Detective Comics #440

Issue Details

Synopsis

GHOST MOUNTAIN MIDNIGHT! Bruce Wayne witness the abduction of a young woman from a night club in Gotham City and he tries to rescue her from the kidnappers as Batman. However, the woman tells him that they are her brothers and he is unable to prevent them from taking her away.  Batman follows them to a small town near the mountains, where he finds out that the woman has been taken to be sacrificed as part of a ritual for the beast on Ghost Mountain. Batman fights his way through the fanatics, who are all family members of the kidnapped woman until he is finally able to rescue to woman from a feral bear. After saving the woman, Batman takes down the town's sheriff, for being the leader and responsible for the human sacrifices in the town.   COBRAS OF THE DEEP! THE FEAR THAT HAUNTED HAWKMAN While out taking her dog Penny out for a walk, Shiera Hall witnesses a romantic couple suddenly split up when the girl becomes terribly frightened of the man and runs away. While pondering this, Penny all of a sudden becomes afraid of Shiera and runs off. The whole time, Shiera is unaware that an Egyptian statue is the cause. Returning to Midway City Museum, Shiera tries to tell Carter about it when they get a call from the commissioner.   Commissioner Emmett asks the two-winged wonders if they can help in capturing a group of criminals called the Sky-Raiders, who have been using flying devices to commit extraordinary robberies. Agreeing to go into action as Hawkman and Hawkgirl, the duo clash with the Sky-Raiders during their most recent heist. However, during the fight, Hawkman's battle with the leader of the Sky-Raiders takes them to the park. Hawkman gets in front of the statues gaze and suddenly becomes afraid of the Sky-Raider leader. The leader manages to escape, and Hawkman torments himself and keeps his fear of this lone man a secret.   To try and make up for it, Hawkman goes into action with almost fevered frenzy, and when the Sky-Raiders strike again Hawkman is determined to get over his fear once and for all. However, when battling the Sky-Raiders (who have advanced their ships to fire energy discs) Hawkman finds that he cannot bring himself to confront the leader due to his crippling fear. Hawkgirl manages to capture him, and the two decide to investigate why Hawkman is suddenly afraid. When they make the connection between Hawkman, Penny the dog, and the young couple, they realize all the events that happened in front of the Egyptian statue.   Upon further examination, they realize that there is a prism inside that reflects light out of the statue's eyes which cause whatever the light strikes to become afraid of whoever is in proximity. The come up with a way to reverse the process and use it to cure not only Hawkman but the two lovers who were broken up due to the influence of the statue. A MILLION-DOLLAR CORPSE! TOO MANY SUSPECTS! Criminal Del Lupin's released from jail, reflecting on how he made the mistake of thinking consenting to a truth serum injection wouldn't work on him and make him confess his crime. He plans to make that the basis of a new scheme. Shortly afterward Green Lantern responds to one of Doiby's signal rockets to realize it was fired from next to police headquarters, and Doiby's confessing to pulling off a jewelry heist and shooting a guard. Green Lantern refuses to believe his partner could do such a thing, and the police chief agrees with him. Because they have half a dozen other guys confessing to the same crime, who've been through all lie-detection methods the police have and their stories didn't change. Someone's figured out how to make people falsely confess to crimes.   This continues for some time, with vicious robberies committed in broad daylight. Green Lantern flies around with a miniature movie camera capturing footage, and when he analyzes his findings realizes something all the crimes have in common. Soon Green Lantern himself makes a confession to a robbery, and the real perp panics because he knows he didn't do something as stupid as try to hit Green Lantern himself, and somebody else must have figured out his methods. He plans to find out what's going on before he's found out.   At the scene of Green Lantern's public confession, he sees the perpetrator, who tries to flee by climbing the wall outside the building. The hero pursues, and Del Lupin shoots at him with a bullet that gives off smoke and makes Green Lantern see himself in the crook's place. That's why everyone confessed: they really did think they saw themselves committing his crimes. Del Lupin slips off the roof then, but Green Lantern's unable to help because the crook shot him in the arm and temporarily paralyzed it. Later Green Lantern explains to the police chief he figured out Del Lupin was behind it because he was in every group of confessing men, and nobody paid attention to his real confessions among the storm of fake confessions. THE INSIDE STORY OF THE OUTSIDER! Batman and Robin are sent yet another message from the mysterious villain known as the Outsider, who this time sends coffins with Batman and Robin automatons to deliver the message to Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson. Tracking the delivery of the coffins they have to battle off the Grasshopper Gang and find finger prints belonging to the Outsider, which shockingly belong to Bruce Wayne's deceased butler, Alfred Pennyworth.   However, this is not the case, because shortly after Alfred's death, his tomb was visited by scientist Brandon Crawford, whose audiometer revealed that Alfred was still alive. Trying to revive the comatose butler, Brandon bombarded the body with radiation, which mutated Alfred into the evil Outsider, who then began his campaign against Batman and Robin.   Batman and Robin then proceed to track down the Outsider to his hideout and battle him to a stand-still, before the strange creature can turn both Batman and Robin into coffins themselves. Knocking the Outsider out, Batman puts him on the same machine which transformed him into the Outsider and after being exposed to radiation once again, Alfred is restored back to his normal appearance and good health.   After the battle, Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson bring Alfred back home to Wayne Manor where Alfred resumes his job as the Wayne butler, with the help of Dick's Aunt Harriet. It is then that Bruce decides to rename the Alfred Memorial Foundation to the Wayne Foundation. CHAPTER 4 REBELLION! After killing Christine's former boss, Manhunter reveals to her that the Council had him cloned to head their enforcement branch. He also confesses that Nostrand was one of their pawns, which is why he killed him too. Later, Christine discovers some of Nostrand's files in his hotel, which indicate that he had made both Manhunter and herself fugitives.