Detective Comics #312

Issue Details

Synopsis

THE SECRET OF CLAYFACE’S POWER Matt Hagen breaks jail again and uses his pool of protoplasm to renew his Clayface identity. Using his powers, Hagen is unstoppable, until Batman follows Hagen to the secret grotto, where the pool is located. Batman and Hagen start fighting and both of them fall into the pool, after which they are both transformed into clay. Batman uses his new powers to become a Clayface-Batman in order to fight Clayface on even terms. At the end of the fight, Batman defeats Clayface and returns him to prison. After 48 hours, both of them return to normal and their powers are gone. Batman informs Hagen that he has destroyed the secret grotto and the secret pool as well. However, Hagen has somehow managed to save a small bottle with the protoplasm from the pool and he expects to use it to become Clayface the next time he escapes prison. J’ONN J’ONZZ’S PESKY PARTNER J'onn J'onzz encounters crime-machines created by Doc Duggan while teaching Zook the English language and features of Earth in general. However, he forbids Zook to leave the cave J'onzz uses as their headquarters and go off by himself. J'onzz takes off after Duggan and his gang when he hears a radio message, but, when he is downed by one of the criminal scientist's weapons, Zook hears another radio report of it and charges off to save the Manhunter. He manages to do it, though the gangsters escape before J'onzz revives. He tells Zook that he was only shamming in order to learn where Duggan's hideout is. The Martian goes off to become John Jones again, and Zook, on his way back home, is sighted and picked up by Diane Meade, who brings him to headquarters to meet Captain Harding and Detective Jones. When Zook meets Jones, his antennae pick up electrical impulses that reveal to him that the detective and J'onn J'onzz are one and the same. When J'onzz learns of Zook's power, he uses him to track down Duggan and then defeats the scientist and the rest of his gang.