BATMAN #20

COVER TAGLINE: None TITLE: The Centuries of Crime STORY ARC: None COVER DATE: December/January, 1943 WRITER: Don Cameron ARTIST: Jack Burnley INKER: Jack Burnley EDITORS: Jack Schiff COVER: Dick Sprang PRICE: $.10 U.S. CHARACTERS: Batman (Bruce Wayne); Robin (Dick Grayson); Alfred Beagle; Joker PLOT: With the aid of two con artists the Joker plans a scheme to rob two wealthy men. He tells both men that his friends have invented a time machine. Percival Pruitt, a greedy investor, uses the time machine to travel into the future in hopes of making large sums of money. The second victim, bank robber Kid Glove Mixter, takes the trip to the future to escape Batman. Batman learns about the phony time machine and follows Pruitt to the Joker's lair. He and Robin are then captured by the Joker and taken to the future as prisoners. Pruitt and Mixter don't like what they find in the future, so they pay the Joker to take them back. Instead of sending them to the present though, Joker sends them to the past. Meanwhile, Batman and Robin escape. They discover that they are on a futuristic movie set, not the real future. They locate Pruitt and Mixter and rescue them from the Joker. Batman apprehends the Joker and his men. The men then realize that they were tricked. Pruitt promises to use his wealth to help the war relief effort, and Mixter promises to reform.

TITLE: The Trial of Titus Keyes WRITER: Bill Finger ARTIST: Bob Kane INKER: Jerry Robinson EDITORS: Jack Schiff CHARACTERS: Batman (Bruce Wayne); Robin (Dick Grayson); Commissioner James Gordon PLOT: Titus Keyes is put on trial for a series of safe robberies. Keyes owned a company that manufactured safes and was convicted years earlier of robbery when his company was failing financially. After serving time in prison, Keyes was released. Shortly thereafter the safe robberies began to occur. Batman and Robin catch Keyes with evidence from the robbed safes. He is arrested and put on trial. However, Batman thinks the evidence may have been planted, so he continues to investigate. During the trial, Batman is able to discover that Keyes's former cellmate George Collins, aka Slick Fingers knew about the safes. Collins then used the information to frame Keyes. Batman exposes the real crook and Keyes is acquitted.

TITLE: The Lawmen of the Sea WRITER: Bill Finger ARTIST: Jack Burnley INKER: Jack Burnley EDITORS: Jack Schiff CHARACTERS: Batman (Bruce Wayne); Robin (Dick Grayson) PLOT: Batman and Robin join the harbor police on patrol. They assist the police in battling a gang of harbor pirates, but the crooks evade capture. Later, one of the cops finds the pirate hide-out. Using information overheard at the hide-out, Batman is able to locate the next pirate robbery in progress. Batman is nearly killed trying to apprehend the crooks. Thinking that Batman is dead, Robin jumps into the pirate boat and is quickly captured. However, Batman has survived and ties a line to the pirate boat. Batman and Robin are then take to an undersea pirate hide-out where they are able to defeat the crooks.

TITLE: Bruce Wayne Loses the Guardianship of Dick Grayson WRITER: Bill Finger ARTIST: Bob Kane INKER: Jerry Robinson EDITORS: Jack Schiff CHARACTERS: Batman (Bruce Wayne); Robin (Dick Grayson); Alfred Beagle PLOT: Dick Grayson's uncle George and aunt Clara drop in on Bruce Wayne and make a legal claim for custody of Dick. Though Dick doesn't want to leave Bruce, the court orders him into the custody of his uncle. The move effectively ends the team of Batman and Robin. However, George and Clara are really out to extort money from Bruce. They offer to sell Dick back to him for a million dollars. Bruce, as Batman, tries to scare the crooks into confessing, but George contacts underworld boss Fatso Foley. Foley then captures Batman. Alfred learns that Batman has been captured and contacts Dick. Together, Alfred and Robin are able to rescue Batman and defeat Foley. George's involvement with the gangster is exposed to police, and custody of Dick is restored to Bruce Wayne.

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