Batman #134

Issue Details

Synopsis

THE RAINBOW CREATURE Batman and Robin are in a South American Republic, helping to catch a small rebel group led by a would-be dictator named Diaz. But the rebels aren't the only thing they need to worry about when a creature covered in stripes of red, green, yellow, and blue invades the town. With it's red stripe, the beast can burn it's way through buildings, while the blue color lets it freeze any projectiles coming towards it. Green turns objects into mist. Each time, the colors fade to white after use. When Batman and Robin try attacking it, the rainbow beast uses the yellow stripe to temporarily turn them into paper-thin figures that blow away with the wind. Strangely, the creature aborts it's attack afterwards, and retreats into the woodlands. At that moment, Diaz rides into the village with his soldiers and demands the president to hand the town over to him or he'll release the creature again. But Batman is suspicious of this claim. He tells the people that if Diaz had control of it, why wouldn't he strike while they were pre-occupied with the creature? Diaz is refused, and a fight soon breaks out. To avoid casualties, Batman uses the light reflected off a prism to scare Diaz and his men into surrender. A short time later, the creature returns, and this time Batman and Robin have a plan. With the town's help, they make it use up all four of it's powers, reducing it to a pure white color. Before the dynamic duo can even hit the creature, though, it shatters and becomes dust that is blown away in the wind. BATMAN’S SECRET ENEMY Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson receive a letter from a "Mr. X" declaring that they are Batman and Robin, and promising future letters which will reveal the proof. Immediately, Batman and Robin begin analysis of the letter to try and deduce the identity of its author. The orchid pollen underneath the stamp glue leads them to "Gentleman Jim" Jansen, and orchid fancier and smuggler, whom they discover trying to smuggle stolen diamonds inside orchid bulbs. They apprehend another crook, "Catfoot" Regan, trying to rob jewels from the mechanism of a huge clock at a clock fair. When he warns them to leave him alone or face the end of their careers, they suspect him of being Mr.X, but he explains that he only meant they were in danger of being sniped at by his associate on guard whom they had frightened away. Clues on Regan's clothes lead them to the thief's boss, "Beetles" Branagan, operating a crime-ring from above the city in a huge advertising balloon. Finally, from clues derived in later letters, Bruce and Dick deduce that Mr. X is their friend, Tod Allen, who, in his last letter, provides the diagrams of physical similarities that led him to figure out Batman's and Robin's secret identities. However, Allen has recently been killed in a plane crash, and his knowledge went with him to the grave. THE DEADLY DUMMY Danny the Dummy, a pint-sized ventriloquist in a top hat and suit, has a hit act in which he plays the dummy to a normal-sized "Ventriloquist," Matt, who is revealed as the real dummy at the end of each show. But the fact that people invariably refer to Danny as "the Dummy" infuriates him, and inspires him to make dummies out of the law by manipulating his tormentors. He gathers a gang and, after inducing a man to take a bath in public with a "dummy" promise of riches from a TV quiz show, begins looting an express office nearby. Batman and Robin, on the scene, give battle, but are distracted when the Dummy hurls a dummy stick of dynamite at them. The crooks escape, and next loot a large department store when the gang members pose as mannequins--store-window dummies. Batman and Robin are summoned and arrive to give battle, but are defeated when the Dummy unleashes a "dummy" large-scale model of a toy rocket, which he has equipped with a real engine. One member of the gang is captured, and later freed in order to let Batman and Robin trail him to Danny the Dummy's hideout--a "dummy" town of stage fronts, resembling an Old Western town, used for TV westerns. The heroes defeat the gang in battle and give chase to the Dummy in Conestoga wagons, but the Dummy's wagon slams into the retaining wall of a Gotham park, catapulting him into the marble lap of a Batman statue. Batman allows as how he is the boss now, and Danny is still the dummy.