Comic Book Review: The Best of DC #30: Detective Comics

Comic Book Review: The Best of DC #30: Detective Comics edited by Len Wein

Detective Comics is one of DC’s longest-running comic book series, and indeed, they’re named after it. While it’s best known as the birthplace of Batman, over the years it’s hosted several other features involving some form of detection or mystery solving. This collection features 11 (sort of, one’s a two-parter) stories showing off that variety.

“The Stage Is Set…For Murder!” story by Denny O’Neil, art by Irv Novick and Dick Giordano, stars our old friend Batman. Gotham City is having Shakespeare in the Park this year, with a production of Macbeth. But someone is apparently out to get the star actor. Can Batman figure out who it is before the stage blood becomes real?

This one features some detective work by Bruce Wayne, one of the sponsors of the production, and Batman being pointed in the right direction by a literal “pricking of the thumbs.”

“The Assassin-Express Contract!” story by Len Wein, art by Carmine Infantino and Dick Giordano, is the first appearance of Christopher Chance, the Human Target. Mr. Chance is a master of disguise, expert shot and superior hand to hand combatant who impersonates people who are in danger of being murdered so he can stop the crime. We first meet him in his Boston brownstone apartment above Luigi’s Restaurant. (He saved Luigi’s life years ago, a story for another time.)

His client is a Mr. Smithers, but the target is his boss, chemical tycoon T.C. Newman. Seems Smithers hired someone he thought was an industrial spy to rob Mr. Newman on his train trip west of certain trade secrets. Too late, he found out that he’d instead hired an assassin. And while Smithers is no angel, murder is right out.

The disguise is made a bit more difficult as Mr. Newman recently suffered an accident and is wearing an eyepatch. But Christopher Chance thrives on challenge, so it’s time to figure out which of the other people on the train is trying to kill him.

Interestingly, there had been a one-shot Human Target character in a 1950s issue of Detective Comics, also a master of disguise, but otherwise unconnected. Christopher Chance has been far more popular, even scoring two television series.

“The Magical Mystery Mirror” written by Mike W. Barr, art by Ernie Chua, stars Ralph Dibny, the Elongated Man. Ralph started out as a supporting character in the Flash comics, a man so fascinated with “India Rubber Men” (contortionists) that he developed a formula that gives him stretching powers. He was the first modern DC superhero to dispense with a secret identity and marry his girlfriend Sue.

Ralph has a bit of an ego problem, “that’s world famous” but is a pretty good detective in addition to his superpowers. Thus he and his wife go around solving mysteries. In this case, he’s been invited to an antique mirror store. One of the mirrors, clearly marked as magical, gets Sue to ask who’s the fairest, and then it shows a flash of a completely different woman!

Ralph decides to investigate the mirror’s previous owner, arriving just in time for the man to be shot while alone in a locked room. The man’s not quite dead, but he can’t talk, so the Elongated Man has to figure out what’s going on himself.

“The Riddle of the Unseen Man!” art by Ruben Moreira, is a tale of Roy Raymond, TV detective. Roy is the host of television show “Impossible–but True” a feature similar to Ripley’s Believe It or Not. As part of making sure all the items he features on the show are true, Roy spends a lot of time exposing various hoaxes and fakes.

In this case, he’s being bugged by an invisible man who claims he’s developed a formula that’s made him permanently transparent and claims he needs funding for a formula that will allow him to turn it off. Despite the mysterious voice managing to pull off some amazing stunts that would seem to indicate the invisible man is real, Roy smells something fishy. The answer involves some technology that itself is pretty nifty and could have made the crook rich.

“A Burial for Batgirl!” story by Denny O’Neil, pencils by Gil Kane, inks by Vince Colletta, is the first part of a combined adventure. Barbara Gordon has come to Hudson University (across the state from Gotham City) to deliver a first edition for their Edgar Allen Poe festival. No sooner has she arrived than she hears a scream and leaps into action as Batgirl.

She runs into someone running away from the scene of a crime. She notices an unusual scent and while trying to identify it, gets fire extinguisher goop in her face. When she gets outside, she spots someone very much like her attacker, student radical Hank Osher. She brings him down, but HU student Dick Grayson thinks she’s got the wrong guy.

The murdered man turns out to be Amos Willard, the school’s business manager. There had been some controversy as he was planning to sell some woodlands the college owned for commercial development. Woodlands that are the only known habitat of a rare moss with potential pharmaceutical properties. Feelings had been running high.

