Tuesday, August 07, 2012

That seems like a cheat on multiple levels...

When is a riddle not a riddle? Um, when you mail a whole book of them and call it a clue, as in Batman #317, "The 1,001 Clue Caper, or why did the Riddler cross the road?" Written by Len Wein, art by Irv Novick and Frank McLaughlin.

The Riddler sends Batman and Robin a riddle book from the Gotham State Prison; partly as a red herring, and partly to satisfy his compulsion to leave riddles to his crimes. And the Riddler's working a tricky game this time; starting with stealing a chicken truck, then using it as a distraction to steal magazines. Except the magazine distributor was a front for a gun runner, and the Riddler made off with a ton of guns, which he plans on selling--wait, are a lot of guns smuggled out of the country? Or in, for that matter? This is America, it's not super-hard to get a gun...Batman and Robin wrap this one up pretty quickly, and the issue closes with Lucius Fox being forced to meet with Gregorian Falstaff, which is slightly less dramatic than I'm making it sound.

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