Detective Comics #52

Issue Details

Synopsis

THE SECRET OF THE JADE BOX An old curio collector, Mr. Potter, buys an antique jade box, and that same night he is murdered, and his body is found next to the jade box by his butler and his friend Bruce Wayne. After collaborating with the police investigation, Bruce returns to the crime scene as Batman and interrogates the butler about the box. Batman takes the box for investigation and discovers that there is a hidden compartment inside the box. After learning about Achmed's Curio Shop, where the box was acquired, Batman goes there, and is attacked by a gang of Chinese assassins, seeking to retrieve the box from him. Batman fights his way free of them and then escapes the police. He now knows that the box-seeking murderer, whoever it is, got Potter's name and address from the antique merchant Achmed, and that the murderer also sold the box to Achmed in the first place. Batman consults with Loo Chung, the informal "mayor" of Chinatown, the successor to Batman's old ally Wong. He learns of an expanding protection racket, run by unknown Chinese gangsters. According to Loo Chung, the leader of these racketeers claims his legitimacy based on an ancient golden ring which had once belonged to Genghis Khan. Batman promises to investigate this racket then asks about the jade box; Chung reveals that the box had, of course, concealed the ancient ring, which by the way, Loo Chung is now wearing that very ring! Then he opens the trapdoor under Batman, who tumbles into a dungeon where he fights some wild dogs and Mongol killers. Before it's all over, Batman is confronted by the gun-wielding Chung, but Robin jumps into the fight catching everybody by surprise. After that Chung and his henchmen are defeated, and Batman sets free a guy he has found in the dungeon. This guy turns out to be the father of the late Wong, former informal mayor of Chinatown, and he also turns out to be the real descendant of Genghis Khan, unlike Loo Chung who was a pretender. Knowing that Loo Chung coveted the ancient ring, the elder Wong had concealed it in the jade box and sold it to Achmed the Arab, all in hopes of keeping it away from him. Several murders later, it's apparent that that plan hasn't worked out, so Batman takes the ring and promises to destroy it. THE SECRET FLAME DEANNA THE BAREBACK RIDER At the circus, Lee Travis and Wing become suspicious when the star performer cancels her performance then reverses herself and goes on with the show. It turns out that some disgruntled circus employee has robbed the box office, gotten seen by Deanna the Bareback Rider, threatened to kill her, then attempted to follow through on the threat. The Crimson Avenger stops him, and forces a confession out of him, then turns him over to the police. THE CASE OF THE CUNNING CROOKS THE HIDDEN TREASURE CRIME STEVE MALONE, DISTRICT ATTORNEY LUCKY ARTHUR At a baseball game, with Slam Bradley and Shorty Morgan in attendance, the pitcher is shot. It later turns out that the pitcher, Howard, shot himself with a concealed gun, to throw suspicion off himself, because Howard was in cahoots with sports gambler Lucky Arthur. Slam and Shorty expose the scheme.