Detective Comics #39
April 4, 1940
"The Horde of the Green Dragon"
As this story opens, I'm reminded of one characteristic the writers liked to play up in their description - laughing. And while Robin was responsible for helping to increase Batman's sense of humor with his puns, laughing is not something I associate with him.
The story opens with two millionaires being kidnapped. The only clue is a hatchet left behind in the skull of the chauffeur of one of the millionaires. Bruce thinks he knows who is behind it, but before he can voice his thoughts, Dick points out an ad written in Chinese font in the newspaper asking for Batman to come to Chinatown. Bruce knows it's from Wong who we met back in Detective #35.
He visits Wong, leaving Dick to mind the home. Wong warns Batman of a new tong in Chinatown called the Green Dragon that is dealing in opium. Wong is working on getting a location of the gang and the name of the leader. Batman returns to Wong the next night to get the information, but the unofficial mayor of Chinatown is dead, killed with a hatchet. Before he died, Wong managed to etch a pier number into his desk.
But the assassin is waiting for Batman, who quickly takes him down. It looks almost for a moment, like Batman will be clubbed by another assassin, but he has finally learned to sense when someone is behind him. The two struggle, falling out a window with Batman killing the assassin by landing on him in the street below. Batman heads off to the pier.
We cut to Robin who followed after Batman and finds Wong dead and the pier number. He arrives at the pier, but is quickly knocked out from a blow from behind. (Guess Batman hasn't taught him how to avoid that yet.)
He is brought to the master of the tong where he also sees the two kidnapped millionaires. The master wants to test Robin's skill by giving him a wooden sword to fight against a giant with a sword of his own. The giant is able to quickly hack away at Robin's sword. Robin quickly pulls out his trademark sling and brings the giant down with one bullet.
