Detective Comics #6

Issue Details

Synopsis

KILL GAME On a beachfront property near the Iceberg Casino, a criminal by the name of Snakeskin and his eye-patch sporting female companion whom he calls 'Chase' prepare to sneak into the Casino's grand opening with the use of a pilfered VIP access card. Chase appears to be the one with the plan, and that plan must go off without a hitch.  Meanwhile, at a grimy motel, Batman discovers Snakeskin's fingerprints on the corpse of a kid named Raju - a runner for the Penguin. Back in the Batcave, Alfred Pennyworth determines that in the last 24 hours, Raju had made several calls to a suspected weapons dealer named Nicolas Pog. He also had three conversations with a woman named Jill Hampton, whose name both Alfred and Batman recognize. Batman checks in with the desk clerk, a man who once beat a murder rap before Batman was active. With some force, Batman asks after Jill. The man doesn't know names, but a distinctive woman with an eye-patch was there.   At the Iceberg Casino, Charlotte Rivers, disguised as a maid, searches a room for anything she can use. Suddenly, she is attacked from behind by Chase - an alias being used by Jill Hampton, evidently. Charlotte recognizes Jill's voice, because, the two women are sisters. Charlotte had been searching the room to find out what Jill is doing there. She has found out that Jill is involved somehow in an underground weapons operation that goes all the way to the top of Gotham.   Elsewhere in the Casino, Penguin meets with a group of second string super-villains. He promises to take them all under his wing until they're ready to go out on their own. A number of Gotham's criminals have been picked off, recently, and Penguin claims to be planning to protect these from that fate. He promises that with their money kept in his vaults, they will be protected from whoever is picking off these criminals.   Batman follows a cowardly thug called Smitty who is an associate of Nicolas Pog's. Without much effort, he manages to convince Smitty to take him to Pog. In Pog's secure storage room, Batman finds a bomb-making facility, rather than the weapons cache that he expects. While there are bomb materials strewn about, here are no bombs. Smitty suggests that Jill Hampton took the bombs with her. She had brought a trunk with her that Smitty had thought was full of cash. Inside, Batman instead finds Pog himself, cut to pieces and put on ice. Batman realizes that he may be able to keep Bruce Wayne's date with Charlotte Rivers after all.   As Penguin launches the grand opening of his casino and hotel, Snakeskin loads explosives into a service elevator, to be picked up by Chase. She promises that as soon as she stows away the C-4, she will find him in the VIP section. Meanwhile, Charlotte is surprised to hear from Bruce Wayne, announcing that he will be making her date after all. Charlotte catches a glimpse of Jill, and decides to follow her, leaving Bruce waiting, for the time being.   Outside, Bruce happens to spot Snakeskin's boat in the loading dock and recognizes it as the one that got away from him earlier. He puts on the Batsuit, and investigates.   Charlotte, meanwhile has stolen Jill's VIP card, hoping that she can stop whatever her sister's plan is. She follows her sister into the VIP area, which is too dark to see inside. Calling out for Jill, she gets no response. Suddenly, Snakeskin appears out of the dark and stabs her brutally several times. Angrily, Batman smashes through the roof and attacks Snakeskin, demanding to know why he stabbed Charlotte. Rushing to save her, Batman finds himself locked with her limp body inside the service elevator. Jill and Snakeskin fill the elevator car with gas, and then - using a set of controls - dump them out into the river along with the snow.