterward, he and Robin nab the Red Gloves Gang and Carson, and use the Batman Bus to take them to prison. BRUCE WAYNE—BATMAN Bruce Wayne, Dick Grayson and Alfred are surprised when they discover someone has sent them a Batman costume. But a note with it explains it is from a charity club committee to be worn at a masquerade ball, and since Wayne has often been suspected of being Batman, they decided to provide Bruce with the gag costume. Bruce Wayne takes along his real Batman gear in case of emergency. Once there, he discovers all his fellow members wear costumes designed to lampoon their personalities. When they begin bidding on antiques with the proceeds going to charity the proceedings are halted by gangster Eddie Luden and his two hoods, out to rob the wealthy club members. Batman, stymied for a second as to how to stop the theft and yet not give away his identity by acting like a professional crime-fighter, hits on the tactics of seeming to bumble into actions that happen to block the crooks. When Luden threatens Upton, their host, with a gun, Batman goes ahead and knocks it away with his Batarang, knowing a human life is on the line. But Robin and Alfred have come along, the latter in a spare Batman outfit, and help him create a ruse that convinces the club members, seeing two Batmen together, that Wayne is not really Batman. MANHUNT IN OUTER SPACE While Batman and Robin are pursuing thief Eddie Marrow they and their Batrope are frozen in mid-air by the ray of Garr, an alien thief who has landed on Earth. He offers Marrow a chance to become his partner to loot he universe. Just as Marrow accepts, Garr's shipboard alarm sounds, signifying the approach of interstellar police. He and Marrow take off in his space ship before Chief Inspector Tutian of the Universal Police Corps lands and thaws Batman and Robin with his neutralizer ray. Comparing notes, Tutian and Batman realize what has happened, and the alien lawman offers Batman the chance to team with him to capture Garr and Marrow. Tutian's "space scanner" shows them the thieves have gone to Planetoid X, a "remote and unexplored asteroid" with an Earth-like atmosphere. Once there, Batman, Robin and Tutian begin their hunt of Garr and Marrow, where they are bombed with giant fruit, encounter a giant lizard, and battle a giant sea beast. Finally, Batman and Robin don their newest invention - jet-skates - in order to cut through a forest and surprise the two criminals as they are entering their rocket to escape Planetoid X. Garr is unable to draw a bead upon them with his ray-gun before being kayoed by Robin, while Batman racks up Marrow. Tutian returns the Earthmen to their own planet, while taking off with Garr for his interplanetary prison.