Batgirl is getting more suspicious about Osher’s supposed guilt and investigates a construction site. Falling bricks knock her out, and when she awakens, she’s being sealed inside a wall with not even a cask of Amontillado to console her.

“Midnight is the Dying Hour!” authored by Denny O’Neil, pencils by Gil Kane, inks by Vince Colletta, is the concluding part. The focus switches to Robin, who’s doing his own investigation. He puts the clues together and arrives just in time to rescue Batgirl. They then team up to catch the real killer. At the time of the story, neither of the two heroes knew each other’s secret identities, so they both have to brush off exactly why they’re here.

“The Three Feats of Peril!” (no credits) is a Mysto, Magician Detective story. Mysto is the stage name of Rick Carter, a skilled stage magician and pilot who keeps running into mysteries. (For the purpose of these stories, there’s no such thing as the supernatural.) He and his fellow presdigitadors have gathered at the behest of Zambesi, the world’s greatest magician.

Zambesi announces that he’s solved “The Three Impossible Feats”, three illusions previously unaccomplished. But before he can expound on this, the lights go out, and when they come up again, Zambesi’s been shot. He’s holding the list of feats, but the bottom half with the solutions is missing.

Mysto decides he must draw out the killer by duplicating the three feats himself–walking on water, being blown up by dynamite and survive unscathed, and being buried alive and escaping. He comes up with ingenious solutions, and in the process figures out what really happened to Zambesi.

“Case of the Dead-On Target!” story and art by Frank Robbins, stars Jason Bard, a Vietnam War veteran with a trick knee due to being wounded in battle. This private eye started as a potential love interest for Barbara Gordon/Batgirl. In this case, he’s on the scene when a skydiver never opens his chute–because the man had a knife in his back! He decides that the best way to figure out what happened is to recreate the jump with himself as the stand-in for the murder victim.

“The Man With 20 Lives” art by Joe Certa, is the second story of J’onn J’onzz, the Martian Manhunter. A Martian accidentally brought to Earth by the teleportation device of a Dr. Erdel and stranded when the scientist died, J’onn decides to use his alien powers as human police detective John Jones to help eliminate crime from Earth as it was on Mars.

After a brief recap of the premise, John Jones reports to work, where he meets suspected hoodlum Monte Risk. Monte has committed several murders, probably, but he’s cleverly given himself alibis that prevent the cops from proving it. J’onn simply reads Monte’s mind to find out how the most recent killing was done.

The Martian Manhunter starts a campaign of harassment against the criminal by hinting at what he knows, then popping up everywhere Risk goes, and somehow not being dead despite the best efforts of the gangsters. Finally, he is knocked out by a fire (the one weakness of Martians) but when he comes to, John Jones learns that Monte Risk has become a broken man and confessed to his crimes.

“The Ocean Pest!” art by Joe Certa, stars Captain Compass, the nautical detective. Mark Compass works as a ship captain for the Penny Lines, which is primarily passenger ships, but has other branches. From time to time, his duties lead to him getting mixed up in mysteries.

In this case, he’s acting as security for a treasure hunt ship. At the last moment, a passenger is added per the instructions of owner Mr. Penny. Thaddeus Phipps is a British reporter who is hoping to cover the treasure hunt for his paper. He’s an older man, kind of thick, and a total landlubber who’s constantly clumsy and in the way.

Or is he a clever criminal after the treasure for himself? Captain Compass must solve the case before he visits Davey Jones’ locker.

“Wanted for Murder-One, the Batman” art by Irv Novik and Dick Giordano, story by Denny O’Neil, concludes the volume with another story about our main star. Nasty talk show host Jonah Jory is eviscerating Police Commissioner James W. Gordon and his murky relationship with Batman on his top-rated show.

Later, Mr. Jory is working out behind a locked door when a shot is heard. When the security guard gets in, Jory is dead and what appears to be Batman is swinging out the window.

Commissioner Gordon isn’t buying it, since Batman not only doesn’t kill, he never uses guns. But there’s enough circumstantial evidence that there’s an arrest warrant issued, and Batman has to go on the run. Naturally, there’s a twist.

All of these mysteries are pretty simple ones so that young comics readers could figure them out about the same time the hero does. Doesn’t really hurt the stories.

This digest is even more of a collector’s item than some other Best of DC issues as the non-superhero characters have seldom reprinted in other collections. I mean, did you even know about Mysto or Captain Compass? Best luck finding it!

Recommended for mystery comics fans.