This is a classic issue of Brave and the Bold and a rare for the time non-Bob Haney story. Instead of the regular Haney tale we have "Red Water--Crimson Death!" by Denny O'Neil and Neal Adams interrupting Nick Cardy's artistic run on this title. This tale had been assigned to Neal long before Cardy started his run on B&B, but Neal being Neal, it took him forever to actually draw the thing. In a tale narrated by Cain from House of Mystery, Batman slips up and almost gets himself killed trying to stop a normal thug, and is forced to go on an extended vacation by Commissioner Gordon, who believes Batman is heading towards a total burn out. Reluctantly taking the Commissioner's advice, Bruce Wayne takes a cruise ship to Ireland, on which he saves a small boy named Sean who falls overboard. Going along with the boy to his home of Arin Island, Bruce finds that mystical forces are working to have him solve a mystery on the island as Batman.
Bruce learns that many on the island including Sean's parents were killed by a red tide which poisoned the fish. Since his parent's deaths, Sean has been fascinated by tales of King Hugh, who once ruled the island. That night Bruce is awakened by a ghostly tap on the shoulder only to discover that he is now wearing the Batman suit he dumped overboard on the ship. He also sees that young Dean is sleep walking. When he tried to stop Sean, he is attacked by locals who believe Batman to be one of the demons haunting old King Hugh's castle.
The locals believe the red sea is part of the haunting of the island by King Hugh and just then demon appears, frightening the locals. Batman sees Sean running towards the monster and gives chase. Heaving a rock he discovers that the demon is just a holographic projection on a large screen. Taking that out, Batman follows Sean into King Hugh's castle. Cain explains that a castle is a type of house and that since Batman does not know what is inside, he has just entered the House of Mystery.
Inside the castle, Batman almost misses a secret trap door, but another mysterious tap on the should alerts him to the entrance. there he overhears some henchmen talking about the fake hauntings they have been in on to scare the people off the island. They also talk about hating to have to poison the boy and Batman takes them out.
Batman soon learns that the leader is businessman Alysius Cabot who is dumping chemicals into the water that is causing people to die and is using technology to play on peoples superstitions. Batman confronts Cabot as he is about to poison Sean, only to have the poison enter an open would on Batman's arm. Cabot offers Batman a sporting chance of taking an antidote found in one of two beakers. In his poisoned state, Batman can not even see the beakers, but he sees a portrait of Hing Hugh and it is pointing to test tube on a back table. Batman leaps for it and drinks its contents.
Cabot says he has no idea how Batman figured out that both beakers held more poison and that the real antidote was in the tube, but before he can shoot Batman, the picture of King Hugh falls off the wall killing Cabot. Finally, without much understanding of all the inexplicable events that happened, Batman then takes Sean to safety as Cain explains that though old King Hugh is gone, he has not gone far and he can't stand anybody disturbing his rest. I would be remiss if I did not mention the exception coloring of Jack Adler on this story; it is some beautiful work. This tale was reprinted in Limited Collectors' Edition C-59 (1978), Best of the Brave and the Bold #5 (1988), Batman Illustrated by Neal Adams Vol. 2 HC (2004), Showcase Presents: The Brave and the Bold Batman Team-Ups Vol. 2 TPB (2008), Batman Illustrated by Neal Adams Vol. 2 TPB (2013), Batman in the Brave and the Bold: The Bronze Age Omnibus Vol. 1 HC (2017), Batman by Neal Adams Vol. 2 TPB (2019) and Batman in the Brave and the Bold: The Bronze Age Vol. 2 TPB (2019).
Edited by Murray Boltinoff.
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