Batman #13 - Story 2

August 12, 1942

"Comedy of Tears"

The Joker is loose again and his plan this time, which he announces with signs and balloons is to commit crimes of tragedy rather than his grotesque form of comedy. He does this by stealing papers that are important to various people - a good report card of a young boy, a petition to remove the parks commissioner, and the list of references for a potential employee.

They seem pretty random, but Batman determines a pattern and he and Robin head out to Gordon's office. Batman shows how all the documents have signatures of important and wealthy people. Sure enough, Joker uses the signature of the parent of the kid on the report card to get into a movie studio where the man is the Vice President.

There, they rob the stars and dignitaries who are visiting the set of a movie being shot. Batman and Robin arrive and fight Joker and his gang. Joker manages to trap Batman on a rope bridge and plans to cut the rope if Robin doesn't return the loot they've stolen. But Batman jumps from the bridge in order to save Robin from making the decision.

Batman lands in some netting below, but Joker gets away. They find a press clipping of a planned execution at the state penitentiary and sure enough, Joker uses the governor's signature to fool the warden to stop the execution and release the prisoner to his custody.

Joker and his men escape the prison with Batman in pursuit. They race into a beach club where the chase continues on sand sailboats. The two craft crash into each other and Batman and Joker are thrown over a cliff into the ocean. Batman surfaces, but it appears the Joker is dead.

But he's not as Bruce quickly learns how Joker committed two more crimes using his forged signatures. He comes up with a plan to promote an autograph collector who is coming to Gotham. He sends Dick out to collect some famous autographs that includes some real world people like Joe DiMaggio and Jerry Siegel.

All the signatures turn out to be useless save for one as all the ones collected save the one will be out of town. But that's all Batman needs as he surprises Joker and his men when they try to rob the one man left.

Joker gets the drop on Robin and threatens to kill him with a pair of scissors to the head (Yikes!) unless he is given his freedom and $100,000. Batman convinces the target to give Joker the money which Batman hands to Joker in an envelope.

But when Joker is back at his hideout, he finds a certified check made out to him. He can't cash it unless he goes to a bank and then he would be captured. It's a pretty simplistic way to stop Joker and it seems pretty stupid he would think $100,000 would be in a simple envelope. Also, the idea that the story ends with Joker being let go like that and not Batman following him in some way is a bit much to accept. Mind you, that said, this is another perfect story that would work on Batman 66. It's a nice twist on the whole Joker using humor as a theme for his crimes.

And what's our next story? Stay tuned, Citizens!