Detective Comics #46
November 5, 1940
(Professor Strange's Fear Dust)
Interestingly enough, this story opens in a similar way to our third story in Batman #2. Batman is once again breaking up a heist of a silver company. At one point, he is shocked as he grabs one of the thugs, a seventeen-year-old kid. Again, Batman is faced with the dilemma of ruining a kid's life or letting him go if he promises to go straight.
But it all ends differently this time as the kid says he can offer up information in exchange for his freedom. The kid works for Carstairs, the racketeer, who is working with a professor that has a plan to make millionaires of all of them. They are meeting that night to discuss the plan. Batman tells the kid to attend the meeting. He will meet with the kid the next evening to get the story.
That night, the professor is introduced and it's Hugo Strange. They plan to hit their targets in broad daylight the next day, so the kid has no chance of reporting to Batman. He's forced to go through with his part in it as various gangs rob banks around the city and meet any resistance with a fear gas shot from a gun.
As the gang gathers to go over the spoils, Strange pulls Carstairs aside and points out the kid. He seems extremely nervous to Strange, like he's hiding something. Carstairs sends some of his men to follow the kid to his meeting with Batman where they are able to capture the Caped Crusader and bring him back to Strange.
In what is one of the rare instances of sheer brutality I've seen in the comics to Batman, Strange has a large number of the men kick the crap out of him. They beat him into unconsciousness and then leave him to recover so Strange can finish him off. This is a mistake as it gives Batman time to recover so he can fight back. He gets clear of the room he's in and takes out his guards. He then contacts Robin as they have to stop various members of the gang who are going about the city and releasing the fear gas in an effort to cause chaos.
The two then go about the city, stopping the gang from releasing the gas. Batman has a final confrontation with Strange on a clifftop and it appears that Strange is doomed as he falls over the side. Batman releases the kid as he promises, something else I'm not used to seeing, Batman being lenient with certain people like kids or the Cat.
