Cover Date: August 1939
Plot Overview: Bruce Wayne opens a newspaper and learns that a man has died under mysterious circumstances. He determines that only Dr. Death could be behind this. Bruce visits the widow of the deceased man and learns that Death was holding them up for ransom. She says that they only have jewels. Bruce heads off and returns to the scene as Batman and lies in wait.
The scene shifts to a bandaged up Dr. Death and his new minion Mikhail. Death sends Mikhail to steal the diamonds from the widow. The widow stumbles upon Mikhail during the robbery but Batman attacks him and saves the day. Batman gives the knocked out Mikhail the diamonds so that he can follow him to Dr. Death.
Batman follows Mikhail to a pawn broker and then to an apartment. Batman knocks Mikhail out with gas and then searches the place but can find no trace of Dr. Death. Mikhail breaks up and Batman proceeds to break his neck in the fight. Batman confronts the pawn broker and unmasks him to reveal Dr. Death. Batman leaves him for the police as the issue ends.
My Take: The art seemed better in this issue for whatever reason. I enjoyed the mood of the night as Batman traveled about. I also enjoyed the story more than the last time. Don't get me wrong though. The writing is still choppy and brutal. I just found it to be amusing despite the obvious flaws in it.
Again, the biggest thing to me in these early stories is the violence and the fact that Batman kills the bad guys without a second thought. As I've said previously, these stories read a lot like the Shadow radio program from the same era did. Honestly, if you had to choose between reading these or listening to the Shadow, I'd tell you to listen to the Shadow. It has the same vibe as these stories but it has better writers working on it.
Another early Batman story down. Nothing special as far as a story goes. It was a fun little romp but I doubt I'll remember much about this story in a few weeks.
I'd give this story a C- for keeping my interested despite the glaring flaws in it's execution.
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