Batman #140

Issue Details

Synopsis

THE GHOST OF THE JOKER! After the Joker is apparently blown to bits in an escape attempt from Gotham State Penitentiary, what appears to be the ghost of the Joker carries on his life, or after-life, of crime in Gotham City. The Joker's "ghost" leads his gang in a string of ghost-oriented crimes, such as robbing the box office of a theater showing the play THE RETURN OF THE PHANTOM; stealing the $50,000 prize money in a race won by a horse named Poltergeist; and taking over a yacht called THE FLYING DUTCHMEN in order to steal a gold prize cup. The investigation leads Batman and Robin to the Joker's hideout, a marionette factory closed for vacation time. The Joker's "ghostly aura" turns out to be phosphorescent paint, and his "ghost" tricks were accomplished with the use of a magic lantern--a trick which Batman and Robin turn back on the Joker when the gang is tricked into emptying their guns at a Batman-illusion. The two heroes take the Joker back into custody. THE CHARMED LIFE OF BATMAN! Four assassins hired by the Gotham underworld to kill Batman and Robin laugh at a TV interview program in which Batman is given a potion by a robed figure called the Alchemist which, the Alchemist assures Batman, will give him a charmed life. But the assassins discover Batman's life is indeed charmed; when the first killer tries to finish Batman by crushing him under a huge globe of Mars at Planetarium Park, a tree suddenly falls between them and blocks Batman from injury, and when Batman is knocked off a building's skeleton-in-progress by a crane, a water tank's support buckles and spills a wave of water to wash Batman in mid-air over to safe flooring. Both assassins are captured, and the Alchemist gets Batman to admit that two such escapes could not be coincidental. Later, it is revealed that the Alchemist is in fact Superman revealing that his disguise as The Alchemist is his and the Dynamic Duo's plan to bring the four hitmen out of hiding. During the conversation, they are secretly being observed by one of the remaining killers, and, when the last two assassins make a third attempt on Batman's life, they ward off Superman with Kryptonite. The hoods bear down on Batman and Robin with an ambulance in a dead end alley, but Batman pulls down a fire escape ladder and the truck crashes head-on into it. The dynamic duo dispose of the Kryptonite, reviving Superman, and then help round up the two thugs. THE EIGHTH WONDER OF SPACE Batman and Robin return to Earth after being yanked in their Batplane across dimensions to the planet Xlur. Since the scientists of Xlur had not yet perfected a way to reverse their grapple-ray, Batman and Robin had to remain there three days the alien scientists could devise a way to send them back to Earth. During that time, the alien atmosphere transformed them into green-skinned, antennaed, barrel-chested alien humanoids. When they return to Earth, their transformation is still in effect for some time, and they only manage to prove their identities to Batwoman and Commissioner Gordon by revealing to the former her own secret identity and to the latter the title of his unwritten memoirs. Since the Yellow Sweater Gang is still raising havoc in Gotham City, the alien dynamic duo go back to work, aided with their leaping power and the telekinetic force emanated from their antennae. Batman uses various ruses to prevent the world from learning that Bruce Wayne also looks like an alien now, but realizes that such measures are only stop-gap. The heroes are trapped and imprisoned by the Yellow Sweater Gang when their own trap backfires, but the alien faces frustrate the gang's attempt to discern their true identities by unmasking them. However, Batman and Robin are rapidly returning to normal, and Batman only manages to use a knife to free himself by telekinesis before they resume human forms. Immediately thereafter, they attack the rest of the gang in their time-honored style and capture them all.