Batman #4 - Story 3

January 13, 1941

(Public Enemy No. 1 Starts Jail Sentence)

This is an odd duck among the stories to this point. It focuses on one gangster type, Jimmy McCoy, and his life story. With the focus so much on him and Batman being more a secondary character, it comes across as a cautionary tale to young American boys that crime doesn't pay based on the outcome.

We open with a flashback of young Jimmy growing up and how Jimmy lost his father at an early age and had to take to a criminal life in order to help his mother. He would deliver liquor to speakeasies during Prohibition. He is eventually caught and sentenced to a year in juvenile detention, the trauma of which kills his mother. From there, his heart hardens and he finds himself in and out of the slammer for crimes ranging from liquor running to tax evasion. (Shades of Al Capone!)

Upon his release at one point, Jimmy makes moves to get his gang back together, but this doesn't sit well with Big Costello who is the chief boss in the city. He orders a hit on Jimmy and it almost succeeds, but instead, a girl is shot in the leg. Jimmy is able to force the hit car off the road. Batman sees this and chases after Jimmy, but is shot himself. Batman is determined to bring Jimmy in.

Jimmy ups his game. He gets the gang together and they start to muscle in on Big Costello's protection racket. Bruce sends Dick undercover as a shoeshine boy to spy on Jimmy. He overhears Jimmy's plans to attack the Penguin Club (no relation) because the owner refuses to pay as he already pays Big Costello. Bruce plans for the two of them to be there, but the owner also calls Big Costello and demands the protection he was paying for.

A gunfight breaks out in the Penguin Club with Batman and Robin in the middle. Jimmy gets away, but Costello is caught by the police after the owner of the Penguin Club spills his guts on what happened. Jimmy thinks it's Costello who ratted on him and goes to the courthouse to confront him as Costello is released. Another shootout occurs and Jimmy is shot and killed.

I said at the start this comes across as a cautionary tale and I was right as Bruce ends the story by speaking to the young boys and girls of America about being involved in crime is a life of fear. It's a little heavy handed, but it probably worked back then.

And what will wrap up this issue of the Batman anthology? Stay tuned, Citizens!