Detective Comics #601

Issue Details

Synopsis

TULPA PART 1 - MONSTER MAKER While waiting for a red light to pass, Batman is challenged by another man driving a Ferrari. Batman doesn't fall for the taunt and watches as the maniac speeds through the city, not waiting for the green light and running way above the speed limit. When the red light passes, Batman starts the chase with the Batmobile and decides to test the vehicle's capabilities against the Ferrari. Turning the turbojet, the Batmobile catches up with the Ferrari in no time, but both vehicles have been spotted by a couple of police officers, who start to chase them as well. In a matter of seconds, Batman realizes that the Ferrari is heading straight into a bus, loaded with passengers. Using the Batmobile's top speed, Batman gets ahead of the Ferrari and activates the airbags in the front of the car simultaneously with the parachute in the rear. Slowly, Batman forces the bus to brake while the Ferrari careens out of control towards the sidewalk and into a narrow alley. Once the crisis has been averted, Batman approaches the driver and confronts him, grabbing him out of the car. As he asks the motive behind his reckless actions, Batman is utterly shocked when the man starts breaking apart and turns to dust in his hands. The police soon arrive at the scene and they find a baffled Batman near a cloud of dust and a bag full of money.  Elsewhere, Tenzin Wyatt, owner of "The Tibet Shop" and a man who has a background in ancient magical arts, is anxiously waiting for something to happen when suddenly, the shark loan Rafe Kellogg bursts into his place with two of his goons by his side. They demand Tenzin pays them their money and Tenzin only replies that his friend is coming with the money, but the criminals don't believe him. Like this, the enforcers proceed to brutally beat Tenzin, but Rafe has a change of heart and decides to wait for the "friend".   At that same moment, Batman and the Police have located the owner of the Ferrari. An elderly, wealthy man informs them that he was robbed and that the criminal also stole some money from him. The man is baffled at the fact that the criminal only took five hundred thousand dollars out of seven from the safe. Without any other clues, Batman and the officers go their separate ways and one of the officers grumbles in frustration about forgetting to give Batman his ticket for speeding.   After waiting enough, Rafe Kellogg decides to leave Tenzin with a dreadful warning after he is again beaten to a pulp by his bodyguards. Hurting and wasted, Tenzin decides to use his abilities once again to summon a spirit that will adopt his own physical appearance and act on his behalf. Tenzin's avatar is almost an exact double of him and he commands the figure to steal five hundred thousand dollars from Wayne Manor.   The next night, Bruce has analyzed all possibilities to the strange event that happened the last night, but he can't find an answer and so he goes out again, hoping to clear his mind while fighting crime. Shortly afterwards, the avatar of Tenzin breaks into Wayne Manor and finds the safe, but Alfred wakes in the middle of the night after he notices a disturbance and he confronts the avatar. The evil force has instructions of not using lethal violence and thus, he knocks Alfred aside before running away without the loot. However, before the avatar could leave, Alfred managed to place a Batbug on his clothes.   Alfred soon calls Batman to the phone in the Batmobile while the Dark Knight is disposing of the regular Gotham City criminals. When he is informed about the situation at Wayne Manor, Batman activates the tracking device in the Batmobile and follows the trail of the avatar, who has returned empty-handed back to Tenzin. Frustrated and anguished, Tenzin decides to eliminate the avatar, turning him to dust after his failure and the Batbug is destroyed. After losing the signal, Batman starts scouting the area in which it was last seen and he will soon locate the thief. In a moment of desperation at the thought of facing another beating by Kellog, Tenzin decides to summon a dark entity from hell.