We begin with our cover-story, "You Only Die Twice" by Bob Haney, Ross Andru and Mike Esposito and featuring the team-up of Batman and Adam Strange. Batman is nearly killed while protecting crime boss Big John Jarrett from a mob hit, which leaves him a little melancholy, wondering how he will be remembered when his time finally comes. A few days later Adam Strange seeks out Batman with an amazing tale and some news. Adam tells how he was briefly sent to the future by a zeta-beam buffeted by solar flares. While there, he briefly saw a newspaper with Batman's obituary. As he grabbed for the paper, the zeta-beam snatched him back, along with a small scrap of the paper. Adam hands the scrap to Batman.
Batman reads what is actually the obituary of Bruce Wayne and Batman. The partial articles reveal that he betrayed his friends and tarnished his reputation before his death. Batman wonders why he would do these things.
I'm going to say right here that the rest of this story does not actually make much sense, particularly considering the two articles are shown to be obituaries. Given that, is the rest of the "story" all that important? I loved the odd things that Bob Haney tried to pull in B&B, but not when he throws logic completely out the window as in this story.
Lets just say that he is disgraced, takes Gordon down with him, fires Alfred and pretty much ends up the miserable person he was in the obits. As his death day approaches he flees to Rann with Adam but comes back on his death day to save Alfred. He and Adam Strange save the say, get rid of the crime boss, get Gordon reinstated and of course, they save Alfred.
Here is where we get into an issue. Batman realizes that the article must have been wrong as he survived his supposed death. There is some hokey "Maybe the end of the article says that everything turned out OK" bullshit that does not fly on articles clearly designated as obituaries and clearly revealing Batman's secret identity. I can accept all kinds of odd things from Haney, but this is just bullshit story-telling. This story was reprinted in Showcase Presents: The Brave and the Bold Batman Team-Ups Vol. 2, Batman in the Brave and the Bold: The Bronze Age Omnibus Vol. 1 HC and Batman in the Brave and the Bold :The Bronze Age Vol. 1 TPB.
This is followed by a one-pager "Spirit in the Séance" by Murray Boltinoff and George Tuska. A guy makes his friend join in on a séance, even though he says he is afraid. His friend should have listened to him as the spirit they connect to is his friend who died of fright.
Edited by Murray Boltinoff.
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