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"The Doomsday Ball!": A man named Bertram Smith recovers a lost miniaturized H-bomb from a crashed Air Force jet and sends a tape to police headquarters in Gotham, warning that he will blow the city off the map by midnight unless he receives $10 million in ransom. Only six hours remain till midn

Quote1 It's an awful slim lead, but I'll grab at straws when Gotham's drowning! Quote2
Batman

Batman #207 is an issue of the series Batman (Volume 1) with a cover date of December, 1968. It was published on October 17, 1968.

Synopsis for "The Doomsday Ball!"

A man named Bertram Smith recovers a lost miniaturized H-bomb from a crashed Air Force jet and sends a tape to police headquarters in Gotham, warning that he will blow the city off the map by midnight unless he receives $10 million in ransom. Only six hours remain till midnight, so there is no hope of evacuating the city.

Batman and Robin are called in on the case. The two heroes enlist the aid of Big Brill, Gotham's head gangster, battling their way into his penthouse retreat before they explain their mission. Brill calls in his division chiefs to listen to the taped message from Smith and try and identify the background noises to place Smith's location. One of the men, "One-Ear," places it on his turf. Investigating in the indicated place, Batman and Robin learn Smith's name and location from a TV repairman who fixed the tape recorder on which he prepared the message. Kids in the street outside Smith's boarding house give Batman and Robin a description of Smith's car and license number, and tell him that they broke his window with a ball in a street baseball game and were recently given a new ball by Smith.

Batman and Robin send the police track down Smith's car, but the bomb, found in the trunk, is tagged with a warning not to tamper with or remove it. Batman and Robin finally see Smith at the airport, watching the transfer of his ransom money to a plane. Smith tries to escape the heroes, but is struck by the plane's wheels as it taxis down the runway, and dies. With his last breath, he reveals that he planted the trigger to the bomb in a rubber ball and the Dynamic Duo hurry back to the boarding house, where they cut open the ball Smith gave to a kid named Skinnay, find the trigger, and deactivate it just in time.

Appearing in "The Doomsday Ball!"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

Antagonists:

  • Bertram Smith aka The Mad Bomber (Single appearance; dies)
  • Big Brill (Single appearance)
    • "One-Ear" (Single appearance)

Other Characters:

  • Mayor Hayes (Single appearance)
  • Major-General Hawkins (Single appearance)
  • Robertson Fairbanks (Single appearance)
  • Prof. Willi Von Gail (Single appearance)
  • Master Sergeant Owens (Single appearance)
  • Tillie Conway (Single appearance)
  • Skinnay (Single appearance)

Locations:

Items:

Vehicles:

Notes

Trivia

  • The cover art of this issue resembles the cover art of Batman #166. This was probably a tribute to the creator of that cover and current editorial director, Carmine Infantino.
  • This issue contains two letters from future comic book professionals: one from a then 15 year old Fred Hembeck and the other by 16 year old Klaus Janson.


See Also

Recommended Reading

Links and References

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