Batman #273

Issue Details

Synopsis

THE BANK-SHOT THAT BAFFLED BATMAN The European team of the Underworld Olympics crew begins their escapade with a symbolic gesture. They disrupt the reenactment of a Revolutionary War battle by the Gotham Colonial Minute Men Corps for the Bicentennial and, after wounding several "rebels," plant the British Union Jack in place of the American flag. That done, they get down to their real caper.  Two members of the team make deposits of sealed packages to safety deposit boxes in a bank where Bruce Wayne is attending to paperwork. But Speed Durkin and his gang pull a heist there and grab a number of deposit boxes, including one holding a package of the Europeans'. Batman does not manage to stop the thief holding that box. Later, Batman tracks down Durkin at his hideout, but is bashed from behind by Boris Chomsky, one of the Olympians, who takes back his stolen box. Batman revives just in time to see Chomsky's shoe soles as he escapes.   Later, at the bank, the manager informs Batman and Commissioner Gordon that one of the deposit boxes is still missing. Bruce Wayne makes a point of being in the bank the next day, and notes depositor Boris Chomsky's heels as being the same as the thug's who slugged him. Batman pays a visit to the vault after hours and finds Chomsky's deposit boxes contain the disassembled parts of the cannon which the Europeans stole from the Bicentennial rehearsal, plus a hollow, armor-piercing artillery shell. Hiding, he observes the European team break in, assemble the cannon, hide loot in the shell, and fire it through the roof. The shell makes a trajectory that sends it to the Minute Men's rehearsal field. Batman captures both halves of the European team and recovers the loot.   The Olympics official awards the team 59 points. Meanwhile, Batman and Commissioner Gordon, knowing that South American crooks have followed on the heels of a European gang, smell something wrong in the state of Gotham.