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in: Joe Orlando/Executive Editor, Jim Aparo/Cover Artist, Tatjana Wood/Cover Artist,
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The Brave and the Bold Vol 1 167

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"Batman and Blackhawk: "Ice Station Alpha!"": At midnight on September 19th 1944, in an alley in Gotham City (behind Marko Labs), Batman jumps a quintet of Nazi–looking equipment thieves, and dishes out some mayhem, but they all manage to scramble into their waiti

Quote1 Good! Very soon then -- we shall melt the polar ice cap -- convert the water into gas -- and then have our Gotham City unit reconvert it into water -- enough water to submerge the entire American coast! Quote2
— General Hauptman

The Brave and the Bold #167 is an issue of the series The Brave and the Bold (Volume 1) with a cover date of October, 1980.

Synopsis for Batman and Blackhawk: "Ice Station Alpha!"

At midnight on September 19th 1944, in an alley in Gotham City (behind Marko Labs), Batman jumps a quintet of Nazi–looking equipment thieves, and dishes out some mayhem, but they all manage to scramble into their waiting truck and drive away, tossing a potato-masher grenade at Batman as they leave. He catches it and throws it back at them, but too late, the truck gets around a corner and escapes.

At dawn that same day, the Blackhawk Squadron all land outside Warsaw, and fight their way into town on foot, with Tommy guns and fists. They beat some info out of a high-ranking German officer, but not enough to figure out what the Germans are up to, in connection with "Ice Station Alpha," whatever that is. For the next few hours, they fly to Algeria. What little they do know, they learned from Agent Carmichael, whom they find, in the Sahara Desert, frozen in a big hunk of ice.

The next evening, at the Dorsey Club in Gotham City, Bruce Wayne sees the Bat-Signal outside, ends his date with Linda Page, changes identities, and visits Commissioner Gordon at the GCPD Headquarters. Gordon tips him off to a rash of robberies of laboratories and scientific equipment suppliers, and to a Federal "blanket of silence" thrown over the case. Batman resolves to get to the bottom of it. Soon, in the Batcave, Dick Grayson complains about missing this mission, but has to stay behind to catch up on school work he missed during a recent bout with the flu. Batman flies to Washington in the Batplane.

September 20th 1944, in Tunisia, Blackhawk makes a deal with Ahmed, a local information broker, who tips him enough info to form a theory about what's going on, then he and his squadron fly away from there to London, for a meeting at S.H.A.E.F., with General Eisenhower, who tells the team (but not the reader) what "Ice Station Alpha" really is.

Meanwhile in Washington, D.C. Bruce Wayne makes a poor impression on a roomful of government bigwigs, and gets no information from them, but that night, Batman breaks into a top secret records room, finding there enough clues to form a theory about what's going on, then stealthily departs. The following afternoon, Bruce is in the Batcave, trying (unsuccessfully) to figure out the off-coast location of the Nazi super weapon. That evening, in Gotham Bay, a gigantic, levitating, stainless-steel airship emerges, takes a position over the water, and causes the water to go wild. A tsunami smashes into Gotham City, obliterating a lot of waterfront infrastructure and killing at least 63 people. Batman's response is to make an appearance at the Gotham Sports Arena, where that night the world heavyweight championship fight, between American "Battling" Billy Walker versus German "Killer" Josef Kranz. Batman has recognized Kranz as one of the looters at the previous midnight's heist, and he visits the arena and climbs right into the ring, to discuss this "Ice Station Alpha" business with him.

That night, at Wolfsberg, Austria, the Blackhawks have defeated another roomful of Germans, and are beating some info out of them.

Soon, in the Arctic Circle, at Ice Station Alpha, General Hauptmann gloats, to his underling Professor Klotzmann, about having used stolen American equipment to build his super weapon, and describes the overly complicated procedure by which he intends to submerge the entire eastern American coast. The Blackhawks and Batman fly onto the scene at the same time, and the Blackhawks swoop down to shoot at the enemy fortress. The Nazis return fire with a freezing ray, and tag Olaf's plane with it. Olaf bails out, and Batman maneuvers into position and catches him. In the Batplane, Olaf slips on the spare parachute, while Batman flies evasive maneuvers, then all of the heroes parachute into the fortress, and quickly fight their way into the control room, but not before the general and the professor argue, briefly, about how and when to activate the Operation Alpha machinery. This argument is settled by Hauptmann, who shoots Klotzmann in the chest with a Luger. By this time, the Blackhawks have parachuted onto the fortress and gotten inside, along with Batman, and they fight their way through a lot of German soldiers before they corner General Hauptmann in the control room. Hauptmann holds them at bay with a pistol, and gloats that his machine can't be turned off or reversed. Batman punches him out. Dying Professor Klotzman rallies himself up just long enough to tell the good guys that Hauptmann has primed the super weapon all wrong, and that the Ice Station will be destroyed when it activates. At the stroke of midnight, 24 Sep 1944, the Batplane and five Grumman Skyrockets fly away, as an enormous explosion destroys the Nazi base.

Appearing in Batman and Blackhawk: "Ice Station Alpha!"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

Antagonists:

  • Nazi Party
    • General Hauptmann
    • Josef Kranz (Single appearance)
    • Professor Klotzmann (Single appearance; dies)

Other Characters:

Locations:

Items:

Vehicles:


Synopsis for Nemesis: "A Name Writ in Blood"

Nemesis recalls how he and his brother both became FBI agents and how he was forced to leave the agency after his brother murdered his superior, Ben Marshall.

Appearing in Nemesis: "A Name Writ in Blood"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

  • Ben Marshall (First appearance) (Dies in flashback)
  • Marjorie Marshall (Flashback only)

Antagonists:

  • Craig Tresser (First appearance) (Dies in flashback)

Other Characters:

  • Chet Tresser (First appearance) (Dies in flashback)
  • Jimmy (Flashback only)

Locations:

Items:

  • None

Vehicles:

  • None

Notes

Trivia

  • After getting hit with a tidal wave, Gotham City is not evacuated, and a high-profile sporting event takes place on schedule. The tsunami is never mentioned again.
  • Story was set in September 1944, but Batman wears the original headgear that he hadn't worn since 1939, and the Blackhawks had already traveled to Earth-X, in April 1942, as described in All-Star Squadron #50.
  • Chop Chop looks like an athletic young man, and talks in a bad dialect, but one that's unlike his earlier bad dialects. Hendrickson is now German, not Dutch. Chuck is now from Texas, not Brooklyn.
  • The Hildalgo Trading Company on Gotham Bay is a reference to Doc Savage's warehouse.


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