Detective Comics #54
June 26, 1941
"Hook Morgan and His Harbor Pirates"
I don't know what it is, but I'm not a big fan of pirate stories. I just feel that you can't do much in terms of story as they are limited by the water and being pirates.
I do like that it starts off differently as our pirates steer a small craft under the dock and proceed to steal the contents sitting on it by cutting away the flooring of the dock.
There's a common trope in these early issues. Don't fire a gun because the authorities will hear it. Sure enough, the gunfire of the pirates as they shoot any resistance is heard by the harbor patrol. The pirates get away when they shoot the lights on the harbor patrol boat.
And even more interesting is how Bruce Wayne is not totally devoted to his mission just yet. Despite Dick's talking up the pirates, Bruce has more important things to tend to, like a date with Linda Page. They go shopping and some imported cloth Linda wanted to purchase is not available because the pirates got it. But later, Bruce spots the material in another store window.
Batman later visits the store and learns it was sold to the owner by a person from the Conroy company. He heads off to investigate, but the owner of the store calls the Conroy company as apparently as much as Batman has done for Gotham City, he is not recognized by the intimidated store owner.
Batman is ambushed when he gets to the Conway company. He is taken down by a giant of a man with a hook for a hand named, appropriately enough, Hook. Batman is tied up and placed in a freezer. He frees himself from his bonds with bits of a broken light bulb and the exits the freezer using acid from his utility belt.
Batman learns from Conway that the pirates are attacking a ship. He contacts Robin to meet him with their boat via radio from his boot. His boot? What happened to the radio being in the utility belt?
Batman and Robin arrive via the Batplane and quickly stop the hijacking of the ship. Hook leaves his men behind, swimming to a nearby boat. The boat disappears as it did the night previously with the harbor patrol. Batman quickly works out that a nearby warehouse wall with a section of the wall discolored is a secret door.
