COMIC BOOK OF THE WEEK – “Detective Comics” #628 (April 1991)

'Detective Comics' #628

This week’s “Comic Book of the Week” is “Detective Comics” #628, which was published by DC Comics in April 1991. This comic was titled “Hearts,” and this issue’s creative team included Marv Wolfman, writer; Jim Aparo, penciller; Mike DeCarlo, inker; John Costanza, letterer; Adrienne Roy, colorist; Kelley Puckett, assistant editor; and Denny O’Neil, editor. Michael Golden was the cover artist, and the issue sold for $1 at newsstands.

“Detective Comics” #628 was a 24-page issue that begins in a former hideout of the Penguin. It’s now a bird-filled crime scene that’s being picked over by police and an ornithologist named Professor O’Donnel. O’Donnel goes on and on about the Penguin’s expertise with birds, including his ability to successfully mate birds when other ornithologists have failed to do the same.

O’Donnel’s been called in by police to catalogue all the birds left in the Penguin’s hideout after his most recent arrest. The city can't afford to feed and house all of the birds, which number over 30,000, so most of them will be sent off to zoos. The birds consist of exotic birds and local birds, including several thousand doves, hummingbirds, pigeons and robins. O’Donnel only has two weeks to complete the work, so the police leave him there alone so that he can get right to work.

Not long after O’Donnel is left alone, then enters Arnold Etchison, better known as the serial killer Abattoir, and three henchmen. Etchison rants for a few minutes before saying that he’s interested in harvesting the hearts of 2,000 white doves, which he intends to use as part of a ritual he believes will bring him great power. The scene ends with Etchison’s henchmen shooting O’Donnel to death.

Later, in the same location, we see Batman, Detective Hanrahan and a few uniformed police officers examining the scene. O’Donnel’s been tied up on a perch high off the floor, and his hearts been cut out.

Batman then travels to Arkham Asylum, where he plans to question the Penguin. Batman, who’s accompanied by an asylum staffer, tells Penguin that someone’s cut the hearts out of all the doves in his aerie. Penguin is shocked by the news and asks Batman to bring the culprit to justice.

On the way out, Batman happens to glance into a cell, where he sees Etchison beneath some blankets on his bunk. They make eye contact, and Etchison laughs hysterically as Batman continues on down the hall. No sooner than Batman disappears down the hall, a member of the cleaning crew, who somehow has a key to Etchison’s cell, quickly swaps places with the serial killer for the night. It appears to be something they’ve done a number of times before.

Etchison and his cronies then travel to the Gotham Milk Dairy, where they begin to carry out "Phase Two" of their operation, the harvesting of several thousand cow hearts. They also gun down several unsuspecting dairy workers in the process, but one manages to stay hidden and sees everything.

Back in the Batcave, Batman and Alfred the Butler are talking things over. All of a sudden, Batman gets a call on the Police-Com line, alerting him to trouble at the dairy. As Batman makes for the Batcopter, he asks Alfred to check the computer for any possible connections between dove hearts and cows. Batman’s got a hunch that all of this has the feeling of a ceremony, initiation or ritual slaying.

Batman flies his Batcopter right inside the dairy building, and Etchison’s underlings open fire with their handguns. Batman sprays them down with sleep gas but not before Etchison can get behind the wheel of a larger tanker truck loaded with harvested cow hearts. They get into a game of chicken, and Etchsion clips one of Batman’s helicopter skids with the tanker truck.

Batman jumps out of the helicopter, and it crashes with a loud, fiery “SKA-BLOOM!” Etchison then tries to run over Batman with the tanker truck, but Batman dives for safety beneath some large, metal tanks of milk. The police arrive a few seconds later, and Etchison speeds away in the tanker truck. Why the cops don’t chase him, I don’t know.

Later, in the Batcave, Alfred fills Batman in on what he’s uncovered. According to his research, in the early 17th Century an Arakan king named Thiri Thu Dhamma tried to conquer the world in order to promote his religious beliefs. He built the “Talisman of the Seven Gems,” but a prophet warned him that if he tried to use it in his “coronation of power,” it would kill him.

The king waited 12 years until another prophet told him that it would be OK if he performed the ceremony in conjunction with the hearts and souls of 2,000 white doves, 4,000 white cows and 6,000 people. The king’s henchmen began getting all of those hearts and souls together, but the king died during the ceremony just like the first prophet told him.

Batman leaves and tracks down the cleaning guy who’s been driving Etchison in and out of Arkham each night. Etchison told the cleaner not to take the packed 638 train home that night, and Batman figures that Etchison plans to blow up the train in order to get his quota of human hearts and souls. Batman radios Alfred and tells him to tell Commissioner Gordon to stop the train before it reaches the Gotham Bridge.

Sure enough, Etchison and two of his buddies are waiting beneath the bridge with some very sharp knives. They plan to blow the bridge, derail the train and “reap the bounty of thousands of human souls.” Police try to radio the train’s conductor to get him to stop, but no one’s responding to the call.

Batman jumps onto the top of the speeding train a few minutes before it reaches the bridge. Etchison blows the bridge as the conductor tells Batman that the controls have been jammed and that the train won’t stop. Batman clears the locomotive car and detaches it from the rest of the train.

Down below the bridge, Etchison and his baddies watch as the only car to go over the blown bridge is the lead car. As it plunges into the river, Batman jumps out and swings down to where Etchison’s standing. Batman quickly knocks out the two lackeys, but as he approaches Etchison, the serial killer appears to pass out without Batman even laying a hand on him. The issue ends with Batman standing over a prone Etchison with a key to the next installment in the story – THE HUNGRY GRASS!

This comic (unless I’ve sold it) and others are available for purchase through Peacock’s Books on Amazon.com. If you’re interested in buying it, search for it there by title, issue number and date of publication.