Detective Comics #456

Issue Details

Synopsis

DEATH-KISS! Bruce Wayne ends a date with Angie Larner with a passionate kiss and afterwards he becomes the Batman. However, as he drives the Batmobile around Gotham City, he finds himself hallucinating and it is clearly affecting his coordination skills. Moments later, Batman finds a couple of burglars, but he has serious troubles when he tries to stop them. Batman manages to capture the thieves and he is then helped by a doctor, who informs Batman that he has been drugged with a poison called amory and that it would kill him within one hour.  Batman recovers thanks to a temporal stimulant and he goes looking for a responsible who might want to kill Batman in the Gotham Underworld, but he realizes that it is a pointless chase. However, Batman eventually deduces that the poison had to be administered that same night and the only thing he can recall is Angie's kiss.   Batman goes to Angie Larner's place and he finds that she has been forced to poison Bruce Wayne by some thugs who work for Ulysses Vulcan, a business enemy of Bruce Wayne. Batman feels safe that his crime-fighting identity was not the main target and after defeating the thugs, he retrieves the antidote from Angie, who is glad to help and will soon turn her blackmailers to the authorities. Meanwhile Batman recovers his strength after taking the antidote and decides to capture Vulcan the next day. THE UN-STRETCHABLE SLEUTH! The Dibnys are staying in a hotel at Cape Crescent, and Ralph is lamenting the fact that the town hasn't heard of him despite being world famous, while Sue is upset that she hasn't made it into the nation's ten most admired women since her marriage. Ralph tells her that if it weren't for Sue's allergic reaction to Gingold, he could make her into the Elongated Woman. But the matter is moot, since his supply of Gingold has run out.  Not wanting to deal with Sue's frustration over living in his shadow, Ralph has no choice but to go out for a walk alone. While thinking of giving her a banquet of American beauty roses, he comes across an upset boy unable to fly his kite. Ralph uses his stretching ability help the kite fly, but the child thanking him and calling him "Mr. Stretch-Man" only reinforces his lack of exposure in Cape Crescent.   Just then, Ralph notices a rooftop caper involing a woman named Heather stealing a rack of mink coats with the assistance of her two brothers Paul and Eddie. Ralph hides among the coats as the brothers prepare to move the rack across a plank to the next roof, and he punches Paul. Eddie and Paul ambush Ralph and discover he could stretch. Ralph is about to introduce himself as the Elongated Man, but Heather recognises him and orders her brothers to abandon the heist and escape. Ralph captures the trio and intends to take them to the police, but his limbs suddenly contract and he realises that since he hasn't had his daily Gingold, he is no longer able to stretch. Heather's brothers overwhelm him, and they take him to their hideout, with Heather planning something for the "great" Elongated Man.