Detective Comics #12

Issue Details

Synopsis

THE KILLER INSIDE Having been doused in a radioactive organism, Batman returns to the Batcave in hopes of neutralizing the reaction before it consumes him. Stumbling around, he douses himself in flames, using the heat to cause the organism to consume the flames and destroy itself. Fortunately, the last-ditch plan succeeds.   Meanwhile, Dunhill Laboratories are cleared to open again by an inspector who happens to be friends with Professor Manhart. Still, despite the fact that all dangerous chemicals have been cleaned up, there will never be a way to make up for the lives lost as a result of what happened there. Suddenly, an explosion knocks both men to the floor, as Mister Toxic appears, demanding Manhart's assistance. The professor warns that entering the particle collider in his current state will cause it to self-destruct, but Mister Toxic persists, warning that the loss of life would be worth his reparation.   Alfred manages to get the device that Professor Alan Smart gave Bruce earlier working, and it turns out to be a hologram projector. In the hologram, Smart explains how Hugh Marder's attempts to cure his own genetic disease have driven him insane. He has used the particle accelerator to splice his own DNA with cadavers, resulting in short-lived clones, used for testing. Given that he was already dying, Marder had no care for the potential damage that the device could do to him. The accelerator caused his body to absorb the radiation, and now he lives off of it. It may only be a matter of time before he becomes a living atomic bomb.   Back at the lab, Marder and his clone, Mister Toxic, enter the particle collider together, ordering Manhart to start the device. As Manhart activates it, Batman crashes through the roof, warning him to stop. It's too late, though, and the reaction has begun. It is the same organism that he witnessed in the Batcave, absorbing both Marders into some kind of abomination. With only one chance, Batman throws a grenade into the mess. The heat from the explosion neutralizes the reaction as it did in the cave, eliminating the threat to the city. Turning to Marder, Batman passes him his helmet, and comments that he hopes not to regret having saved the man's life. THE TELL-TALE FACE Sgt. Harvey Bullock has been tasked with training a rookie named Nancy in guarding the evidence room where the Joker's detached face is being kept. This is Nancy's first night on the job in Gotham, having just transferred.   Harvey tells of how her predecessor had worked the evidence room for eight years, and then asked for a transfer just one night after the face had been added. He tells another story of how a cop he once knew had a nervous habit of whistling "The Farmer in the Dell" over and over. One night, he had had to take the Joker back to Arkham Asylum, and was so nervous that he whistled the song the whole way there. After the Joker's next escape, he found that cop's apartment, killed his wife, and after strapping him to the chair, demanded that he whistle the song again. The cop was so scared and sad that he couldn't even put his lips into the right shape to whistle. So, the Joker cut a whistle out of the cop's finger bones, and then played the song over and over until he bled to death. Bullock claims that the Joker had told him the story himself, and had showed him the whistle. After this, Harvey leaves Nancy alone with the face.   Nancy turns the face away from her, and spends some time filling out paperwork. She naps for a few hours, until she is wakened by a sound. She convinces herself that it was nothing, but a sudden burst of laughter from the direction of the face knocks her off her chair, screaming. Cautiously, she steps toward the box, assuring herself that it's just a bunch of dead skin - albeit the skin of someone who murdered hundreds of people.   Curiously, she opens the case, and holds the face in her hands. Suddenly, it begins laughing maniacally again, and in horror, she thrusts it away from her, curling up on the floor and assuring herself that this is all just in her head. She opens her eyes, and spots something attached to the face.   Angrily, Nancy marches upstairs and yells out for Bullock. He looks up in time to take her fist in the jaw. She angrily accuses him of taping an audio player to the back of the face. He claims he was just trying to have some fun, but she warns that if that face laughs again after she goes back to work, she will report him.   On the street nearby, the Joker decides that it's time to retrieve his face.