Detective Comics #476 (1978)

    Here we arrive, sadly, at the final issue in the initial Steve Englehart / Marshall Rogers / Terry Austin run on Batman and Detective Comics.

    Happily, they'd eventually return, many years later, for a sequel - but more on that another day.

   There's not much to say about this issue without giving too much away, but suffice to say that it's a very satisfying ending to the storylines created for this title - and man, is the art a treasure.

   I should also extend a thanks to Englehart for answering a mystery he started at the end of his first run at Marvel. In Captain America, Englehart's final story featured the Red Skull, who mysteriously managed to kill a victim in a room with others standing by - but the others were not injured. The solution to this mystery was never addressed by the writers who followed on that title.

   Happily, he has the Joker manage to same trick - and explains how he did it! Mystery solved, one universe over! 

    (I should admit that this actually happened in the previous issue of Detective, but I forgot to mention it before.)

    Anyway. 

   In a just world, this team would have gone on to work on Batman stories for years and years. But Englehart had a novel to write (the excellent modern fantasy / adventure The Point Man - well worth tracking down). Rogers would draw more Batman stories - but he should have done so many more, and sadly, now he's gone.

   But the team left behind these wonderful gems, these perfect Batman adventures that will shine as long as readers continue to look for the best in the genre.

Grade: A+

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