Bruce Wayne, who witnessed the murder of his billionaire parents as a child, swore to avenge their deaths. He trained extensively to achieve mental and physical perfection, mastering martial arts, detective skills, and criminal psychology. Costumed as a bat to prey on the fears of criminals, and utilizing a high-tech arsenal, he became the legendary Batman.
So, I got a copy of The Strange Deaths of Batman. Mainly for the very cool Jim Aparo cover - with The Riddler, Poison Ivy, The Scarecrow, Luthor (!), Catwoman, and The Joker all standing around The Dark Knight's grave - which was the cover of the four-part story in the trade paperback that I was looking for. "Where Were You on the Night Batman Was Killed?" was a 1977 story written by David V. Reed. A very interesting story. I won't spoil it.
Unfortunately, I only was able to get a hold of the first part and the last part of the four-part story. Remember, this was the spinner-rack newstand days before the local comic book store. There was no re-order system in place. If you didn't see it in the spinner rack, or on the newstand, you didn't read it.
The comic book store first came to town two years later, when I started high school. Which sucked, because the Junior High was in a different building on the other side of town, two blocks away from the store. The high school was two blocks away from where I lived, two miles away from the Junior High building.
I don't know if you grew up in a city or small town, but I can also recall those spinner racks in the local drug store. Our local grocery store put the comics out on the main display kiosk with all the other magazines and newspapers, and my brothers and I thought it was like Christmas once the new comics came in. I don't know if I ever saw that particular ish of Bats, but the cover sounds familiar. I've missed out on all that's going on with Batman of late, wlll have to catch up one day.
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