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"At Dawn Dies Mary MacGuffin!": When some classified documents are stolen from a Government building, Batman is called to find the documents. The Dark Knight deduces that the documents were stolen by an employee at the building and when his theory turns out to be true

Batman #241 is an issue of the series Batman (Volume 1) with a cover date of May, 1972. It was published on March 14, 1972.

Synopsis for "At Dawn Dies Mary MacGuffin!"

When some classified documents are stolen from a Government building, Batman is called to find the documents. The Dark Knight deduces that the documents were stolen by an employee at the building and when his theory turns out to be true, he must find where spymaster Colonel Sulphur is hiding the government employee's kidnapped wife before he can kill her in vengeance for not being given the classified documents.

Batman is stumped as he can't locate Sulphur, which means that the lady would be killed at dawn. When Batman finally deduces the location of Sulphur's hideout, he has only 45 minutes to prevent murder. Arthur Reeves tries to stop the Batman, but his efforts are futile and the Dark Knight arrives in time to save the lady from a certain death. In the final confrontation with Sulphur, Batman is stabbed in his arm, but he manages to defeat the criminal. Right after his victory, Commissioner Gordon informs Batman that the Government has decided that the stolen documents are not important and Batman is unable to express his anger with words.

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Synopsis for "Secret of the Psychic Siren!"

Terri Bergstrom contacts Robin using her mental abilities and she finally reveals to him that they are mentally connected and that he is her only connection to a "mental relative". Terri tells Robin that she must attempt to contact her and with his help, Terry and Lilith Clay are "reunited". Unfortunately, their reunion is short lived as they are confronted by a Cthulu-worshiping cult which wants to destroy them. The teens put up a fight and using their combined psychic powers, Terry and Lilith are able to defeat several members of the cult, leaving Robin to deal with their leader, the strongest man among them.

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Synopsis for "The Case of the Honest Crook!"

This story is reprinted from Batman #5.

A thief is captured by Batman right after robbing a shop. It turns out that he stole only six dollars. To explain his strange action, the young man tells his story. He was engaged and was saving money for the wedding while working at a garage. One night mobsters stopped at this garage with a 'hot' car and promised him 200 dollars for silence. When his girl had discovered the source of the money, she insisted on not accepting it. So explaining the situation to the mobsters, he refused the money. That aroused their suspicions about him, and to play it safe, the crooks framed him with a drunk driving charge.

Spending two years in custody gave him two things: a wife, who married him right after the release, and hate for the mobsters, who framed him. With a prison sentence behind him, he could not hold any job for a long time, and was running out of money, when his wife got ill. That's why he stole only six dollars to buy the medicine. Batman gives him money to save the wife and begins to work on revenge on the mobsters. Batman recognizes one of mobsters described, and pays a visit to Smiley Sikes' mob to find out who is responsible for the frame. That visit leaves mobsters shattered and the place shuttered. The recognized mobster, Matty Link, barely misses the Batman visit and plans to get away from the city. But to stop him from talking to Batman, Smiley orders his death. Bruce see this result in the morning pages and goes to Commissioner Gordon for information. Meanwhile, Robin must search Link's room for any clues.

Concerned with Robin's absence, Batman arrives at Link's place and finds Robin badly injured. He even believes in his aide being dead for a moment, which causes a great rage in the Dark Knight. He delivers the boy to a doctor first, and then races to Smiley's hideout. There he overtakes the mobsters and force a confession out of Smiley, despite being shot three times. The doctor operates on Robin, and then on Batman without revealing their identities.

The next day the 'thief' visits them at the doctor's place and he informs Batman that he got a job at the store he had tried to rob, and his wife is going to be all right.

Appearing in "The Case of the Honest Crook!"

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  • Smiley Sikes
  • Matty Link (Flashback and main story) (Single appearance; dies)

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Trivia

  • "MacGuffin" is a popular term for an object, device, or event that is necessary to a story's plot and the motivation of the characters, but insignificant, unimportant, or irrelevant in and of itself.
  • This is the first Batman comic with a cover re-design featuring the enlarged Bat silhouette, with the Batman head.


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