Batman '66 #9

Issue Details

Synopsis

ZELDA'S GREAT ESCAPE! Dick Grayson and his new girlfriend Haley attend a performance by master escape artist the Great Griselda, with Bruce Wayne and his own paramour Kathy Kane chaperoning. Almost immediately, Bruce and Dick identify "Griselda" as their old enemy, Zelda the Great; seconds later, much to their horror, Haley becomes an onstage volunteer.  At the first opportunity, Bruce and Dick change into Batman and Robin, confront Zelda before hundreds of spectators, and unmask her. Undaunted, Zelda sends her stagehands against the Dynamic Duo, then flees the stage - with an enamored Haley following along. Batman and Robin pursue, but are quickly outmaneuvered by Zelda, and sedated with ether.   Once unconscious, the crimefighters are taken to the Arizona desert, and immured in sand before hundreds of scorpions. This, Zelda explains to the impressionable Haley, is all for her next escape show; however the duo escapes, she will replicate their method for a paying crowd. Much to her annoyance, however, Batman repels the scorpions with Tuvan throat singing, a technique she judges too obscure (and unsavory) to be worth learning.   The still-bound crimefighters are then taken to another part of the desert, and dangled over a pit of rattlesnakes by a single rope - which is soon lit on fire. As the rope burns away, Haley recalls her date, but is chided by Zelda, who expounds that to be a performer - criminal or otherwise - is to abandon love, abandon all things personal in the name of fame and legacy. Exploiting her distraction, Batman and Robin escape the pit, method unseen.   After refuting Zelda's ethos, Batman and Robin easily apprehend the amoral escape-artist and her henchmen. But Haley, much to Zelda's delight, flees to pursue her own dreams of fame and glory. THE BUTLER DID IT! Once a night watchman convicted for corruption, Egbert Pennyworth is delivered from a Wayne Foundation halfway house by his cousin Alfred. Thinking Alfred unbearably sanctimonious, and his life unfairly luxurious, Egbert overpowers Alfred and enters Wayne Manor posing as the faithful butler, meaning to burgle "his" master at the first opportunity.   However, while Egbert looks and sounds identical to Alfred, he possesses none of his cousin's knowledge in either housekeeping or Batman and Robin. Thus, he is quickly exposed by the Dynamic Duo, who "enlist" him on a case that requires him to cross a rope bridge hundreds of feet in the air. Terrified of heights, Egbert breaks down and confesses everything, including where he has kept the real Alfred captive.   Alfred is soon recovered, with minimal injury save to his honor - an injury he takes out on his unprincipled cousin.