Batman #305

Issue Details

Synopsis

DEATH-GAMBLE OF DARKNIGHT DETECTIVE! When the Death's-Head terrorist gang and Thanatos, their masked and costumed leader, stage a downtown bombing in Gotham City, Batman attacks them but is defeated by a hurled grenade.  Commissioner Gordon tells Batman that the Death's-Head has staged ten bombings in ten weeks. Lina Muller, a lady journalist, says the group seeks the destruction of Batman and all other symbols of capitalist political order. She also believes that the group will lie low for a while, to regroup and plan. Lina Muller is Bruce Wayne's guest as they visit the Gotham Skyscraper on Gotham Isle, a former base for Dr. Destiny. It has since been converted to a legal gambling casino for a month with the city the beneficiary. Bruce notes that six millionaires who have recently visited the casino have made business blunders that cost them their fortunes.  While gambling, Bruce is subjected to a strange device, the "Fortu-Tron," which causes him to lose his good judgement and gamble away $1,000. Batman later captures Prof. Amos Fortune, who had designed the Fortu-Tron and taken over the casino for his own ends. However, Batman takes so many unnecessary risks that he is almost killed. Fortune tells him that the Fortu-Tron treatment lasts a week.   Later, Batman issues a challenge to the Death's-Head, daring them to meet him on Gotham Isle at midnight. He tells them he will fight without weapons. They take him up on it, and he defeats them all. Thanatos is unmasked as Sophia Santos, aka "Lina Muller". When Gordon asks him how he got over his gambling fever, Batman replies that he hasn't yet, he only "stacked the deck...in my favor!" WITH THIS RING FIND ME DEAD! Commissioner Gordon calls in Batman when a wedding ring found on the finger of an unidentified female corpse on a Gotham street bears the inscription, "To my darling wife. Love, the Batman." No record of the woman's fingerprints turns up, but Batman analyzes the ring, and finds materials on it that pinpoint its origin to a town on the coast of Maine.   He goes there in disguise to inquire about the ring from a local jeweler, but has to fight off locals who assume the ring came from Martha Carter, a citizen of their town, and that he killed her to get it. The fight ends when Martha Carter walks in with her husband.   Batman returns home and switches to civilian garb, briefing Alfred on what has happened. But an intruder enters, having somehow breached the security system. He brandishes three photos taken by an X-ray device, showing Bruce Wayne in his Batman costume during the Maine brawl, and says that he has other evidence linking the Batman to Wayne. He admits to murdering the woman, but declares that if Batman brings him in, it will be the end of Batman's career.