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in: Dick Giordano/Executive Editor, Marshall Rogers/Cover Artist, Steve Englehart/Writer,
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Shadow of the Batman Vol 1 1

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"...By Death's Eerie Light!": This story is reprinted from Detective Comics #469.

Shadow of the Batman #1 is an issue of the series Shadow of the Batman (Volume 1) with a cover date of December, 1985.

Synopsis for "...By Death's Eerie Light!"

This story is reprinted from Detective Comics #469.

After a long night on patrol, Batman returns home, but he is denied a well deserved rest because as soon as he steps into his apartment at the Wayne Foundation penthouse, he witnesses his trusted butler and confident Alfred, collapse without any apparent reason. Batman tries to call for an ambulance, but there is none readily available, forcing him to change into his civilian identity of Bruce Wayne and take Alfred to the Gotham General Hospital.

As soon as he delivers Alfred to the hospital, Bruce learns that there a hundreds of similar cases reported across the entire city and he decides to investigate the mystery as Batman. On his investigation, Batman learns of a written threat delivered to Commissioner Gordon's office, in which a mysterious Doctor Phosphorus assumes responsibility for the whole "epidemic". Without a definitive answer, Batman returns to his base of operations and after a long session, he deduces that the illness had been placed in the drinking water, affecting millions of people and threatening millions more. When he tries to contact Commissioner Gordon to warn him about the danger, Batman realizes that it is too late as Gordon has been affected as well.

Doctor Phosphorus 0004

Doctor Phosphorus

Batman goes to the Gotham Reservoir to investigate the source of the poison and he is finally confronted by the mastermind behind it all: Dr. Phosphorus. A demented man with a personal vendetta against Gotham City for causing him his grievance and his horrific mutation. His body glows bright yellow in the night and his skeleton shows through his skin, creating a menacing image.

The confrontation between Batman and Phosphorus starts, but the Dark Knight soon realizes that he is unable to touch his adversary without suffering severe burns, even through his Batsuit. Batman, however, does his best to attack Phosphorus, but the villain fights back, causing them to fall down to the river below. Once under water, Batman realizes that his enemy's skin doesn't hurt him anymore, and he strikes back, forcing Phosphorus to retreat with the promise of coming back to get his revenge.

Appearing in "...By Death's Eerie Light!"

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  • Doctor Bell (First appearance)

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Synopsis for "The Origin of Dr. Phosphorus"

This story is reprinted from Detective Comics #469.

Dr. Phosphorus breaks into the home of Gotham City Council member Dr. Bell and reveals his true identity to him. Phosphorus was once Dr. Alex Sartorius, a man who sought to create a new nuclear energy plant in Gotham, but was forced to build it outside of the city. Eventually, Sartorius was transformed by sand irradiated during the nuclear plant's meltdown, driven up one element on the chemical table, from silicon to phosphorus. Now he has sworn to make Gotham pay, and demands that Bell use the city council to stop Batman from interfering with him, or die. Bell calls the Council's head man, Boss Rupert Thorne.

Appearing in "The Origin of Dr. Phosphorus"

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  • Doctor Bell

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Synopsis for "The Master Plan of Doctor Phosphorus!"

This story is reprinted from Detective Comics #470.

As a lone criminal attempts a robbery in the middle of the night, he is caught by Batman, who makes short work of the crook. As Batman rounds up the criminal, he is informed by a court courier of a subpoena issued for him, right as the police arrives to take away the criminal.

After learning the strange news, Batman decides to go to the Gotham General Hospital to check on his trusted friend and servant, Alfred. However, Batman didn't expect to find Commissioner Gordon sharing room with Alfred and so they have to pretend to keep the façade in front of Gordon. Both Gordon and Alfred are being treated for the poisoning caused by Dr. Phosphorus. Taking his chances, Batman asks Gordon about the subpoena, but he has no idea and deduces that it must be doing of City Council's chairman, Rupert Thorne. At that moment, Dr. Bell enters the room and noticing Batman's injuries from a past encounter, he wants to remove Batman's cowl to give him proper treatment. However, Batman recalls that Bell is part of the city council and he confronts Bell about the subpoena. Bell reveals that he requested Batman to be summoned and he expects that the authorities of Gotham City soon declare Batman an outlaw and a wanted man. Batman decides to leave the hospital without giving a word of farewell.

At that moment, Dr. Phosphorus strikes again at the Sprang Memorial Arena during a rock concert and affecting hundreds of people in the audience.

Shortly after, Batman returns to the Wayne Foundation building and he descends through his secret elevator to the new and improved substitute Batcave. After a long time of not having a proper base of operations, Batman decided to expand the abandoned subway tunnel underneath the Wayne Foundation building and place a substitute Batcave there.

Clancy O'Hara Earth-One 001

O'Hara warns Batman

With help from Alfred and Dick, they moved most of the equipment and the most important trophies from the original Batcave to the new space and Batman finally has a place to continue his detective work. While on the Batcave II, Batman realizes that he is contaminated with radiation, which he deduces was caused by his confrontation with Dr. Phosphorus. At that moment, he gets a call from Chief O'Hara, who informs him about Phosphorus latest attack and warns him that the city council has pulled strings against him and Batman is now officially a wanted man by the police. Without giving much thought to the meaning of such development, Batman asks O'Hara about an important source of radiation near Gotham and the answer is promptly given.

Moments later, Batman goes to the offshore nuclear power plant, which was financed by Rupert Thorne, to investigate, but he is unable to enter as the guards outnumber him. Batman retreats in the Batboat, but he soon comes up with another plan.

Silver St

Bruce meets Silver St. Cloud

As Bruce Wayne, he organizes a party in one of his private yachts and he has invited several members of Gotham's elite. Among them is Rupert Thorne, but Bruce is also introduced to the lovely Silver St. Cloud, a young woman with silver hair who is seriously interested in Bruce, a feeling he reciprocates. However, the party is just part of the plan to distract some important people, giving Bruce enough time to change into Batman and go to investigate the nuclear plant.

Batman sneaks into the plant and avoids being detected by the guards, who are clearly people working for Thorne. Batman finds the nuclear reactor and he soon notices the presence of Dr. Phosphorus, who has been hiding in the reactor room. Batman and Phosphorus fight once again, but this time Batman has come prepared with a special Batsuit that protects him against radiation. Without the advantage of his burning touch, Phosphorus is outmatched and during the struggle, he falls to the reactor, causing an unstable reaction and a fiery explosion. Batman is barely able to come out of the explosion alive and he assumes that Phosphorus has met his demise.

Bruce returns to his yacht before the party ends and he is present when the harbor police go past his yacht towards the power plant, which is glowing with radiation. Due to his sudden reappearance, Bruce is warmly greeted by Silver, who missed him during the entire party, but he promises to make it up to her by spending more time together. Silver however, notices that Bruce's hair is damp and she becomes suspicious of Gotham's Bachelor and his activities.

Appearing in "The Master Plan of Doctor Phosphorus!"

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Synopsis for "Hell Park"

This story is reprinted from House of Mystery #274.

A Satanist builds a Disneyland-like arena which he calls Hell Park and invites a famous evangelist to attend in an effort to confront the man with the evils within himself.

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