We begin with the classic tale, "The House That Haunted Batman" written by Len Wein and Marv Wolfman and drawn by Neal Adams and Dick Giordano. Robin has gone missing and Batman sets out to find him in a decrepit old house; a place which appeared on the outskirts of Gotham City as sudden as Robin's disappearance.
As Batman enters deeper into the place, he shouts Robin's name, hoping that his young sidekick would answer his call. A few moments later, Batman is startled by the standing figure of Robin at the end of a long hallway. Batman runs to his young partner and once he is within reach, Robin collapses, forcing Batman to stop his fall with his arms. Batman takes a closer look at his partner and he is extremely shocked to see Robin aging at an inhuman speed until he becomes ashes in Batman's hands.
Suddenly, a raging scream breaks the silence of the abandoned house and Batman follows the source of the appalling sound, spawned from the darkest confines of the mansion. Opening a door on the upper floor, Batman is swarmed by a cloud of bats, but he continues his search despite the harrowing scenario until he finds the room from which the shrieks are coming. Once inside, Batman finds that it is all coming from a gramophone and just as he stops the record, he is attacked by an unknown assailant, who instantly runs away. Batman gives chase to the attacker, who is armed with a gun and is shooting backward as he escapes, aiming at Batman. Dodging the bullets, Batman finally manages to corner the attacker in one of the mansion's hallways, but he is paralyzed when he realizes that the attacker is none other than Robin.
As Batman is being attacked by his partner, he is forced to step back until he falls into a dark room and a door is closed in front of him. Surrounded by absolute darkness, Batman lights a match and is able to see members of the Justice League and Batman's personal friends, gathered together around a macabre open coffin. When Batman gets closer, he realizes that the body inside the casket is his own. Soon, the members attending Batman's funeral start giving their own eulogies about the Dark Knight. Unfortunately, they all speak dreadful thins, as Commissioner Gordon calls him a hypocrite and Superman resents him for stealing the glory on their past missions together. Finally, Batman realizes that everything is just a strange illusion, almost at the same time as Robin steps up and expresses his contempt for his late mentor and plans to reveal his secret identity to the world. At that moment, the light from the match fades out and the darkness returns. Lighting a second match, Batman realizes that everyone is gone and that it was in fact, all part of an illusion. However, he soon notices that the dark walls start closing in until they leave a very narrow space for Batman to move.
It is then that Batman's mind returns to reality and he realizes that he is locked in a special tube that makes him bounce up and down, with a monitor counting the number of times Batman has repeated the cycle. Besides Batman is an unconscious Robin, who is also locked in a similar tube, with the counter higher than Batman's. Finally, the mastermind behind it all reveals himself to the hero, and Batman is shocked to see Dr. Tzin-Tzin on a large monitor, controlling every movement.
Wanting to know how Tzin managed to escape prison, Tzin explains that it was easy for him to breach out and after he escaped, he tried to rejoin his old gang, but they scorned him after his defeat at the hands of Batman. Wanting revenge against the Dark Knight, Tzin was promptly contacted by the League of Assassins, whose plans had been thwarted twice by Batman and they provided the money and equipment to create this elaborate death trap. Tzin then proceeds to explain that the monitor counting Batman and Robin's movements on the tubes are actually triggers that would set explosions once the number reaches 100. Knowing that Robin's counter is far ahead of his own, Batman starts moving inside the tube in order to accelerate the counter so his tube would explode first. Tzin tries to get Batman to plead for Robin's life, but Batman manages to get the counter to 100 before Robin is killed.
Tzin believes that he has succeeded, but Batman appears again and breaks Robin out of the deadly tube. Batman explains that he used his Utility Belt to trigger the bomb and avoided being hurt by the explosion. Frustrated, but prepared for such eventuality, Tzin releases a dozen of highly trained killers to attack Batman. The Dark Knight uses his honed fighting skills to take down ten of his attackers, but the last couple of them manage to hold him, long enough for Tzin to reach him and end his vendetta. Batman is unable to break free and his hour of doom seems to finally have arrived when Robin appears out of nowhere and tackles Tzin-Tzin, giving Batman the chance to defeat the last two killers.
Finally, Batman and Robin take Tzin-Tzin out of the abandoned mansion and they take him towards the Batmobile waiting outside. However, as they reach their vehicle, the duo hear laughter coming from the house and when they turn around, they see Tzin-Tzin mocking them from one of the upper windows. Turning their attention back to the car, they realize that Tzin is not their prisoner any longer and seconds after this realization, the abandoned house explodes and the whole place comes crumbling down in ashes and fire.
As dawn breaks, the Batmobile silently retires from the ghastly scenario and disappears in the first mists of dawn that cover Gotham City. This classic tale has been reprinted in Detective Comics #477 (1978), Batman Illustrated by Neal Adams Vol. 2 HC (2004), Batman Illustrated by Neal Adams Vol. 2 TPB (2013), Tales of the Batman: Len Wein HC (2015), Showcase Presents: Batman Vol. 6 TPB (2016), Batman by Neal Adams Vol. 2 TPB (2019), and Tales of the Batman: Marv Wolfman Vol. 1 HC (2020).
Our backup Batgirl story is "The Phantom Bullfighter" by Frank Robbins, Don Heck, and Dick Giordano. Barbara Gordon visits Spain to meet Don Alvarado who is donating an original manuscript by a prize-winning novelist to the library. During her stay, Babs attends a bullfight with Alvarado. The champion bullfighter El Granados is nearly killed, but a young fighter named Paco intervenes. Both the bullfighter and his mentor Manolo El Viejo are displeased that the boy has stolen their honor.
Later Babs visits Alvarado's ranch. During the night a cloaked man steals El Granados's sword and uses it to kill a prize bull. Batgirl tried to stop him, but she failed. The next day another sword is stolen, leading Babs to conclude that the man will strike again. This story continues next issue. This was Don Heck's first shot and Batgirl and he would draw her off and on for the next ten years. Reprinted in Showcase Presents: Batgirl Vol. 1 TPB (2007) and Batgirl: The Bronze Age Omnibus Vol. 1 HC (2018).
Edited by Julius Schwartz.
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