Detective Comics #582

Issue Details

Synopsis

SOLE SURVIVOR Receiving an urgent summons from a member of his former Naval Intelligence unit, Commissioner Gordon leaves a note explaining his absence and departs Gotham City for Louisiana. Unbeknownst to him, he is immediately replaced by an android double, who destroys all evidence of the absence of the real Gordon.   Sometime later, after Batman and Robin have uncovered and destroyed the robot double, Batman decides to journey to Louisiana as well, not only to find Gordon, but to trace Mark Shaw, the former Manhunter agent whom he had earlier failed to locate there.  In the meantime, Gordon arrives in New Orleans, and is met and briefed by agent Liu, one of his former comrades. Two agents have died trying to retrieve agent Rosenfeld, who possesses vital information which he is unwilling to divulge to anyone but Gordon, his former teammate. No sooner does Gordon check into his motel than he is contacted by a disguised Batman, who brings him up to date on how a Manhunter impersonated him in his absence. Both now realize that the menace about which Rosenfeld wants to warn them is that of the Manhunters and their plan to replace key people with their own android operatives. When Rosenfeld contacts Gordon, the latter is trailed to Rosenfeld's hideaway by Liu, who is actually a Manhunter, and who is followed by Batman. In the ensuing melee, the Manhunter is destroyed, but Rosenfeld is fatally wounded.   Leaving the Commissioner to care for the dying agent, Batman scouts the area and discovers first a Manhunter who seems to have fallen apart spontaneously and then private detective Jim Corrigan and his secretary Kim Liang, who have also come to Louisiana in pursuit of the Manhunters. Kim is sent to aid Gordon, while Corrigan accompanies Batman into the swamp, where the Manhunters are reported to be holding human prisoners at a secret base.   In the bayou, Batman and Corrigan make their way to the Manhunter temple, where they find scores of Manhunters mysteriously deactivated. Corrigan locates the hostages, but he is prevented by Manhunter forces from freeing them. Meanwhile, Batman encounters Karin Grace of the Suicide Squad, who is determined to destroy the base with an experimental explosive. Unable to dissuade her, Batman leaves to help Corrigan rescue the prisoners. Fortunately, the remainder of the Manhunters appear to self-destruct, and Batman, Corrigan, and the others escape, just as Grace's bomb explodes, destroying the temple. The explosion does not kill Batman, Corrigan, the Manhunters' prisoners, or the other members of the Suicide Squad, who are also nearby, and suddenly, snow starts falling in Louisiana. As Batman's quest comes to an end, it all seems to point that they have all just witnessed a miracle.   Meanwhile, back in town, both Commissioner Gordon and Kim Liang fail to understand the dying words of agent Rosenfeld, that the White House itself has been infiltrated by a Manhunter, in the person of the President's wife, Nancy Reagan.