Batman #130

Issue Details

Synopsis

BATMAN’S DEADLY BIRTHDAY Batman and Robin are summoned in the early morning to Commissioner Gordon's office, where they are greeted by flashbulb-popping photographers and a smiling Commissioner. Gordon wishes Batman a happy birthday, as this is the anniversary of his first case, and the city is holding "birthday" parties all over town to raise money for charity. Flabbergasted, Batman agrees to participate. During the various ceremonies, a range of events occur. A scroll and jeweled medallion from the Jewelers Insurance Underwriters are taken when a pair of water fountains go out of control; a fireworks mural of Batman and Robin is altered to that "Robin" butts his head into "Batman" and knocks him off-balance; and Batman and Robin, climbing a giant birthday cake, are apparently stuck in wet plaster at the top of the cake. The mishaps have been engineered by a criminal gang, who climax their thefts by stealing the charity funds from the box office where Batman and Robin are appearing. However, Batman unexpectedly surprises the thieves as they escape and clobbers the gang leader with a giant candle. He reveals that he had learned the secret of the cake-trap when he has shown its interior by the designer and saw wet plaster dripping down. The spectators join in a chorus of "Happy Birthday" to Batman. THE MASTER OF WEAPONS On a Paragon Pictures movie set, during the filming of a historical epic, an argument breaks out between Graham, an expert builder of ancient weapon replicas, and Bailey, head of the accounting department. Graham demands a raise, and Bailey answers that only the studio boss can authorize such a demand. Seconds later, Graham falls from his high perch atop a catapult, hits the ground, and is knocked unconscious. He later escapes from a hospital, and, not long after that, a strange masked criminal begins leading a gang utilizing ancient weapons such as ballistas and caltrops in daring robberies. Batman and Robin fail to stop the gang in two encounters, but, in the second, Batman calls a catapult a "wild donkey," as the ancient Romans had nicknamed it, but the masked gang leader professes ignorance of the term. The two heroes begin suspecting someone other than Graham of being the ringleader. However, when the dynamic duo and Ace, the Bat-Hound track down and capture the gang at an abandoned prison, they find that Graham's face is indeed the one behind the mask, and he only pretended ignorance to throw them off the track. Batman handcuffs Graham, in preparation to leading him off to jail. THE HAND FROM NOWHERE Batman and Robin, called in on an apparent crank call, discover that a giant green hand controlled by two green-faced figures who appear to be aliens is actually ripping the roof off the Gotham Zinc Works so they may loot it. The aliens, who let drop the information that they are wearing translators that can interpret correctly any language used to them, easily fend off Batman and Robin with the giant hand and appear to return with it to another dimension. The hand and the aliens commit two more robberies, ostensibly for materials they need to open an even large inter-dimensional portal. When Batman shouts a warning to them in Eskimo language and they fail to respond, he deduces the whole thing to be a hoax. He and Robin, following a huge truck which bears the hand, trace it back to the hideout of Superman's foe Luthor, who has set up the robberies of relatively cheap material in order to cover for his real objective, the theft of a fortune in platinum. Batman and Robin burst into Luthor's hideout, make quick work of the gang, and take Luthor to jail in his own giant hand.