Detective Comics #93

September 22, 1944

"One Night of Crime"

I read a synopsis of this story on Mike's Amazing World of Comics (a fantastic website that everyone should be checking out). First off, I don't see how this cover will be featured in the story, but we'll see. Second, the opening of this story seems very familiar. A group of people from varied backgrounds decide to take a tour bus of Gotham City. A little looking into my archives of entries and sure enough there's "Blackbeard's Crew and the Yacht Society" from Batman #4. In it, a group of people from various backgrounds take a yearly cruise on a yacht that is taken over by pirates. Well, we don't have pirates taking the bus, but we do have gangsters.

The story opens with the passengers getting on the bus. They include a struggling actress, two boys who ran away from home to become private detectives and a theater producer. Meanwhile, as they embark, Batman and Robin are rounding up a gang of robbers, one of whom escapes with the $50,000 take. He boards the bus in order to lose any pursuit.

But some another watches the whole thing unfold and he calls for help. Two men take control of the bus and when the man with the money spots them and reacts, they shoot and kill him. They take the bus to a garage where they hold the people hostage.

The bus driver and tour guide come around after having been knocked out and call the police. Bruce and Dick hear of the situation and deduce that the bus cannot be far from where it was stolen or others would have seen it.

Meanwhile, the gang that is holding the passengers plans to kill them as they saw the robber being gunned down. They even kill one of the passengers when he tries to resist. They take them down to the cellar where they tie them to chairs in the bus. But the actress pretends to faint and is left on the floor of the bus. The bus is sealed in a chamber and flooded with the gangsters leaving the passengers to die.

Once they are gone, the actress frees the others. Meanwhile, the two boys use a slingshot to hurl a message out a high window. Batman finds the message and the two enter the garage where they meet the gang counting their ill-gotten gain. They put up a good fight, but the two are brought down and thrown into the chamber with the passengers.

Sadly, the Batman never got to be a plain, ordinary kid.

Inside the chamber, Batman removes two strips of steel that one the floor of the bus. He props them against the wall and then runs the bus up the crude ramp. With the bus now pointing upward, it's easy for the passengers to climb to the top and get out the window.

Batman and Robin make a second attempt and this time, round up the gang. And the passengers? The producer comes up with an idea for a crime story and wants the actress to be his lead. The two boys still want to be detectives, but also want to go home and wait until they are older. All's well that ends well.

I liked the original plot despite the use of pirates, but I like this one even more. There's that part of me that, even though this isn't even close to the vein of Batman 66, would still like to see it somehow twisted into an episode. And what's next? We're back to the Sunday strips, Citizens!