Detective Comics #421

Issue Details

Synopsis

BLIND JUSTICE...BLIND FEAR! Batman must find a way of keeping a convict who has served his time alive during a prison break so that he can divulge information about corrupt politicians, despite a black militant con who wants to bargain for freedom and a hired killer out to get the man Batman wants to protect. UP AGAINST THREE WALLS! Commissioner Gordon and his daughter Barbara had traveled to Mexico City so that the Commissioner could teach the police there crime fighting techniques against drug smugglers. After their meeting they were driven into a trap set by drug dealer Odds Layton, and Barbara was pushed to safety before the Commissioner Gordon and Carlos Da Vega (the son of the Mexican police commissioner) were captured.  Arriving at police headquarters as Batgirl, Barbara learns that the local mob had demanded a ransom of twelve and a half million Pesos for their safe return. Batgirl convinces Commissioner Da Vega to let her turn the ransom over at the designated meeting place a Jai Alai arena.   There, Batgirl finds Carlos to collect the ransom from her, realizing that he's there to collect to square his gambling debts, Batgirl refuses to pay over. Odds Layton then intervenes by sending out criminal Jai Alai players who try to kill her with a grenade, but she easily bests them and captures Odds for the police.   Afterwards the crooks are turned over to the police, Commissioner Gordon is freed, and he thanks Batgirl for coming to the rescue, further hinting that he knows her secret identity. POLICE LINE-UP! Alfred is allowed to be part of a police investigation and he is taken to a police line-up where several criminals are identified. Alfred is barely able to remember the faces and names of the criminals and by the next day he has all of them mixed up in his head. During his usual walks, he thinks he recognizes one of the criminals and follows him to an apparently empty store, where the criminal is being mugged by several other crooks. Alfred manages to overcome the criminals merely by accident and after the bad guys are disposed, Alfred realizes that the man he identified as a crook in the first place is in fact the police detective that organized Alfred's visit to the police line-up.   Of course, after the whole incident is cleared, Alfred returns to Wayne Manor where he takes full responsibility for capturing the thugs and saving the police detective. THE RIDDLE OF THE DOOMED MAGICIANS!